Thursday
Navigating down the busy downtown streets, I passed rows of cars waiting for the red before veering right into an alleyway. I jumped off my bike and brought out my keys. As usual, the door was a struggle to open and it took some leverage with my leg to screech it open. I brought my bike in and leaned it against the other dozen or so bikes in the employee only section in the back. Still panting a little from the ride in, I walked to the front door, propped it open, and brought out our sign.
"Haynesville Community Bike Shop"
The breeze that came in did little to help the thick musty air in the shop. It was practically a sauna in the summer. Even in a crop top and biker shorts, I was sweating my proverbial balls off as I was trying to unearth a bike that was dropped off for repairs awhile ago. I was contemplating cooling off with a spray of the hose before I heard the click click click of somebody wheeling their bike in.
"Hey Emily, you in the back?"
"Yeah," I grunted back as I finally freed the bike.
I wheeled the bike out of the back and saw Mike setting his bike up on the repair stand.
"You wouldn't believe the asshole who cut me off today," Mike yelled, facing away from me while he started working on his bike.
"Oh yeah?" I replied.
He turned around and continued, "Yeah, the fucker...," he hesitated for a second and I could see his eyes dart up and down across my body. "...he uh, well he cut me off."
"Oh really?" I said sarcastically as I hauled the bike on the stand.
"Yeah", he stammered, his face turning red as he turned back to his bike.
I laughed as I grabbed a wrench from the tool box. I was not expecting that kind of reaction from somebody who has seen me regularly over the past few years. I looked in the mirror by the merch rack. I was wearing a sports bra underneath my top, but I guess it did not leave much to the imagination. Even standing up you could see the ample cleavage of my 34 DD breasts. Maybe I should have brought a change of clothes?
I was contemplating if I was showing too much of my legs, and cursing the minimal tanning they've been getting, when I heard another click click click outside the door.
"Oh, hey Darryl" I heard Mike say.
Darryl was still pretty new to our community. He started coming in less than a year ago and came every week or so. He almost always brings a different bike so we had our suspicions that he was using us as a chop shop for bikes he nicked. But we didn't have enough evidence to definitively prove it, and he kept to himself, so we decided to just leave him alone. Maybe he was repairing bikes for his friends? Who knows.
"Hey," replied Darryl with a nod.
That's usually about as much as we could get out of him, but after greeting Mike he turned and saw me. I saw his eyebrows raise just slightly.
"Hey Emily, trying to beat the heat?" he said with a small smile as he looked me up and down. He rolled his bike to the open stand in between me and Mike.
"Yeah,"
I replied shortly. This outfit was a bad idea, Keith is going to hate how much attention I'm getting. Maybe I should take something off the rack to cover up...
"Yeah, me too," Darryl continued as he interrupted my thoughts, "I've been only wearing wife beaters and shorts all week."
I looked away from the gears I was greasing up to look at Darryl. I could see Mike in the background giving a disapproving look. Was it at Darryl talking me up or maybe it was the use of a crude word like "wife beater"? Mike could be quite the prude. Darryl was wearing green basketball shorts and a white sleeveless shirt that showed off his broad chest and muscled black arms. He certainly did not look like a biker and that definitely did not abate our suspicions about him. That said, he certainly looked good and was undeniably attractive. He was a favourite visitor for many of the other women on staff.
I gave him a short laugh before replying, "Yeah, this heat wave has been driving me crazy."
Driving me crazy is right. My fiancé and I have been trying to conceive so I've been taking fertility pills. The doctor did
not
warn me that it could make me horny all the time. Hot and horny is a bad mix.
I turned back to the bike I was working on. He got the hint and started pulling parts out of his backpack. One thing is for certain, he knew his way around bikes. Seemingly more than many of the regulars. The only thing that got him talking was discussing bike parts with the other regulars. Unless maybe if you were a woman. Wait, why didn't he talk to me?
"Shit," cursed Darryl. "I forgot a part. Are you guys open tomorrow?"
"Yeah," I replied. I had just taken apart the gears. "We're open from 8 to 4."
"Alright then, are you in tomorrow?" Darryl asked.
"Yeah, I'll be in for closing," I said without thinking as I focused on cleaning the grit off the 6th gear.
"See you tomorrow then," Darryl replied with a smile as he walked out the door.
It was silent except for my scrubbing when Mike said, "Uhm, that was kind of weird."
I stopped and looked at him.
"What?" I replied.
"I could see him checking you out the entire time he was 'rummaging' through his backpack!" he explained with concern.
"Hmm, I guess. He's just horny like every single one of you dudes. What, are you jealous?" I gave him a wink.
I ran my hand through my hair to get the wet hair out of my eyes. I heard Mike stifle a laugh and he pointed to the mirror. I turned and saw black streaks in my pixie cut red hair.
"Shit," I cursed. "This is going to be fucking hell to get out."
I walked to the sink in the back and started the water. At least it'll help me cool off I thought as Mike poked his head in through the door.
"Hey Em, I'm leaving now."
"Sounds good, see you soon Mike," I replied.
He started to pull his head back when he stalled for a second.
"...hey uh, did you want me to come by to hang out during your closing shift tomorrow?"
"What, why? Cause of Darryl?" I asked, confused.
"Well...yeah."
"What, cause he's black or something?"
"What! No, of course not. I'm just getting weird vibes yenno! Don't want you to be alone with some weird guy."
"What? Like you?" I laughed as reacted with an insulted face and continued, "It'll be fine, I'll call Keith to come stay with me tomorrow if you're so concerned."
"Oh. Uh, alrighty. See you next week then."
I heard the click click click as Mike left the shop over the sound of the running water over my head. I thought, as I scrubbed the grease out of my hair, is Mike overthinking it?
Friday
"Look, I can stay for a bit but I was going to go out with the boys tonight," Keith said, fiddling with a brake.
"What, are you serious?" I yelled. "Don't you want to spend time with your fiancée?! We haven't even fucked in weeks!"
"Hey!" he yelled, before whispering, "Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it. But what's the big deal about tonight? We've been planning this for weeks."
"Okay. Okay fine." I said. I did not want to tell him the reason why I wanted him to stay. That some hot muscular black guy might be swinging by to seduce his sexy wife-to-be. What would he think? Knowing Keith, he'd probably just think I was conceited to think every guy is eying me up. Fuck it. Why am
I,
even the one taking fertility pills when its
him
, that's infertile? I adjusted my sweat drenched bra underneath my t-shirt.
We worked through a couple bikes that needed repairs in silence. In an attempt to cover up, I had a flower print top on today and a knee length skirt with my biking shorts underneath. It was just as sweltering as yesterday but this ensemble was airy enough. I finished the bike I was working on and rolled it into the back. As I was putting it away against the other bikes, Keith walked in.
"Hey, listen. I'm sorry about earlier. I can stay tonight, its no problem. We can order in some Chinese and finish up our project bikes?"
I stared at him and smiled. I guess he's alright after all.
"Oh, that would be nice. But its fine! Seriously, go hang out with the guys. It'll be fine." Will it? Will it really be, Emily?