****
After the slow ride back to Hog’s Grogs, Mona dismounted before bouncing excitedly up and down. She was so proud of herself.
“You did it!” Ryan said, stopping his bike a careful distance away from The Duke. She hadn’t even bothered to take off his helmet, and she looked so cute as she wore it, dancing around like a child who’d just learned to ride a bicycle on their own.
“That was exhilarating!” Mona exclaimed, beaming. “But how are we going to get it all the way back to our house?”
Our house. Ryan liked the sound of that. “I have an idea. You wait inside here. I’ll keep my bike parked in the lot and ride The Duke back home and make sure it’s safe there. Then I’ll come back and get you. Does that sound good?”
She nodded, still smiling. “Okay. That’s a good idea. Ride carefully.”
Mona removed her helmet and handed it over to Ryan, who swiftly put it on and mounted The Duke. She was sad to watch it ride away again, but she knew that it was in good hands. She gave the CopyCat a pat before heading into her bar.
With everything that had been happening in the past few days, Mona hadn’t really checked in on the place. She was happy to see, once she was inside, that it was as rowdy as ever. She smirked and sidled up to the bar, ordering herself a whisky sour from the bartender, Lenny.
“Haven’t seen you in a while,” he said. “Are things still cool with you?”
She nodded a little and gave a sigh of relief. “Things definitely have gotten better, finally. I think everything is going to be pretty much back to normal soon.”
“Anything I should be aware of?”
Mona thought about it. “In about two years, if some guy by the name of Lance shows his face around here, show him to the door. He is no longer welcome.”
Lenny gave her a thumbs-up. “You got it, boss.”
He brought her the drink she’d asked for and she took a long sip of it, feeling smug that she had solved the issue that her club had been having. Finally, she could relax.
She just needed Ryan to come back.
Once her whisky sour was finished, she tipped Lenny even though she technically didn’t have to and headed back outside to find her boyfriend.
Was he her boyfriend now? They had not actually discussed it yet. Things kept getting in the way…
Just then, she realized that Ryan would need to walk back to the bar from her house. That wasn’t a long drive by any means, but on foot it was probably less fun.
She pulled out her cell phone and called him.
“Hello?”
“Hey,” she said. “I just realized that you could probably use a friend on your walk back. I’m sorry that I didn’t think of it before. I’ve just been so…”
Ryan chuckled. “I know. It’s okay. It’s really not that far. Besides, it’s a nice evening. Especially now.”
“I told Lenny not to allow Lance into the bar ever again. He is officially blacklisted.”
“Good thinking. Hopefully, once he’s out of jail, he will have lost interest in trying to be in our club.”
Mona laughed bitterly. “Trying to sabotage our club, more like… How big of a dumbass can he be?”
“Apparently a rather large one.”
They both laughed.
“Hey,” Ryan suddenly said, “when I get back there, do you want to go out with me again? I saw this restaurant downtown while I was riding.”
Mona smiled. “Ooh, a restaurant. Things are getting serious.”
The call ended and she decided that she would rather just wait beside Ryan’s bike. Ten minutes later, she saw him strolling along into the parking lot.
“Hey, stranger,” he said.
She ran over to him and gave him a hug. “How was your walk?” she asked him.
He shrugged. “It wasn’t so bad. How is the bar?”
“I had a whisky sour,” she told him. “I’d offer to buy you one, but you probably shouldn’t drink if you’re going to take me to dinner.”
Ryan laughed and put his arm around her as they walked back to CopyCat. “I’ll drink at dinner. Responsibly.” They got on the back of his motorcycle and sped away back towards downtown Detroit. As he drove, he pointed up ahead at this little hole in the wall place called Diesel.
Mona raised an eyebrow, but she didn’t ask him about it because he wouldn’t have been able to hear her very well over the engine anyway. They pulled in front of the place and he parked his bike in one of the street parking spots.
“I hate that that asshole’s got me paranoid about your bike getting stolen now,” she said to him once they had dismounted and stored their helmets away in the space under the seat.
“Don’t give that asshole the time of day,” Ryan replied. “You know, like before.” He smirked at her and took her hand.
The restaurant was not as fancy as he had made it out to be at first. Perhaps she had just assumed. It seemed to be decent enough, though. The smell of wood-fired pizza greeted them upon entry and they were quickly seated by the restaurant’s large, street-facing window.
“So, what are we going to do now that all of this is behind us?” Ryan asked as they waited for the pizza they were going to share. “I for one wouldn’t be opposed to becoming more discerning about who we let into our club.”
Mona smiled at him. “I think the people we have in with us now are enough. We’re a good bunch, now that we’ve weeded out some of the bad apples.”
Ryan smiled back at her. “Your dad would be really proud of you.”
She felt a blush creep over her cheeks. “I know,” she said. At last, she knew and truly felt that Benny would be happy about the decisions she had made.
“Does that mean you’ll race with us next time?” Ryan asked, grinning cheekily and waggling his eyebrows at her.
Mona grabbed a rolled-up napkin and threw it at him, laughing.
He ducked and it hit the wall behind him before falling to the floor. “Hey, there was a knife in there!” he shouted. But he was laughing, too.