Brawn

 

“Hey, Brawn.” Cory caught my attention with a nod of his head, directing my attention from the junior member of The Twisted Ghosts who was sanding down a bed post, to Maria standing in the doorway to the workshop.

 

She wore a wide grin, and her eyes sparkled with joy as she stood there, staring into the room where I worked with Cory and two other guys from the MC we were training to do our job. She held an envelope and an unfolded letter in her hand. I already knew what it was, or at least what I hoped it was.

 

“Hey, cover for me,” I told Cory, putting him in charge of both of our apprentices as I wiped my hands on a shop towel – a habit I had picked up from working on bikes – and walked up to the door to see what the news was.

 

“I’ve got some good news,” Maria said, like a kid who knew a secret everyone else had been desperately trying to figure out.

 

“I see that. You won a million dollars?” I guessed.

 

“No,” she said with a gentle push on my chest. “Here, read the letter.”

 

She stuck the unfolded piece of paper in my face and I accepted it, looking over the message quickly before starting to pretend to read it out loud. “Dear Miss Kelly, we are sorry to inform you that at this time we do not consider you a good fit for our nursing program. Better luck next time.”

 

“Bull. That’s not what it says.” I laughed as she grabbed the letter from my hand and read it again, as if to make sure she hadn’t misread it the first time.

 

“No, I see what it says,” I told her. “Congratulations,” I said as I wrapped my arms around her in a quick embrace.

 

Her arms went around my waist, but she pulled away quickly and cleared her throat. She turned her attention back to the letter in her hand.

 

“Thank you,” she said distractedly.

 

“You’re welcome. Good job.” I lightly slugged her shoulder, trying to diffuse the situation.

 

“So I guess we need to talk about my schedule.” She still kept her face to the floor and her eyes away. Her tone was turning somber, like she was sad to be going back to school.

 

“I already told you I’ll work with you. You just worry about school and let me handle things here. Besides, when do classes start?”

 

“In a couple of weeks.” She pulled down the bottom third of the page and looked at the date again.

 

“Well, we’ve got time. In the meantime, we need to celebrate. Let’s go out tonight.” I was already planning the evening in my head – dinner, a few drinks, maybe some dancing, and then take our exhausted asses home. She’d earned a night out on the town.

 

“Are you sure?” She looked at me with eyes that seemed to wonder if I was asking her out as her friend, employer, or something more.

 

“Yeah, I’m sure. This is a big step for you. Let’s shut it down early today and hit the town.” I put an arm across her shoulder and felt her wince. We still hadn’t talked about what happened between us after dinner with Shift, and affection in front of the people at work was still off-limits because we hadn’t defined anything. It was all unspoken, which made it even more frustrating.

 

“I’ve still got more work to do with the ladies,” she argued. “How about shutting it down at the normal time?”

 

Part of the appeal of being my own boss was being able to do it my way. If I wanted to knock off early, I was the boss, and we could do that. Luckily, I had Maria there with sense enough to see that closing early or opening late wouldn’t have helped our business in any way. So I agreed, like I always did.

 

“You’re right, we’ve got too much to do to close early. Let’s get back to work, then.” I gripped her shoulder the way I would have one of the guys as she turned to walk away. It was a brotherly gesture we used in the MC, but, in our case, she knew it was a substitute for something more personal. She shot me a look that said as much and walked back into the office where the two old ladies from the MC were working on the phones and trying to learn her scheduling system for accepting work.

 

Everything was on the waiting list now. Thankfully, Cory had picked up the craft pretty quickly, showing a strong natural talent for the work we did. It was because of his natural talent that we had taken on two more apprentices – two more junior members of the MC – to train so we could get more work done in less time.

 

I paid the boys under the table every day, handing them cash before they walked out the door so they had money in their pocket after giving me a day’s worth of work. We had the money coming in, so I didn’t feel the need to make them wait for weekly paychecks. Maria, on the other hand, was teaching the ladies how to work the payroll system so if they didn’t figure it out, they didn’t get paid.

 

Once everyone was gone I waited with the door closed as Maria gathered her things so we could leave. I watched as she shut down her computer and made sure her new cell phone was tucked away in her new purse. She stuffed the letter in its envelope into her purse, as well.

 

“Okay, I’m ready,” she said as she glanced over her desk again to make sure she had everything. Then, she walked past me as I held the door open for her. She stepped away and kept her distance. I couldn’t help but wonder what she was thinking.

 

“Are you ready to go out?” I asked her.

 

“Where are we going? Do I need to change?” She held her arms out to the side and turned around, showing me the clothes she’d worn to work – jeans and a black blouse. I supposed she could have gone dancing in those clothes, but I knew she would have wanted to look her best out on the dance floor.

 

“Let’s run by the house first,” I told her.

 

“Oh, damn, we must be going someplace nice,” she said as she turned toward the car.

 

I locked the front door and walked up behind her, placing a hand on the small of her back as I unlocked and opened the passenger side door.

 

“And a gentleman, too? It’s like you don’t want me to leave,” she teased as she got in the car.

 

I closed the door and walked around. I hadn’t actually thought about her going back to school as her leaving. Sure, she was going to be leaving the office. I wasn’t going to make her juggle work and school, but leaving outright? I hadn’t even considered it. I just knew I had promised to help her, and I was going to. Our relationship was based on an agreement. Nothing more. We were partners.

 

“I’ve got a surprise for you,” I told her as I pulled away from the curb.

 

“A surprise? Did you know this letter was coming?” she asked.

 

“Not exactly, but I did plan for it,” I admitted with a wink.

 

We pulled up to my house, where we’d been staying together since that first night in my cabin. Admittedly, it wasn’t as large as my brother’s, but I didn’t feel the need to have a millionaire’s mansion. It was a cozy one-story home, not much bigger than my cabin.

 

I held the door open for her to go in ahead of me.

 

“Where’s this surprise?” she asked as we walked into the living room from the foyer.

 

“It’s in my room,” I told her.

 

“I see.” She raised her eyebrows. “You wouldn’t be trying to get me back in there, would you?”

 

I smirked as I remembered the night we’d spent in there, too tired to do anything. I remembered thinking it was going to lead to us spending every night together in my bed and possibly forging a new, deeper bond. But things had gone back to normal the following day and, as usual, we moved forward without a word, both of us ignoring the things that happened between us like they never even happened except to make little remarks.

 

“Well, I do want you to see the surprise, so I guess you’ll need to go in there.”

 

She looked at me with suspicion in her eyes as she walked through the doorway into my room. One corner of her mouth lifted up as if she still suspected I was up to something. She sat on the side of the bed and leaned back on her elbows, an inviting, distracting position.

 

“So, what is this surprise?” she asked as I walked past her to the closet. She almost sounded disappointed that it wasn’t sex. She certainly seemed to expect it.

 

“This is your surprise, and I’d like you to wear it tonight,” I said as I pulled a new evening gown out of the closet and held it up for her to see.

 

“Are you serious? Brawn, you didn’t have to buy that!” She covered her mouth with her hands. Her eyes opened wide with surprise.

 

“I know I didn’t have to, but I figured you would need something to wear out on the night you were accepted into a nursing program.” I sounded a little more dismissive than I intended, but it was true. I had bought the dress just for that occasion.

 

She got up from the bed and looked at the gown, taking the bottom of it in her hands and holding it so she could see the whole thing in the light. Her mouth opened to say something, but words didn’t come out. She looked at me with gratitude beaming in her eyes.

 

“We must be going somewhere nice,” she said finally, her tone skeptical. “You don’t have to do anything special for me, Brawn. You know this by now.”

 

“Just try it on,” I told her, keeping my thoughts to myself a little longer.

 

She grabbed the dress from me and walked into my bathroom. I had hoped to watch her change into it right there in my room, but I figured she wanted to surprise me as much as I had wanted to surprise her. Whatever. I stood and waited in front of the closet doors while she changed behind the closed door of the bathroom attached to my bedroom.

 

A moment later she walked back in with the gown on. It hugged her in all the right places. It fit her perfectly. It was tight around her breasts and her hips, following the curves of her figure, but it flowed out as it reached down toward the floor. I immediately crossed the bedroom floor and walked around her, to see her whole figure in the dress. I traced my hand around her waist.

 

“You look like a million bucks,” I told her.

 

“You’re just saying that because it’s been a while, and you want some action,” she argued in a playful tone.

 

She wrapped her arms around her waist in an almost protective gesture, but I ran my hands down her bare skin from her shoulders and wrapped my arms around hers, lacing our fingers together at her sides.

 

“No, there are many reasons why I’m doing this tonight, and it’s not because of sex,” I said in her ear.

 

“Then, what is it?” She swayed gently from side to side as she talked, pressing herself against me.

 

“I feel like you’re worth it,” I told her.

 

“You’re too sweet, Brawn,” she said as she turned and kissed me on the cheek. “Now, get dressed so we can go. I know you’re not going to go out in your work clothes if you won’t let me.”

 

“Well, where are you going?” I asked as she walked away with a sly grin on her face.

 

“I’ve got to finish getting ready.” And, just like that, she was around the corner and gone. At the same time, the light in her eyes told me the night was already a success. The monotony of our routine was already broken.