I went to Gus’s Auto Shop. It was a small building with a lot of cars in the parking lot in various stages of repair. I opened the door and a bell jingled. An older man with a large beer belly sat behind the counter. He was wearing a navy outfit with “Gus” embroidered on the left breast pocket. He had gray-streaked hair combed over a shiny bald head and crooked teeth set in a warm, friendly smile.
“Hi. Is, um, Wesley here?”
“Yeah, hang on a sec,” he answered, leaning back on his chair and looking through a panel of glass to his left. “Wes! Come up here!”
Wesley’s head popped up from behind a car and he walked to the front, wiping his hands on a pinkish-red rag. He smiled when he saw me. “Hey. What are you doing here?”
“Hi. Um, I made some pasta salad for lunch and I thought you might like some too,” I said, glancing at the large man behind the counter. I bit my lip; it felt like we were newlyweds and I was delivering my husband’s lunch.
“Oh! So, this must be the princess then?” the man asked, looking up at me then to Wesley, who was slicing at his throat with his fingers and shaking his head.
“Ah, um… yeah,” Wesley answered with a crooked grin. “Gus, this is Toren. Toren, this is my boss, Gus,” he said, smiling and scratching the back of his head.
“Hey, it’s nice to finally meet you. Wes’s told me all about you. I can finally put a face with the name,” he said, standing up behind the counter.
I smiled and nodded and extended my hand. “It’s nice to meet you too.”
“So, can I take my lunch now?” Wesley asked.
Gus nodded, but I interrupted. “I actually have to go to work now,” I said, wishing I had given myself enough time to eat with Wesley.
“Aww. All right, fine. You work till five, right?” he asked as I took the plastic container of salad from the plastic bag on my arm. I nodded and handed him the tub and a fork. “This looks great! Thanks so much! I’ll see you later, okay?”
Wesley stepped toward me and I backed up. I wasn’t sure if he wanted a kiss, but I decided against it. I was honestly surprised by Gus’s amicability toward us; he didn’t look like the open-minded type. But that was unfair of me to stereotype him too. I smiled again at Gus and bowed my head slightly.
“It was very nice meeting you,” I said, and Wesley walked past, pulling me along with him.
“I’ll be back in a sec,” Wesley said, grinning at Gus over his shoulder.
Outside, Wesley pushed me against the building. He kissed me, then patted the top of my head and looked around. When he looked at me again, he had a devilish smirk on his lips.
“What?” I asked, knowing that look all too well.
“C’mon, the bathroom’s around back,” Wesley said, taking my hand and pulling me along.
“What? No! Wesley!” I protested, stopping and pulling my hand away. I narrowed my eyes at him and shook my head. “I can’t believe you sometimes.”
“Aw, c’mon. Real quick, please?”
I folded my arms across my chest and shook my head. “You’re the horniest bastard I know….”
Wesley laughed and smiled. “All right, all right. I had to try.”
“No, you didn’t,” I said, finally laughing. “I gotta go, so I’ll see you later.”
“Okay. But you gotta kiss me.”
I pecked his cheek and ran from his reach. I stuck my tongue out at him and Wesley laughed. “See ya!” I shouted and walked to work.
I WAS excited to tell Jeanine that I moved in with Wesley. She seemed as excited as I was and congratulated me. We walked around the store, deciding how we would decorate the apartment if we had a limitless budget. There were some decorations that I really liked, and I decided to save up my money for them. Our apartment was so plain and I wanted to give it some life, even if it was only one piece at a time.
The store was pretty slow, so I was able to leave right at five. Then I remembered that I had to fill out a change-of-address form, so I left around ten after. When I got home, I put some chicken and potatoes in the oven and sat down to watch TV.
“Honey, I’m home!” Wesley shouted with a giant smile on his face. I laughed and met him at the front door. He kissed me and I smiled, leading the way back to the kitchen. “I almost couldn’t wait to go to work just so I could come home and say that,” he said, washing his hands at the kitchen sink.
“You’re so silly. How was work? Did you have a good day?” I asked, emptying a can of corn into the small saucepot.
“Yeah, it was all right. I’m glad I don’t usually work Mondays, though. We were busy as hell,” he answered, opening the refrigerator and stooping to look inside. “Oh, thanks for the pasta salad for lunch! It was great!”
“Good, I’m glad. And dinner’ll be ready in about fifteen minutes.”
“Cool. I’m starving. What are you making?” Wesley opened a can of soda and placed his hand on my back.
“Just chicken and baked potatoes.” Wesley leaned in and kissed me, then went to the living room.
“I was glad you came up to work today. I’m glad you met Gus,” he said, flipping channels.
“Me too. He seemed really nice.”
“He’s a really great guy. I used to bug him all the time when I was a kid. He has all those great old cars on the lot, and he let me get my hands dirty with some of them. He taught me everything I know. Hell, he helped me bring my Mustang back to life. I bought it off of him for a hundred bucks,
