One Piece At A Time [Mikayla]

[Kal Sterling]

"Well, I left Kentucky back in forty nine, An' went to Detroit workin' on a 'sembly line, The first year they had me puttin' wheels on Cadillacs,"

Johnny Cash blasted out of an old cassette player on a shelf by the open garage door. Kal grabbed a wrench with his work glove and twirled it through his fingers. His father loved this music but Kal enjoyed it almost as much.

Going over to one of his motorcycles, he began working to take off the fenders and other metal plates. He was about to give it a nice new paintjob, hoping that'd help spark sellers for it. Both bikes were nice, and the parts were well-maintained, completely built custom. But the paint was a little old, and could use the sprucing up.

The garage door was open and he was doing the work outside because...well...he needed business. And he hoped it'd get it for him.

Wearing a simple black jacket over a comfortable green sweatshirt, his right hand neatly tucked into the arm of the jacket, and jeans with brown work boots, Kal was comfortably warm. Wow was it hard doing some of this with only one hand though. He finally got a fender off, and stood up straigther, wrench held like a mic as he followed along with the song,

"Every day I'd watch them beauties roll by"

As he sang the words, he caught a glimpse of a girl on a motorcycle rolling up to his shop. She probably could've heard him and the song if she were coasting when she rolled up. The song continued to play in the background, as Kal said to himself, "Maybe I should play this more often."

Crossing the couple meter long distance between where he had been and where she was with her bike, he shouted, "Welcome to Sterling Customs!" Not aiming for salesman so much as enthusiastic employee, Kal couldn't quite generate a ton of enthusiasm, but it was hopefully enough. It was a customer, at least!

[Mikayla Southerland]

Mikki had been riding past that customs shop for days now and every day she saw that evil little sign that promised they were opening soon but never actually told you when. She was riding past again today and she would every day until they opened if she had too, she wanted a new paint job for her silver 1000cc Ninja, sure it was a sexy bike the way it was and she loved it but she wanted a little bit of a Mikki flair added to it. Juliet needed some sexy new colors to represent her personality Mikki had decided, Juliet being the name she gave her bike when she had brought it.

Mikki rolled around the corner turning her head to look at the shop expecting to see what she saw every time, which was a shut up shop with no signs of life, only a teasing little sign telling here they would be open soon. A grin spread her face and she let out an audible whoop that was drowned out by the rumbling of the 1000cc engine strapped between her thighs. That evil little sign was gone and the garage door was open with music coming from inside. From the road with the bike running she couldn’t hear what the music was but she flicked her indicator on and lent her body as she swung the bike smoothly into the driveway, rolling toward the front entrance to the workshop.

As she drew closer letting the throttle relax as the engine quietened just slightly without the revs being added she caught the sound of someone singing along to Johnny Cash. Grinning she brought the bike to a stop kicking her side stand down as she killed the engine before leaning the bike onto it as she swung her leg over and off the bike. No sooner was she off the bike she heard the call from behind her and she turned to see a pretty attractive young guy in a black jacket and jeans.

Reaching up she undid her helmet and pulled it off letting her light brown and blond hair fall out around her face, the black helmet was tucked under her arm which was covered with the black leather of her motorbike jacket. Mikki smiled widely at the guy exiting the garage and took a few steps forward her legs covered in her favorite bootleg jeans and finished with a pair of back steal cap riding boots.

“Your finally open, that is awesome!” she said in her usual excited tones by way of greeting “I was hoping you could help me out, Juliet needs some color grey is just way too dull for us” she said talking easily of her bike as if it were a person, it was just the way she was, some people got it and did the same others looked at her like she was a total spaced out weirdo from another planet but she didn’t care either way, it helped weed out the people who were fun and worth knowing and those who needed a serious personality transplant, she wondered which category he would fall into as she watched for his reaction with a big relaxed grin on her features.

[Kal Sterling]

When you haven't gotten it on in awhile, you get this feeling, or at least Kal did. It had felt like forever since he had closely seen, touched, or smelled (tasted even) a cute girl. And wow, was she cute. The way she took off that helmet was right out of a movie.

"Open for all kinds of business. Believe me, took this long just to clean this place up. A real junkyard," As if on cue, the exhaust on the motorcycle he was working on fell down. Kal winced, and quickly added, "Don't worry, yours won't do that."

Coming closer to the motorcycle, he got down on his knee, checking it out. He hadn't seen a new motorcycle in a couple years. Wow...if only he still drove. "Juliet, huh? Does she have a Romeo to go with?" With a quick glance to the girl, he added with raised eyebrows, "Does her owner?"

Paint job, huh? Well that was convenient. He could put her parts on the rack with his, paint them down all at once. Would save time...and money. Both very important right now. Though he was truthfully getting an idea of what he needed to, he constantly stole looks at the girl. Wonder what she'd look like without that jacket.

Standing up, but still looking at the motorcycle he said, "Yeah, I think I can help you out with that problem. The one thing people never called me was dull." Walking around to the other side of the motorcycle so it was between them, he said, "That really looks like a nice pair." Drifting his eyes up to her, with a wide grin, he added, putting his left hand behind his head, "Your rims are looking pretty good too."

It had been awhile since he flirted, was he coming on too strong? Did it matter? She seemed happy and bouncy? Then again, she was a biker. Maybe she had abs under that jacket and could kick his ass. Good thing there was a bike between them. Kal's right hand hadn't left his jacket since she arrived, and he wasn't looking to try and move it now. Coughing lightly into his left hand, he said, "Let's go inside. It's a bit warmer and I can show you what colors I've got."

As he began walking toward the building, a little worse for wear, but still the nice building he and his sister had helped their dad build almost a decade ago, he turned around (walking backward) and said, "Don't worry, Davy and Jones won't bother your girl any. They keep their distance from strong ladies." He looked pointedly at the half-disassembled motorcycle and his brother next to him. With a lopsided grin and a wink, he waved her into the open garage, Cash still singing about his custom car.

"Now, up to now my plan went all right, 'Til we tried to put it all together one night, And that's when we noticed that something was definitely wrong."

[Mikayla Southerland]

Mikki couldn’t help laughing as if on cue a muffler feel off one of the bikes as if to prove the comment of it having been a junkyard that he had to clean up. “Either your bikes are agreeing with you or upset at you for calling their home a junkyard” she responded with a grin waving off the comment about it not happening to hers.

Her grin widened when he played along with her naming her bike asking if there was a Romeo for either the bike or herself. She couldn’t help but appreciate someone who could roll with the weird and not let it faze them, it was her favorite sort of person. “No Juliet is a modern girl she doesn’t need a Romeo to make her engine run” she said with cheeky tones and an unsuccessful eye waggle before laughing at her own poor attempt at a joke. Purposefully failing to answer his question about the owner, it was more fun to keep him guessing right.

Mikki couldn’t take his ‘flirting’ seriously at least she thought he was flirting what with the nice pair reference, she wasn’t going to let him get away with it too easily though. With a scoff she spoke “Well they clearly haven’t heard your pick up lines, because they are dull we should work on sharpening them for you” she said in a serious tone before busting out in a grin not able to hold the seriousness in her face.

Mikki smiled and she bounced along behind the guy walking toward the building she listened as he mentioned Davy and Jones and looked over to see two bikes one who was mostly disassembled. “Good to know because Juliet doesn’t tolerate anything less than true gentlemen so probably best they keep their distance especially if they are going to be flashing all their bits like that” She said looking pointedly at the disassembled bike. As she walked past following the guy into the shop where Johnny Cash was still singing unaffected by the pair, at least the guy had good taste in music Cash was a legend.

[Kal Sterling]

Female laughter. Okay, even if he had been lying to himself about not missing girls these past few months, he couldn't lie to himself about missing that. There was a purity to making a girl smile, even if he couldn't do it for very long. "Hey, they were the only ones here, it was their responsibility to keep it clean. The one who coughed up a muffler is just upset that I'm taking out my frustation on him."

Man, this girl had nice teeth. Which probably meant she had the money to pay him. Which at the end of the day was the goal. If anything else could happen, that would be a great bonus, but no money, no service here, whether you looked like a 3 or 9.5. "Smart girl, there's definitely a lot of dirty nozzles out there, gotta be careful."

Okay, that was smooth. But she hadn't answered his question, and her failed attempt to be cheeky probably told more than it should. Either she was the kind of girl that made her boyfriend mad, or she and he had more to talk about than just a new coat of paint.

"Oof," Kal said with a mock look of pain, "you should get a load of me without all the cold weather survival gear. I sharpen my pickup skills all the time." The cheese was real, but this girl was filled with so many smiles, he could probably talk about actual cheese and she'd still laugh. Most of the girls he saw at school were braniacs or bimbos. The former lost interest in him fast and the latter forgot about him when he was gone in the morning. Was it too much to hope this girl was somewhere in the middle?

"Hey now, Jones is proud to shed his outer layers. He may not be the biggest boy, but he's got a lot of power and speed. More than enough for your girl." Enjoying this banter enough to really get into it, he gave a quick moment of giving in, and put his left hand to his chest a bit, "Okay...they can drive the drive if they need to, my sister taught them how a lady should be treated. While Juliet is in the shop, there will be no nonsense. No promises for after, though. They are named after pirates after all."

Kal couldn't get rid of the smile on his face from all of the double meanings they were tossing at each other.

Kal scanned the wall for the board that had the paints sprayed onto them. He had just repainted them so they were fresh. Finding it, he grabbed it with his hand, grunting a bit as he lifted it up onto the main work bench for her to see, straining a bit. It wasn't heavy, but anything that big one-handed wasn't the easist to work with.

[Mikayla Southerland]

She placed her left hand on her hip the one not holding her helmet and made a kind of tutting sound at him before speaking ”You can’t blame them for the mess if their owner didn’t teach them how to stay tidy” she said with mock seriousness in her voice as he tried to blame what had been a junk yard on the bikes. It was the excuse she used when people complained about the mess she could leave sometimes, her parents had never taught her to clean they had hired someone to do it for them so she blamed the lack of teaching for her lack of order. Though she was getting better the longer she traveled as she did like a clean place due to always living in a clean place, she just didn’t like the actual cleaning part so much.

“I’ve taught her well, she knows to stay away from the dirty nozzles” she threw back to him with a grin, she didn’t often find people who got her bike references and innuendos related with it and it was kind of fun being able to banter with this guy if nothing else. “You know talking to the girls in your magazines actually doesn’t sharpen anything right?” she said trying to keep a straight face as if she was giving him very important advice.

“I hope your sister taught them extremely well then because she doesn’t tolerate anything other than the best” she answered with a grin looking back at her girl Juliet in the car park before turning back to see the guy struggling slightly to hoist a board one handed onto the work bench. She wondered vaguely why he didn’t just use two hands, it seemed too awkward to try and list one handed but maybe he was just trying to be macho or something she decided not to comment and instead moved over to the workbench too look at the colors on the board.

“So I was thinking Juliet would look sexy in some metallic purple and metallic black” she said looking over the board and spotting a shimmery deep purple and shimmery black painted on the board separate from the flatter tones, she knew metallic colors were more expensive but she didn’t care she loved purple and black together and for her Juliet shimmer was the only way. She placed her helmet down on the corner of the bench out of the way, and unzipped her jacket revealing a simple form hugging designer white tank top. She left the jacket on but unzipped, deciding it was too cold to take it off but too warm with it zipped up while not riding the bike.

[Kal Sterling]

Well, that's a turn that Kal should've saw coming, but felt bad nonetheless. He paused a moment before replying, "Yeah, well, things came up. The old owner couldn't teach them like he used to. They were sitting alone for awhile." His voice had lost the light tone, but hadn't turned serious. The girl didn't know anything. When Kal had moved back, the shop was a wreck, after all, it had been the only home to a teen girl and a cancer-struggling father. Amanda had at least cleaned up her stuff before she left.

The magazine burn sat with him for a moment, though he did quickly respond with, "Oh, is that what you think?" In the past he'd do something like pull off his jacket and pose, but that'd make him look nothing but pathetic with how his arm is now. So instead he said, "Well, I'll have you know, that outside of looking at the cheerleader section of my yearly football magazine, I don't go for those sexy mags." Shrugging with one shoulder (what an odd sensation), he added with a subtle wink and slightly lowered voice, "After all, why should I when I can have the real thing..."

"Oh yeah, we all learned from my sister. She was the only lady around that mattered. Not that other girls didn't try though," He said, flexing and stretching his chest and sighing as he spoke. "You're certainly the best looking one to walk through that doorway."

Stretching and flexing his arm, Kal was still surprised at how unwieldly it was to lift that board. He watched her look at the colors. He remembered when his dad did the same thing for Kal when they were building his motorcycle. Except it was free of charge. Which reminded him. Kal shuffled through some papers with his left hand to find a clean work contract and set it on a clear spot as she told him the colors she wanted. "Ooh, purple and black. Great combination. Would look pretty good on Juliet's driver too, I'd imagine."

Kal was trying to write left-handed. It was not clean. He had been practicing since the accident, and it was readable, but it was far from great. He got the date in and started to write in the items and price when he heard an unzipping. Head turning was an understatement. Oh damn. "Y'know, strike what I just said, Juliet's driver looks fine." He swollowed slightly as he past 'just said'. The prettiest girl to walk through those garage doors went from a passing remark to 100% true.

[Mikayla Southerland]

Mikki wondered slightly at his response to the cleanliness thing, she looked across at him but didn’t say anything, his tone had lost its light tone and she wondered what the story behind the old owner was. She decided not to ask though, maybe down the track sometime, if she got to know him better but she felt it wasn’t an appropriate question for a stranger to be asking, light blatant flirting yeah no worries, getting into the deep and meaningful stuff not so much. She relaxed slightly when his light tone returned somewhat at her magazine jab.

“Ahhh I see your more of an internet man hey” she joked when he denied being into the magazines even though he referenced having the real thing she couldn’t stop herself from going there it was fun to tease people, especially when they joked back. “I bet you say that to all the girls” she responded with a laugh to his comment on her being the best looking girl to walk through the door, she wondered how many female bike riders there were around that would come here for a paint job. She also found it sweet that he thought his sister was the only one that mattered, she liked people with strong family connections, and her own brother had always looked out for her. Sure he picked on her like there was no tomorrow but heaven help anyone else who tried to mess with her.

Despite his clearly mentioning the purple and black looking good on her in a flirting way it gave her an idea. “Oooohh would you be able to paint my helmet to match? Like is that a thing?” she asked not really sure if places like this actually painted helmets but thinking it would be totally awesome to have her plain black helmet all decked out to match Juliet. She looked down at her form hugging white shirt at his comment and smiled slightly, she knew she had a good body she worked out religiously to ensure she had a good body. “What you don’t think this would look good in purple?” she asked jokingly gesturing to her white tank top.

[Kal Sterling]

"Ah yes, the mind-sucking, eye-burning, hand-cramping highway to knowledge," Kal said with a laugh. "I read stuff on there occasionally." Kal couldn't help but return the tease, "How 'bout you? How do you handle your lack of a Romeo? Girly magazines, Tumblr, or books where girls like you are draped over almost naked guys like me?" Kal posed his left arm in a body-builder way.

"Believe it or not, you are the first. But I might be lying. A prettier girl might've gone through when I wasn't here. So my loss of beauty is your gain of compliment." Kal was finding it so easy to flirt with her. Here she was, he still didn't know her name, and yet they were talking, laughing, smiling...how long would it last, Kal couldn't help but wonder. And would he get to see her in a more private place before it ended...

A painted helmet, well then. That was likely precision... "I mean...yeah, I could do it," Kal said, with a strained confidence as his head shook, almost betraying the words he was saying. With a grin he added, "I'd even do it free of charge. But it will cost you some time instead." Kal finished filling out everything he needed to do in the sheet before she signed as he actually somewhat nervously avoided looking at her.

Clearly, she kept in as good of shape as he did, and that both aroused and scared him. This girl was almost too good to be true, and not only did he not want to mess up this interaction, he wanted to be sure that not a single wrong signal (and every right signal) was sent. As she gestured to her tank top, he couldn't help it, "Would it look better in purple, oh hell yeah. But uh...white's nice. Has that whole purity thing to it. Really hugs you...well." That moment of awkwardness brought to you by lack of social life for nearly a year.

All that confidence, and he got flustered the moment he learned she WAS as hot as he'd hope she could be.

[Mikayla Southerland]

Mikki laughed as the guy rattled off different ways she might get herself off without a Romeo. “I have a much more effective way than any other those” she said with a grin, “I strap 1000cc of power between my thighs and ride until I forget why I even considered a man in the first place” she said with laugh. It wasn’t inaccurate either it was totally her go too, if she was feeling down about being alone or anything she would go for a ride and would soon feel better about any situation, there was just something freeing about riding a motorbike especially when you took it out to the quiet country roads and really opened it up. Though she couldn’t help admiring the body builder style pose and wondering what he looked like under all those layers.

“Give it time you only opened the doors today I am sure there will be plenty of beauties walk through the doors for you to sharpen your skills on” she said with a grin. Mikki saw the shake of his head that betrayed his words slightly in response to painting her helmet and grinned. “It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, even just painting it all black or all purple, but with the shimmer, it’s just a little dull being all flat black the way it is, and of course I will pay you for it, this is a business after all, and if you play you cards right I might just give you some time on top of that” her response was excited at the prospect of a shiny helmet, when she brought hers flat black had been the only option in the style she had wanted.

Mikki turned her features serious and looked down at the white shirt she wore as she listened to his response about purity. “Your right, I should get it in purple, wouldn’t want people to get the wrong idea with all that purity crap” she said with serious tones though her grin showed that she still wasn’t actually being serious, in truth Mikki wasn’t very good at being serious she was a big kid most of the time and that’s the way she liked it.

[Kal Sterling]

Kal winced for a couple reasons. She definitely beat him that time...and he missed that feeling himself. "Can't really argue with that," He said with a laugh and temporary grin that faded into a weaker smile. Riding down on the road, nothing but the wheels, the wind, and his thoughts on school, football...maybe a girl, but only rarely...his family...All gone.

"I don't care what they look like. Work is work. Lovelies like Juliet and you are bonuses that I will gladly take, however." He returned her grin with a smile. "I mean, if shimmer is what you want, shimmer is what you'll get." She was so excited, it was infectious. "I cannot guarentee anything fancy. Helmet painting is a little outside the norm for me." As soon as he added the helmet (with some difficulty), he looked back to her, "I just started learning how to play cards, go easy on me."

Was it wrong that he wanted to kiss her right there? Yeah, legally, it was. But on some emotional or natural level, he really wanted it. But he smiled instead, loving every bit of her attempt at seriousness that was only part successful. "Oh no, we wouldn't want that." He said with mock seriousness himself.

Kal slid over the contract in her direction, before grabbing the pen and placing it on top of it. "There ya go. It's a little more than one of those chains, but I doubt you want to drive out to one, and I doubt they'll do it as fast or as well as me. After all, you're my first customer."

After grabbing the board to put back away (once again left hand only), he added, "Plus, I want to earn some of your time after the work is done. Figured that'd be a good play of the ol' cards."

[Mikayla Southerland]

There was definitely something deeper to discover about this guy and Mikki made a mental note to try and figure it out sometime in the future she loved a mystery and she had a feeling this guy had some mysteries to discover based on the things that seemed to lower his happy personality, like the thing with the bikes, she wouldn’t expect someone who worked in a custom bike shop to get sad about the idea of riding, and she wondered what had caused that reaction in him.

“If it has shimmer its already fancy” she said with a grin deciding not to respond to his work is work comment, mainly because she didn’t know how to respond to that then any other reason. “How will you learn if I go easy on you though? I wouldn’t want to hinder your progress” she said pretending to be serious again and once again falling short. Mikki was having way too much fun teasing this guy, who she realized she didn’t even know the name of yet, her mother would so not approve, she was a women who was all for the prim and proper way of life and she didn’t approve of Mikki’s motorbike riding and flirty habits.

Mikki’s mind wandered and she found herself wondering what it would be like to kiss this guy and maybe other things, less pure things… she was snapped from her impure thoughts when he slid the contract over to her and placing a pen on top. She looked over it as he made a spiel about how it was more expensive then the chain stores, she waved him off and picked up the pen signing on the dotted line barely glancing at the price. “If I wanted to go to the chain stores I wouldn’t have ridden past every day since your little opening soon sign went up” she said easily looking up as he grabbed the board to put it away left handed. Thinking on it he had filled out the forms left handed and it didn’t seem to be his dominant hand from the way he wrote.

She wondered what had happened and thought maybe in this time he spoke of spending with her she might be able to figure it out. “Why wait for the work to be done? I could always lend a hand to strip her down if you want” she offered, she didn’t know a lot about taking motorbikes apart but she wasn’t afraid of getting a little dirty and learning, especially if the person she was getting dirty with looked like him.

[Kal Sterling]

Kal wasn't gonna deny the girl what she wanted. He couldn't help but answer the difficulty question in his own way, however, "I'd rather learn slow then hard. Explore a bit at a time. Easy and gentle." An eyebrow flair accompanied 'explore', and a grin was on his face at the end. After all, it was true, for many things. And flirting with this girl was a treat he really didn't expect. Definitely spirited if nothing else, and not often you get that kind of face coupled with that kind of body.

The way she signed the contract, Kal could practically see dollar signs. Obviously, the motorcycle, her outfit...her body, were definitely the signs of some wealth. It made Kal wonder if this what other boys were seeing in his sister now that she lived with his mother. So much more money was around her than it was with their father. "Wow. Every day? Wow. Sorry to have made you wait so long. Didn't think anyone would take that sign that seriously." He honestly thought he would've been opening soon, but between city paper work, and slow cleaning, it definitely wasn't easy getting it open as fast as he thought. Grabbing the contract, Kal whistled, "Mikayla Southerland. Cute name." Placing the contract down, he put his left hand out to her, saying, "My name is Kal Sterling, nice to meet you."

Kal was starting to put together a plan for extending the paint area for the parts from both bikes, when she offered her request to help. "Now, what kind of service man would I be if I made the client do some of the work?" Kal said, dodging the question. Honestly, he didn't want her to see his disability and think to take her work elsewhere. Kal worked focused and knowledgably, and made up for time by not taking breaks and frome experience. Adding a little too quickly, "Besides, it's not gonna be done today anyway. The paint takes too long to seal and dry. It won't be ready until like, late tonight." There was a bit of unsettled structure to what he said. It was all true, but it felt wrong to say it like that.

[Mikayla Southerland]

Mikki’s mind went to motorbike riding when he mentioned preferring to learn slow and exploring. She loved taking things slow through the windy roads really checking out the scenery, but she also loved the exhilaration of opening her up on the straight roads letting everything off to the side of the road turn into a blur of colour and only being aware of what is coming up ahead. “Slow can be fun, but I prefer a good balance of slow exploring and fast and exhilarating myself” she said with a grin and a wink. This guy was pretty hot and fun to flirt with, Mikki wouldn’t mind taking things slow or fast with him, hmm thinking like that could get her into trouble.

“No worries, any excuse for a ride is fine with me, besides it was worth the wait to meet such a sexy man… I mean just look at him… Davy is a babe” she said gesturing to the fully assembled bike in the lot with a mischievous grin on her face. She just couldn’t help herself from teasing him a little bit, when he extended his left hand as he introduced himself she only hesitated for a second extending her left hand to him feeling slightly awkward not offering her right hand but she shrugged it off. Giving him a firm yet still feminine handshake and smiled warmly, “Nice to meet you Kal, my friends call me Mikki” she spoke easily.

It didn’t really surprise her when he rejected her offer to help though she was a little disappointed it would have been fun to pull a motorbike apart, but hey no big deal. “It’s all good you do your thing, I will just have to figure out another way to fill that time requirement of yours” she said in a light teasing manner. She was used to men and the way they could be able doing their man things alone, usually she pushed until they let her try like with learning to ride a motorbike, so many men had scoffed at her when she had tried to book lessons but she soon showed them, she was fearless on the motorbike though not stupid safety always came first. “As for time no worries, just gives me another excuse to run more” she said brightly Mikki was a bit of an optimist she liked to look on the bright side of life.

[Kal Sterling]

Kal was no saint. Not in the least. He knew it, he embraced it. But this girl was making it very hard to act good. The flirting, the smiles, the knowing responses. Few girls he met were this cheery and flirty, yet could seemingly take care of themselves. Very few. Fast and exhilarating...Kal sure used to be. He and this girl would be fired up and done within the week. But the way he was now... "Doesn't have to be fast to be exciting. Sometimes a slow buildup can be just as good." He certainly wasn't going to stop flirting now. Clearly she was interested in him at the absolute least.

"He used to be. But he's gotten a few dings...paint's not what it used to be. Can't really compete with newer bikes like Juliet." Kal said, not sure if he was talking about himself or the bike in question. With a knowing look, he added, "But he's still got a great ride..."

Shaking Kal's hand openly and with only little bits of awkwardness, he couldn't help but hold his fingers to hers for just a few moments longer as their hands began to seperate. She didn't ask...she only barely hesitated... "Mikki, huh. I'll keep that in mind in case I'm ever lucky enough to be one."

Why was she making this so difficult...he wanted nothing more than someone...anyone to talk to other than his radio...but... "Well...I suppose you could at least wheel her in for me. I've got to make some more room in the drying area." As he began walking over to the racks for the parts, he added with wiggling eyebrows, looking at her around stacks of boxes and parts, "Jones and Juliet are gonna be naked together."

Confirmation that she liked exercise? Oh, why, fate. Why so much cruelty. "Didn't think there were any other souls brave enough to run in Pilot Ridge this time of year. You run in this part of town much?"