Damsel in Distress

[DANI DRAKE]

This was not happening. This could not be happening! Why did the tire have to blow out today?! And of course today was the day her phone died two hours before she got home. If this stupid city would clean up accident debris when it happened, she wouldn’t have run over the sharp, twisted piece of metal that popped her tire. She was forced to veer off the road before she killed someone or herself, her hands trembling from the adrenaline rush that crashed over her as she for control of her vehicle. Now Dani sat there, trying to catch her breath and steady her hands. She was still gripping the steering wheel for dear life, but at least she was still now. Slowly she unbuckled her seatbelt and propped her door open so she could slide out. It was a blustery, cold night and she hugged her wool coat tighter around her, shoving her nose into the bright purple scarf around her neck. She was glad she wore boots today so at least her feet would be covered. Before Dani could even get to her right side front tire, though, she smelled burnt rubber. She knew her tire was destroyed. What she wasn’t expecting was for the back right wheel to be destroyed also. Two destroyed wheels and her phone wasn’t working. With a sinking feeling, she opened the passenger side door and dug in her purse for her phone. She tried desperately to bring it back to life, but it refused to cooperate. Damn it! Dani threw it back in her bag in frustration and took a deep, shaky breath.

What was she supposed to do with no way to contact someone? She was on a dark road all by herself and she suddenly wished her bodyguard Jonah were nearby. Everything felt so much calmer and more bearable when Jonah was there to reassure her. She assumed she would have to start walking to the nearest gas station to borrow their phone…being just outside the city, though, who knew when she would find one? And it was so cold…She could just cry with her frustration. Of course she wouldn’t, but it was just one more thing to top off a bad day. Her case against Serge Petrov, a human trafficker from Bulgaria, was going downhill and she feared he would slip through her fingers if she didn’t get more evidence. It was the case she’d been going over in her head when she hit the accident debris on the road. If she hadn’t had her head in the clouds, maybe she wouldn’t have hit the stupid thing. Even pulling out her spare tire wouldn’t help her now. Not that she really knew how to put a spare tire on…but she was certain she could figure it out.

With a heavy sigh that steamed in the evening air, she ran her fingers through her long, dark hair. This was awful. Would anyone pass by on the road? Maybe…but would she trust anyone who stopped? She was a young woman alone on a dark road…it was like she was meat dangling in front of a rapist. Good thing she had some pepper spray in her purse. She grabbed her purse and reached in to take her pepper spray out in her leather-gloved fist. It was best to be prepared. She slung her purse over her shoulder and shoved her hand in her pocket to hide what she held in her fist. Now she was ready for the long hike in high-heeled leather boots and she hoped she wouldn’t get frostbite. Then headlights caught her eye in the distance. It made her stomach twist. Should she flag them down? Should she try to do this on her own? She decided beginning to walk might be best so it would be obvious she needed help. But then she wasn’t even sure she wanted to draw that attention to herself. If Jonah was here, this wouldn’t be a problem…She took a deep breath and slowly started to walk away from her car in the direction she thought there would be a gas station. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if this person stopped to help her. What if it was a woman, after all?

[JUDE FROST]

I’ve spent my last nights strung up and pulled tight. Holding out, sleep and grow. The song came in and out, the ‘out’ filled with white noise as the signal from the city’s radio station kept cutting out. Jude knew he should invest in a disk player for his ancient hunk of junk truck but it cost money and that was something that he found he didn’t have much to spare on things that weren’t necessary. And the radio worked just fine when he was in the city. It was the outskirts of the city that he found himself wishing he had another means of music. Tonight his excuse to being out out the city so late was he had to pick up a part for a car that was in a town away. He would have gotten back earlier except he chose to stop and grab a bite to eat before heading home for the night. He didn’t have to take the part to the shop until the next morning so he decided to take his time.

Jude was one of the more reliable mechanics at the shop which was why Reggie always sent him on these late errands, slipping him a couple of bucks the next day made for a nice little perk. Reggie had been a great boss and even a good friend to him for the last two years that he’d worked for him. And when Jude stopped coming to work just after the city’s ‘epidemic scare’, Reggie waited and welcomed Jude back with open arms. It wasn’t a secret that Jude wasn’t human anymore. Not to his co workers or his boss anyway. He’d actually found out that Steven, another mechanic at the shop, wasn’t human either. The pair of them had been locked up in a camp, along with Jude’s family, because they had been different. And different was scary to some people. He was just fortunate that it didn’t cost him his job.

The radio cut out again and Jude looked down with a disappointed look. He actually liked that song.. he fidgeted with the dial, trying to find another station so that he wouldn’t have to sit there and just listen to the hum of the truck’s engine. He could only listen to it for so long before he would start to belt out his own tunes which was never a good idea since he had a horrible singing voice. When the radio started to chirp out another melody he looked up and noticed a vehicle parked on the side of the road. How far had he been driving without looking? As he came closer he could see that it wasn’t just there for a quick break. The frame appeared lopsided and with a twist of a switch he turned the truck’s brights on and could see that the car actually had a flat. Then he spotted the figure who looked to be walking away from the car. He turned his brights off and took his foot off the gas to hit the brake, slowing down and carefully pulling the truck over to the side of the road just a bit up ahead of the car. Jude didn’t always stop to help people but it was dark and the air had a chilly nip to it.

Turning off the truck the man got out and looked behind the truck to see if the person he saw walking was still walking or if they’d stopped and decided to go back to the car. And until his eyes adjusted to the darkness he couldn’t tell just yet, but he started to walk toward the stranger anyway. “Is everything okay here?” He asked trying not to shout but also wanting to be heard. When his eyes adjusted he could see it was a woman who looked expensively dressed and just behind her the car had two flats not one. “That’s bad luck,” he spoke again, knowing that even if her car had a spare or a donut she wouldn’t have an extra for the second busted tire. He looked to the stranger once again and suddenly realized he must look awful in comparison. His plaid shirt was unbuttoned, the white undershirt covered in grease and oil stains from working on cars all day long. His jeans, arms and hands matching with similar stain patterns. He must have looked like a redneck that just crawled out of some hick town.

[DANI DRAKE]

Dani could hear the car approaching and her paranoia was going haywire. The driver flashed the high beams, making her look behind her as it got closer. Wasn’t there an urban legend about some guy flashing his high beams before killing a girl? It made her whole body tense and even more so as the beat up old truck pulled to the side of the road ahead of her. She swallowed hard, her fists clench on the straps of her purse and around the bottle of pepper spray enclosed in the hand inside her pocket. It definitely wasn’t a woman who stepped out of that truck either. She couldn’t see his face yet, but it was definitely the figure of a man. A man with longish, curly hair…and in beat up old clothes that matched his truck. What if he was some kind of hoodlum? Or a country bumpkin looking for high class prey? She was definitely expensively dressed. Her heart was in her throat as he came closer and she froze like a deer in the headlights. She was completely stiff, just watching as a young, scruffy face slowly came into view. “Is everything okay here?” All Dani could do was swallow hard and glance back toward her car. No, everything was not okay, but she didn’t want to seem too vulnerable to this complete and potentially psychotic serial killer stranger. His eyes wandered from her face to the car behind her as well as if he was inspecting it. “That’s bad luck.” Dani just nodded her head, taking in this stranger.

It wasn’t just that his shirt was dirty, his clothes and hands were covered in what looked like car grease. That made her perk up a little. She looked to his truck and figured if that beat up old thing was still running, then he must be responsible for it. Maybe he was a mechanic. Had she possibly had a stroke of good luck after her stroke of incredibly bad luck? Her eyes brightened and she let her body relax a little, looking back to her car once more. “Yeah, I um…I hit some debris in the road and it blew out my tires. My cell phone’s dead so I’m kind of stranded here.” She swallowed hard again, looking back to him warily. Would he take advantage of that knowledge? She should have never mentioned her phone being dead! Her body was beginning to tense again when she realized he probably could have figured that out for himself since she was walking away from her car. She had to be calm, cool and collected! If she started freaking out, that would only make her more vulnerable. With a small, nervous smile she looked up at his face. “Are you a mechanic by any chance? I just saw the grease and figured you might know something about fixing cars. Or who to call for a tow.” Her nervous smile grew a little more even though her hand was still wrapped tightly around that pepper spray…

The good thing was he didn’t look malicious. In fact, he had a pretty warm smile that made her feel a little more at ease. Serial killers had a way of doing that, though…but she wasn’t stupid. She knew killers, and this guy didn’t have that look about him. Her silence made her feel self-conscious and she realized she might be coming off the wrong way. “Oh! Sorry, I’m so rude. Thank you for stopping to help me. Um…I’m Dani.” With a little hesitation, she held her hand out towards the man, not concerned about his dirty hands since she was wearing leather gloves. She gave a wider smile, knowing that kindness was always the quickest way to getting help when you needed it.

[JUDE FROST]

At first the woman didn’t look too keen on verbal communication. He could see her eyes were fixed on him but she didn’t say a word. When he stated that it was bad luck she simply nodded but didn’t say a word. It kind of weirded Jude out and made him second guess himself as to whether it was a good idea to stop or not. Maybe he should have just kept going and the next person to come along could have stopped to help her. Maybe someone who was better dressed and didn’t look as scruffy as he did. Jude knew that he wouldn’t harm a fly but if someone that looked the way he did came up and tried to help him then he’d be skeptical of their intentions without a doubt. Not everyone was as nice as he was. The strange silence didn’t linger and the woman finally spoke. ”Yeah, I um...I hit some debris in the road and it blew out my tires. My cell phone’s dead so I’m kind of stranded here.” That explained why she was walking away from her car. That was why it was important to always keep a charged cell phone. Then again his was always charged because he hardly got any calls. The ones he did get were from his sister most of the time and she called his landline or the shop during business hours. Sometimes he would get a random drunk call from his uncle asking for a place to crash for the night when he locked himself out of his own home but other than that he rarely used his phone. ”Are you a mechanic by any chance? I just saw the grease and figured you might know something about fixing cars. Or who to call for a tow.” His expression softened just enough for a tiny grin to appear. “Is it that obvious?” He questioned and reached up to run a hand through his curly hair.

”Oh! Sorry, I’m so rude. Thank you for stopping to help me. Um..I’m Dani.” Jude had a feeling this woman felt nervous with him there. To her he was a strange man who pulled over to the side of the road because he saw a woman who was stranded in the dark a little too far out of the city. “I’m Jude.” He offered and stuck his hand out getting ready to shake hers but then quickly retracted it back, glanced at his dirty palm then wiped it down the pant leg of his jeans to try and rub off some of the grease before he tried again to shake her hand. “Heh.. Listen, I have a phone if you want to call someone? I could slap a donut on for you but it won’t do any good without another.” Yeah, there was definitely two flats on her vehicle. “I could give you a ride into the city or if one of my buddies answers I can call him up and see if he can get another spare. Most auto shops are going to be closed right now.” If she had someone to call who would be able to fix her car then that would be fine too. He’d happily just get back in his truck and continue on his way back home. But if not then he would stay and help her out as much as he could. He’d feel guilty if he just left her there.

Reaching into his pocket he pulled out his cell phone and held it out in between them. If she wanted to make a call then it was right there, but if she wanted him to call someone then he’d just as easily do that. “S’up to you. Whatever makes you feel comfortable. I’m sure this isn’t how you wanted to spend your night,” he told her and mustered up a friendly smile.

[DANI DRAKE]

“I’m Jude.” Dani almost breathed a sigh of relief as the man introduced himself, glad she hadn’t ruined her chance of getting help by being rude and awkward. She still didn’t completely trust him, but he held his hand out to return her shake, and she was about to gladly take his hand when he pulled it away. He wiped his hand on his pant leg and she hadn’t even noticed how dirty his hands were, she was so nervous. His hand was still dirty even after he wiped it off, but Dani took it anyway with a smile. She’d never been a priss about dirt and grime. “Heh…Listen, I have a phone if you want to call someone. I could slap a donut on for you, but it won’t do any good without another.” That statement was true enough. It was so kind of him to offer his phone, though. A crazed psychopathic killer rapist wouldn’t offer to let her use his phone to call for help. She finally let go of the pepper spray in her pocket and let both of her hands free. “I could give you a ride into the city or if one of my buddies answers I can call him up and see if he can get another spare. Most auto shops are going to be closed right now.” It was only 3 PM! What was he talking about? And then she realized it was Veteran’s Day. Most shops would close early on a national holiday. Shit! But another spare tire would be nice…She should probably call Jonah too before he started to worry. She didn’t want to put him out though, so she would call him once she had new tires on her car. As she considered her options, she didn’t realize she’d gone quiet again.

“S’up to you. Whatever makes you feel comfortable. I’m sure this isn’t how you wanted to spend your night.” Dani turned her blue eyes up to Jude and couldn’t help but return his friendly smile with one of her own. He had a genuine smile, she noted. She gave a soft laugh, shaking her head. “No, this isn’t exactly my idea of a good time. Though I have to say, the veering to the side of the road and fighting to regain control of my car felt a little bit like a roller coaster ride. One of the scary ones.” With another quiet laugh, she glanced to her car. She didn’t want to leave her car on the side of a deserted road. Then again, it wasn’t like it could do anyone any good. That didn’t mean someone wouldn’t try to jack her radio or something, though! “I don’t really know anyone who would be of much help right now. I’m more comfortable trusting your friends than mine with this.” She gave a nervous sort of smile, feeling bad for asking this guy to take the time to help her. But he had stopped to do just that, hadn’t he? “If it’s not too much trouble, would you mind seeing if your friend can bring out another spare? I have one in my trunk. I just don’t really want to leave my car on a deserted back road.” Was she asking too much? Dani was great at giving commands to people who pissed her off and she had a strong presence in court when she was defending those who couldn’t defend themselves, but outside of that role she was still afraid to upset or annoy anyone. “If you’re in a hurry, I understand.” If all he could do was drive her into the city or call Jonah to come get her, she would be satisfied with that too. At least he had pulled over to help her.

Even with spare tires, she would need to take her car into the shop to fix the long scratch the debris had left all along the bottom right side of her car. Considering the debris, though, she was lucky there wasn’t more damage to the oil pan or the axels or anything. Actually, she wasn’t sure that there wasn’t that kind of damage—Jude or someone would have to check that. She knew very little about cars; all she knew were the parts that had gone wrong in her previous cars. In fact, she didn’t know anyone who really did know a lot about cars, except for maybe Jonah. Even in all his wisdom, though, that was one subject he didn’t seem entirely familiar with. To her, that had always been a man’s thing, as sexist as that was. She didn’t often section activities off in her head as feminine or masculine, but fixing cars was definitely one of those activities. The silence wasn’t very long, but she patiently through it, prepared for whatever Jude was comfortable doing. He had spared her a very long walk so she would follow his lead.

[JUDE FROST]

”No, this isn’t exactly my idea of a good time. Though I have to say, the veering to the side of the road and fighting to regain control of my car felt a little bit like a roller coaster ride. One of the scary ones.” Jude watched as the girl laughed with her attention going back to her car. He had plenty of close calls with his beat up old truck, blowing tires or having a major leak causing him to be stranded. It was never any fun. Mechanic or not, he couldn’t always be prepared for what might happen on the road. ”I don’t really know anyone who would be of much help right now. I’m more comfortable trusting your friends than mine with this.” He had to give her props for getting her car over to the side of the road and from the look of it very minimal damage done. The only thing that looked to be wrong were the tires, but then again he hadn’t gone over to her car to get a good look at the damage just yet. ”If it’s not too much trouble, would you mind seeing if your friend can bring out another spare? I have one in my trunk. I just don’t really want to leave my car on a deserted back road.” It was all whether or not his coworker would answer his phone or not. It was Veteran’s Day and most of the people he knew had plans. But then again if he had to he could always just drive back, grab a spare and then come back out to help her. It wasn’t his job to and he wasn’t on the clock or even have the keys to the tow truck, but Jude had time before it got dark. That’s when he wouldn’t be able to help her anymore. ”If you’re in a hurry, I understand.” The woman was nice, not wanting to put Jude out and he grinned when she pretty much told him that if he wanted to he could bail. She wasn’t furious or hysterical the way he’d seen so many women act when they had to get their vehicles repaired.

“There’s no rush.” He said softly and ran his thumb over the screen of his phone, scrolling through his contacts as he tried to figure out just who to call. Reggie would be with his family and spending time at the nursing home with his father who was retired military. They always spent Veteran’s Day together no matter how old and senile Reggie’s father was. There was Paul or Dave.. he stopped on Paul’s name and hit the dial button, bringing it up to his ear. With a reassuring smile to Dani, Jude stepped around her and moved closer to her car so he could get a better look, waiting for Paul to hopefully answer his phone. Just as he crouched down beside one of the blown tires he heard the man on the other end of the line. “Hey Paul, it’s Jude. Yeah.. no, everything is fine. Yeah I got the part for Reg.. no trouble at all. Listen, I was hoping you could do me a favor? Uh huh..” Jude grew quiet, listening as Paul seemed to ignore him for the moment and describe to him a new burger joint he’d tried just outside of town and how greasy the food was. “Heh.. that’s great. Paul? Yeah. No, I need a favor.” He started to explain to Paul over the phone that he needed him to go grab a donut from the shop, giving him a rough estimate of where they were located, and then trying to explain what had happened while he inspected the tire. “Yeah, two flats. One is shredded. She has a spare so I’m going to throw that on now. Yeah.. could you do it now? I need to get home before it gets dark. Yeah, thanks Paul.” Paul knew all about Jude’s little problem and if it hadn’t been for that then he might have given him a harder time about asking him to go get him a donut.

After Jude hung up with Paul he stood back up and placed his phone back in his pocket, turning his attention back to Dani. “So a guy I work with is going to pick up a small tire. He should be here in forty minutes?” He rolled his shoulders in a shrug, clearly estimating how long it would take Paul. He said he’d try to hurry so that Jude wouldn’t have to excuse himself before the sun went down. He didn’t want to just leave her out there especially in the dark. “Do you mind popping the trunk? I can take this tire off while we wait..” Her car looked like it cost her a pretty penny. It was in excellent condition from what he could tell just by looking at it.”And do you have a jack? If not I can go grab mine out of my truck..”

[DANI DRAKE]

Jude’s smile put Dani’s fears of him abandoning her on the side of the road to bed and she gave a weak smile of her own. “There’s no rush.” She sighed as she smiled wider, glad he was willing to help. That bottle of pepper spray in her pocket was long forgotten now. Her eyes fell as she watched him scroll through the contacts on his phone before it occurred to her that it might be rude to watch him conduct his affairs. She quickly looked away, wrapping her arms about her chest as a chilled breeze hit her. How was it possible that even during the day it was so chilly? It was a good thing she hadn’t been stranded here at night! These days, though, there wasn’t much of a difference between day and night. Jude brought his phone to his ear and she looked back at him as he did so and was met with his warm smile. She returned it and moved aside for him to walk past her to her car. Really, it was such a nice thing for him to do, to stop and help her like he had. Her eyes stayed on him as he crouched beside her car, truly grateful for her luck. Maybe it was bad luck to have her tires blown out, but definitely good luck that a mechanic had been driving down the same road not too long after she was forced to pull over! And it happened to be a nice mechanic with a really nice smile…As the adrenaline died down she was starting to notice that Jude was pretty easy on the eyes. Long-haired, dirty guys weren’t normally her thing, but then again she dated so rarely she couldn’t say she really had a type. She could appreciate Jude’s scruffy good looks, though, even in passing. Her eyes wandered off again as he spoke to his co-worker on the other end.

“Hey Paul, it’s Jude. Yeah…no, everything is fine. Yeah I got the part for Reg…no trouble at all. Listen, I was hoping you could do me a favor? Uh huh…” It sounded like the other guy (Paul?) was having trouble hearing Jude. She glanced wearily back to Jude kneeled beside her car. Was Paul going to come? “Heh…that’s great. Paul? Yeah. No, I need a favor.” Jude went on to explain and Dani looked to up and down the road. No other cars; at least they wouldn’t be a distraction for other drivers on the road. The debris in the road that she’d hit was still precariously sprawled at the side of the road, still within range of another driver hitting it. She should probably move it… “Yeah, two flats. One is shredded. She has a spare so I’m going to throw that on now. Yeah…could you do it now? I need to get home before it gets dark. Yeah, thanks Paul.” His comment about getting home before dark made her ears prick and she looked back at him curiously. Why did he need to be home before dark? Had she held him up from something important? Or maybe…she always thought of zebras instead of horses. It was possible Jude was a Therian, but unlikely. If he was though…the poor guy might have been locked up in those awful camps. With her work in human trafficking, any kind of unlawful imprisonment set her blood to boiling, and it had been no different when she found out what the real reasoning was behind the mandatory city-wide blood tests. It scared her too, knowing that witches could be discovered in the near future as well. It could quite literally turn into another witch hunt. She was snapped out of her thoughts when he lowered his phone and looked up at her again. “So a guy I work with is going to pick up a small tire. He should be here in forty minutes?” She smiled wide and a little nervously as she nodded. “Okay. Thank you so much for your help.” Just the thought of the long hike in the cold in her high-heeled boots made her infinitely more grateful that he’d stopped.

“Do you mind popping the trunk? I can take this tire off while we wait…” Again she nodded, moving forward so she could help him if he needed it. She had some case files in her trunk that she would need to pull out for him to get to the spare tire. Her finger clicked the button to unlock the vehicle and then another that made the trunk jump up. “And do you have a jack? If not I can go grab mine out of my truck…” Dani smiled more. “Yeah, I have one down in with the spare tire.” She may not have known much about cars, but she was careful enough to know how to change a tire by herself. Dani was always prepared for the worst and while it might have been a fatalistic mentality, it had saved her butt in a few occasions. She slipped past him and to her trunk where she pushed the top open more so she could see the three banker’s boxes packed full with case files lying neatly on top of the false bottomed trunk where her tire was hidden away. Her gloved hands reached out and grabbed one box that had to be at least thirty pounds and heaved it up to place on the ground beside her. She repeated the process with another box and smiled as she saw Jude set the last one down. Her eyes came to his as she straightened again and pushed her hair behind her ears. “Thanks.” She had a feeling she was going to say that at least a hundred times today. With a sigh she moved back to the trunk and began to unscrew the fastener holding the false bottom of her trunk down. When it came off, she set it aside and pushed the bottom up to reveal her tire and the jack and tire iron neatly packed away beside it. She looked over at Jude standing beside her. “Do you need help with any of this?” she asked with a kind smile. Since he’d been so kind to her, she wanted to make sure to return the favor.

[JUDE FROST]

Jude sidestepped out of the woman's way when she headed for the back of her vehicle and followed behind, keeping a good space between them. "yeah, I have one down in with the spare tire." Although he had his own jack it would have taken him some time to try and get it out of the bed of the truck, what with all of the other tools and the tool box that were back there? It was a mess that he needed to clean up eventually. He was just strapped for time these days with the night shifting that would hopefully not be a permanent part of his routine.

He waited in patient silence as Dani popped open the trunk and started to shift around three large boxes that she had in there. It wasn't that he was a nosy person but he was curious about what those boxes held. When she started to hoist them out of the trunk he offered his assistance, pulling one of the boxes out and setting it next to the other two similar boxes. "Thanks." He shrugged and offered a modest grin, "no problem," he muttered and then waited for her to show him just where the tire and tools were. While she was busy pulling away the board that hid the tire, Jude looked up and down the road and listened for any sign of other cars on the road. Not a whole lot of people drove up and down this road when there were other, probably more convenient, paths to take. When Dani stepped back, giving him room to stand directly in front of the open trunk, Jude gave his knuckles a quick crack before pushing the jack and tire iron to the side so that he could get a good grip on the inner rim of the spare tire. "Do you need help with any of this?" He sucked in a sharp breath and shook his head. "No, I think I got it.." He hoisted the tire out with a small grunt and then set it down beside the car. It wasn't as heavy as he thought it would be and he had to remind himself that it was a small car compared to his truck or some other vehicles that came to the shop. He gathered the tools and set them down beside the tire so he could drop down to the frozen ground beside the car. Jude looked in Dani's direction just long enough to give her a reassuring smile before grabbing the jack and lowering himself until his back was on the ground and wiggling his way under the car. "So.." Jude didn't mind silence but since he was in the company of a stranger and he happened to be laying under her car in an attempt to find the plate to angle the jack under, he felt that maybe it would be a good idea to get a conversation started up. "Heh.." But what exactly was there to say? "What kind of work do you do? From the boxes it looks like you bring your work home with you too." He didn't know her but maybe talking would also make her feel some sort of reassurance that he wasn't under her car trying to cause more harm than good.. and he didn't want her to get in the car and try to run him over. You never knew with people these days..

[DANI DRAKE]

Jude shook his head and said, “No, I think I got it…” Dani in turn moved out of his way so he could yank the tire free. She could have done it herself, but not nearly as easily as Jude did it. He moved his tools next to the tire he was going to replace and she watched him with curiosity. She always enjoyed learning new things, and watching him change her tire would definitely be useful. What surprised her was that he sat down on the cold ground and leaned back, wriggling his way under her car. Before his head disappeared, though, he gave her a reassuringly smile which Dani returned with just a hint of confusion on her face. Now that he was under her car and setting up the jack, Dani wondered what they could talk about. She was slowly learning how to make small talk but the stress of the afternoon seemed to have caught her tongue. Suddenly she felt so awkward for not being able to come up with a decent topic of conversation. Thankfully Jude broke the silence…sort of. “So…heh…” It took a moment for him to actually ask her a question and in that moment she simply watched him patiently, grateful that he was inviting the small talk. “What kind of work do you do? From the boxes it looks like you bring your work home with you too.” Dani gave a smile even though he couldn’t see it and she folded her arms loosely over her chest to keep herself warm. “I try not to, but I do go back and forth a lot to Portland. I’m a lawyer so I have to go where the work is. I guess being a mechanic is similar that way.” She smiled more and then her eyes fell to the boxes again. Those would make a decent seat…

Dani grabbed one of the boxes and swung it up so she could set it on the ground near where Jude was working. She plopped down on the box and watched him work as she had before, her elbows rested on her knees. “I bet the day goes by faster for you than it does for me. Sitting in court or behind a desk can make the day feel like it’s never going to end. Perhaps I should change careers.” A bright smile crossed her face just as Jude reappeared from under her car. The car was propped up with the jack and more than ready to have the tire changed so he got right down to business. He really knew what he was doing from the look of it. “Do you like being a mechanic?” she asked, genuinely interested in his answer. It turned out he did and she liked listening to him talk about it. Dani always liked to get to know new people and get different perspectives on life in general. Jude liked being a mechanic and she wondered if maybe she would have been happier in a profession where she could use her hands. Though Dani did love her job, there were times when it could be pretty boring or the contrary; it could be so interesting that it sucked her in and she left the case feeling drained and wondering how much good she had done. She tried her best though.

“I like being a lawyer, but there’s one big problem with it. For a mechanic, the problems can almost always be fixed. Sometimes a car is a hopeless cause and it goes off to the junkyard, but most of the problems have a clear solution. Two flat tires? Get two new tires. Squeaky brakes? Get new ones. The problems that I deal with…some can be fixed, but more often there isn’t a clear cut solution. Sometimes there’s no good solution at all…and then you walk away wondering if you’ve done more harm than good.” She sighed and then gave Jude a smile, realizing that she might sound like she was babbling. Why was she so awkward today? And then she realized maybe she was coming off as haughty and she colored a little as her blue-green eyes got wide. “Not that I think your job is a simple job or anything like that. I’m sure it’s difficult! I hope I didn’t come off sounding like a snob.” She gave a hopeful smile beneath her pink cheeks. That would be the worst way to thank the guy for saving her a lot of heartache—make him feel like some bozo mechanic and she’s all important because she’s a lawyer. She really hoped she didn’t come off that way…