WHO: Kaila Frye & Simon Tanner WHEN: Today WHERE: Marine Garage WHAT: Simon's car is acting up. Kaila takes a look under the engine. WARNINGS: The usual for these two.
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Act normal.
That was a hard job, and Kaila had never been very good at not just throwing herself into whatever it is she was doing. Cars were easy though, man. She could take a look and figure them out like the snap of her fingers. Simon Tanner said his oil light had come on, so she was systematically going through what the problem could possibly be. The
The fact that he was standing behind her was what caused her to bump her head on the hood of his car. It was through the grace of god that she didn't let out a noise, despite the sting of it. She could pass it off as a tiny bump. Unless it was bleeding like that one time she'd dropped a wrench on her head under Mayor Mills' car.
With her overalls tied off at the waist and drooping down (she'd have to fix them at some point), Kaila leaned over the front of the car, reaching in to check the various bits and bobs that might set off that engine light. It wasn't a malfunctioning fuse on the light, so that meant there was something going on.
She glanced over her shoulder at him, "When did you say this light came on?"
"Last week," said Simon. "I should have brought it in earlier, but I haven't had the time."
Simon Tanner was the kind of man who insisted that his time was valuable. It was, but anyone's time was probably valuable; he was just the kind of guy who made sure you knew about it. He was something of a prodigy, well-known and celebrated in surgical circles, one of the youngest surgeons of his caliber. He was completely, utterly devoted to his work and he made an obscene amount of money doing it, on top of his parents' trust fund.
It meant the turtleneck sweater and slim-cut trousers he wore were probably as expensive as some of the cars that came through here. The car was a sleek, practical black BMW sedan that he kept immaculately clean.
There was grease on the side of her nose and at her temple. Obviously, the allergies of the season made it difficult to keep from rubbing her nose, and the temple? That was obviously her shoving her hair out of her face. If she'd been thinking about more than running out here as quickly as she could to be able to service his vehicle, she might have taken a moment to check herself in the mirror. She did not.
Being short didn't stop her from being a good mechanic either; she could manage to the back center of the engine block from any angle around the hood. Her feet couldn't touch the ground once she'd propped herself up against the side of the car and really dug into it. It meant she got dirtier than most, but a little elbow grease (and engine grease) never hurt anyone. Kaila checked a few more things before she caught the problem.
Her voice was muffled when she asked another question, mostly because she couldn't remove herself from the engine block and still check this section. "When was the last time you got an oil change?"
"An oil change?" Simon shrugged a shoulder. "A few thousand miles ago?"
He meant to be a responsible car owner, of course. He had a nice car that he kept clean. He should have babied it, but sometimes his schedule got in the way. He got caught up in work and he stopped thinking about what else needed to get done. He couldn't remember the last time he got an oil change -- and he had a feeling that he'd remember, because he would have wanted to take his BMW here, to see Kaila.
Bringing his car in was an excuse to see Kaila.
He brought his car in for every little clink and rattle, just to see her smile. Stupid, he knew. "It's, uh. It's been a while." Since he'd seen her last, since he'd gotten an oil change.
"Dr. Tanner!" Kaila pulled the dipstick out and inspected it. She pulled a clean rag from the back of her overalls and tested it. It was low, but the oil itself was worrying. She hopped off the car and walked over to him. She rubbed a bit of the oil between her thumb and forefinger. It left behind a horrendous smudge.
"You need an oil change something fierce. Coulda caused some big problems this went on much longer. This BMW's gotta be on time with the changes." BMWs had more powerful and more finicky parts to it. Kaila couldn't just run over to the local scrap heap and find something he needed. Nope, it would have to be imported from somewhere else if it broke.
Without thinking, she reached up to brush the hair away from her face. Get layers, they said. It'll look nice, they said. They never said anything about it interfering with her sight. What didn't see was that she'd smear the oil from his car from her temple to her cheek. "I can get one of the towin' folks to take you to work. Or I can try and do this in under 30 minutes. Whichever way you wanna do this."
She was kind of hoping he'd linger around, but she also wasn't sure he would.
"Huh?"
Simon didn't answer her, because he was staring at the smudge on her face. "I… uh." Oh, she'd said something. She'd talked to him, gave him options. He awkwardly cleared his throat and glanced at his watch. "Less than half an hour? I could wait. Is there… um. Is there somewhere I should sit? There's a seating area, isn't there?"
"'Course there is." She turned, shuffling in a way that indicated he follow her. She could have just pointed to the waiting area, which was barely air conditioned and smelled of grease and oil and day old coffee. Someone always tried to make coffee out of the maker, and it always turned into sludge. But if she'd done that, just pointed, she wouldn't get to walk beside him or smell whatever cologne he was wearing. Probably something really fancy and expensive.
She opened the door and held it open for him. "There's a vending machine if you want a soda. It's from like the 1980s so don't let the look of it fool ya. Still keeps 'em cold."
Simon stepped past her, taking in a brief once-over of the room. He didn't wear cologne, but instead he smelled like fresh soap and shampoo, and he must have brushed his teeth recently. Thankfully, he wasn't coming from a long day at work, because he ended up smelling like vinyl gloves and aggressively sterilizing soap and … people. He had his hands inside people all day. She caught him at a good time.
He had to squeeze past her in order to get into the waiting area. "I, uh. Thank you," he said, smiling faintly.
There was an awkward second in which she thought to move out of his way as he passed her, but it was too late and any movement would have seen her running into him. She wanted to run into him, just to touch him for however long. But she was dirty and greasy and just one bump would ruin that nice turtleneck of his, and Kaila knew she didn't have the money to replace it.
So she stayed where she was until he passed, but wore one of biggest smiles as if she wasn't thinking about other things that involved being this close. Or even closer. She knew she didn't fit with Simon, and people said he was a giant jerk, but she'd never seen it. Not once. He was always polite when she talked to him.
As soon as he was by, she reached out to give the vending machine a punch. "Sometimes you gotta jiggle it if it gets stuck. Um…" she looked around. There wasn't much else to say until she got the oil changed. "I'll come back when I'm done."
Simon was startled into a little grin when she punched the vending machine. "I, uh." He chuckled. "We have a snack machine at the hospital that you've got to, you know, beat on a little if you want to dislodge anything in the third row," he said. "I've found a few interns on the floor with a ruler trying to reach up inside to get their Fritos."
Kaila couldn't imagine a world in which Simon Tanner actually ate Fritos, so she assumed this wasn't a story about him that he was trying to pass off as someone else. Come to think on it, this vending machine with its Coke and Dr. Pepper was probably not up his alley either. He probably drank only filtered water straight from some perfect island that was untouched by man somehow. Did they even have a fancy version of Fritos?
Still, her grin was bright as ever. "Don't touch the coffee if you value your stomach."
"That bad, huh? I've spent many a shift thriving on hospital coffee, it can get pretty terrible." He was from old money, he made a lot of money, but he still worked for days without sleep and got messy and guzzled down bad coffee just to stay awake.
He wandered to the coffee maker, taking a peek at it. "This might be right up my alley."
Kaila pulled a face, the corners of her mouth tugging downward. That coffee was no way to impress a fancy doctor. Not that she had any hopes of doing so. He was so far out of her league, and her friends (and sometimes his) had a way of telling her just that. For god's sake, the line of his pants were pressed so perfectly that Kaila thought she'd ruin them just by asking him to sit in the lobby's chairs.
"We used to have a vending machine with snacks in it, but someone smashed the window and stole all the chocolate one night." You could still see the spot on the dirty floor where it used to be. It was slightly less grungy. "Didn't take the Doritos. That've been my choice."
"Doritos are terrible for you," said Simon mildly, and it wasn't really clear whether he was being deadpan and funny or if he was personally disgusted with her choice of snack.
He looked around the room one last time and then finally settled on picking up an old issue of Car & Driver to flip through. "I'm fine waiting here, thank you." He smiled, sinking down into the nearest chair.
Why was she waiting around? Did she have… what, questions about his car?
She pulled her hands behind her back, hooking her pointers. She gave one final smile, this one awkward and somehow scolded, before she inched backwards through the door she was still holding open. Great going, dummy. The door closed behind her as she headed in a direction — any direction really — and found herself outside the restroom door. It was better than anywhere else to calm herself before getting back to work.
At least it was until she looked in the mirror, rusted at the edges, and realized that she had black smudges all over her face. Even in her hair. She almost wiped her face with her hand until she noticed they were covered in engine grease too. With a frown and mumbling to herself, she snatched the bar of Lava soap off the counter, intending to scrub herself clean with it when she realized: she was just going to have to get back out there and change his damn oil.