ARCHER WYATT + ADDISON GOODBLOOD
"CAME TO THE RIGHT PLACE DIDN'T YA?"
AUGUST 11TH - MORNING | ATTICUS AUTO | PG BECAUSE PURE
It wasn’t a huge worry, given that Seven Devils wasn’t an overly huge area, Addison could easily get from place to place without her car. But recently it had been rattling a little worryingly, and the last thing she wanted was for it to get busted somewhere she didn’t need a broken down car to worry about.
She’d cleared a morning, making sure Calliope was set at the store so that she could drive out to the garage and see if they could fit her in. It wasn’t like her car was new, it was a little worn down, probably close to hitting that point where it should be scrapped instead of repaired, but it was Clary’s car and since there wasn’t a lot that Addison had of her little sisters, it felt important to try and salvage.
Pulling up at the garage, Addison checked that she had all the paperwork, in case that was needed before heading to the door, wearing a pleasant smile and hoping against hope that this wasn’t going to be a big and time consuming job.
Archer was settled in his chair with his feet propped up on his desk in his office- which wasn’t actually an office. It was more a corner of the building that he had tossed a desk into. The room that was meant to house paperwork, payment processing, and other clerical shit he really probably should hire someone for, was filled floor to ceiling with boxes of spare parts. At least he knew where everything was, right?
Glancing up with the bell over the door made its signaling sound, he promptly tossed his feet back onto the floor and stood to wipe his grease stained hands on the front of his pants as if that would get rid of the stains.
“Mornin’,” he greeted with a grin. “What can I do for ya?”
“Hi there,” Addy tended to be friendly enough in the morning for people; she wasn’t the most active of morning people, but she’d gotten to the point where she didn’t need to consume gallons of coffee to be personable at least. “I’m having a little bit of car trouble, I was hoping someone could take a look for me?”
She’d spent a fair length of time on the road not driving, she’d hitch rides or use public transport or just walk where it was possible. It’d taken a while to be confident in her driving again. So the rattling wasn’t really helping too much with her trips around town.
“It started a couple days ago, this really faint rattling noise? It’s just a little off putting and worrying.” For all Addison knew there was just a loose somethingsomewhere rattling about, but since she didn’t know better, Addison wasn’t about to poke around at it.
“Came to the right place then didn't ya,” Archer drawled out keenly aware that his ‘dad jokes’ were only getting worse with age, but he was too set in his ways to change now. Liam could attest to this fact but that was neither here nor there. “Just me here, so I can take a look.”
Luckily he’d just finished up with the only other job he had lined up for the day and could see about tinkering with her car without her having to wait.
“Rattlin’ can be loads of different things. I won’t know for sure until I get under the hood. Is it constant or just when you’re idlin’?” It could be something as simple as a loose part in the exhaust system or something more serious, but there was no need to worry her until he knew for sure. “Let me open the door up and you can drive her inside.”
Moving over to the large garage door in front of the empty bay, he hoisted it up and let it slide into place. “Or I can move her inside if you’d rather.”
It was rather lucky that he didn’t have anything too pressing then, wasn’t it. Addison was confident that Calliope could deal with anything in the shop, but she didn’t like leaving the young witch by herself for too long, if only because Calliope tended to be very easily distracted by things.
“It’s mostly when I’m idle? Stop signs, traffic lights, waiting for my mother when she says five minutes and means fifteen.” Which was fairly regular all things considered. Although she had expected he’d need to look at things before knowing, it wasn’t like people could just know straight away at all.
“Um, is it a tight space? I mean, I’m a fairly decent driver but I definitely live up to the stereotype about women drivers and reverse parking, or most parking to be honest.” It wasn’t that she couldn’t, it was just that she got decidedly anxious about it most of the time.
Archer grinned when she made the quip about her mother. He remembered those under estimating durations of time fondly. His wife had been especially good at that. They were constantly running late for everything, and he couldn’t remember how many times he’d sat outside in his truck waiting for Melanie to finish up whatever errands that were only meant to take a ‘jiffy’.
The idling part gave him a place to start. Perhaps it was the heat shield in the exhaust after all. A quick assessment and fix if it was.
At least he had something to pass the time now. Sure there were always things to tinker with, but he preferred staying busy with actual jobs. It helped keep his mind off of everything else it was normally prone to dwelling on.
“Not too tight, but it ain’t a problem. I can get her in here.” Grin still plastered firmly in place; he held his hand out for her keys. “Although, I never liked that stereotype.”
Addison was more than content to hand the keys over, grinning as she did, “I am probably the embodiment of that stereotype.” It was possibly one of the few she fell into, really.
It didn’t bother her either, she was aware of it, accepted it and if she poked fun at her inability to park then she got in there before other people did. She’d never had a crash, wasn’t the type to have accidents, so the inability to park wasn’t a problem really.
“I have the radio off, because it’s kinda more noticeable when you don’t have that on, but it is loud enough to hear with the radio on too.” Which was how she’d noticed it herself. “I wouldn’t even know what to look for myself though.” Even if it was the most simple of things.
“My wife was too,” he mused. “She didn’t care for gettin’ called out on it. I learned real quick to keep my jokes to myself. Hence the ‘not a fan’.” The number of fender benders Melanie was involved in was damn near laughable, but he learned quickly that chuckling in any form didn’t produce desirable results.
Tossing her keys up once in his hand, he gave a nod. “I have a hunch of what it might be. Should be able to tell after hearin’ it and pokin’ around the exhaust. It’s a relatively cheap fix too.” Not that he ever ‘properly’ charged for his services. Archer would much rather have everyone driving a dependable vehicle than charge an arm and a leg for labor.
“You can take a load off over there,” he said with a nod to the couch near his desk. “Shouldn’t take too long.” With that, he turned on his heel and went to fetch her car.
Addison could hear the past tense in the comment, and it didn’t read like divorce, otherwise he’d likely have said ex-wife. She wasn’t bad at picking up the hurt cues that people laid down either, able to sense loss in a way. Maybe like knew like. “Yeah, I tend to make the joke before other people can, I guess it gives me control over how much they can turn it against me.” Not that many people did. Addison wasn’t exactly the kind to court interactions with assholes.
“Don’t worry about the price, I can pay whatever. I just… I really like this car.” Even if she needed to put in an entirely new engine, Addison would’ve. Because that car mattered more than most other possessions she had. It wasn’t like she’d been around enough to have that many memories with Clary, a mistake she didn’t think she’d made really. So the car held more sentimental value than anything else.
“Just… gimme a shout, I guess?” She shrugged lightly, heading inside to sit, pulling out her phone to check on Callie at the shop, getting a string of emojis back. Nothing to worry about then.
“That’s a smart move. Beat ‘em to the punch.” Over the years it became easier to talk about his late wife. Although all of the horrible memories were still fresh, he supposed those would never really fade. So, he chose to take them all in stride. Melanie wouldn’t want him to dwell. When it came to his son, however? Well, that was an entirely different story.
“I get it,” Archer said with a nod. “I’m pretty attached to that old beat up truck sittin’ outside.” Anything could have sentimental value.
“Will do,” he called out over his shoulder before making his way over to her car and starting it up. Archer could hear the rattling right away, even on the short drive into his shop. Convinced his hunch was right, he pulled right into the bay and jacked the car up so he could easily look underneath.
Sure enough, after some prodding, he found the loose heat shield. Easy fix. It was hanging on by a thread, so it would need to be replaced but it wouldn’t even take a hour to do it.
Once he’d finished, he lowered the car back down and drove it back out of the garage to make sure the rattling wasn’t an issue anymore. Satisfied that she should be all set, he strolled back inside- swinging her keys around his finger.
“Got ya all fixed up. Was a loose exhaust heat shield. Nothin’ major. Looked over everythin’ else too and it all looks good.”
The wait wasn’t too bad, Addison used the time to deal with emails on her phone, make sure the orders that were due to come in would be on time. Once that was done with she flicked through her social media to see what was going on with her friends at the moment.
When he returned with her keys, having fixed things, Addison just grinned gratefully. “Oh, thank goodness.” Along with the reassurance that everything else seemed fine, that was something too. She wouldn’t be driving along and suddenly have something terrible happen. She really should get the car looked at on a regular basis.
“That’s so great, thanks so much.” Pulling out her wallet and details, Addison was just relieved. “How much do I owe you?”
Archer smiled at her visible relief. Honestly, he enjoyed this job much more than his night ‘job’. While he knew he was helping people with the latter? He was quite the reluctant hunter. Being particularly good at something he held such a distaste for never settled well with him, but it wasn’t something he could just up and quit either.
“You’re very welcome,” he replied with a grin of his own. “Bring her in again in a couple of months and I’ll have another look at her. She should be right as rain until then and probably after if ya keep her tuned up..”
“A hundred and twenty bucks.” That was just the cost of the parts, but she didn’t need to know that. Archer did well enough for himself to manage and still had a little nest egg from selling his family’s land, so it wasn’t often that he charged for labor anyway.
She’d need to look up what it meant to keep a car ‘tuned up’, although she didn’t think it was anything like a musical instrument. It wasn’t like Addison had worried about personal transport for a good long time, going along with whatever she could whenever she could. Most of the time she walked or had public transport in areas that weren’t utterly remote.
Largely oblivious to the costs of most mechanics, Addison wasn’t shy about the cost at all, even if she was putting it on her credit card, she’d pay if off in a few days anway. Her shop did well, her family were … comfortable. It wasn’t like she had too much to concern herself with. “Great, do you need appointments or do you think I could just roll up like this?” It wasn’t like she’d mind leaving her car for a while if he needed her to. She knew she could pout and ask Rex for a lift if she had to.
“Is this a business that takes service tips? Gratuity for a job well done and a pleasant service?” She was teasing, a little, but if there was like a tip jar kind of deal she wasn’t going to grudge slipping a twenty in it.
“No appointment needed,” he said with a wave of his hand and another grin. “Things are usually slow enough in this one horse town that I’m never up to my elbows in work.” Wiping his hands off on his jeans again before motioning her to follow him back over to his desk to process her payment.
“Put a little sticker in the corner of your windshield. Ya will need an oil change in a few months. I don’t know how much you travel in her, but I reckon it isn’t a whole lot? If it ain’t you won’t have to worry about the mileage. Just keep an eye on the date and bring her in before that.” Shuffling some paper around, he grumbled under his breath trying to find what he needed her to look over and sign so he could keep her on file. He really needed to hire someone to organize his shit, but never thought of it until times like this.
Finally finding what he was looking for, he slid it and a pen over to her. “Probably looks like gibberish, but it just basically says what I did for ya today and legal mumbo jumbo.”
Filling out what needed filling out, resolute about setting a reminder in her phone about the sticker and checking her time frame, Addison nodded slightly when Archer mentioned her car usage. It wasn’t like she was driving beyond town on a regular basis. She did it maybe once or twice a month, but usually her dad gave her his far more reliable and newer car for those trips.
“Honestly, anything related to cars is mumbo jumbo to me.” She knew next to nothing, but it meant that honest mechanics were something of a godsend.
“Thank you, so much for this.” At least she knew now that this place was definitely a safe spot to take her car to for anything. “You are a literal life saver.” At the very least, a peace of mind saver.