¡Tink! (tinkhatespink) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-09-05 10:26:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, tinkerbell, vanessa ives |
Who: Tink and Vanessa
When: Late August
Where: Tink’s Garage
What: Vanessa needs work done on her car
Rating/Warnings: Low/None
Status: Complete
Vanessa had been managing to get into work without her car since she’d managed to run it into a tree during the strange weather they’d had back in July but now she realised she really needed to get it checked out. So she’d made arrangements for it to be taken to a garage where she’d come and speak to the mechanic.
She’d gotten the name of a good female mechanic from a co-worker and hoping she wouldn’t take advantage of Vanessa’s complete lack of car knowledge had booked an appointment. Which was where she was right now.
Tink was in the garage at the moment. Her phone buzzed, and she glanced down at it, pausing in her re-stocking of motor oil so she could check the message. A calendar reminder of an appointment. Then her attention turned to the woman who’d just come into the lobby, and realized that must be her. Vanessa somethingorother. Tink never put last names into her calendar appointments.
She set the bottle of 10w-40 down on the shelf, then hurried across the garage and into the lobby. The Air Conditioning felt good. Tink smiled. “Hi! I’m Tink.” And she held out a hand for the other to shake.
Vanessa smiled as Tink approached, “Hello, I’m Vanessa Ives, I had an appointment with you. I believe my car was already dropped off here” she said as she shook the younger womans hand, “Or I hope it was anyway”
She knew it wasn’t in a great state, hitting a tree with it hadn’t been her finest hour.
“Oh, that’s right.” Tink said with a nod as she shook the other woman’s hand. “It was dropped off this morning? Last night?” She hadn’t glanced at her notes like she should have before the appointment. She had to get more organized, man. “I’ve got your paperwork here. Let’s take a look.” She moved around the desk in the lobby and glanced through a stack of files on the desk, then pulled out the one for Ms. Ives. She opened it and held it out for the other woman to see. “Lots of work on this one.”
“Something like that yes” Vanessa wasn’t sure exactly when it had been dropped off just that it had. It didn’t appear there was much of an organisational system here, perhaps the young woman needed an office person. Still, that didn’t say anything about her mechanic skills so Vanessa said nothing. “Yes, I tried to drive it home when we had that freak weather and ended up parking it in a tree. Not one of my best ideas. Is it worth working on it?” she knew there reached a point sometimes when it was cheaper and easier to simply accept a new car was the best option.
Tink took a deep breath and glanced over the paperwork again. “We’re looking at a couple thousand dollars worth of work, easy. But it’s a nice car. I don’t think you’d be able to replace it for a couple thousand. And your insurance might cover some of the cost, unless you have an act of God clause in your contract.”
Vanessa nodded, she’d expected it to be high but thankfully not the full cost of replacing the car. “I’d need to check, I have to admit I didn’t really look at that. I never expected to run it into a tree” she smiled, “But even if not I’d rather bear the cost of the work than the cost of replacing it. As you say that would be a lot more”
“That sounds good, then. If you approve the work, then I can get started today. I’ve got half of these parts in stock.” Tink glanced down at the list and then marked a couple of things off with a pencil. “You’ll have to sign the estimate of charges here.”
“Wonderful, thank you so much” Vanessa said before picking up the pen and signing where instructed, “It’s nice to know there are reliable services around here. This place looks very good and popular from what I’ve heard”
“Hey, thanks. I’m trying to keep it up. Actually, we’ve gotten a bit more busy, and I’ve made some pretty massive improvements around the place since the Old Man died.” Tink explained. “I think the lobby was a good place to start. Nice sofas, coffee machine, air conditioning.” Those things were absolutely necessary for customers who were waiting.
“Do you need a loaner car?”
“Well it’s obviously working well, I heard nothing but good from people” Vanessa told her, “And it’s kind of like an added reassurance to have a woman handling things. So many garages try and con you when you’re a female” Tink must have known that.
“If you have one that would be great but if not I’m getting to know the buses pretty well”
Oh, Tink totally knew that. She dealt with a lot of female customers who had been swindled in the past. And it was something she would strive to avoid. “I hear that. They try to con me, even though I know some of this stuff better than they do.” She said, teasing.
“Yeah, I’ll get you the loaner car. It’s not the prettiest car in the world, but it’s good on gas mileage and the air conditioning works like a champ.” Tink walked around the desk to get the loaner keys.
“It must be rather satisfying when you show them up” Vanessa commented with a smile, she knew she’d very much enjoy it.
“Pretty is not an issue, as long as it gets me to work and back I am happy” she assured the younger woman. She’d not chosen her current care for it’s looks, that had just been a happy accident that it was so pretty.
“You’d better believe it,” Tink said, grinning. She was the kind of gal who reveled in making misogynists eat their own words. (She had to be, being a mechanic. She’d dealt with too many of them over the years.)
“Oh, it’ll do that,” Tink added. She passed the keys over. “It’s the silver Toyota in the back lot. I’ll walk you out there if you like.”
Vanessa smiled, she understood misogynistic attitudes, probably not as much as in Tink’s industry but there were a lot of men who thought women shouldn’t be producing television.
“That would be great, thank you so much” she smiled with a nod.
“Sure.” Tink smiled, then walked to the door. A blast of hot, muggy air hit them as they moved from the air conditioned office area to the sweltering outside. “It’s right over here.”
It was a short walk to the back lot where there were a bunch of cars parked. The silver Toyota was near the front of the batch, though, and would be easy to drive out. “I’ve got all your paperwork, so… I’ll give you a call in a couple days when it’s ready to pick up?”
“Wonderful. Thank you so much, you’ve been more than I was hoping for” Vanessa told her, “I look forward to hearing from you” Vanessa felt much more reassured now that she’d found a good mechanic and Tink was a lovely girl too.