004

Madelyn Vance

~•~

I’d thought it was hot seeing Flynn fix my car without asking any questions, but when it broke down almost nine days later, I wasn’t so impressed anymore.

Luckily for me, it was a Wednesday. There was no cheer practice so I didn’t have to stay in school for longer than necessary, which also meant I wasn’t stranded at night.

I didn’t bother getting out of the car this time. It wasn’t like I knew what to look for and what not. I just brought out my phone from my backpack and looked up the nearest mechanic on my phone.

L.L. Auto was four minutes away so instead of calling my father, I called the number I saw on the website.

Besides, I doubted I was going to get a response from my father. The man was always busy and didn't bother to check his phone whenever he was at work.

“L. L. Auto.” A male voice said from the other end of the line when they answered. “How can I help you?”

“My car broke down at—“ I looked around and rattled off the address I saw. “Do you have space for it?”

“We have space for every car.” The man said lightheartedly. “We’ll send a towing truck. It will be there in a few minutes.”

“Thank you.”

I played offline games on my phone while I waited, even replying to a few texts from my friends. When I saw the truck, I quickly got out of the car and joined them inside the truck. It didn’t take long before we arrived at the auto shop.

A man in his fifties named Pete came out to meet me. He didn’t sound like the person on the phone so I immediately assumed they were two different people. He asked me questions about the car, which I answered to the best of my ability, then he disappeared under the hood for a few minutes the way Flynn did last week.

A frown marred my face at the thought of Flynn. I’d seen him several times in the past week and every single time, he averted his gaze, pretending he didn’t see me. I was more than tempted to go up to him and ask what his deal was, but I was almost certain that would end up with him dismissing me again.

When Pete came back out, he wiped his hands on a rag and told me it was the alternator, which would take an hour to fix. “Do you want to wait or will you come get it later?”

I stared at my car. I needed it for school tomorrow. “I’ll wait.”

He nodded and looked past me, his lips curving in a smile. “You came at the right time, Flynn. This car’s yours.” He said pointing to my car behind me.

Flynn? A lot of people answered the name Flynn, right?

That was what I told myself as I whipped around to face him. Of course, it had to be Flynn Cahallan. I turned back to Pete. “Can I get someone else? Can you work on it yourself?”

He seemed amused. “Why? Because he’s young? He knows what he’s doing, I promise.”

Before I could protest some more, the man walked away to deal with other cars.

I shut my eyes for a few seconds. The next time I opened them, Flynn was standing in front of me. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

He looked unimpressed. “What? You didn’t mind letting me fix it last week.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You do what you want whenever you want. Who knows if you’ll make my car worse just because you feel like it?”

He arched an eyebrow as if I was being unreasonable. “Keys?”

I looked past him, but I couldn’t see Pete anymore. Having no other choice, I placed the keys in his hand.

He scoffed as he took them and I watched as he dropped his backpack on the bench and took off his jacket. Did he come here straight from school? How often did he work here?

Wait, why did I care about that? He talked to me whenever he wanted and dismissed me when he wasn’t in the mood. I didn’t want to be around someone as rude and dismissive as him.

I sat down on the bench and brought out my phone, keeping myself busy as he started working. I watched him from the corner of my eye in the beginning, just to be certain he knew what he was doing this time, but when my eyes started straying to his muscles straining over his tank top, I knew it was time to fully focus on my phone.

“You don’t have to ogle me so blatantly. You can just take a picture.” Flynn suddenly said without looking at me.

My eyes widened, my cheeks instantly turning red. “Who’s staring at you?”

He spared me a glance over his shoulder, throwing me a lazy smile that almost had me turning into a puddle. Had I ever seen him smile before? Was it because he was in his element? As if he realized he was smiling, he pursed his lips and returned to his work.

But I was still embarrassed that he caught me and needed to change the subject as soon as possible. “You know, if you’d fixed it properly the first time, I wouldn’t be here.”

He straightened up. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

He turned around to look at me, leaning against my car. “For someone I did a favor, you’re pretty mouthy, aren’t you?”

“If you wanted to help, you should have done it properly.”

He let out a disbelieving chuckle, muttering under his breath, “Keep talking and I might just bend you over my knee.”

My jaw dropped and a gasp escaped my lips. Was I meant to hear that?

Flynn, on the other hand, didn’t seem flustered that I’d heard him. Instead, he turned around and continued to work on my car like he didn’t say anything at all.

I stayed silent for the rest of it. He did too, making me wonder if I had imagined him saying something so… so filthy.

He finished twenty minutes later and I heard him start my car. When he confirmed that it was done, he walked over to me and held out my keys.

I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I took my keys from him. “Do I owe you a third favor now?” I tried to joke even though my brain advised me to shut up.

“Do you intend not to pay?”

Did Flynn take a masterclass in embarrassing people? Or did he only do it with me?

“Try not to break it again.” He said flatly when I didn’t respond.

I averted my gaze as I went to pay at the front desk. I tried not to think about Flynn on the way home, but the words he said were replaying in my head like a broken record.

Keep talking and I might just bend you over my knee.

Did he mean that?