Center Courtship (14 page)

“What did I do?” I was horrified at the girl in the mirror. Girls like me didn't do all this primping. No one cared what girls like me looked like, there was no need to attempt to be attractive.
“You can't put lipstick on a pig,”
mom would tell me.

I looked at my watch and realized I was late. Thank goodness I had it in good with the boss. Regardless, I hated being late, it set a very bad example. Plus, they'd see why I was late, curls? Really? Me?

I ran my fingers through the curls hoping they would go away, but instead they turned into a wave that I figured wasn't horrible. I didn't have time to straighten them any more so I put the sides up again and headed to work. Today was a pink Grandpa's Chop Shop shirt kind of day.

Bonnie's mouth about hit the counter when I arrived at work. “I love your hair, Mae!” she beamed as she walked to me and started touching it.

I flinched away at the touching. “I went a little overboard with a curling iron.”

“Overboard? That's beautiful,” she said. “There are a few calls for you, I left the messages on your desk. Five people looking for help in finding specific cars.” This was something I'd done for years. Putting my feelers out when someone needed something in particular. With the internet the information mecca that it was, my services weren't called upon as much over the phone as online.

“Thanks, Bonnie!”

I went to my desk after propping my door open again and sat down to the five people on the list. Casper, Brent, Saul, Peter and Richard. You've got to be kidding me. I looked at their requests and what do you know, they each wanted one of the classic cars on my list from Quentin and his son. “That little shit,” I mumbled to myself.

“Did you say something?” asked Bonnie from the front desk, knowing I had spoken but apparently not what I had said.

“Did these guys call you?” I asked through the open door.

“No, they left messages sometime in the night. Five messages right in a row.” She stood and walked to the door. “Are those the basketball players?”

“The players and Elsu's uncle.” I stared in disbelief. What was their game? If I found them someone who was selling these cars, I'd be eliminated as the middle man and not make anything off of them. I picked up the work phone and called Richard.

“It's Richard,” I heard his friendly voice.

“Ok, Richard, what's the deal with these car requests?”

“Mae? Is that you?”

“Yes, Richard, it's me. Why are you guys trying to buy up cars I don't own? You're stealing my business this way.”

“That's what Elsu said you'd say. You need to talk to him, he has a plan.”

“A plan? I don't have his number, can I get it from you?”

“Oh, he said you had it. He programmed it into your phone yesterday,” said Richard.

“Of course he did,” I shook my head.

“I've got to go,” said Richard. “I'll see you later.”

He hung up without another word and I sat dumbfounded. I grabbed my cell from my pocket and searched for Elsu's name in my contacts. Lo and behold, there he was. Why didn't this surprise me?

“Hi Mae,” said Elsu after the second ring.

“Elsu, I don't know what you're getting at, but I'm kind of mad at you.”

There was a pause on the phone. “Why are you mad at me? I'm sorry for whatever I've done.”

“OK, first of all I'm mad that you'd use me to get your public image up.”

“I did what now?” He seemed honestly upset.

“There's a certain picture being circulated that had to have been taken by Carl of our good-bye hug yesterday,” I said angrily into the phone. “If you read the comments, you'll see that all it did was turn me into the punching bag that I already was.”

“Oh shit,” he said. “I didn't know anything about that. I haven't even seen the picture.”

I wanted to believe him, but wasn't sure yet. “I don't mind being your friend, but if public humiliation is what I get so you and your team can be well-liked by the community, I'd like to unfriend you. I have enough baggage without adding a carry-on.”

“I will talk to Carl. See what we can do to fix the situation.”

“Thank you, my second thing is this car request from your teammates and your uncle. What are you playing at?”

“I've figured out how to get those cars for you, Mae. Add up what they've offered, you throw in the rest and show him the number. See how it compares to his. If he's willing to meet in the middle, we'll buy them off you at whatever mark-up you would put on the cars you sell. I just thought you'd get a kick out of five offers.”

I tallied up the amounts each player was willing to pay for each car and realized that their combined total was a lot more than what I had wanted to offer for all seven. “I think you're asking too much,” I said.

“Then just take the extra.”

“Elsu, stop this. I don't want your handout. Let me see what he does with my offer first, and then we can discuss you guys buying them. This seems backwards to me.”

“Whatever you want to do, Mae. I want to help. You know I love cars.”

“I know you do, but where would you guys keep five cars? You don't have a garage, unless you plan to park them around the free-throw line,” I smiled at myself.

“I know a place that can store them for me. It's a reasonable price for rent. I think it will be fine.”

“Ok, let me call him here in a bit and see what he wants to do.”

“Great! Thanks for calling. It's always nice to hear your voice.”

I felt kind of warm inside at the compliment. “Yours too,” I said before I could stop it from escaping my mouth.

I hung up and called Quentin. “Quentin, it's Mae. I'd like to present you with an offer on the cars,” I said.

“That's great, we're just taking out the last bits of stuff from the house, so we'll be here most of the day if you want to swing back by.”

“I'll be there.”

I went to the garage and found Steve arguing with Greg about how to remove something from a car they had up on the lift.
“Steve, Greg, you up for lunch again? I'm going to make that guy an offer.”

“I'd love to Mae, but I have a dentist appointment at lunch time,” said Greg.

“And I've got to run some errands for my mom,” said Steve.

“Maybe someone else would be willing to go.” Said Steve motioning to the other six mechanics.

“Maybe I'll see if Bonnie will go with me.” I had nothing against my other employees, I just preferred having Steve there for big decision-making moments.

I returned to the office and about hit the floor when I saw Elsu standing at the counter, talking to Bonnie.

“Well there she is,” said Elsu with a smile. “I came to kidnap you.”

I froze. “Not interested,” I said. There were things I didn't joke about. I walked to my office and wished I hadn't propped my door open because I wanted to shut it, lock it, draw the blinds that had never been drawn, crawl under my desk and hide.

“Whoa,” said Elsu as he walked into my office behind me. “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you.”

I sat down at my desk. “Listen, there are a lot of things you don't know about me. There have been three people in my life who should have provided safe havens for me when I was young, but they did nothing but cause me mental and physical pain. You met one, and heard a conversation with another. The third I'm not even going to begin to get into. I don't know what you're doing here, or what this is.” I motioned between the two of us. “But I only have a select few people who I've allowed to get close.”

Elsu sat down in the chair across from me. “Mae, I don't know what this is either,” he motioned between us as I had. “But, I really like spending time with you. I don't have a lot of friends around here, friends who aren't friends because of who I am. That's what I'm hoping to gain with you. I may have over stepped my boundaries and I apologize.”

“What about Saraya?” I asked. “If I were your girlfriend, this would make me an unhappy girlfriend.”

“There's not much that doesn't make her an unhappy girlfriend. If you promise not to tell anyone, I don't really like her all that much.”

I sat back and the vision of her clothes in his closet came to mind. “But you let her into your bedroom?”

Elsu's eyebrow rose in confusion. “What?”

“You said you wouldn't let me see your bedroom because your mom had a rule about not letting a woman into your bedroom you didn't plan to marry. Clearly she's been in your bedroom. Her clothes are in your closet.”

Elsu smiled. “If you had looked closely at those clothes you would have seen that they all still have tags on them. I think she's worn one pair of those shoes and that was because she had to replace a broken pair she had on. No, she has never been in my bedroom, Mae.”

I clenched my teeth in disbelief. “So where do you two do your thing?” I asked.

“Our thing?” he laughed openly. “She stays in hotels. Like I told you before, she doesn't stay at the house. She doesn't like all the guys living there. So I pay for her to stay at a hotel when she's in town.”

“So you've never…”

“Well, let's just say I go to the hotel sometimes.”

“Ah,” I said. I was suddenly hit with how this conversation must sound from his end. “Not that I want to see your bedroom.” My face blushed.

Elsu laughed again. His neck tilted back, I could see his pearly whites. A gold cap in the back. “Mae, I am not here to invite you into my bedroom. I'm here to ask you to take me on a fieldtrip.”

“A fieldtrip?” I asked.

“Yeah, you've lived here a while, right?”

“All my live long life.”

“Well, Carl had a meeting with the team last night, told us to use the last few days before the first game to make an effort to see what this fine city has to offer. I figured the best way to do that would be to have a personal tour guide. You.”

“A tour guide? For Massillon? For three days?” I asked. “This isn't New York. You can pretty much see all that Massillon has to offer in about an hour.”

“I'll even pay you for your time, we can get lunch.”

“I do work,” I said as I looked down at my desk and saw the evidence of my phone calls to his uncle and Quentin. “You know what? I'll make a deal with you. I'll show you around town, if
you come with me to help me make an offer to the car guy. Steve and Greg can't go with me today.”

Elsu reached his hand across my desk. “It's a deal.”

We shook and I smiled. The front door opened and I saw Aaron appear in the waiting area. “Excuse me,” I said to Elsu as I stood up and grabbed Aaron's album from my bookcase. “Aaron! I'm so glad you're here!” I quickly rounded the counter and he gave me a hug and I handed him his book.

“Oh, thank you!” He hugged the book to his chest. He quickly slid it into his satchel. Today he was wearing worn jeans, work boots and a gray sweatshirt. “I'm here to get started. I think I'm just going to prep the area. I'll be back…” his voice tapered off as if an insect on the ceiling had caught his eye. “El…Elsu.”

I had to laugh at his loss of verbal abilities. Something told me that didn't happen often. “Aaron Carver, meet Elsu Benjamin.” I stepped out from between the two men.

They shook hands, Aaron's mouth hung open wordlessly as he stared up at Elsu. “It's really, really nice to meet you!”

“Thank you,” said Elsu looking between Aaron and me.

“Aaron is going to be installing one of his sculptures out front. He's here to get the ground prepped.”

“Sculpture?” asked Elsu.

“He's amazing!”

“I'll bring the piece back tomorrow,” said Aaron as he finally let go of Elsu's hand.

“That's fine,” I said. “I can't wait to see it!”

“I can't wait for you to see it, either.” He gave me a quick kiss on my cheek, it felt like a kiss of gratitude but judging from the look on Elsu's face, it may have come across as something else. “I'm going to go get started, just wanted to let you know I was here.”

“Bonnie, do you need anything from me right now? Since Greg and Steve can't come, Elsu has offered to go with me to make an offer on those cars.”

“I can't think of anything,” said Bonnie smiling between me and Elsu. “Have fun.”

“Let's go,” I said as we headed toward the work truck.

“I don't get to ride in Little José?” asked Elsu.

“You want to ride in Little José? No one ever
wants
to ride in Little José.”

“I've wanted to ride in Little José since the day I first saw him!” He started heading to my truck.

“Ok, let's take Little José!”

We rode for a few miles in silence. I could feel Elsu looking at me every once in a while. At a stop, I looked in the rearview mirror wondering if I had something hanging from my nose.

“Is everything ok?” he asked.

“Yeah, I'm fine.”

“You must be good with your hands,” said Elsu out of the blue.

“What do you mean?” I was confused.

“You said you redid everything under the hood. You must be pretty good. He seems to ride like a dream.”

“Especially when his tank has been topped off,” I said.

“Yeah, what was that about anyway?” he asked.

Luckily, I was saved by our arrival at our destination. “It's really a long story.”

“I'd like to hear it someday.” He jumped out of the truck and walked around to get my door as I stared into nothingness trying to comprehend his comment.

The front door of the house opened and I saw an unfamiliar young woman walking out with a large, heavy box in her hands. Elsu ran to hold the door and grab the box. “Thank you,” she stared up at him in disbelief. Quentin and Junior were not far behind her, carrying a large dresser. I rushed up and held the door while Elsu put the box in the U-Haul truck and then helped with the dresser. Once everything was settled, the two men finally realized who their lifting-helper was. “Wow!” said Junior. “I'm Junior, this is my dad, Quentin. You are Elsu. WOW!” His gaze went to me, and then back to Elsu as if he was trying to make some sort of connection that wasn't there.