Page 4 of Tandem

Stevie had a personality that was hard to read. He quickly hugged me back before pushing me at arm’s length again. He cleared his throat and scoffed at me in his British accent. “I was going to ask if you wanted to grab a bite, Rosalie. So unless you're going to paint it for free, shut it, ya absolute cunt.” Somepeople would have been shocked by his words, but I knew there was no real malice there, only playful, annoying-as-hell Stevie. When Stevie was actually being a jerk, which was pretty often, you knew it.

“You could just say you’re too scared to get it repainted, Stevie,” I teased him further as I flashed him an innocent smile.

“All right, fam, get to it then. Let’s see what you got.” He threw me his keys, giving me a challenging look with a smirk.

For a brief moment after catching them, I paused. There was no way in hellI was painting a car like this without Dad here. He would possibly kill me if I messed up a supercar. I twisted the key fob in my fingers, rubbing against the car’s emblem. But if I did it and it turned out amazing… well, there was no way Dad wouldn't let me paint more complex cars!

A few hours later, we were sitting outside the paint lab, talking about drifting soon with the other guys while waiting for the heater to dry the paint of the new clear topcoat. The Ferrari was no longer white, but a deep bold red with a dark black pearlescent flaked through it. After only one minor mishap with the sprayer nozzle not being fully tight initially, it turned out to be absolutelygorgeous. The timer was done, and I slowly backed it out onto the showroom floor. Holy crap, it looked even better out under the show lights.

I smiled while quickly snapping a few photos of his car at different angles to show Dad later when Stevie suddenly grabbed my arm. He had a distinct look in his eyes for a moment as he looked into mine. And I felt my cheeks get a little warm at our closeness. But it quickly disappeared as he let me go, so I reasoned it was probably just him being so grateful to me for the new paint job.

“All right, let’s go grab a bite. I want some chips and a burger. I’ll treat you. Think of it as payment for not totally fuckin’ thisup.” Stevie ran his hand through his blond hair and walked over to his car.

I nodded, my stomach giving a little growl at the mention of food. I glanced up at the clock. It was past the time I had to stay till, so I was good to go. “Yep! Let me grab my stuff and we can go.” I just couldn’t keep the smile off my face. I was so excited. This turned out better than I could have ever expected. I grabbed my keys and wallet, turned off the shop lights, and dropped the roll-up door. I walked over to my car, hopped in, and away we went to grab some food.

We sat across from each other in the booths of a local burger joint. It had a bit of an old 90s hip-hop vibe to it, you could even hear Tupac playing in the background as we caught up while we ate. Turns out, his first week of college classes at the private university in the city were going pretty good. As we left the place, I gave him another quick hug before leaving and heading home.

Both Mom and Dad weren’t home yet, so I walked up to my bedroom. As I got close to Jayden’s bedroom, I heard music flowing from his door. It was typical when he was home, realizing it was Eminem’s “Space Bound” playing. When I came to a stop in front of it, I knocked lightly on his door. There was no answer, so I cracked the door open and peeked inside. The main lights were off, so only his red-colored LEDs gave me any idea of what was going on. But when I saw what looked like him and a girl half naked making out in his bed, I shut that door as quietly and quickly as I could.

“Whoops. My bad,” I whispered as I blushed at what I just saw. Mom and Dad would be so pissed if they knew he was bringing girls home like this when they weren’t home. I shrugged and walked into my room.

I didn’t even know Jayden was seeing someone. It’s weird, we used to be so close growing up, and then in our junior year, he started to get more attention from our classmates. By the startof senior year, he had grown a foot taller than me, and his voice dropped to a smoother tone. And the girls lost it when school started, always giggling and flirting with him when he walked by. And before I knew it, our table at lunch got a little smaller as Jayden stopped chilling with me and the guys to go and sit with different groups. Jayden would always wrap his arm casually around a girl’s shoulders, but he never steadily dated any of them, even though he was popular. I think he thought a lot of them were only really interested in him because of his looks and the fact our family was richer than a lot around here. So seeing him with someone at home, in his room, that really shocked me.

I grabbed some of my soft, silky pajamas and headed for my shower. Feeling the day’s sweat wash off of me under the hot water was just what I needed. I threw myself down on my soft bed, sprawling out and enjoying the cool sheets on my warm skin. Scrolling through the photos of the car’s paint job on my phone until my eyes got heavy, I fell asleep with a big smile on my face.

CHAPTER 4

ROSALIE

“Rosalie Wells.”Uh-oh. Whenever Mom used my full name, it was never a good sign. I slowly opened my eyes to the harsh overhead lights to see her standing at the end of my bed in her silky red robe, looking clearly upset. “Your dad needs you to go down to the customs.Now.”

I sat up, rubbing the sleepers from my eyes with a yawn. I turned my body and slid out of my warm bed before walking over to the closet to get dressed in my usual work style of ripped jeans and a black t-shirt. Mom sighed as she walked out of the room. Dad was waiting for me? I glimpsed at the clock, it was way earlier than we usually started. Maybe a customer had a rush job and he needed an extra hand? Or maybe it was one of Mom’s cars that she really needed for work? She sold high-rises and mansions for a living, but depending on where she was going, she took different cars.

I finished my outfit by slipping on a gray hoodie and grabbed my keys, phone, and wallet. Leaving the house in a hurry, I drove to the customs. I didn’t even stop to grab a coffee or anything to eat. I wasn’t that hungry yet anyway, so it was fine. I could go pick something up later.

When I pulled up to the shop’s alleyway, my heart started beating fast at what I saw. This wasn’t for a customer at all. Something had happened—something bad.

Red and blue lights lit up the alleyway. Two cop cruisers were parked next to Dad’s Viper. I looked around more, and my eyes found Dad between the cars and the building. Dad was standing just outside the doors of the customs, his arms folded in front of him as he looked back toward the inside. He turned his attention back to the cop standing next to him.

I parked my Viper and slowly got out and walked over toward him.

“Thank you, Officer. I appreciate your time.” I could barely overhear Dad talking as I walked over. Then, the officers shook Dad’s hand before getting into their cars and driving away. I readied myself as Dad turned his attention to me. “Rosalie, did you remember to lock the doors when you left last night?”

My heart dropped to the bottom of my stomach. Now I got it. I glanced behind him at the doorway and saw the shop floor covered with things thrown all over it. Kayden’s Customs had been robbed.

I closed my eyes, picturing last night. I was so excited and hungry that I didn’t lock the door last night when I left with my friend. I opened them, fighting back tears. The padlock was still sitting on the brick wall right where I had left it when I pulled the chain to close the door as we left last night. Tears started to fall from my eyes down my cheeks. “Oh, Dad, I’m so sorry! One of my friends from school had shown up before closing last night, and we were talking, and I must have gotten distracted and forgot to lock it!”

I couldn’t stop sobbing, my legs feeling weak as a rush of emotions and thoughts hit me like an ocean wave. There was no way Dad would forgive me. There went my chance to work with Dad at his shop. There went my dream of learning to paintcars to the level he knew. Heck, I could kiss goodbye to ever inheriting this place one day now, too! I’m so stupid. I was too wrapped up in the paint job that I should have never done in the first place last night and taking photos instead of making sure to lock up the one place I loved to be at more than anywhere else in the world. And now my dad was paying for it.

Dad let out a sigh as he looked from me back toward the inside of the shop. “Well, I won’t say I’m not disappointed, Rosalie. I really thought you could handle the responsibility of locking up the shop by yourself. I guess I was wrong. It was probably too early to expect you to remember to do that.” I wiped some of the snot that was threatening to run with the edge of my hoodie sleeve while he talked. “They stole some pretty expensive things, but someone must have scared them off before they got to the office. Or the back storage room. Thankfully, none of the customers’ info was stolen.” Dad turned and walked slowly into Kayden’s Customs, rubbing the back of his neck, a tired expression on his face.

I walked in and stood there trying to stop crying when Dad looked back at me again.

“Hey, no sense crying about it right now. We’ve got customers arriving in a couple of hours and this place needs to not look like we were ransacked last night. So grab a broom and mop and get to cleaning with me,” Dad said as he walked over to me and patted the top of my head. “Shhhhh… It’s okay, Rosalie. No one was hurt, none of the cars were stolen, mostly tools and my old guitar and speakers. I never did get around to learning the guitar anyways.”

I tried to wipe my tears away. Looking up at him.

Dad smiled a bit and rubbed my arms. “And while it doesn’t make what you did okay, I need my favorite girl to go wash her face and be strong enough to help get this place back to normal, okay?”