Chapter 3

All week at work I thought about the girls. It was an unusually busy week, and I was working late almost every night. I didn’t get home until 7 or 8 pm a couple times, then I just felt alone when I got there.

The first time I had to call the parts supplier to order something, Al asked me about the ‘smoke show’ that was with me on the Saturday when we came to get the alternator. I just told him I got her fixed up and on her way. I didn’t mention the dinner.

I wondered how Rarity would react to being called a ‘smoke show'. Would she be flattered? Probably not, especially if it came from those guys in particular.

Friday night after I got home and showered, I saw a text waiting on my phone. It was from Rarity, just as she'd promised.

RARITY: Hello, Golds! Just curious if you're still planning to attend this weekend at Fluttershy's?

ME: Yep

RARITY: We usually arrive around 1. Is that OK? Do you remember the way?

ME: Yep to both

RARITY: Splendid! See you then!

ME: Later

The next morning at work, I worried slightly that it might be busy enough to keep me late, but it turned out to be pretty quiet. At noon I clocked out and drove my truck home so I could clean up a bit and change this time, so I wouldn't look like such a bum.

I was ready to go, but it was only 12:45 so I sat down and waited impatiently for a bit, not wanting to be super early so I wouldn't look too eager to come back.

After ten minutes or so, I left. I drove my truck down the road that the cottage was on, trying to remember where it was since I was coming from the opposite direction this time. I almost missed the driveway, the trees had it hidden so well it was barely visible from that direction. As I pulled up to the house, I could see the same old Ford truck parked there, as well as a small SUV. I quickly got out of my truck and walked up to the house, passing in between the other two vehicles. The Ford had to be AJ’s, I figured. In the back of the SUV I could see an empty animal cage.

I reached the front door, not comfortable enough to just walk in, so I decided to knock first.

“Come on in!” I heard AJ’s voice reply.

I opened the door and stepped in, slipping my shoes off. I felt a bit unsure of myself, like I was barging into the place, especially since the girl who actually owned it had yet to speak to me. I wondered how she felt about me being here.

I was surprised to see the shy girl busy at the counter, moving back and forth hastily as she prepared something to eat for dinner. She stopped what she was doing to turn and see who had arrived, tensing up slightly when she locked her eyes with mine. I thought she was going to go back to being too scared to move again, but instead, she actually gave me a little smile before returning to what she was doing.

It made my knees wobble just a bit.

AJ was sitting at the table, leaning with her folded arms on the tabletop. “Hey there, partner.”

“Hey,” I replied. “How was your week?”

She shook her head. “Aw man, it was fuckin unreal down at the farm this week. Equipment breaking, shipments got mixed up…we got it all sorted, but man! What a shit show. You?” she said, adjusting her hat.

“It was pretty busy, but things went well,” I said. “It was a good week, profit wise.”

AJ nodded. “Well that’s good to hear. Good on ya, sugarcube.”

We sat for a minute, watching Fluttershy busily moving about the counter.

“Where are the others?” I asked, turning back to AJ, unsure of how to start a good conversation without the others here.

“Well Rainbow has a game tonight, which we knew last week anyway, so she’s out. Pinkie Pie took on a last minute catering job for tonight, so she’s out. Rarity should on her way over…maybe in the next half hour she’ll be here,” AJ explained.

I heard a buzzing coming from AJ’s pocket. She pulled a dirty, old scratched-up phone from her front shirt pocket and answered it.
“Yep…hey Big M-…whoa, slow down…WHAT?...aw fuck are you kiddin me right now?...alright I’m headin over.” She ended the call and put it back in her pocket. “I gotta go back to the farm. My little sister tried to move the tractor and she accidently hit the side of the barn and knocked the wall off the foundation.” She went over to the door to put her boots on. “Now the whole fuckin barn is teeterin like it’s gonna fall so I gotta go help get it looked after.”

“Um, is everyone OK?” I heard a new voice ask. It was a very soft voice; sweet, like a whisper made of sugar. I looked at the shy girl, who was watching AJ with a concerned look on her face.

“She spoke!” I hollered inside.

“Yeah, they’re all fine. Sorry guys, I gotta run. I’ll text you later, Fluttershy, about next weekend. OK?”

“Sure,” the shy girl said in her soft little voice. barely audible enough to hear what she said.

With that, AJ was out the door. Fluttershy and I nervously stared at each other as we listened to the old Ford putter down the driveway.

“What now?” I wondered to myself.

She went back to the counter and silently worked away at preparing the meal, probably hoping Rarity would arrive soon.

I was kind of glad in a way. It was just going to be me and the two hottest ladies of the group this time, and for the next eight hours or so. Maybe Rarity could get the shy one talking more. The two of them in particular seemed to be rather close friends.

I pulled out my phone to distract myself for a bit as she worked.

After about five minutes of silently ignoring each other, I heard her phone vibrate against the hard counter top. She stopped what she was doing to pick it up and read her text.

After about a minute, I noticed she hadn’t moved. I looked up at her, quickly noticing she was frozen in place, nervously staring at her phone.

Then my phone received a text while I was still holding it. I tapped the notification and a message from Rarity popped up.

RARITY: My apologies, unfortunately my sister has gotten a stomach bug of some sort and is quite ill. There is no one else available to take care of her and I can't leave her here alone like this. I’ll text you about next week. Ta-ta!

I made the assumption that the shy girl got the same message and we both knew that it was only the two of us attending dinner tonight.

“Oh great, we can spend the next bunch of hours staring awkwardly at each other.”

I felt the need to relieve her of her burden -- as well as myself of the awkwardness that was sure to follow -- so I put my phone in my pocket, saying, “Well, I, uh…I can go. If you want.”

She turned suddenly to look at me with her sparkling teal eyes, causing her hair to swing around her face and come to rest on her shoulders.

“WOW,” I thought as I looked at the beautiful shy girl. “Take a note, terrorists. THAT is what can melt steel beams.”

She looked somewhat hurt by my offer, and my brain forced me to continue. “I mean, it’s up to you.”

She glanced back at the counter with her preparation currently at a halt. “Um, well,” she said in her soft voice, speaking directly to me for the first time, “I have a lot of food being made here, it’s too much for just me to eat. I was, um...expecting m-my friends to be here.”

“But they’re not…it’s just me,” I said, feeling like a bit of a jerk for saying so.

She looked down at the table, studying the lines in the wood. Then, she seemed to have a wave of bravery wash over her, holding her shoulders in a more confident posture. “Um, w-well, starting now, y-you’re my friend.” Her face blushed very suddenly, and she quickly turned back to the counter to continue working, presumably so I wouldn't see how red she'd become.

The statement made my heart flutter a little bit. Feeling the need to return her kindness, I decided to do something other than sit there while she worked to prepare a meal for me. I looked at the TV, thinking about playing the game from last week, but the TV was off and I hate trying to figure out how to turn on other people’s setups.

I walked around the table to the end of the counter, standing near the entrance to the hall where I first saw her emerge a week earlier.

“What are you making?” I asked. “Can I help?”

She turned to me, looking a bit surprised at first, then she smiled with a little blush and set me to cutting up some chicken into small pieces.

“W-we’re having sesame chicken and..um, rice,” she said in a quiet, but proud voice.

“That sounds great,” I said.

We worked together for the next hour, cutting the chicken, battering it, deep frying it and making the sweet sesame sauce to coat the fried chicken pieces with. She had some rice boiled up and sliced some green onions into little bits to go with the meal. We worked in relative silence, only speaking for instruction purposes. A few times when we were both reaching for something on the counter, our hands would accidently touch, and we would stop for a moment to gaze at each other, then she would blush and look away.

When the meal was finally ready, we sat at the table across from each other and ate quietly. Even if she didn’t talk much, I had to admit I enjoyed her company. It was calming and peaceful. So different from some of the experiences I’ve had to live through in my past.

She seemed to be more relaxed as well, despite her shyness. It was hard to believe she was so nervous last week.

When our plates were empty, I told her it was delicious and thanked her for making it, and she played with her hair and blushed while saying I was welcome.

I looked around the house, trying to think of something to say. I looked at the couch, remembering where she sat last week while everyone was playing the game. Then I remembered the bunny.

I turned to her. “What’s the bunny’s name?”

Her eyes seemed to light up. “Oh, his name’s Angel! He’s just the sweetest little guy.”

Much to my surprise, she continued on about her pet.

“Looks like I finally found the ice breaker,” I thought.

She went on for quite a while, her quiet voice slowly changing from a whispery hush to more of a normal speaking voice, although still never as loud as her friends. Her voice was sweet. Like her eyes. And her hair. From head to toe she was just…beautiful.

The conversation kept going. I was surprised to hear she actually co-owns an animal shelter and clinic. She used to volunteer there in high school and a couple years ago she went in 50/50 with a licensed veterinarian to buy it. She still does the same basic job as she did as a volunteer, but now she also does more paperwork and administrative type of stuff. She said she didn’t like it as much as being with the animals, but it was all part of being the co-owner. It made me smile to hear how genuinely caring and friendly she was. There were not many people around like that in my experience. I also had a hard time imagining this extremely shy person going out and handling deals like buying a business; there must be more to this girl than meets the eye.

After some time of this, she seemed to run out of career things to talk about. I wondered if she would go into more personal things, like was she single? I was pretty sure she was, but sometimes you never know.

“Oh goodness, I’ve been going on all this time about myself,” she said, playing with her hair. “How about you? How long have you been a mechanic?”

I didn’t really want to talk about myself with her. Not yet, anyway. “About 5 years,” I lied. “I don’t have much to tell, really.”

“That’s OK,” she said, letting out a deep yawn. “Wow! Sorry about that. I guess I didn’t realize how late it is.”

I looked at my phone. It was only 8 pm. I looked back at her with cocked eyebrows.

She could see my confusion. “Oh, I get up very early everyday to feed and look after all the critters around here. So I tend to get pretty tired in the evening. Last week I stayed up later because you and my friends were here. They make such a noise, I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway.”

“Well,” I said, “If you’re that tired, I don’t want to keep you up.” As much as I didn’t want to leave her, I thought I’d return some of the kindness she’d shown me.

“Oh, it’s no problem if-“

I cut her off. “I insist,” I said, smiling at her.

“Oh! Well that’s very kind of you. Um, how about I give you my number and we can text?” she offered.

My stomach jumped a bit at her offer. “Sure. That’d be great.”

So we exchanged numbers and I put my boots on while she stood close to me, seeing me off.

I opened the door and looked at her one more time. “Bye,” I said, with another smile.

“Bye,” she said back with a small wave and a smile.

Her send-off made my heart melt a bit as I went out and closed the door behind me. I don’t even remember the short drive home. At my building, I got inside my metal door, closed it and leaned against it on the inside. I stared at the cement floor that spanned most of the interior of my makeshift home. I could barely make out the shape of the machinery, cloaked in the darkness.

I lifted my shirt to my nose and smelled it. It smelled like her house and her cooking. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine her face. "So lovely..." I really didn’t want to leave her when I did, but I knew there would be more time to spend with her.

I have her number now too, so that’s a plus.