Page 38 of Tandem

Dad slowly rolled the Viper out of the shop and onto the streets. We made our way to the freeway on-ramp, and he took a deep breath and glanced over to make sure I was strapped into the harness, and he gunned it. We got up to speed in about four seconds and zoomed down the road. The powerful engine of his Viper pushed us into our seats as we reached even faster speeds, the landscape blurring as we raced up the road. Dad’s laugh jerked me out of the trance of focusing on the road ahead,and I glanced over at him. His eyes were shining with joy and excitement, his smile contagious as he gripped the shifter and slammed it into another gear.

We cruised up the county a bit until we got to this little diner on the coast. I could already smell the breakfast food when we exited the car. The building might be a little run-down-looking, but it had been here for three generations, and the breakfast was the BEST in the whole world. At least in my opinion. We walked in and grabbed a booth by the windows facing the ocean. The perky middle-aged woman named Maggie came over, her voice had a gruff undertone from someone who shouted orders into the kitchen every day. “The Wellses! Haven’t seen you in a while! How’s it been?”

Dad chatted with her for a moment, and we placed our usual orders. Then he turned his attention back toward me. I leaned forward onto the table, letting out a soft sigh. I looked at Dad in the half-window light. He was beaming with happiness, like it radiated from my dad and infected the entire room. Maggie had walked away with a big smile on her face when she had left because when my dad was happy, there was no one who it couldn’t rub off on.

I remembered last night seeing AJ walk out and feeling the sadness and confusion I’d felt come rushing back. Then it hit me. Dad might be the best person to talk to about it. I’d make up a story about what happened in a different way since there was no way I wanted Dad to know about AJ just yet, not when we weren’t together right now.

“Dad… can I talk to you about something?” I sat up straighter and glanced around the table as I asked. In the corner of my eye, I could see Dad watching me, his smile fading just slightly.

“Are you going to tell me what’s been bothering you today? I can tell it’s not the Viper, but my girl hasn’t seemed herusual cheerful self today.” Dad offered me my coffee cup, which Maggie had dropped by in passing.

I took it before I looked down at my hands, starting to fidget with a sugar packet from the little tray on the table. Gosh, dang it, this was going to be a little harder to keep myself from crying as is, but knowing he could tell I was off brought a frown to my face.

“Umm…you could tell, huh?” I knew there was probably no hiding it completely. Dad was super observant about things and the people around him. He said it was a part of his quick reaction time from street racing all of these years. Which also came in handy if someone might try and cheat you before the race. He could pick up on things before they happened. Dad had been through some crazy, awesome stuff growing up, so he was the perfect person to talk to about this.

He nodded. “So spill, Rosalie, what’s wrong? Is it your brother?”

I shook my head no, and Dad tilted his head slightly more. “No… Jayden’s fine. He’s just been busy, so I haven’t seen him much lately, but…” I took a deep breath. If I didn’t get this out in one go, I might not be able to without crying. “Okay, let’s say you have a… friend… who did something… bad when you were younger. Like they took something, your favorite toy, and you didn’t find out until recently. You were really sad when you lost this toy, for a really long time. And your parents made you count all of your toys before leaving any place you brought them to so it didn’t happen again. And then you find out just the other day that your friend was the one that took it. What would you do? Would you be mad at them?” I never looked up as I spoke, but after I got it all out, I did, and Dad leaned back in the booth and crossed his arms in thought, taking a few minutes before replying. “Did they know it was your toy when they took it?”

I chewed on my lower lip nervously before I continued. “Well… not exactly. They didn’t realize it was my toy until recently. We were going through old photos, and they saw a photo of me with the toy and made the connection.”

He leaned forward more, grabbing his coffee and taking a drink before his next reply. “Hmm, when they found out it was yours, what did they say?” I looked back down at my hands, little tears in the corners of my eyes.

No no no no, hold it together, Rosalie. You’re going to blow your cover.

“I was upset to find out they were the one that took it, I was even angry and yelled at them. And then they kinda got mad that I yelled, and I was mad and told them to go away.” I wiped the corner of my eye with my jacket sleeve. Dang it, I was doing so well. Then I remembered the hurt and then anger in AJ’s eyes last night when I shoved and yelled at him as it flashed in my mind, and I couldn’t hold back all of the tears anymore.

My voice got higher, and I started talking faster. “But I just found out, you know! Aren’t I allowed to be upset? At least… a little bit at first?” I barely whispered the last part, and Dad leaned forward and put his hand on mine.

“You are allowed to feel upset, honey. Absolutely. And while I don’t think you yelling at them was probably a good move, I don’t know why they would be angry at you for feeling that way either.” He nodded, and his eyes staring back at me helped calm me down a bit.

I rubbed the tears from the corners of my eyes more. “Well, they said they had changed and would never do something like that now… but I was still shocked and upset and let my feelings take over my thoughts. So it was like they got mad because I didn’t instantly get over it. The last thing I yelled at them was to get out, and I shoved them. I am so stupid! I thought I was done doing childish things.” My mind replayed the night. I hadpromised I wouldn’t do things like this anymore, that I would grow up and stop making mistakes. Yet here I was, making another big one. I squeezed his hand, it was nice and warm from the coffee cup he had just held, and he patted my palm with his thumb.

Dad contemplated for a minute before replying, and when he did, it was like, of course Dad knew the right dang thing to say. “Okay, so I don’t think you were wrong to be upset at that moment. You just found out someone you cared about took something you really loved a while back, so it was more of a shock to you. But when they admitted it to you, something they didn’t have to do, and you got angry and yelled at them, they were upset at your reaction since it had been a while, and they didn’t know when they took it. Both of your feelings matter, but what’s important is what you want to do moving forward. Do you want to stay friends with them?”

I thought about AJ for a moment, how his arm felt around my shoulders when we drove, and how everything else melted away when he kissed me. I slowly nodded, more tears pricking the corners of my eyes.

“Yeah… I really do… But it might be too late… I don’t know if he wants…” OH SHIT. My heart pounded as I peeked up at Dad. There was zero doubt in my mind he would have caught that. For a moment, he seemed surprised, then Dad smiled a bit.

“Then I think you need to tell HIM that. I think you both need to sit down and talk about it together. And, Rosalie, if he doesn’t want to forgive you and doesn’t want to fix it? That’s on him. However, if that’s what he decides, you need to let yourself forgive him and move on. Holding grudges is like punishing yourself for others’ actions. It only keeps you prisoner while they move forward in their lives. No one is perfect, honey, and learning and growing as a person, now that lasts a lifetime.” Dad ran a hand through his hair, like he was thinking aboutsomething that happened a long time ago. Then he turned and smiled at me.

I beamed back at him as I let what he said sink in. He was right. I overreacted in the heat of the moment. I was hurt, so I lashed out at AJ, and the look in his eyes when he tried to tell me he was sorry, and I kept pushing him away… I had to make it right.

“Thanks, Dad, that actually helps a lot!” I giggled, and Maggie brought over our food at that moment. The yummy buttermilk pancakes hit the spot as we ate, making me realize I hadn't eaten anything in about twenty hours. I wanted this to work. I wanted to fix everything that happened last night. I just hoped he felt the same.

When we got back to the customs, Dad and I promptly got to work.

My paint jobs were backed up a bit from the morning, and I went through my list and picked the two cars with simple classic coats. Prepping them each in their own paint rooms, I started the process of taping their windows and lights and any spots I didn’t want the paint to spray on. Walking back into the color mixing room, I looked at the colors each were getting: a solid ruby red for the Hellcat and a baby blue for the Beetle in the other bay. I mixed the first color, hooked it up to the spray system, and slowly got to work. Carefully watching my arms move back and forth to ensure each spray overlapped perfectly, not stopping until the entire car was done. Then, going around and doing the same thing to the Beetle.

While I waited for them both to dry, I walked around, gathered all of the tools, and meticulously cleaned them before reorganizing my space. Now that I was not focused on spraying, I could really think about what I wanted to say to AJ. I pulled out my phone, looking at the black screen. When I first got back, all I did was send him a text.

Rosalie

Hey, can we get together tonight and talk when I get off work? I don’t like how things went down last night. I want to talk in person and make it better… I miss you.

When I opened the message, making this the millionth time I had checked my phone, he hadn’t responded yet. I frowned, sighing deeply as my heart felt heavy with regret. He did read it when I first sent it but just didn’t reply, so that was great. Hopefully, it was just him being busy working out and not him intentionally ignoring me.

“Oh well, it gives me more time to just think about what I wanna say to him when I do get to see him,” I said to myself, trying to pep talk myself today. It just wasn’t doing what it usually did to calm my thoughts.

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