Page 12 of Shifting Gears

“I’ve always loved the way the air smells out here,” Dani says, leaning against a nearby truck that Eleanor assumes belongs to her. She can’t see any distinguishing features in the dark, but it looks older than most of the others.

“I’m learning to like it,” Eleanor admits, fiddling with her car keys. “I didn’t realize how suffocating the city was until now.”

“City air blows.”

Eleanor snorts, not quite covering her mouth quickly enough to hide it. Dani grins.

A stretch of silence grows between them. Eleanor knows what she wants to say—she wants to ask to see Dani again. To ask for her number. To askanything, if it means the conversation doesn’t have to end here. But she doesn’t. She lets the silence grow until Dani pushes herself off the truck, unlocking the driver’s side door manually.

“I better hit the road. We all had a really great time hanging out with you,” Dani finally says, opening her truck door and pulling herself up into the seat. “I hope I’ll see you around?”

“Right, yes.” Eleanor backs out of Dani’s way and prepares to bolt to her car to scream her frustration out in private. “Of course. Have, uh—have a good night.”

Dani’s tires crunch on the gravel as she pulls out onto the street, disappearing in a left turn two blocks down.

For hours afterwards Eleanor curses her own hesitation. She curses it as she drives home, as she washes off the bar smell in the shower, and as she climbs into bed and slips into dreams that leave her sweaty and distracted long into the next day.

Chapter 4

In the years since shestepped into her role at CromTech, Eleanor has made facing her fears into an art form. She can handle boardrooms full of Armani-suited executives who shoot down every idea she presents. She can give interviews and press conferences. She’s given presentations in front of hundreds of people.

But when it comes to asking for a girl’s number, Eleanor Cromwell is a coward.

She’s seen Dani no less than three times this week. She caught her in a brief conversation at the gas station as Eleanor paid for a fill-up and Dani bought what amounted to forty dollars worth of packaged pastries, and, twice now, Eleanor has seen her at the café picking up the morning order for her whole staff.

Not that Eleanor has memorized when Dani usually gets to said café and has dragged herself out of bed to get there in time. Absolutely not.

Three times Eleanor has seen Dani around town, and all three times she’s lost her nerve at the last moment. Despite how passionately she argued the opposite to Kayla and Ash, Eleanor wants to see more of Dani, even if she has no intention of doing anyflinging.

Dani is sweet. She’s funny. She’s interesting to talk to. She’s a bright spot in Eleanor’s day every time they run into each other. Eleanor could probably stand to have a third friend. Sure, it’s a potential friend who she’s devastatingly attracted to, but she’s fully capable of putting that on a shelf.

But Dani remains elusive.

Eleanor can only do so much without resorting to drastic measures. So, finally, frustrated and full of self-loathing, Eleanor pops her own tire with a corkscrew and calls for a tow from Cooper’s Tire and Auto.

When Dani rolls up in the tow truck twenty minutes later, looking as work stained and annoyingly attractive as ever, Eleanor finds she’s far less ashamed of her actions than she should be.

Dani rolls the window down, resting her elbow there and leaning out with a grin. “I hear you need my services again?”

The confident lilt in Dani’s voice sends a tingle down Eleanor’s spine. When Dani exits the truck and kneels down to look at the tire, though, anxiety starts to ebb in.

Dani frowns, tracing a finger over the tear in the rubber. “Huh. That’s weird.”

“What’s weird about it?”

“You said you didn’t notice it being flat yesterday, right?”

Eleanor vaguely remembers saying something of the sort over the phone, but she was distracted at the time by desperately hoping her gambit would pay off.

“Yes?” Eleanor says slowly.

“This is a pretty big hole. It’s a little strange,” Dani says, running her hand over the tire tread. “What do you think did it?”

“I could have run over something in my driveway. Right?”

“That’s true. These secluded driveways tend to build up all sorts of crud since the township doesn’t take care of them,” Dani says brightly. She taps a little rhythm on the rubber. “You should hire someone to clean it up every once in a while! There’s always kids in town looking for jobs.”

Eleanor, distracted by the movement of Dani’s hands, nods mutely. Thankfully, Dani hooks Eleanor’s car onto the truck with no further comments.

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