Page 16 of Shifting Gears

Or perhaps she could take the coward’s route. She could say nothing at all, avoid all specifics in an effort not to actually lie, and continue her ridiculous quest to spend more time with Dani.

“My friends seem to think I work too much,” Eleanor says.

There. Simple and vague. As long as Dani doesn’t push, maybe their acquaintanceship can last a little longer.

Dani starts on her third doughnut, a chocolate glazed which she takes to with great enthusiasm. “What are you doing to unwind, then? When you’re not calling me to fix your car.”

“Honestly, not much. I’ve been working,” Eleanor admits.

Dani’s brow raises.

“What else am I supposed to do?” Eleanor says, maybe a bit defensively.

She isn’t sure why she feels the need to defend herself to Dani. Eleanor has been ignoring her actual project, sure, but the work shehasbeen doing is enjoyable. She’s been filling her time with creating schematics, small prototypes, future project outlines—the part of her job that she used to actually like.

“I like my work, but I don’t do it on vacation,” Dani says, her mouth full of doughnut yet again.

Eleanor should find Dani talking with her mouth full repulsive, but somehow on Dani it’s cute. There’s a chocolate crumb at the corner of her mouth that Eleanor wants to brush away with her finger.

“This town isn’t exactly rife with activities,” Eleanor says. Immediately she regrets it because Dani has a list of activities so ready that it almost feels rehearsed.

“There’s lots to do here! There’s a bowling alley, and a drive-in movie theatre twenty minutes down the highway.”

“A drive-in?” Eleanor interrupts, skeptical. “Did I go back in time when I arrived?”

“And we have all sorts of festivals in the summer!” Dani continues determinedly. “Plus, there’s hiking in the woods, fishing, swimming—you just need to get a little creative.”

“Do I look like I hike?”

“You look like you need to learn how to downshift. Have some fun for once.”

Eleanor sighs. It’s not an untrue statement. Having fun has never been her strong suit. “I’m not sure I know how.”

“More of a pedal-to-the-metal person?”

Eleanor lets out a short laugh. “If we’re using car metaphors, probably closer to ‘burning rubber.’”

“No wonder your transmission was shot.”

Eleanor’s laugh is louder this time. Dani is grinning over the rim of her coffee in a way that makes her eyes sparkle, even under the gas station’s fluorescent lights.

Their chat extends far beyond their empty cups. Dani eats more pastries than Eleanor thought humanly possible, and Eleanor occasionally misses parts of the conversation while she considers what Dani’s sugary lips might taste like until the exasperated cashier finally asks them to leave.

When they step outside and the poor woman finally flips theClosedsign over in the window and shuts out the lights, Eleanor notices the posted hours; they’ve overstayed their welcome by close to half an hour.

Dani laughs abashedly. “I think I’m gonna have to give Katie a free oil change to make up for that.”

Eleanor does feel a bit guilty for stretching out the woman’s shift, but the warm knowledge that Dani lost track of time asmuch as she did is enough to quell it. She’ll have to leave a big tip the next time she stops by for coffee.

“This was fun,” Eleanor says, hyperaware of how awkwardly the words are probably coming across. “Really fun. Thank you.”

Dani opens her mouth to respond, but she’s drowned out by the sudden cacophony of two very loud trucks racing down the road toward them.

They’re unreasonably enormous vehicles. One has a lightning decal splashed across the side, and the other has tires which are clearly too big for the frame, sticking out like shoulder pads on an unfashionable jacket. Both sport unnecessarily powerful engines, if their speed and volume are any indication.

Loud music is blaring from the open windows. The man driving the truck with the huge wheels waves at Dani, who doesn’t wave back. The person in the lightning truck is Jenny, the bartender from the River Run, which Eleanor can only tell by the bright shock of blue in her hair. Jenny gives Dani the finger.

The two trucks roar past the gas station, ignoring the nearby stop sign and screeching around the corner until their noise finally fades.

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