Page 40 of Give Me a Shot

“It is okay,” Alice said. “We’re telling you it is.”

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Later that afternoon, Jess thanked her Uber driver as he pulled up to Mo’s shop. After hanging up with Alice and Stephanie, she’d seen that Mo had sent her a message that her car was ready. Glancing around for him, she returned to the reception area and waited for her turn with Beverly.

“Hi,” she said. “I’m—”

“Jess,” Beverly said. “I remember you, hon.” She shifted through some papers in an inbox on her desk until she found theright one. “Here you are.” She slid the paper onto the counter as Jess was taking out her wallet.

“No need,” Beverly said. “Just your signature accepting the car back, please.”

Jess didn’t understand. The estimate had made her teeth hurt, so what was Beverly saying “no need” for? Jess looked at the bottom line on the paper. The total was zero dollars and zero cents. She looked up higher. The work done on the car was detailed, with the prices in a column down the right side. But the total said zero.

“I don’t understand,” she said, looking up at Beverly.

Beverly shrugged, focused on her computer screen but with a smile playing at her lips.

“I only follow orders,” she said, clearly fighting a smirk.

Jess seriously doubted that she was the type of woman to “only follow orders.”

“But I—”

Beverly looked at her sharply over her glasses.

“If the big boss says that’s your bill, then that’s your bill, hon,” she said.

Mo wasn’t making her pay for it? She leaned closer to Beverly.

“But—”

“Young lady,” Beverly said, lowering her voice. “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. You got the friends and family discount and then some. I was also surprised; that’s never happened before. But if Mo says it’s that, it’s that. Now, I don’t know exactly what that means, and it isn’t any of my business. But I do find it interesting that after you left, he immediately started working on your car and stayed late on his own to finish it.”

Jess slowly stood up straight. That was what she’d been concerned about, and even if he’d done only that, it would have been too much. But not charging her at all?

“Oh,” she said.

“Now sign here, and grab a seat until they can bring it around front, okay?”

Jess nodded, signed, and sat down.

Why would Mo have done that?

Fixing it quickly was super helpful, but she certainly expected to pay for it. Was he one of those guys who wants women indebted to him so that they’ll have to “pay him back”? No. That was in sharp contrast to the way he’d reacted when that woman brought the cookies. If there’d been a time to take advantage, the night they’d met would have been perfect.

She was still chewing things over when David walked up and told her that her car was out front.

“Is Mo out there?” she asked.

“No, he’s supervising a newbie,” he said.

“Oh.”

“Do you want me to get him for you?” David asked.

Jess looked around. It was probably best not to attempt a discussion with so many people in the reception area. They’d want a discount, too, and having an audience would make Mo uncomfortable.

“Could you ask him to meet me at my car?”

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