Page 50 of Breakdown
Like a very targeted bomb went off, the garage was a disaster of refinishing supplies: sand paper, fiberglass screening, putty knives, filler, primer, the entire airbrush assembly. Peter’s corner of the shop was always controlled chaos, but Nik didn’t usually work like that. He was methodical and careful. He’d actually said the words ‘a place for everything and everything in its place’ out loud to Peter on more than one occasion.
He tried to tell himself that it was just the speed that Nik was working. Peter already couldn’t see the gouge in the passenger side of the Camaro, the surface smooth and metallic gray with the first coat of primer. Nik stood over the utility sink, washing his hands. As Peter neared, he was surprised to hear that the radio was on low, more surprised to hear Nik singing quietly along to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. He hadn’t been able to tolerate much background noise lately.
Peter slipped his arms around him from behind. “Hi.”
“Hi yourself.” Nik melted into him, turning his head and meeting Peter for a slow, tender kiss, reminding Peter for the hundredth time today just how desperately in love he was.
It used to terrify him. Now, with his chin on Nik’s shoulder, working the mechanic’s soap into Nik’s palm, it felt like the safest place in the world. “I thought you said you were going to take it easy,” he chided gently, scrubbing at a particularly stubborn streak of primer.
“Yousaid that. I just did not necessarily disagree.”
“Who are you and what have you done with my boyfriend?”
Nik grinned, big and warm, drying his hands on a particularly ugly LA Chargers towel he wouldn’t let Peter throw out. “I have been hanging around with you too long, perhaps. I have become an excellent liar.”
“I think excellent is stretching it,” Peter said. “Stick with what you’re good at.” He squatted, inspecting Nik’s handiwork on the Camaro. The patch on the door panel was as smooth as glass. “It looks great.”
“There is still so much to do,” Nik said. The prospect seemed to make him edgy in a way Peter didn’t quite understand. He’d never balked at the work before.
“And we’ll get it done,” Peter reassured him. They had all weekend. Hell, they had the rest of their lives. He scooped up the replacement headlamp housing Nik had set on the ground next to the broken light. “Why don’t you let me take over for a bit?”
It had been a long day, but fixing the car with Nik had never felt like work. They fell into an easy rhythm, Nik handing him the correct socket wrench without Peter asking, Peter passing him the hex bolts as he loosened the old headlight assembly.
“You think Mia would get a kick out of the swan boats at Echo Park?” he asked, carefully unhooking the cables from the back of the housing to avoid the broken glass.
Nik had the trashcan waiting. “I thought the rental place was closed for the winter.”
“Please, I could pick that lock in my sleep,” Peter said, frowning in concentration as he reversed the process for the installation, coupling the cables into the new assembly.
“Do not involve my daughter in a robbery of Parks and Rec equipment,” Nik scolded, in that way he did when he wasn’t entirely sure if Peter was taking the piss out of him.
“Technically it’s larceny,” Peter teased, slotting the new light back into place and tightening the bolts. “And maybe some light burglary. Although in this case I would say it’s more like high effort borrowing.”
Peter looked up at Nik, pleased with the work, and felt the smile die on his face. Nik had gone pale and sweaty; he was suddenly breathing too hard.
“Hey, sorry, it was just a stupid joke.” Despite his reassurance, Nik didn’t look any more at ease. “Maybe we should take a break for the night,” Peter suggested, trying to hide his concern.
Nik waved him off. “I am fine to keep at it.”
“You don’t have to get this all done right now, okay?” Peter knew Nik was at his best when he felt productive—something he’d been berating himself over for the past few weeks—and nothing did it more for him than checking off tasks on a repair list. But he’d been at it all day, and he still wasn’t feeling a hundred percent yet. “You gotta take care of yourself, Nik. I want you around for a long time.”
Something that Peter didn’t quite understand broke open in Nik’s face. “Please, just one more thing. It is small.”
Peter softened in spite of himself. “One more. And you sit while I work.”
“Deal.” Nik stood in front of the pegboard for a moment, selecting a pair of needle nose plyers, a small pry bar, and a #2 Phillips head screwdriver with almost absurd gravity. “It is the glove compartment. There is something wrong with the catch.”
Peter hadn’t guessed the damage stretched as far as the interior of the car, but he wasn’t surprised that the force of the impact could have knocked something out of alignment. He slid into the custom leather passenger seat, scooting it all the way back so he had room to work. Nik stood outside the door, watching closely, still breathing much too raggedly for Peter’s comfort.
Peter fixed him with a hard look. “You’re supposed to be sitting.”
“Right, sorry,” Nik said distractedly, circling the car and seating himself behind the wheel. Hopefully this would be a quick fix; Nik clearly needed the rest.
Peter placed the plyers and screwdriver into the cup holder, wedging the pry bar into the gap between the glove compartment door and the dash to use for leverage when the time came. Using his other hand to engage the switch, he pulled, expecting resistance. It swung open easily.
“Seems fine to me.”
Nik locked eyes with him, giving Peter a nervous, apologetic smile. “I told you I was becoming an excellent liar.”
