Spliced

Previous day...

Lappy rolled his Dodge into the garage and cut the engine. As he got out of the car a teenage girl with waist-length blonde pigtails walked towards him.

“Yeah?” she asked stopping a few feet from him.

“Cat around?”

“She’s out back. I’ll go grab her.” The girl headed back into the garage.

Lappy leaned against his car. He was tempted for a smoke but Cat didn’t like people smoking at her garage.

A few minutes later a tall dark-haired woman walked through the door. She ran her green eyes over the front left of his car and raised one eyebrow.

She sucked in a breath, pursed her lips, then spoke in a rough voice. “That looks nasty. What’ve you done to her Lappy?”

“Hit the curb, side on” Lappy replies while grazing his eyes over Cat. One hand fidgeted with the pack of cigarettes in his front jeans pocket. It was late summer; just warm enough for Cat to still be wearing a plain black singlet and just cold enough for her to have thrown on a pair of tight dark blue jeans. She wore low-heeled black boots all year round.

Cat did a loop around the car. Lappy didn’t take his eyes off her for a second.

“You’re definitely gonna need some new rims. Drive her round back and I’ll take a closer look,” Cat told him, and then with glance at the badly damaged front wheel, she gave a half smirk, and added “if you can.”

Lappy gave a grunt and jumped back in the car. Qualified mechanic or not, Cat James was the best. That’s why he came here. She knew what she was doing. She charged accordingly but it didn’t matter, Lappy had spare money and besides she was damned nice to look at.

Joanie, the blonde pig-tailed teenage girl, was sitting out back on an oil drum smacking her gum and working on some math homework when Cat walked through the door.

“I don’t pay you to sit around and do your homework.”

“I finished my other job,” Joanie complained. “Jimmy’s car is ready to be picked up and the afternoon’s been real quiet.”

“It has been quiet,” Cat mused. “Why don’t you go home early then” she added, more relaxed “It’s only half an hour off closing time anyway. I’ll finish up.”

“Awesome! Thanks” Joanie hurriedly started packing up her things.

The 17-year old dashed out through the door. Cat watched her go, then turned as Lappy drove up under the car port.

Lappy watched as Cat inspected the damage to his car, his eyes taking in her every move.

“Keep staring and I’ll charge you for it” Cat warned him. “You got somewhere else to be?” she asked, “This’ll take at least till tomorrow... unless you feel like paying a bit extra?” she raised one dark eyebrow in question. Sometimes being attractive could be useful and she’d certainly abused the privilege on more than one occasion but usually Cat preferred to work without the customers ogling her.

Lappy knew better than to mess with Cat. Besides he was dying for a smoke.

“I’ll pick it up Monday” he replied curtly as he made to leave.

“Half up front, sort it out with Bongo in the front room” Cat called after him.

Lappy waved a hand in acknowledgement already reaching for his cigarettes with the other.

Cat didn’t stay too much longer. Lappy’s car could wait for tomorrow. She might even get one of the other mechanics to handle it, depending what else came in, Saturday morning’s were sometimes busy. She was eager to get home and wash the grease off, plus she had the night off, no extra jobs this evening. It was the sort of evening one might pour themselves a glass of red wine and slide into a warm bubble bath but Cat was partial to neither. Instead she’d wash the grease and oil off with a wet cloth, then she’d relax on the couch with a book, or perhaps clean her weapons. How long had it been since she’d last cleaned them?

Cat ignored the phone when it first rang. She was sitting on the floor of the bathroom running a razor blade up her long legs. Her towel dried ebony hair snaked down her back and across her shoulders almost reaching her hips. A few more rings and she sighed. She wiped her soapy legs with a cloth and wrapped herself in a towel. She grabbed her pistol, which she always kept nearby, and stalked down the hall to answer the phone.