The Mechanic.

Chapter 4

"Oh. I should have another bottle of water somewhere in the car." She said but as she looked into the car, she saw two empty bottles on the floor of the passenger seat. She sighed and looked to Jon for help. She saw however, that the smile had been wiped off his face and he was staring at Josh with a mix of surprise and confusion on his face. What....Oh! Josh! He didn't know that she had a son.

He looked up at her. "Mummy? You have a kid?" He asked.

Ella did not know how to respond, she knew she was not guilty of anything, she hardly knew him, plus she hadn't lied or anything, it just had never come up. "Yes. I have a son. A very thirsty son."

Jon recovered quickly. "Oh! Yeah." He called to one of the other mechanics. "Abel, could you take the little boy to the dispenser in the reception area?"

Abel nodded. "Sure. Come on little man." Josh looked to Emma as if asking for permission. When she nodded, he followed the man.

Emma looked back at Jon and waited for what his next words would be. He looked slightly sheepish. "I'm sorry about my reaction. It's just, I didn't see any..." He trailed off and wiggled his fingers.

Emma smiled. "Oh, I'm not married." He looked at her as if waiting for more. "Or engaged. I'm single."

Jon looked like he was still confused but when he opened his mouth, it was to change the topic. "So what's his name?"

"Joshua."

"Oh cool." He said as Josh came running towards them with his filled water bottle.

"I'm just gonna go use the bathroom." She said, handing her car keys to Jon and walking towards the reception area.

****

Jon watched Emma's retreating figure while he kicked himself in the ass for acting like a complete idiot. He had made her feel uncomfortable when she had done nothing wrong. He looked down at the boy who was standing beside him. The boy was staring at him curiously.

"Hey, Joshua." He said awkwardly, not really sure what to say to the boy. He went to the car to unlock it. Then he opened the driver's door and pressed a button and then went to the front of the car and lifted the hood of the car. Joshua trailed after him.

"So how are you today?" He asked, as he replaced the hood of the car. He wasn't a stranger to hanging with little kids. No, he had nieces and nephews. He was a stranger to hanging with the kids of women he found attractive.

Josh took a gulp of water from his water bottle and shrugged. "Fine. I'm just coming from school so..." He left the rest of his sentence to the imagination.

"That's good. School is good." Jon said awkwardly as he moved to gather the equipment he needed to change her car oil.

"What's that?" He asked, pointing to the bright orange ramps on the ground.

"They are floor ramps."

"What are floor ramps?"

"They are used to lift the front of the car while I work on it." Jon explained as simply as he could.

"Okay." Josh said nodding at the ramps. Josh looked as though he wanted to ask something more when something seemed to occur to him. He looked up at Jon. "What's your name?"

This surprised Jon. "Umm. Jon."

"Ooh. Like J-O-H-N?" The little boy spelled out happily.

"No, my name's different. It's J-O-N." He replied, feeling a bit bad about bursting the little boy's bubble.

Joshua pouted. "That's a lame name."

Jon smiled. "It's better than Joshua."

His little face crumpled. Just then, Emma walked up to them. "What's going on?"