"Alright fam," he spoke up so he could gather their attention, and surely all the noise dialed down as he closed up the circle and the music went down. He took a moment, a sigh leaving his mouth as he stood with his arms folded, his stature up right.
"I'm sure you're all wondering where Amaru is today, or maybe you were not. I don't know how to put it lightly, but last night after our games night, Amaru got a call from home letting him know that his mother took a turn for the worst, and he needed to fly in if he wanted to say goodbye before time,"
A pregnant silence filled the room, as they all wore various facial expressions. Shane placed a hand over her mouth that was open in shock. She honestly could not imagine the different emotions that must have been running through Amaru's mind at that moment.
No wonder he was a bit on the uneasy side last night, Shane thought to herself. Amaru must have felt the shift in the spiritual spectrum and that must have spiked his anxiety.
"Please tell me, by some chance, she's alright," Shane pleaded, her voice small and full of emotion. All she could also think about was how Amaru confessed to her on how he would not be able to handle the death of his mother and prayed hard that she didn't go.
"Still awaiting news from Amaru. As soon as I know, I will let you guys know," Hendrichs answered Shane, briefly looking at her before moving his sight to the rest of the team. Defeat was evident on his face, and in his body language. He slightly raised his arm, before he dropped it. It was clear as day he did not have any hope for it being a good outcome.
"I know anyone's immediate instinct is to text and message him, but he's asked for space till there's an update. I'd ask that we respect that, and whilst on that topic, I would ask that we'd suspend all music for today. Aside from upstairs of course. We can't be in celebration whilst family is suffering," he further added, pausing to gauge everyone's reaction before continuing.
"Just for today, you can use your earphones or whatever if you need music to carry you. Please keep Amaru and his family in your thoughts and prayers. And let's try and have the best day today," he gave a small and quick smile, before he tapped the hood of one car and walked away, possibly heading into his office.
She didn't realize it, but her eyes were glossy as she feared the inevitable for her friend Maru. More than anything she wanted to call him, or send a message just so he would know he wasn't alone. However, she knew that he needed to spend as much time with his mother as possible - with no interruptions, so she couldn't bring herself to be selfish.
Logan touched her shoulder, and as she looked up at him, he pulled her in for a hug. She laid her head against his chest, as he cradled her head and silence became their sense of solace.
To say he was surprised was an understatement. To see Shane so full of emotion, and expressing it, it took him aback. He just had not pegged her to be the type of girl who was an empath, but it was so clear, especially with the way she had only known Maru for less than a month, and still have shown so much care for him.
"Don't worry, we've got him," Logan whispered just above her head, and she sniffled, nodding her head before she pulled out of his embrace and hid her face as she quickly wiped away the droplets of tears that stained her cheeks.
"I can't not worry, he's so in awe of his mom. If she's taken away, I fear for what might become of him," she shook her head, her breath shaky, as she slightly bit on the tip of her tongue.
"We are his support system. We'll be there, we will carry him when he has no strength to keep on going, we are a family here at Haines City more than anything Shane, please don't cry," he gave a small smile, as he used the pad of his thumbs to wipe away the fresh tears on her crimson red cheeks.
"I'm gonna send him a message," Shane shook her head, as she took her phone out of her pocket, but Logan placed his hand over her screen. She met his reprimanding eyes, before he shook his head at her.
"You know what he requested Shane, I think this is the one time you should comply," he tried to advice her, but Shane couldn't bring herself to agree. She knew that support from friends was vital when someone was not doing okay, and as much as he might have thought he didn't want it, he for sure needed it.
"Well, this is my phone. So I'm gonna do what I want," she spoke with such attitude such that Logan could only shake his head at her, before he walked away.
She quickly went to Amaru's contact, before she started writing up a small but thoughtful message. She read it to herself slowly, a couple of times just to see if it made sense and was appropriate before she decided to send it.
Thinking of you friend.
And I'm here, for whatever.
Prayers up for you, your mother,
and your family.
She bit her lip, nodding her head in satisfaction. She felt a bit lighter after sending a message to him, and hopefully, he wouldn't be too mad at her for it. She watched her screen for a minute or two, and her heart twisted for a slight second when she realized that her message had been read, but not responded to.
However, that was okay. As long as he knew, that was all that mattered, Shane told herself as she placed her phone in her pocket and went to the locker room to get herself prepared. Today, even though it had started out sad, it was quite the big day.
They had a twenty percent discount on all cars going on upstairs for those who decided to pay the full price within three months. And it was something that she had learnt happened quarterly at this place. Simultaneously, a walk in situation was happening today as well for repairs, where all prices were down fifteen percent with major repairs, and ten percent with minor repairs.
Hendrichs would do this just so he could draw in more customers, and honestly it was his favorite time of the year because it brought so much pressure to the business, and pressure meant more money coming in.
Though they did not see eye to eye on a lot of things, she had to give it to him —he had his head on straight when it came to running a business.
Shane was quite excited to actually interact with customers, as that's what she had been accustomed to when she worked in this industry before. Just talking to your client and knowing what it was they needed, and delivering that.
The system here, it was a bit different that's for sure —but it was nothing too big for her to handle. She put her locs in a ponytail, taking her earphones from the locker, and placed them around her shoulders.
Checking in the mirror, she gave a small smile to herself, just to prepare herself for the day before she closed it and walked back into the main workshop.
"You're the greatest to live Shane," she softly told herself as she observed the area. Michael already had his AirPods in, and Logan had probably gone back up so he could talk to Annalise before he came back down.
Today, he would spend most of his time down, whilst Hendrichs himself would spend most of his upstairs with Helena and Liz.
Apparently, according to everyone who worked here, he had a way with clients and his charisma almost always led to a car purchase. Which led Shane to ask herself why he them chose to stay down, more than he spent his time up.
She sighed, trying to send that thought right to the back of her mind, because she'd succeeded to keep the happenings of the previous night at bay, so she could keep her nonchalant act together.
She knew however, that during lunch today with Marie, she'd somehow bring it up. But she really hoped she would manage to keep her mouth shut because this was not worth a conversation at all.
As soon as 7am hit, Logan was back down and the doors were rolled up for the public to come in. Surely enough, about three people were already ready to be served and Shane put on her polite smile, going off to speak to the customer she would be serving.
Luckily enough for her, her first job was just to do a tire change, for all four wheels then she'd be able to assist the next customer.
For those who wanted to wait for their cars, the boys had created a waiting room with a plasma tv connected to the wall. Formula 1 was currently on display. Though Shane wanted to put up an objection to that, she ended up leaving it alone.
She placed her earphones in, her Playlist taking her straight to Big Sean's Dark Paradise album. He was another artist that Shane absolutely loved, his bars really went crazy to her, and she could easily place him right next to Kendrick when it came to rap music.
Moving her head along to the beat of the music she got to work, getting the correct tires out for the cat she was working on, and carefully replacing each and every one of them. She then moved the old tires into the recycling room for later analysis, before she had the lady pay for the work she had done using her card.
"Thank you so much, I sure will be back," she smiled, as she got into her car, and pulled off. More than anything, when it came to advertising your business, word of mouth was way more powerful than any other form of marketing that could be done.
Before she could take a breather, she felt a presence besides her, more specifically his presence. He hadn't put in any work yet, so you could still get lost in his cologne, which Shane subconsciously took a breath of. It smelt so darn good, as much as she didn't want it to.
"How did that go?" he asked, breaking the silence, without either of them making a move to look at each other.
"I kinda feel like that's a rhetorical question," Shane answered; the tip of the corner of her lip slightly lifting.
He gave off a short chuckle, folding his arms, and taking a sigh, "I'm just checking in is all,"
"You mean micromanaging me?" Shane quickly threw her thoughts at him, looking up at him from the corner of her eye.
"It is your first time here during what we like to call rush hour, this is nothing," he turned his body, so he could face her, and so she unwillingly met his eyes, folding her arms too.
"Does taking shots at me give you some sort of high?" she lifted an eyebrow, as she tried to surpress a smirk.
"Maybe, or maybe not," he too tried to surpress his smile, and it was evident though he succeeded. He took a step closer, as though he was not already close enough, "Do keep up somewhat of the okay work Shane,"
“You're gonna need to stop standing so close to me like you like me Mr. Hayes,” she teased, but very much meant it as well. It was time she took back the power, and stopped freezing like a damn deer in the lights.
"And you're gonna need to stop responding like you're enamored by me sweetpea," he spoke back, using his panty dropping voice and smile, and just like that she was as silent as a mule.
"You wish," she said underneath her breath, but he still heard it and walked away from her with a chuckle, as he went ahead and started serving a new client who had just stepped in.
And just like that, the dynamic changed. Their tension was no longer that of pure dislike, but one of challenge to see who would best the other. It was light, it was flirtatious, and still both didn't realize it.
Immediately, a smokey gray Hyundai Elantra drove into their shop and Shane decided to take this one up since everyone else was busy.
A sandy brown skinned woman stepped out of the car, a cute pair of black sunglasses respectfully hiding her eyes. Her golden hoops glistened just as the sun kissed them, her face remaining without a smile.
"Nadia," Shane immediately spoke, taking a slight step back, you'd almost miss it if you weren't paying attention.
"Could have sworn you weren't supposed to be in Chicago, imagine the shock I had seeing you in my neighborhood last night," she immediately spoke, as she stepped out of the car, a resting bitch face on display.
Shane opened her mouth to speak, but closed it back up, as an excuse couldn't come quickly into her mind. She couldn't have sworn the last time she was here Nadia did not live in Lincoln Park, otherwise she wouldn't have stepped foot there.
"I gave you a pass Shane, but now this is trying me. You're really pushing me to make good on my promise," she took a step closer to Shane. Placing her hand in her jacket so she could show the print to her gun.
"Nadia, this is a work environment," Shane spoke so sternly, her eyes reprimanding her.
"Leave, or I will put you in prison. I'm a detective incase you'd forgotten, so you wanna play nice with me," she spat, and Shane bit her lip, giving a slight nod.
"Is there a problem?" Hendrichs asked with such an authoritative tone to his voice. Shane looked up, meeting his cold eyes, and shook her head.
"No sir, I just came by to find out if Shanae will be delivering on her word," Nadia smiled, flashing her dimples that really went deep into her face, "Detective Grayson, and you are?"
"Hendrichs Hayes, will that be all? Or did you need your car fixed?" he raised an eyebrow, not fazed at all about the title she had just flashed.
"Talk to you soon Shanae," Nadia nodded, before walking back into her car, and Hendrichs lifted a hand up, a fake smile on his face.
"I—," Shane tried to speak up, but Hendrichs faced her with a look of disapproval.
"Not at my workplace. Keep your life choices away from here," he spoke coldly, his flirtatious behavior long gone. He soon walked away, after a head nod from Shane.
Shane sighed, releasing a breath through her nose as well. She felt her phone buzz, and she took it out quickly, and her heart dropped at the text before her.
Maru:) : she's gone.
Her eyes blurred as she looked up, trying to find Hendrichs, but he was nowhere to be found. She placed a hand over her mouth, her throat sore from the emotion that had suddenly overcome her.
"Oh no," she whispered, closing her eyes.
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thank you for 3K votes. Here's the chapter at long last.
so, Detective Beckham rocking up to Shane's work place?
and Amaru's mother is gone😔 my heart goes out to Amaru.
thoughts on the chapter ?
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thank you for reading, pls vote and comment for new chapters to come out ✨🤍