Be All, End All

The strong smell of paint filled the air. Not the acrylic of car paint as usual. Dom’s garage didn’t have a paint booth, but there were always details or dents that needed to be touched up. No, this was the easier smell of interior paint. A matte coat of burnt orange was just getting its finishing touches. The painter squatted below the sill of the newly installed window, detail brush in one hand, cup of paint in the other.

The sound of a throat being cleared drew Darynn’s attention from her task. She looked up from where she worked to see Low standing in the doorway, filling the doorway actually. “Uh, hi.”

He didn’t respond, but she saw his eyes look around the small room. With a groan that she was unable to stifle Darynn stood, stretching limbs that had taken more than their share of abuse this day.

“Do you like it?”

Low stepped into the nearly empty room. His eyes found hers before he went back to looking at the room. Now his gaze was drawn to the window. “Did you do this?”

The window was new. She’d intended to just clean the old one, but when she’d gotten a closer look there was no chance in hell she was wasting her time on such a pointless task. The cost of the new window was the price she paid for not spending hours scrubbing. She’d helped the installer and he’d only been there for about an hour. “Yeah. Better?”

He was scowling, or maybe it was just a frown. She didn’t know him well enough to tell the difference. “Why?”

Darynn smiled, “I wanted to. This office is so small and with the way it was it was fuckin’ dreary.”

“Does Dom know?”

She shrugged, “It was kind of meant to be a surprise.”

He looked at her, standing closer than she guessed he’d ever been to her. “He won’t like you doing this.”

Honestly, she didn’t care. “I didn’t do it for Dom. I did it for you.”

That got his attention. A double-blink of surprise and he was looking at her openly, almost in an assessing way. Yeah, look at the crazy lady.

“You have to spend most of your time in here. It’s not fair that sun doesn’t shine through the window or that the walls are coated with so much grime I couldn’t tell what the original color was.”

He was silent. His hands shoved into his pockets and now he was looking at anything but her.

Darynn didn’t take offense for once. “Could you help me move the furniture back in?”

He looked out to the garage where she’d pushed most of the furniture. “Is the desk new?”

“Not new. I found it through the paper, but it’s better than the one that you had.”

He moved to start and she joined him without a word. In a display of considerable deference on her part she allowed him to lead with the placement of each piece. It took an hour or so, but eventually they had everything that would be staying back into the small room. Not one word was exchanged the entire time.

Still in its box, leaning against the wall was a new shelf that Darynn had bought. She dragged in the box and sliced it open. “Where would you like this?” She stood and motioned to the back wall above a table that held the abused computer. “I was thinking back there.”

“Here.” He pointed to the wall just inside the door and she shrugged and picked up the level.

Twenty minutes on the shelf and then they were truly done. It wasn’t the same room. New window, paint, tile, trim and desk. The shelf now held things that had been sitting on file cabinets or the desk. She’d found a file cabinet in a resale shop and had filled it with the papers that had been in file boxes before. Nearly all of the clutter was gone.

“I threw away the posters that were up.” She shrugged, “Hope they weren’t sentimental.”

Low smiled for the first time. Several of the posters had been of cars with scantily clad women draped over them. If they’d been sentimental it was for a reason that Darynn didn’t want to hear.

When he didn’t say anything else Darynn moved to pick up her tools and close up the paint. The brush got dumped into the shop’s trash, fuck washing it. She didn’t have a toolbox for carpentry tools so she just dumped the hammer and nails and the few other things she had into a cardboard box. Some anti-static wipes, a can of compressed air and a computer detailing kit was sitting ready. She picked them up and went back into the office.

Low looked up from one of the two new office chairs she’d gotten, she’d also gotten two straight back chairs. All the old ones were out in the dumpster where they belonged. She just smiled at him before plopping down before the computer.

“More?”

The thing was already unplugged so she immediately started taking it apart. “Not really. I was just going to clean this thing and see what’s inside.”

“You know computers?”

Darynn smiled, setting the tower cover aside and grabbing the can of air. “Not a whole lot. I know they’re kinda like cars. The more expensive the parts the better the performance.” A cloud of dust flew out as she shot the motherboard with air. She waved at the air and looked back at Low. “And they should be detailed often.”

He set down the catalog he’d been holding and rolled his chair around the desk and toward her. “How expensive?”

She shrugged, “It depends on what you want to do. I don’t think you’re doing any high-speed gaming on this thing so a lower-end graphics card would be okay. I’d go with bigger hard drives and more RAM, but you’ll need to change out the motherboard. Sound card is integrated now, but I doubt you’re using a speaker system with this. A larger processor, and a few more fans and heat sinks would be good.”

He was listening intently, nodding now and then. “So what’s the price for all you just said?”

Darynn was wiping at the inside of the tower with the anti-static wipes, cleaning away a coating of dirt that shouldn’t’ve been there. “This is a slow system. The tower’s small, the monitor’s old, the keyboard is abused. Upgrading would be useless. You need to start over. Get a new system all together.”

“What about the info that’s in this one?”

She shrugged one shoulder. Didn’t he know anything? “Just back it up. No CD burner, but you could get an external one.”

Low was nodding, “I hate this thing. It’s slow and is always losing stuff or locking up.” She almost smiled at the dirty look he gave the computer.

“Do you think you could talk to Dom about it?”

Darynn was getting ready to argue when another voice cut her off. “Talk to Dom about what? And what the hell is going on here?”

She and Low both turned to face Dominic standing just inside the office. He didn’t look happy. A glance at Low told her there wouldn’t be any help from that arena. Figures.

“We were talking,” she told Dom, not able to hide the bit of smile that tickled her lips.

He looked like he was going to growl at her, and then he was, “I’m not talkin’ about that. What’s this shit?” He held his hands out to indicate the redecorating.

Darynn wasn’t sure how to answer without it coming across as her stating the obvious. “Uh, I painted.”

“You did more than fuckin’ paint.”

She pressed her lips together and shrugged.

Dom just stared at her. He seemed too pissed to yell, but didn’t have another ready outlet. “Low, take off. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

That got her attention and sent off warning bells. She didn’t need Low’s protection, but why would Dom want him to leave? And his voice had been suddenly very quiet. Not good. She wasn’t stupid enough to think he’d gotten over it, he just didn’t want an audience.

She stood when Low did, but didn’t follow him. She was left facing Dom.

He didn’t move, didn’t make a sound until the outer door could be heard closing. Low was gone.

“Why did you do this?”

Again that low voice, not yelling, but in no way normal. “I wanted to.”

He shook his head, “You wanted to? Why do you keep stirring up shit?”

Ding! She was pissed. “How am I stirring up shit? I bought a vehicle that doesn’t conform with your standards? I repainted an office that should have been painted years ago? I spoke to Low? How is that stirring up shit?”

Lips pressed tight, he didn’t answer her.

“And don’t you dare fucking walk away from me. You wanted this argument. Well, you got it. What about me pisses you off, Dom? That I don’t beg for your attention? That I can hold my own with five guys? Or that I don’t drool for your cock?”

He double-blinked at the last and even smiled a bit. “You don’t piss me off,” he said quietly.

“Yes. I do.” Darynn took a deep breath, trying to control her own temper now. “I apologize for not telling you I was fixing up the office. It needed it, I wanted to do it, end of argument. I told you about the truck, so you—“

“I’m not pissed at you!”

She smiled at his yelled statement. Uh, contradiction?

“I’m not pissed,” he said again, quieter. “I just… I just don’t want you taking care of shit that I should have. If this needs done, I want to do it.”

Darynn looked around, “How long were you going to wait? If the dirt got any thicker I’da needed a shovel.”

“I don’t do decorating. I’m not Martha Stewart.” His small smile and the cast of his eyes told her clearly that he was saying she was.

She gasped, “Oh, you just didn’t. Slapping paint on something don’t make me Martha.”

He looked around, “What color is this, anyway? I thought you’d pick pink or somethin’.”

Her eyes flashed, pissed and surprised at his sudden teasing. “Pink? You better fuckin’ shut up.”

He grinned, “No curtains?”

Darynn moved toward him, every muscle tensed for the fight to come, “Stop it,” she warned.

“A homemaker like you shoulda known to put up curtains.”

She swung at him, but he easily knocked her fist away and stepped back, laughing now. “Will you arrange some flowers for us?”

She gasped and charged him, swinging and kicking. He took a couple hits before he caught her upper arms and held her away from him. “Alright, alright.” He was laughing. The blows she’d managed to land had all been to his chest and stomach and had done little or no harm.

Darynn was panting, but she couldn’t move with his vice-like grip holding her. “You’re an asshole.”

“I am.” His face, only a foot from hers became serious. “I’ll pay you back for the stuff you bought.”

“No, you won’t.”

His lips thinned, “Yes, Rynn. I don’t need you buying shit for the shop.”

She chewed her lip for a second knowing that neither would win this argument. “Instead of paying me back will you buy Low a new computer?”

He frowned and looked back and the partially disassembled machine, “What’s wrong with ours?”

Darynn smiled, “It’s a piece of shit. If your computer was a car it would be a VW bug.”

He smiled and rolled his eyes, “Nice analogy.”

“Had to speak in your language.”

He released her and she stepped back automatically. Walking past her to where the parts of his computer lay he spoke again, “So what’ll it cost to put Low in a new ride?”

“A lot more than fixing up this office.”

He gave her one of those studying looks.

“A thousand, maybe two,” she said quickly, not liking that look and not wanting to start up with the argument again.

He nodded and then was coming at her. She stepped back, but had nowhere to go. The file cabinet had her cornered.

“Will you order it?” he asked as he stopped just a foot before her again.

She nodded, knowing they’d be out of their league trying to do it on their own.

Then his fingers caught her chin and he was leaning forward. She couldn’t breath, couldn’t move, couldn’t think. She could only watch his face coming closer. His lips touched against hers, a brief, almost chaste kiss and then he was just staring into her face. “Thank you.”

The King of exits was gone before she could draw another breath.