Chapter Twelve

“You gonna stick by me?”

“Maybe…”

**

After she hurt her knee, Letty started spending a lot of time with Mia and Amber. At first I hadn’t wanted Letty anywhere near the garage at all, thought she should be at home resting. But after a few days, she showed up and refused to leave. I couldn’t get her to stay away from the garage, but I could keep her from working on the cars so she wouldn’t hurt herself more. I didn’t protest too much about her not staying at home and resting, though. I figured I could keep a better eye on Letty if she were close by. Plus, I’d kind of missed having her around. So I pretended to reluctantly agree that she could help Mia out. And Amber was there all the time, waiting for Leon to finish up whatever he was working on so they could go hang out. She got to be pretty good friends with Mia, actually, so sometimes it turned out that Leon was the one waiting for her to be ready to leave.

It was nice to hear the three of them laughing in the office, talking about whatever girls talk about. Nice, but also a little disturbing. It was just weird to see Letty acting like a girl. I mean, of course I knew she was a girl. How could I not, with her body? But I’d never really seen her around other girls before. Mia and her, they act…different, when they’re together. Silly, and shit. It was nice to see Letty relax a little bit, have some fun. And I liked Amber, thought she and Leon were good for each other, thought they ought to just get things over with, realize they were more than just friends and hook up already. But I missed having Letty out with me, missed talking to her or just working on cars together. The garage felt empty without her being right there next to me. Not that I would admit it though, especially since it was my own idea to keep her away from the cars.

Letty hanging out with Mia and Amber turned out to be torture in more ways than one. Not only did I miss having Letty to myself, but the things those girls talked about… They didn’t seem to realize that I could hear everything they said unless they closed the office door - which they practically never did. I swear, they almost gave me heart attacks more than once. I remember one day in particular, the three of them were in the office talking with the door open just a little bit. I’d almost forgotten they were there - for once they didn’t have the radio blasting some lame ass excuse for music. But then…

“Velvet-lined handcuffs???” Letty shrieked, giggling. “These people have to be insane…”

I looked up, wondering what the hell she was talking about, thinking to myself, “Handcuffs? Velvet? What the fuck???”

“Oh come on, just think about the possibilities,” Mia laughed. “You could like…handcuff him to a car or something and do whatever you wanted to him… And you know, with the velvet, you wouldn’t have to worry about chafing, leaving marks…”

Normally I don’t pay all that much attention to Mia when she starts talking about guys. I don’t really want to hear about my sister’s love life, you know? As long as she’s happy, I stay out of it. But I had to find out who Letty was interested in. So I casually moved closer to the office, trying to act like I was just getting a part for the car I was working on.

“Sure, Mia,” Letty replied. “Like I’d really be able to handcuff Dom to anything if he didn’t want me to. He’d kick my ass!”

“What???” I remember thinking to myself, a smirk spreading across my face. “She’s thinking about putting handcuffs on me??? This could get…interesting…”

“Hmm…” Mia trailed off. “Well…maybe if you got him really drunk? Or, I don’t know…slipped a Valium into his coffee or something? Although, I have no idea where you’d find one…and Dom doesn’t really drink coffee… Maybe a roofie would work…but I don’t know where you’d get one of those, either…”

“Well…” Amber laughed. “I’m sure I could find some shit that’d be guaranteed to knock Dom out till next Sunday…the question is, would you be able to move him after he was unconscious… He’s pretty big...”

“Oh, I know!” Mia cried. “Do it while he’s asleep! That’d be perfect. Just handcuff him to the bed. And he sleeps on his back, so you wouldn’t even have to worry about flipping him over.”

“Mia thinking up ways to get me in handcuffs… This is just so wrong, in so many ways,” I remember thinking to myself. But I was curious. Well, okay, more than curious. Letty and I had always kind of flirted, back and forth, especially after she started helping me out with the cars at the garage. I knew I wanted her…and I thought she wanted me, but this was the first time I’d ever heard her actually say so.

“Yeah,” Letty laughed. “The question is, after he wakes up…then what?”

“Okay, this is my brother, remember,” Mia shrieked. “After he wakes up…you’re on your own! I don’t even want to think about it…”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m sure I could come up with something. I’m not this innocent little girl who has no idea what sex is, you know…Angel told me quite a few things! But I meant…you don’t think he’d like…get mad about it? I mean…wouldn’t it remind him of Lompoc too much?”

“Hmm…you might have a point there,” Mia trailed off. “But there’s where the velvet comes in! Somehow I doubt he’s ever seen a pair of velvet-lined handcuffs before… And think of it this way…you’d be creating good memories to replace the bad ones! Pretty soon, I’m sure anytime he even thought of handcuffs he’d think about you instead of Lompoc… And that would be good, right? He’d have to thank you for doing it, even.”

“That could get interesting,” Letty laughed.

They stopped talking about handcuffs then and moved on to making fun of the latest fall fashions or some boring shit like that, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what they’d said. Just knowing that Letty was not only thinking about sex…with me…but also talking about ways to actually do it, even if she was just joking around… It’s the first time I remember thinking that maybe, just maybe, I could be with Letty without ruining her life. If I wanted her, and she wanted me… How could it possibly be bad for us to be together?