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There was comfort in knowing that someone would handle the paper side of thing; the blonde nodded as she continued to twist the fabric in her hands. She tried to imagine the garage, having been distracted by the damage and state it was in she couldn't recall if every jersey that had once been on the walls were somewhere on the floor instead. She checked her tools with the police, but it never occurred to her that something of personal value could be missing. Maybe there was a bright side to being the victim of a hate crime versus an old fashion robbery, if there really could be a right side.
For the first time since she had come home, a laugh escaped Emmett's lips. A small crack of humor could put the mechanic at a little bit of ease. She extended the towel out towards Teddy. "Just one of the many reasons I don't like 'em." Really, she could make a list about why she preferred the same sex as herself. "You have grease on your hand."
Black. Emmett nodded, fingers tapping against the counter, contrasting the loud drips pouring down from the coffee maker into the pot. When the lawyer lifted her hands, she looked down towards them, catching sight of a small blotch of grease that got on her palm. She was already reaching for a towel when the next question filtered into her mind. It was smart, and probably much smarter than Emmett herself.
Her hands wrung the towel, giving it a little twist as realization came to her features. "I have insurance for the building and stuff." What those details included was beyond the mechanic's knowledge. Her lips twisted to one side, eyebrows lowering. "It should cover them, right? I mean I have a Gretzky signed one and that is not cheap." She hadn't even had the time to really check the conditions of them yet - the police had gotten there so quickly, and she had been so worked up it proved her to be unproductive.
Without the struggles of working around the inside of a car, Emmett was thankful that they made their way back to her little garage. The feeling of the her body flush against Emmett's was enough to put the mechanic short of breath, let alone the way those lips burned against her own. Her palms shifted towards the small of Deb's back, pressing firmly against the fabric she was already was beginning to wish wasn't in the way.
A breathless laugh still managed to escape her lips at the idea of being a tease. "I'm not that mean," she breathed. If she were, that would have been cruel, but then again Emmett hadn't the capacity to tease another on a level like this. Her willpower was plummeting when a pretty girl was kissing her. Even more so because she knew how to drive a car rough and Emmett considered how that translated into other things.
"You said you needed more room?" She would have gestured to the space they occupied, were it not for the fact that her hands were cemented to her.
A small smile crept across Emmett's features at the sound of a laugh. It was enough to pull her attention away from her task at hand and glance towards the form reaching into her cupboards. When she turned, the mechanic quickly snapped her head forward.
With a few scoops of beans into the filter, Emmett placed the basket into the coffee maker, pressing a button to get it started. By no means was it a fancy contraption, but at least the coffee itself was good quality. She turned around to lean against the counter, palms pressing to the cool surface. "Huh?" It took her a few moments too long to register the context of what she was asking. Coffee. Of course.
"Oh, just black. What about you? I've got cream and sugar if you'd like."
Emmett did her best to remain where she sat against the car. What was harder was to continue to look forward and not towards the sound of the slow steps approaching her. But a question had her head turning towards her, her jaw aching from the way she grinned. When she did finally push herself up off the car, she stepped closer, meeting Deb with the way she walked.
Only inches apart, now. She felt that burn growing inside her again as she looked down at her lips again. Each hand reached out, pressing to the girl's hips as she dared to pull her against the mechanic. "Now why would I want to stop?" She asked, and instead of giving her the time to answer, she caught her lips in a heated kiss.
Emmett gave a loud laugh at the idea of her car being stolen by the one who drove it like it could really be hers. She glanced into the vehicle, eyebrows rising upwards before she started making her way towards the hood. There, she leaned against it, palms pressing against the warm metal where the heat of a loved engine filtered through. "Then I'd have your bug," she replied simply with a shrug, her own humor having a flat tone. She was never that great with sarcasm in her voice.
Her fingers drummed against the hood as she waited for an answer, and it wasn't long before the bright hair girl delivered on it. It already had the mechanic craning her neck to look back at her. "Oh, I think you're free to think as much as you like," Emmett pondered aloud. "I guess it's just a matter on if you're gonna act on your thoughts." A purposeful pause, and she looked forward out of the garage door again. "Whatever they are, that is."
Annoyance was loud and clear in this girl's expression, and Emmett lifted her eyebrows, unimpressed. It was clear the coffee shop was packed. If she had wanted some privacy, she should have gone to a library or something. A thanks never escaped the blonde's lips as she dragged the chair out with a foot and set her mug down, as well as the magazine she pulled off the rack.
She flipped open to the middle - there wasn't much going for it other than local events and small articles about the town, but Emmett had nothing else at her disposal to read while she had her coffee. She lifted the mug, bringing it to her lips as the dark liquid burned caffeine into her system, she let out a content sigh and leaned back in her chair.
It was better to stand and move. Restlessness was a natural part of her ability, but this felt different. She kept her gaze on the lawyer, even as she walked towards the sink. For a moment, her expression seemed to soften. Or maybe that was just how people reacted to the idea of coffee in general. As Emmett thought on it more, she wasn't even sure if piercing blue eyes actually did show any shift. She reached for the coffee pot, filling it with water from the tap.
"Oh. Thanks. Yeah, if you wanna grab a couple mugs, they're in that shelf right there. If you want." She wondered if it was appropriate to accept help offered out of what she assumed was politeness or not. "They're all clean."
Of course they were. She wouldn't have put them away if they hadn't been. She pursed her lips, feeling a sudden cold wetness on her hand. Only then did she turn to look at the sink and her over filled coffee pot. Quickly, she turned the faucet off, dumping out some of the extra water before pouring it into the coffee maker and grabbing a filter and some pre-ground coffee beans from the local coffee shop.
Emmett loved a challenge, and she was just stupid enough to always raise the bar. Her eyes lit up at the idea, and her grin took a mischievous turn. The seatbelt she had halfway pulled across her chest slipped purposefully out of her fingers as she held her palms towards the girl. No hands, no buckle. "Not even you?" She joked with a laugh, but they were already moving.
The thrill intensified as they took corners while Emmett did nothing but press her hands together. Turns made her slide in her seat but it didn't matter, it felt like a new sense of freedom. All to impress a pretty girl, no doubt. She wasn't sure if it was the speed or that smile that made her heart race. Both, she decided in the end.
The sight of her garage was a welcome one. They'd been gone long enough where the sky started to take on similar shades as Deb's hair. "Fucking great, I'd say." Emmett offered, quick to laugh with her. She pushed open the passenger door, stepping out of her car. It took a moment for her legs to adjust to the change in speed and the suddenness of standing, but she still turned towards Deb. "What are you thinking?"
It was a long shot to ask about the lawyer, and Emmett hummed in response. It was absolutely true; being in law school sounded boring. Still, she reflected back on the prior conversation before realizing her head was too stuck in the past week when she had perfect company right next to her. She extended her free hand out, pressing it to April's leg and giving it a squeeze just above her knee, both for fun and acknowledgement of her friend.
"So what's the club scene looking like?" She asked instead, dark eyes glancing over towards her. "Anything exciting happening in this town?" Though Emmett usually went out too, they were different scenes. She preferred a good bar over something with overplayed pop music blaring.
Sunday morning meant that the garage was closed. It also meant that Emmett was still wearing the clothes she had dressed in the night prior, having not slept in her own bed. The mechanic sneaked out of an unfamiliar apartment unnoticed - or if she had been noticed, the girl she had spent the evening with gave no signs of caring, even enough to open her eyes. It was perfect, but she needed something to get her through the morning, even if she didn't have anything planned for that particular Sunday.
"A red-eye, please," Emmett ordered at the counter, suppressing a yawn as she dug out some crinkled bills from her pocket, handing them to the barista. "Keep the change. Yeah. Thanks."
It was only minutes before a hot, over-caffeinated beverage was in her hands. She let out a sigh of relief as she turned to try and find an empty table. Except there weren't any. Had the blonde actually paid attention, she might have ordered her drink to go. Instead, she approached someone else who appeared to have had a long night.
"Cool if I sit here?" She gestured to the seat adjacent, and the table they would share if she said yes.
Emmett should have known to take her jacket off before she started driving, because it wasn't long before she felt the real blast of the heat through her thick denim jacket. She pressed a knee to the bottom of the steering wheel, hauling the seatbelt off of her despite the groan of the warning from the car not to, but she started to pull on the sleeve of her jacket to get it off.
"They're awesome cars." Emmett mused aloud, lips pressing together as she thought of the brunette that brought it in. But with the next comment another figure popped into her mind - the one who was sitting down at her kitchen table not all that long ago.
She gave a loud laugh at the thought, pulling the seatbelt back on. "Don't think they'd much like the way I'd drive," she replied. "Speaking of though, have you heard of the hot new lawyer in town? Teddy James?"
Emmett jumped up into the drivers seat, turning the engine over and listening wit an attuned ear for any possible hiccups. It was habitual for the mechanic to listen to any engine the started, especially given that her own car was made before she was born. It sounded good though, and she gave the steering wheel a pat before she started to back up, dark eyes glancing over towards the blonde's phone. It wasn't too far.
"Oh, you know," Emmett started, but it wasn't as if her friend really did know. Thus whys she had asked in the first place. "I've been pretty busy too, it's not your fault." The week building up to this had been pretty surreal.
Emmett pulled out into the road and headed off, easily going a few miles over the speed limit as she so often did. "Got my hands on an old Volkswagen Beetle, which was pretty hot." More so was the person who drove it, but she didn't go into the details.
Being clung to like she was actually needed to make it down the steps was admittedly comforting to the mechanic. She rarely put herself in a vulnerable position, yet she felt nothing but since she had returned home, so she put an arm around April's waist like she was classy or something. "Yeah, I might need you to burn his body after I beat the fuck out of him." A little aggressive? Absolutely, but Emmett didn't care.
"We'll take the beast." It's what she liked to call the Land Rover that April loved to have. Because it was a beast, especially compared to the tiny speedster hatchback that Emmett drove on a regular basis.
She followed April over towards the driver's side door, holding out her palm for the keys. "So do you know where this place is anyway?"
Arms wrapped around her form again and Emmett gave a short laugh, squeezing April in return. "Clearly you can't be trusted to dress yourself," the mechanic joked, eyebrow shooting upwards once. Once she was free, she was already headed for the door, hauling it back open for the other blonde to make her exit. Because April was right, now that her mind set on it, she absolutely did want to get out of there. This could be dealt with in the morning.
AS they exited, Emmett locked the door behind her, making sure to lock the garage as well as best she could considering someone had broken through the lock that was there in the first place.
"Want me to drive?" It was a question that Emmett would always ask, no matter the situation. Cars were her thing. She liked being the driver, even if she had a heavy foot.
