The Mechanic Pt. 04

"Oh? Who's she with then? Anyone hot?" Rowan gave her a wicked grin.

Riley flicked her head. "Don't you worry about who she's with, you're not her," she laughed.

"Although she does even have cool tattoos just like you," she added, wrapping her fingers around Rowan's inked bicep. "Will you tell me about them sometime?"

Riley had been intrigued by the sleeve since they'd first met. She had elaborately explored the images when she'd been in bed with Rowan, but all she knew was that each image represented something that was important to Rowan. And Riley was super curious about what was important to Rowan.

The cogs and other mechanical parts on her hand clearly stood for her passion for motorbikes, but Rowan had never divulged the meaning of any of the other images.

"Sure. What do you want to know?"

Riley had not expected that; Rowan had been rather secretive about it before. But then, that had been the first time they'd met and they didn't even know each other.

"What does this one stand for?" She traced her fingers over the crocodile head that was peeking out from under Rowan's shirt.

"Ah, that one is for adaptability. You know that crocs evolve to deal with anything that's thrown their way? As a species, they have been around forever and they will survive us all. Even within one lifetime, I think that's an invaluable ability, to be able to adapt when life throws you curve balls."

Riley thought about Rowan's experiences with Diana. Was that what she was talking about; that she was able to overcome her challenges by evolving, by changing her outlook on life?

A conflicting thought was triggered at the back of Riley's mind: Megan had told her that Rowan also believed that a tiger didn't change its stripes. The mechanic used this to argue the fact that she didn't - and wouldn't - do relationships. Riley had assumed the tiger on Rowan's forearm was there to remind her of this.

"What about his one?" She asked, indicating the tiger. How did her tiger theory relate to her crocodile one?

"The tiger..." Rowan stroked her arm pensively. "That's kind of my spirit animal, I think. Its strength, its independence, its perseverance... That sounds really deep, doesn't it?" She laughed, but Riley sensed it was a bit forced, as if there was something she wasn't quite ready to reveal.

"The mountain is for nature," Rowan continued quickly, "and how tiny our part in it is. The clockwork is for temporality. That reminds me not to waste any time on things that are not worth it, whether that's activities, people, thoughts... Its mechanics are exposed to indicate that we can take control of our time if we choose to..."

She touched each image in turn and seemed to lose herself in her reflections. Riley was moved that she would share these intimate thoughts with her.

"And this one?" She asked softly, stroking the saxophone on her upper arm. She'd seen it before and had wondered if maybe Rowan played.

"That one is for my father. It's the sound of my childhood, hearing him play. He was a mechanic too and I would usually be hanging out in his workshop after school. Whenever he had a free moment he would pick up this old sax that was completely covered in grease and play some blues tune." She smiled sadly. "I got this when he passed away a few years ago."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to upset you," Riley said, feeling Rowan's pain.

"It's okay... It's good to think of him, and seeing this reminds me of him every time. He actually hated tattoos so I'm not sure he would have appreciated the tribute much." Rowan laughed.

"It's the thought that counts, though. I'm sure he would have appreciated that."

"Yeah, perhaps... Anyway, I think that covers them all."

Rowan tucked her arm behind Riley's back. There were still a few smaller images that she hadn't talked about, but clearly the time for sharing tattoo meanings was over. That was okay; Riley had learned that with Rowan, patience was the way forward.

"Thanks for telling me."

Riley looked around her and realised most of the girls that had been standing around them had moved on and where chatting with others, getting drinks, or smoking on the balcony.

"Time to mingle, I guess," Rowan said, reading her mind.

Riley nodded and reluctantly got off her lap. The thought of separating herself from Rowan was made easier only by the fact that she knew who she was going to find first; she had some sanity checks to carry out.

* * * * *

Megan added some more upbeat songs to the playlist; the party was in full swing and the first brave souls had started busting some moves.

"Hey Megan! This is a great party. Thank you for inviting me."

Megan looked up to see Riley smiling broadly at her. "Of course. Glad to hear you're having a good time."

"This place is great and Jordan is awesome too. You guys are adorable together. I'm so happy for you," Riley continued.

Megan smiled. They were happy together. After years of keeping her head down while being too busy working and studying to think about anything else, she felt like things had finally worked out for her: she had a great girlfriend and a lovely apartment; she was close to finishing her degree. And on top of that, her match-making efforts for her best friend were going really well too.

"Speaking of happy together... You and Rowan...," she started with a broad grin.

She had to say, she was impressed with Riley. All the girl had needed was a nudge in the right direction; a little encouragement to confirm that her feelings weren't misplaced. After that, she had run with it, without any further help or encouragement, and she had clearly managed to at least make some cracks in the massive walls around Rowan's heart.

"How's that going?" She continued when Riley only smiled and looked away with a hint of a blush forming.

"It's going really well, I think..." Riley bit her lip. "Has Rowan said anything? Does she think it's going well?"

Megan smiled. How could Riley possibly be insecure about this? Rowan had never stuck around this long for anyone. In fact, no matter how hard Rowan tried to hide it, Megan had never seen her this infatuated with a girl. But then, Megan could probably see past Rowan's cool attitude a lot better than Riley could.

"She's been going on dates... She's matched her outfit to yours for the party... That is big, Riley. I don't know what you're doing, but it is working!"

"I've been doing what you advised me to do." Riley paused, looking uncomfortable. "All of it..."

Megan knew exactly what she meant. Not having sex with Rowan straightaway would definitely have helped to keep her interested. Not many girls resisted Rowan's charm.

"Well done. I can't imagine that has been easy," she chuckled.

"Oh my god, you have no idea. It's so hard!" Riley laughed too. She cleared her throat and continued: "Anyway... I think I'm ready. I think it's been long enough..."

It was halfway between a question and a statement. Megan chuckled again. She thought she was ready? That was the understatement of the century.

"I heard about your little stunt with the strap-on. That certainly got Rowan's attention; she couldn't stop talking about it."

Riley turned bright red. "You really don't have any secrets from each other, do you?"

"Nope, none," Megan said happily. Somehow, seeing Riley and Rowan's relationship come together made her almost as happy as her own. "Are you planning to use it then?"

"Do you think it's too soon?" Riley asked doubtfully.

Time for a reality check. "Rowan's had a perpetual hard-on for you for months. You sure kept her on her toes."

Riley smiled at that and looked pleased with herself for a moment, before the doubt returned to her expression.

"Yeah, but, you know what I mean... Her rules... Will she still see me after that? Or will it just be a once off? Will that be the end of it?" Riley was looking anywhere but at Megan.

Megan leaned in and waited for Riley to raise her eyes to hers. "I think you've already shown that you are outside the bounds of her rules. Remember that I said you needed to show her that you're different from all the other girls?"

Riley didn't reply but Megan could see her gaze shift for a moment. She realised she'd made the same mistake that had upset Riley before, mentioning 'all the other girls'. That was clumsy.

"Anyway," she continued quickly, "you've done that. You're in a different category now. If you want to sleep with her now, you have my blessing. Your training is over; you have graduated."

Riley laughed. "Thanks, Megan. For everything."

Megan pulled her in for a hug. She'd never hugged Riley before and maybe it was the gin she'd been drinking, but it just felt right.

Riley turned away and Megan was about to congratulate herself on another job well done when the blonde turned back with a serious expression.

"One last question... Just how many other girls have there been?"

Oh shit. Megan hadn't seen that one coming. She tried to keep the panic off her face. Even if she wanted to tell Riley, she had no idea. The short answer was: too many for Riley to be comfortable with; way too many for anyone to be comfortable with.

She couldn't stop herself from doing some rough maths in her head: since she and Rowan had reconnected five or six years ago, Rowan had probably hooked up with a girl twice a week on average. Add to that the occasional splash-out weeks on holidays, and - god forbid - the times she'd been with multiple girls on one night. Plus the girls that never even made it to her apartment; the quickies in the bathrooms of bars. There was just no adding it all up. Riley would run screaming.

"It's probably better to talk to Rowan about that...," Megan said meekly. She was ashamed of her cop-out, but she couldn't bring herself to give Riley a rough estimate or, probably worse, lie to her.

Riley's face said it all. She was freaking out anyway and not doing well hiding it. "That many, hah?"

"Hey, none of them meant anything to her. You do! You shouldn't compare yourself to them," Megan tried in vain. How had this gone so wrong all of a sudden?

"It's fine," Riley said, but her face said that it was anything but fine. She turned away to walk off.

"Riley, wait..." Megan got her attention but had no idea what else to say; she had no idea how to fix this. "Are you okay?" She asked weakly.

"I'm fine." Riley gave her a forced smile and walked off towards the kitchen.

As soon as she'd left, Megan's attention was demanded by two of her friends who came to tell her they were leaving and thank her. Megan looked over their shoulder, still preoccupied, and saw Riley pour herself a big glass of wine. She made a mental note to find Rowan and tell her what had happened, as soon as she could.

* * * * *

Jordan couldn't help but smile when she saw Rowan unsuspectedly pouring herself a drink. She'd just overheard Megan and Riley talking and couldn't believe the little blonde was actually planning on bringing out the strap-on on her enigmatic girlfriend. Who would have thought she had the balls?

"I have a feeling you're going to get lucky tonight," she said, stepping up behind the mechanic.

"Are you offering?" Rowan turned round with a big grin on her face. When she saw Jordan, her grin didn't falter. Instead, she added: "Oh, it's you... We may need to check with Megan first then."

Jordan was taken aback. Was she being serious? Megan had always said that her friend was kind of sleazy, but she couldn't really think there was any chance that was what Jordan was insinuating.

"And with Riley, I imagine...," she said coolly.

Rowan's face clouded over, as if that hadn't even occurred to her. Maybe she wasn't quite on the same page as Riley about the status of their relationship after all.

"That's who I was talking about, anyway - the one you may be getting lucky with," Jordan added. She stopped herself from saying 'your girlfriend'. Somehow she sensed that would open a whole other can of worms.

Rowan looked intrigued now. "What makes you think that?" She sounded nonchalant enough, but Jordan could see her interest had been piqued. Jordan wasn't planning on giving the surprise away, though.

"Just a feeling...," she said mysteriously.

"So far not much has been going on in the feeling department," Rowan mumbled; mostly to herself, it seemed.

"Things may be about to change, though."

After Rowan's earlier lewd comment towards her, Jordan was quite enjoying keeping her in the dark. She was curious how Rowan really felt about Riley. From what Megan had been saying, she'd assumed it was going really well, but now she wasn't so sure.

"How's things going between you and Riley, anyway?" She asked.

Rowan shrugged noncommittally. "We're not quite getting a U-Haul just yet." She grinned, and added: "You and Megan sure seem happy together. I don't think I've ever seen Megan this happy."

Jordan was pleased to hear that from someone who knew Megan so well, but she was also blown away by Rowan's evasiveness about her own relationship. She had no idea what to make of that, or of the mechanic in general. She realised that even though Rowan was her girlfriend's best friend, she hadn't spent a lot of time with her. Sure, they had met a few times, but she'd never talked to Rowan without Megan being there.

She wondered all of a sudden if Megan had orchestrated it that way for some reason. But what reason could that be? Jordan couldn't help being curious about this mysterious too-cool-for-school woman. She could certainly see her physical appeal, but there must be more to her than her cavalier attitude and hotness for Megan to care so deeply about her.

"You know, when I first saw you I thought you were Megan's girlfriend."

Jordan wasn't quite sure why she was sharing this. Maybe it was an attempt to find out more about her. Maybe there was something about Rowan that was inviting her to reveal such thoughts and reflections; as if by making herself less mysterious, she could make Rowan do the same.

"Did you?" The mechanic just asked, with an amused grin.

Jordan nodded. "You picked her up from the boxing gym on your bike."

"Oh yeah, I remember that. You looked like you were ready to punch my face."

Jordan laughed. "I was sizing you up, to see if you were any competition."

"And what was your conclusion?"

"My first thought was that you may be, yeah," Jordan admitted, again not sure why she would admit this. She had actually still been gathering intel for her friend Sam at the time instead of going after Megan herself, but she'd definitely thought Sam would have her work cut out for her.

Rowan looked satisfied, too satisfied. "And my first thought was that you were hot. Going to the gym suddenly made more sense." She winked.

Jordan huffed. "Are you always this sleazy?"

Rowan laughed wholeheartedly. "I see why you and Megan work together. Or has she already corrupted you against me?"

Jordan smiled. As much as Megan did not agree with Rowan's lifestyle, there was no way she would talk badly about Rowan. In fact, Jordan wasn't sure there would be a future for a girlfriend that couldn't get on with Megan's long-time best friend. She knew there was a long and complicated history there, but Megan had been fairly brief about it.

"You were together, right? You and Megan?"

Rowan nodded. "Sort of... A long time ago."

"Sort of? What does that mean?" Jordan pried.

"It means we slept together."

Jordan knew there was much more to it than that, but clearly Rowan was as reluctant to talk about it as Megan was. She wasn't very surprised that that was how Rowan summarised her past with Megan.

Fresh into her relationship with Megan, Jordan had quickly found out that Rowan had shaped many of the assumptions Megan had about other women. Even just being friends, with Rowan's fast and furious lifestyle a constant feature on the periphery of Megan's life, Megan had subconsciously started to expect that what women wanted from other women was a quick fuck. Jordan had experienced this first-hand and had to try hard to convince Megan she wanted so much more than that.

"Yeah, but you sleep with a lot of women, don't you?" She said.

Rowan shrugged. At least she had the decency to not look proud about that.

"And you're not friends with all of them, I assume?"

Rowan chuckled. "God, no. They wouldn't want that either."

"So why does Megan? Did you treat her better than these other girls?"

Jordan knew it wasn't her place to judge the past but she couldn't imagine Megan as one of Rowan's play things. The mere thought of Rowan treating her as such made her mad.

"We treated each other well." Rowan seemed lost in thought for a moment. Then her wide grin returned and she added: "Why? Do you need some tips?"

There she went again with the sleaze. "Thanks, I've got it covered," Jordan said, trying not to sound too icy.

"I'm sure you do." Rowan winked at her.

When the mechanic saw that Jordan wasn't amused by her comments, her expression grew more serious.

"Hey, I'm just messing with you. I can see that you make Megan really happy. She's much happier than she ever was with me. She's always wanted this kind of 'happily ever after'. I could never have given her that. That was never in the cards for me."

That was quite the sudden change of character. As soon as the nonchalant facade dropped for a moment, Jordan could see the side of Rowan that her girlfriend valued so much.

"But it is now. With Riley," she said kindly, believing it was true.

There was something sad about Rowan's smile. "Yeah maybe. We'll see..."

* * * * *

Sam's phone buzzed for the first time tonight. Usually there would have been more messages, but her girlfriend was also at a party tonight; she would have been hard-pressed to find a moment to text.

[How's the party, Miss Belivet?], the message said.

Sam smiled. When they'd spoken about this party, her girlfriend had actually considered joining her. She'd said it sounded like the perfect opportunity to meet Sam's friends. Besides, costume parties were right up her alley.

Needless to say there were plenty of challenges with that idea. First, her girlfriend being a famous actress and their relationship - along with her seeing another woman in the first place - being on the down-low, they had to be careful no one at the party would post anything on social media or spread any rumours. Second, her agent had arranged for her to go to this red carpet event and she couldn't really get out of it. In the end, they had jointly decided it was for the best if she didn't come, but they'd had a lot of fun picking Sam's costume.

[It's good fun but it would be even better if you were here. How's yours?], Sam replied.

The reply came instantly, which made Sam think she may have snuck out to have some phone time. [As expected. It's fine. Good champagne at least. But I have some youngster trying to chat me up...]

Sam smiled. This happened to her a lot. And of course, strictly speaking, it was how Sam and she got together. Sam had received the shock of her life when she'd seen the actress in her local supermarket. However, she had quickly realised she could not let this opportunity pass her by.

They'd ended up spending the night together but Sam had never imagined anything would come from it. Even when the actress had ended up staying at Sam's house for the remainder of that weekend and they'd spend the whole weekend in a blissful cycle of sex, snoozing, and eating, Sam had thought she'd never see her again after that.

To her complete surprise, however, she'd stayed in touch and they had been meeting up in secret ever since - sometimes at Sam's house, other times in the penthouse of some fancy hotel she was staying at.