Guilt

Julianne’s eyes narrowed when she felt a hand come to a rest on her lower back. It had been a relatively slow day at the shop, and she was busy organizing the tools strewn across the table in the corner of the garage. Poe always joked that if everything was in its proper place, no one would ever be able to find anything. A slow day had also given Pete plenty of time to harass Julianne; in some uncanny way, he always seemed to be able to do it whenever Poe wasn’t around. She decided now would be as good a time as any to take matters into her own hands.

“For fuck’s sake, get your dirty pervert hands off of me, or I swear to—Oh!” Julianne whirled around, raising the monkey wrench in her right hand in a threatening manner, to find Matt standing behind her, looking slightly taken aback at her sudden threat. She sighed and lowered the monkey wrench, wiping some grease from the handle on the thigh of her jumpsuit.

“I hope you’re hungry?” Matt’s sentence came out questioningly and uncertainly. He’d obviously meant to say that before Julianne went all madwoman on him and brandished a monkey wrench against him. Now it was ludicrously out of context but he obviously couldn’t think of much else to say.

“I’m sorry,” Julianne apologized. “And yes, I’m starving. I skipped breakfast—slept in later than I meant.”

“Do you always get so violent when you’re hungry?” Matt asked bemusedly as Julianne led the way towards the offices to tell Poe she was leaving for her lunch break.

“I’ll explain it later, once we’ve left,” Julianne threw over her shoulder, stepping up onto the one wooden step and pushing open the door leading into the offices.

“So, why so sour?” Matt asked once they’d seated themselves in a little deli not far from the body shop. The waitress had already taken their order. Matt could tell something was off about Julianne—something was upsetting her.

“There’s a new guy at the shop named Pete,” Julianne began. “He’s a real piece of work, that one. I can’t work one day without him doing some absurd sexual harassment—slapping my ass, tweaking my boob and then saying, ‘Oh, sorry, didn’t see you there.’ He calls me baby, sexy, tooty...But anyway, he’s been touchy-feely all morning, and it’s just pissed me off quite a bit. It isn’t what I need in this state of mind I’m in.”

“Have you talked to Poe about it?” Matt asked. His hazel eyes were flashing angrily, but his voice was steady.

“I told him all about it, but he said there’s nothing he can do unless he sees Pete harassing me himself. And Pete just seems to have Poe radar so that he never does any of this within Poe’s range of vision. I’m going to clock him on the head with a large metallic object one of these days,” Julianne said.

“I’ll help you hide the body,” Matt said with a smile, but his eyes were still flashing in that angry way. Julianne smiled back as their sandwiches arrived. Already, just hanging around Matt, she was feeling better.

{*****}

As Julianne started to climb out of Matt’s car back at the body shop, he snagged her wrist and pulled her back into the car. Julianne turned to look at him, the question in her eyes.

“Payment for taking you to lunch,” Matt said before turning his cheek towards her and tapping it.

“It’s going to take more than one lunch to get me to do that,” Julianne replied teasingly. “Maybe if you’d bought me flowers.”

Matt began to pout. “I did buy you flowers, but I got hungry on the way over and ate them...”

“No dice, babe,” Julianne said with a shrug, turning to climb out of the car again. Matt pulled her back again, giving her his best puppy dog face. Julianne sighed and leaned forward, puckering her lips to press a quick peck to Matt’s cheek. He turned his head suddenly, and instead of kissing his cheek, Julianne’s lips pressed up against his own lips. Julianne jerked away and upon seeing the fearful look on Matt’s face, wondering if he’d taken it too far, began to laugh. Matt smiled in relief as Julianne reached over and smacked his arm playfully.

“Clever, aren’t I?” Matt asked with a proud smile.

“Yeah, you’re as clever as a pirate is sober,” Julianne said. “I’ll see you later, bitch.”

“Nice talking, whore!” Matt yelled as Julianne slammed his door and walked back into the garage.

Work had picked up over the duration of Julianne’s lunch break. She’d been working on the underside of a car for several minutes when she felt a foot nudge against hers.

“Hey, baby,” Pete said. Julianne gritted her teeth.

“I’m not your baby,” she growled through clenched jaws. As usual, it didn’t faze Pete.

“Was that your boyfriend, the one that took you out to lunch?” he asked casually. Julianne smirked. Pete sounded jealous.

“Of sorts. You jealous?” Julianne answered.

“I could take that guy on with one hand tied behind my back, no problem,” Pete scoffed. Julianne heard him walk away and grinned wider. He was so jealous. And, if she caught his tone right, a little bit scared.