Wheels of Steel, Book 1 (31 page)

Chapter 25

Robin felt as if she were walking on a cloud as she got into her car. She couldn’t wipe the stupid smile from her face.

She knew that she should probably go home and relax before meeting with Mr. Fred, but she felt very hyped and decided to get a well needed car wash and then an oil change. Then after that she would like to finally pay a visit to Miss Lucille and see how she was doing in her new digs. She checked her cell phone while she sat waiting for her car detailing to be complete and saw that there was a message waiting from Pinnacle. It had been left hours ago and the high that she had been on since leaving Jason’s apartment came crashing down. What could they want??

She replayed the message. It was from Ben.

~Robin, please call the office as soon as possible. Don’t go to Mr. Baker’s house before calling. Thanks.~

She dialed Pinnacle nervous about why they didn’t want her to go to Mr. Bakers. She didn’t care for the old man but she hoped that nothing bad had happened to him. She felt guilty at the memory of her and Jason’s earlier conversation and how bad she’d downgraded him. She couldn’t believe that she had actually contemplated rolling him on his stomach and hurting his penis.

Maybe he had even called Pinnacle to complain about her not bathing him yesterday. As the phone rang Robin began to agonize over all of the things that she could have possibly done wrong. When Mary Louise answered, it took all of her courage to sound confident.

“Hi Mary Louise. This is Robin M-”

“Hi Robin. I know your voice, hon.” She responded pleasantly. “How are you today?”

“I’m fine.”

“Good. Robin…I know that you said that you didn’t want to stay with your current client, Jason Hamilton, but…well Robin, we have a proposition for you.”

Robin felt sweat begin to bead on her forehead. They weren’t going to make her leave Jason because of what she’d said that first day, were they?! She listened politely wanting to rush in and say that she’d made a mistake. She’d changed her mind. She wanted to continue working with him.

“Robin, Ben has authorized me to offer you a raise if you will continue to work with Mr. Hamilton.”

Robin’s mouth dropped. Huh?

“How would a dollar more on the hour sound?”

“A dollar?” A dollar sounded great.

“Well there is a condition to that. We’re going to ask you to take him on in the evenings as well. Instead of working with Mr. Baker you would return to Mr. Hamilton from seven until eleven.”

Robin’s face felt hot in excitement. She would go back to Jason…She thought about their kiss and the tingling between her thighs returned.

“We understand that this is not something that you anticipated, Robin. And we do apologize, but Mr. Hamilton has been looking for a night time aid since becoming a client. We were lucky to have you work with him during the day and you have the training already.”

Something occurred to Robin; they needed her. She cleared her throat.

“Make it one dollar and fifty cents an hour, and of course overtime, and I’ll do it.”

“You have a deal.” Mary Louise responded quickly, which told her that they probably would have offered her more had she kept her mouth shut. But it didn’t matter. She wanted to see Jason and now she got to see him more and was getting paid to do it!

“When did you want me to start?”

“Tonight.”

“Oh.” She touched her face and wiped the crazy smile from her lips. “Okay.”

“Thank you Robin. We appreciate it, and understand how difficult Mr. Hamilton can be.”

“Well…it’s understandable, I guess.”

“Yes! Yes, of course!”

The two women hung up and when Robin’s car was finished she hurried home and headed straight for her computer to tell him.

His little Yahoo icon was wide awake. She quickly tapped out a message.

~Hi Top~

~Hi Sweetheart.~
Came his quick response.

~Guess what?~

~How many guesses do I get?~

~None. I’m not going to have to go back to Mr. Baker’s!~

~Mr. Baker??? Pervert man?~

~Aww. Mean. But yes!~

~That’s great. Did you tell Pinnacle that he’s a perv?~

~No…they assigned me a new client. Well not a new client; someone I know…~

~Is it me, I hope? I just got a message from Pinnacle saying that they found someone for me. It’s you?~

~Yes.~

A smiley emoticon was sent.

~I better go. I have a demanding patient and he will want me rested~

~blush. Sorry about that…~

~kiss~

A kiss emoticon with hearts floating about the head suddenly appeared.

Robin signed out, excitement causing her hands to sweat and her heart to pound. She’d never had feelings like these before; at least not ones that had been reciprocated. It was new and exciting. She took a long hot bath, listening to Wheels of Steel’s music that ran from her laptop which she plugged into computer speakers that had been positioned on the bathroom counter. She closed her eyes and fantasized about Jason’s lips and the way it felt being cradled in his big strong arms.

***

Jason called Amberly.

“Hey Tramp Stamp.” She laughed.

“And where were you today?”

“Playing hookie.”

“Bad boy.”

“Well…I never call off. What are you doing?”

“Nothing. Why?”

“Can you bring me my crutches?”

There was a pause. “Jason…you’re going to start walking again?!” Her excited voice became slurred. But Jason had no problem understanding her.

“I think so. I want to try.” He had hidden his crutches with Amberly for the last year. She had been trying to give them back to him, but he wouldn’t take them. There was no need for them when he couldn’t use them anywhere but in the apartment. In addition, he’d just have to worry about hiding them once a week. So she’d been holding them for him.

“I’m on my way!” Jason went to his computer and navigated to the college bulletin board for each of his missed classes to get the assignments for the day. And while he waited for Amberly he saw Robin sign onto Yahoo. He perked up instantly. They chatted and he felt a bit sneaky that he didn’t confide about his earlier conversation with Pinnacle. It wasn’t important. The important thing was that she was away from that pervert.

Amberly arrived a short time later carrying his crutches. She gave him a quick hug and he used the crutches to help brace himself as he pulled himself out of the chair and into a standing position. Amberly had to practically crane her neck to look at him since she was standing so close to him; presumably to catch him in case he fell, though if that happened Jason feared that he would crush her tiny body.

She took a few steps back so that he could walk. He leaned forward on the crutches, and then had to practically drag his lower body forward to catch up. He was greatly out of practice. This was not going to be easy. He could barely bring his legs beneath him to stand. He gave Amberly a doubtful look. The last time he’d walked, it was with the help of the pump, but that had been removed and never to return.

“You have to practice, Top. Call Raymond and let him know that you’re going to start walking.” He nodded. “And what brought this on? I’ve been wanting you to do this for a year!”

He smiled. “I don’t know. I want to stand without wobbling.” She moved forward and placed her arms around his body and hugged him briefly.

“I’m proud of you, whatever the reason. I know it’s not an easy decision. So you want to go eat?” He glanced over at the computer to check for the time. It was five thirty and had plenty of time before seven…but he wanted to eat with Robin.

“Nah. Hey you want to hear my latest?”

“Oh yeah!” She said excitedly. He moved back to his chair and sat down, tossing the crutches onto the nearby couch. Then he moved to the computer which was also his studio and pulled up the song that he’d just recently created.

Amberly sat down on his lap and listened. She didn’t have much rhythm when it came to bobbing her head to the slow beat, but she tried. When the song ended she gave him a curious look.

“That was great…but different. Where’d you get the voice? It was so…haunting; very beautiful.”

“That was…Sweetheart. A girl I met online. She’s a pretty good singer.”

“What do you call it?”

“Loves End.”

“Can I make a vid of it?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

Amberly relaxed in his arms. As it was the only seat in his ‘studio’ it was where she normally sat when listening to his music. His arms went around her comfortably and he considered how just a few short moments before, Robin had been sitting there and he’d been kissing her and holding her…

“Top?” He looked at Amberly, his cheeks reddening.

“What?”

“I asked you if you knew what you were going to do when you and Link DJ Friday.”

“Oh. Um…we’re going to probably need to get together and jam. I’ll talk to him about it tomorrow.”

“You know what we should do? We should all meet over here Friday and jam out, listen to some music, watch Beat Street and party before the party!”

He smiled and then shrugged. They used to do that all of the time; meet here or at Link’s and either watch old eighties rap movies or jam out making beats. Sometimes Patty would sing some crazy lyrics and Amberly would pull out her phone camera and videotape them acting crazy. It was why he hated for Wheels of Steel to end. He didn’t want to lose that type of relationship with any of them.

“Yeah. Let’s do it! Friday. You set it up with Patty and I’ll set it up with Link.”

She gave him a half smile. “Hey…did you know that they were…doing it?”

His expression froze. “What do you mean?”

“Doing it…” She made the universal hand sign for ‘doing it’ which was one curled hand and then the forefinger of her other hand poking at the hole.

“I mean, I know what that is…but are you saying that they’ve done it more than once?”

“Yeah. I’m saying that. Patty told me that they just did it again yesterday after school and they did it all weekend.”

“God…are they becoming a…thing?”

“I don’t know.”

The two speculated about it and Jason checked the time once again. “I better get my homework done.” She stood up.

“Alright. You gonna be at school tomorrow?”

“Yep.” She limped to the door. “Bye, Top.”

“Thanks for bringing those.”

“You’re welcome.”

After she was gone Jason found himself laughing. He called his friend, Link.

“What’s up?” He said trying to sound serious.

“I was going to call you later. Thought you might have bust your head in the bath.”

“Nah. Just needed a day.”

“I hear you.” Link responded.

“What are you doing?”

“Just finishing up with some homework. Getting ready to work on some beats.”

“Cool. We need to jam. Amberly wants us all to get together Friday.”

“Finally, dude! Yeah, I’m all for that!”

“Okay, well let Patty know. Tell her hi for me if she’s there.”

There was a pause and he knew that his guess had been right!

“What?” Came Link’s stuttered response.

“Ha!” Jason laughed. “You and Patty are a thing, aren’t you?!” Jason heard Link cover the phone. A moment later Link was speaking to him in a hushed voice.

“How’d you know?!”

“If you wanted to keep it a secret you should have told Patty not to tell Amberly all about the fuck fest you two are engaged in.” Jason wanted to fall on the floor laughing. It wasn’t out of meanness. He loved both Patty and Link; they were like the two older brothers he never had.