Chapter 24

“It appears as if you’ve got an engine misfire problem.” Harvey hummed as he leaned in to compose a more thorough inspection. “It also looks like you’ve got some mayonnaise under your oil cap.”

“What? How did mayonnaise get under there?” She asked in shock, taking a step forward to get a better look at what he was staring at. “Maybe it’s one of the kids from school playing a trick on me.”

His back stiffened and he slowly turned his head to glance at her from over his shoulder, not even trying to conceal the large grin on his face, waves of mirth swimming in the pale blue of his eyes.

“Why are you laughing? That sounds pretty serious.” Her lips tugged down in a frown, her eyes not wavering from all the different parts of the engine, trying to figure out exactly what was wrong. “What do I have to do to get rid of the mayonnaise?”

“By mayonnaise in this scenario, I am referring to the fact that a mixture of water and oil has formed when the water condensed. It is serious, but nothing you won’t be able to repair so don’t worry too much about it. Everything else seems fine but I’ll need to make sure that this isn’t an indication of component failure.”

“Okay.” Anastasia blinked, stupefied by all the terminology that he had just flexed on her with. “What’s the next step?”

Harvey chuckled as he wiped his hands on a rag he pulled out of his pocket and moved back to close it up before turning his gaze on her.

“It means, I’m going to have to take your car back with me to the garage and get the engine replaced.”

“What about me?”

“Just into my truck and I’ll tow your car.”

“Thanks.” She smiled graciously and released a sigh of relief before following his instruction as he jerked his thumb at the tow truck behind him.

Anastasia sat in the passenger seat and twiddled her thumbs for a few moments, watching Harvey move about in the mirror. She watched as hooked the tow part of his truck into the bumper of her car as well as carry out some other checks she didn’t quite understand before he jogged around the side of the car and slipped into the driver’s seat.

“The garage I work at is very near to here so the drive should be quick, and then I’ll be able to properly check out the engine.”

“Thank you. I really appreciate your help.”

“Don’t worry.” He hummed dismissively as his truck hummed to life and he began to slowly peel out of the parking lot, very much aware of the few students that were still lingering about. “It’s actually my job to help out people like you.”

“People like me?” She asked quietly in a confused tone, willing herself to calm down before she decided to jump to conclusions.

Harvey spared her a sideways glance and chuckled. “Damsels in distress.”

Anastasia huffed and leaned back in her seat as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“Just because I don’t know my way around the internals of a car bonnet doesn’t make me a damsel in distress.”

“You’ve got a valid point there.” He agreed, his eyes occasionally flitting between her and the road.

A comfortable silence filled the car and once she realised that she had been spaced out for a while, she cleared her throat and turned to him, only to find a peculiar, curious expression on his face even though he was focused on the road ahead.

“What is it?” She asked as she could tell that there was something that he wanted to ask. “What do you want to ask?”

Harvey spared her a sideways glance. “How do you know there’s something I want to ask?”

“You’ve got this funny look on your face. Kind of makes you look constipated.” Anastasia laughed softly, resting her gaze on him.

“So, there’s no man in the picture?” Harvey asked quietly, finally voicing aloud the question that he had been wondering since they had first met at the diner a few weeks ago.

“No.” Anastasia confirmed with a shake of her head. “And I’m currently not taking any applications either so please refrain from asking me to dinner again.”

“Duly noted.” Harvey chuckled as he continued driving, merely sparing her a sideways glance. “How about I ask as a friend?”

“Are you asking me to dinner as a friend, or are you asking about the baby as a friend?” She quirked a questioning eyebrow, watching him carefully.

“Whichever one you’re willing to answer.” He grinned widely, pushing his luck.

Anastasia laughed softly at his attempt to sneak in another dinner request, but chose to ignore it and focus on the latter instead.

“I’m actually carrying this baby for my friends.” Anastasia explained, not feeling the need to mention the sexual orientation of Justas and Raphael as she didn’t see how that piece of information was relevant. If they were straight and couldn’t conceive, her decision would have still been the same.

“So, you’re a surrogate?”

“Yes.” She nodded, a soft smile on her face as she gazed down and rubbed her protruding belly gently, a natural instinct she had developed ever since that first moment she found out she was pregnant. Even before she had felt the baby moving in there.

“That’s really cool of you.” Harvey noted aloud with a glint of appreciation in his eyes.

“I like to think so.” Her lips twitched a little higher at the corners but the conversation soon came to an end as they pulled up into the garage.

While Harvey called over one of his colleagues so they could inspect the engine together, she took a seat in an empty chair and scrolled though her phone absentmindedly, wishing she had her laptop on her to get some writing done. Since she hated writing on her phone, she had no choice but to jot down her ideas in her notepad for now and just write them up later.

As she was so invested in this new character that she had come up with, choosing to pen his name Nixon, she didn’t notice that they had finished inspecting her engine until Harvey called out to her.

“Do you want the good news or bad news first?” Harvey asked as he approached her, leaving his colleague behind to close the bonnet as he wiped his hands on an old rag.

“Bad news.” She answered immediately without a slither of a doubt. “I always want the bad news first.”

“Well, your entire engine needs replacing and it’s going to take a few days, maybe a week for us to order it and get it delivered.”

“And what’s the good news?”

“I get to give you a ride home.”