The day had been long and Tina was on her way home to relax. She was almost at home when her car started to sputter. She complained under her breath. "Jeez not again," she mumbled to herself. She pulled over to the side of the road and pulled out her phone to call her friend, Helena. After a few rings, she picks up the phone.
"Hey Tina, what's going on?"
"Hey. My car stopped again. Can you come and get me?"
"Again? You really have got to get that car fixed," Tina heard Helena say for the fourth time that month.
"I know, I know. I've just been so busy with work. I just haven't gotten around to it."
"Oh, well, where are you?"
"I'm close to Gibson Park."
"Okay, I'll be right over."
"Thank you so much!"
"No problem."
Tina sits and waits for about 10 minutes before the British woman pulls up to the side of her in her own car and honks her horn to gets Tina’s attention. She made sure she grabbed her bag, her phone, and got out of the problematic car. She made sure all of the doors were locked and hopped into Helena’s car, greeting her with a hug.
"Thanks again, Helena," The blonde says in a grateful voice.
"I don't mind, you know that."
Helena turns up the music and makes her way to Tina’s house. As they go, Helena starts to tell Tina about a mechanic that works on her car when it gives her problems.
"Her name's Bette. She works on my car whenever I have a problem with it. You should stop by there to get her to work on yours."
"I don't know. How much will it cost me?" Tina asks in a voice of uncertainty.
"She only charged like $100 for me. I'm sure if you told her I recommended you, she would give you a discount or something."
"Okay I'll have to have my car towed there though since it's not running. What's the address?"
Tina types the address into her phone as her friend calls it out. While doing so, Helena pulls up in front of Tina’s apartment.
"Thanks again for picking me up."
"You're welcome. Now go get some rest."
Tina gets out of the car after giving Helena a hug. She heads into her building and opens the door to her apartment. She kicks off her shoes, goes into her room, and tosses her bag onto the floor. The worn out girl changes out of her clothes and gets into something more comfortable to relax in. Before she gets too comfortable though, she calls her towing company and makes a request to have her car towed to the address of the car shop Helena gave her. After handling that, the brunette girl throws herself into her bed to finally get some rest. Instantly, she falls asleep.
***
The next morning, Tina wakes up bright and early to stop by and check on her car. She has the day off, so she doesn't really have anywhere to be today. After getting up, she hops in the shower, gets out, brushes her teeth, combs her hair, and gets dressed. She then realizes that she doesn't have a way to get to the mechanic so she calls Helena for a favor once again.
The phone rings several times before the woman finally picks up the phone.
"Hey. Do you mind driving me to see about my car?" Tina asks with a voice of uncertainty.
"Sure I will. Just let me wake all the way up first," Helena says, laughing.
"Okay, thanks a lot. I owe you."
"Come on, Tina. You know you don't owe me anything. That's what friends are for. I know you'd do the same for me."
"Okay. Well what time do you feel like you can come and get me?"
"Maybe at about 12 since they don't open until 11, and it's 8:30 now."
"Okay well, I'll be waiting."
"K talk to you later."
"Okay bye."
The blonde hangs up the phone and decides to head into the living room to watch television until her friend comes to pick her up. I’m the mist of her being so indulged with the movie she was watching, she doesn't hear the knocking at the door. Finally when the action dies down, she hears the beating on her door and goes to answer it. She swings the door open and there stands Helena, looking impatient.
"Jeez, Tina, what took you so long?" She says while walking into the apartment and taking a seat on the couch.
"Sorry, I was watching a movie, and I guess I was so into it that I didn’t hear you knocking,” Tina explains.
"Oh okay then. Well are you ready to go?"
"Yeah just let me go and get my purse and grab my phone." The blonde says, running to her room to quickly grab her purse off the bed.
As she comes back out the room, an impatient Helena is already heading out the door and to her car. Tina makes sure the door is locked and goes to get in the car.
After driving with little conversations here and there for about 20 minutes, they finally reach the auto shop. Helena leads Tina through a door and is met with a lobby that doesn't look like it fits the business that they are there for. Helena greets the receptionist by first name, so Tina sees that she must come here a lot.
"Hey Dana. This is my friend, Tina. She had her car towed here yesterday for Bette to work on. Is she here?"
"Yeah, she's right out back. Nice to meet you, Tina."
"Nice to meet you, too."
Helena leads Tina through another door into the area where the cars are being worked on. She tells Tina to follow her over to the area where she assumes Bette is with her car. Sure enough, Tina spots a woman hovering over the hood, examining what the problem may be.
"Hey Bette!"
The green eyed girl looks up from the car and sees that it is Helena, and she greets her with a smile.
"Hey Helena! Long time no see. How have you been?"
"I've been great. This is one of my good friends, Tina. She had this car here towed in yesterday. Finally she's getting some real work done to it."
Tina's eyes meet Bette’s for the first time, and she doesn't want to sound cliché, but she feels butterflies. Obviously, she must have been staring quite a while because she feels Helena’s elbow in her side, and she looks over at her wide-eyed.
"W-what? Did you say something?" The blonde asks, confused.
"I said Bette here is one of the best mechanics in town," Helena says, while giving Tina a side eye.
"Well looks like I brought my car to the right place," she says with a sort of flirty tone.
Bette looks at Tina bit caught off guard because of the obvious flirting, and they stare at each other for a while until Helena clears her throat. Tina looks away, bashfully. After checking what's wrong with Tina’s car and turning in the first payment for the car to be repaired, Tina and Helena say their farewells to Dana and leave out of the shop. As Helena pulls out of the parking lot, she looks over at Tina, who is scrolling on her phone.
"So what was that in there?" Helena asks with a smirk on her face.
"What was what?"
"Don't act dumb now. What was that with you and Bette? The staring, the blatant flirting?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," The blonde folds her arms and frowns to try and make herself more convincing.
"Mhm. Right. It's okay because I think I already know what it was."
Tina turns her head to look at Helena. "And what was that?"
"I think you're attracted to Bette, but you're afraid to admit it."
"Oh please. I just met her today."
"And? That didn't stop you with Eric, did it?"
"Don't even mention that dick’s name," Tina runs her hand through her hair, now getting frustrated from hearing her ex's name.
"Tina, I'm just saying that if you are attracted to her, then there is nothing wrong with that."
"I know and I'm not."
Tina and Helena both knew that was a lie.