The Biker and the Gamer - S. Ann Cole Page 0,1

lips. She sucks in the rest of the noodles right before she looks up and sees that she has an audience.

Sticking the fork in the cup, she sets the soup down behind the counter and gives the purple-haired chick a pointed look. “Thought I told you to lock up.”

Meanwhile, I'm stuck in place, muted. There is no way this chick is real. It's like she just walked off the page of a comic book.

Absolutely insane.

She's like an anime, an avatar, a game character…

Her style is a cross between emo and Goth. She has the grayest eyes I've ever seen, with flecks of blue. Like old CDs.

Her shoulder-length hair is as black and shiny as motor oil, with thick bangs over her forehead. Her cat-grey eyes are surrounded by dark eyeliner. Lips painted black. Her skin—pale and milky—is so smooth, flawless, pore-less, that she just doesn’t appear real or natural.

She doesn't look like a person, she looks like…a character.

Around her neck is a black leather choker with a silver bullhead in the middle. Every finger on her left hand is adorned with silver rings ranging from skull-heads to snakes. Her simple sleeveless black top exposes ample cleavage—well endowed. One arm is swathed in artistic ink, while the other has a tribal print from her wrist to mid-forearm.

From my vantage point, I can’t see her lower half, but I’d bet a million bucks she's wearing leather pants and multi-buckle combat boots.

Hell, why be shy now? Pressing my palms into the countertop, I lean over and peep down behind it. Yep, she's in leather pants and combat boots, except these have chains instead of buckles.

“Can I help you?” she snaps, arching a censorious brow at my boldness.

I draw back from the counter with a small smile. “Well, yeah. As I was just telling your colleague here, my engine's failed.”

“Where?”

“Six blocks up.”

Nodding, she picks up the phone and dials. “Greg, need a tow, six blocks up before you leave...Yeah...Uh, hang on.” She moves the phone from her ear to ask me, “What are we looking for?”

“A neon green Jeep Wrangler.”

“Jeep Wrangler, neon green,” she echoes into the phone. “Cool.”

Hanging up, she turns to her co-worker. “Go check who’s still available in the Service Center and see if they're up for an engine diagnostic. Then you can clock out. I’ll lock up.”

Purple Hair seems annoyed by the command, but she nods and disappears through a blue door to the left.

“Thank you,” I say, unable to take my eyes off her. “She acted like I was committing a crime by coming in here.”

“It’s after work hours,” she says. “All Lisa's thinking right now is TGIF.” She picks up a clipboard with a form on it and slides it across the counter to me with a pen. “Fill that out, please.”

I pick up the pen but am still unable to drag my gaze from her face. “So, she’s Lisa, and you're…?”

Her heavily-lined eyes settle on me with intensity, reading me, tracing my features. I feel like I’ve won somehow. I’ve gotten her attention, piqued her interest, and something tells me that doesn’t happen a lot with this girl.

“Kendra Tisdale. But I prefer Kenny,” she finally replies, her eyes on mine. “I’m the operations manager.”

Even her name is like a 'character name.' “Nice to meet you, Kendra.”

“Kenny,” she corrects, then points to the sitting area. “You and your girlfriend can have a seat for now.” She picks up her cup of Ramen. “Haven’t eaten all day. I need to put something in my stomach before I collapse. Hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” I reply, backing up from the counter. “After all, you’re helping us after business hours.”

Once we’re seated, Tiffany leans over to me and whispers, “Oh my God, am I high on caffeine or am I looking at an anime character right now?”

I chuckle. “Nope. You’re not high.”

After a long moment, she leans over again, her bespectacled stare on Kendra, who’s nursing the Ramen noodles. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Yep,” I say as I take out my phone and snap a quick, discreet picture of the girl who’s too unreal to be real. “I most certainly am.”

It takes twelve minutes for the tow truck to return with the Jeep, and another fifteen to find out what the issue is. Apparently, a lower radiator hose got blown out and, as a result, I ran out of coolant and had been running the engine red a few hours too long. Guess that explains the overheating and the