Chapter Text
Lucy Chen is having a bad day.
No, scratch that.
She’s having a bad…month?
No, no, scratch that too.
Lucy is having a bad year altogether.
And yeah, she tends to have a very optimistic view on life, so Lucy can admit that not everything has been awful. There have definitely been some good moments and she’s fortunate to be alive and well.
It’s just that some days, when you add all of those good things, they can barely hold her together under the weight of all the bad things.
Today is one of those days.
She’s lost in some small California town that she knows nothing about, her phone battery died, her car refuses to start, she knows next to nothing about fixing cars, and it’s starting to get dark. Plus, Lucy checked around her already and she’s yet to see any humans nearby.
So, in short, she’s screwed.
“Come on, girl,” she says out loud while turning her keys on the ignition again. Her car starts making noises as if the machine were choking up, then a loud bang and then…nothing.
Lucy takes the keys out and lets her head fall on the wheel. Her forehead connects with the horn and she groans as the annoying and loud beep of it blares around her, but she doesn’t lift her head.
She doesn’t know how long she stays like that, willingly contributing to noise pollution, until a repeated knock on the passenger window startles her. Lucy jumps in her seat, straightening and effectively making the noise from the horn stop.
On her left besides the car there’s a woman staring wide-eyed at her, a worried look on her face. Lucy has barely started to roll her window down when the woman sticks her head through, talking loudly.
“Hey! Are you ok? You hurt somewhere?”
Physically ok? Yes. Emotionally? Not really .
It’s what Lucy is tempted to answer, but it’s sad enough that some stranger thought something bad had happened to her while she was at her self-pity party, she doesn’t need to verbalize it.
“Uh, I— I’m ok, really.” She gives a reassuring smile that seems to convince the other woman, because she backs off while letting out a deep breath.
“Thank God, you scared me there for a second Miss.” Lucy winces, she didn’t want to go there worrying people. So, she opens the door and goes out to properly face this stranger that was kind enough to check on her.
“I’m really, really sorry for scaring you,” Lucy starts, genuinely apologizing. “It’s just, my car won’t start, and I’m kind of lost—”
“So, you thought the best solution was to wake up the entire neighborhood with your claxon?”
The woman, who Lucy now notices must be no more than five years older than her, arches one of her perfectly plucked eyebrows while placing her hands on her waist. She’s a bit shorter than Lucy –but not less intimidating because of that–, has wild dark curls framing around her small face, and she’s wearing a gray coverall that should look too big, but on her somehow looks more than right.
It’s the confidence with which she carries herself that makes it work, Lucy quickly notices, as her inner psych major kicks in.
That, and the fact she’s very pretty.
“…No. It’s just been a really long day, ma’am.”
“Right,” the woman says while giving her a disapproving look.
“Again, I’m very sorry,” Lucy says while joining her hands in a pleading gesture. Then, she remembers how she ended up where she is, so she asks, “Uhm, you wouldn’t know a place nearby where I can charge my phone to call a mechanic?”
At this, the woman’s face changes, a smirk growing on her lips as she shakes her head.
“You don’t need to call anyone. If it wasn’t obvious, I own a repair shop and can help with the car.” She gestures to her clothes with a graceful wave of her hand, the coveralls she’s wearing making even more sense now that Lucy knows she’s a mechanic. “But I don’t have my tools with me so, if you can wait until I go home and grab them, I will gladly check your girl.”
Lucy feels like crying. Maybe today isn’t a bad day after all.
“Really? Thank you so much, you’re very kind…”
“Angela, and this is Kojo.” The woman shows the dog leash in her hand, and Lucy feels the dog’s wet nose on her thigh before she sees it.
“I’m Lucy. Nice to meet you.” Lucy smiles warmly at Angela, who immediately smiles back, before bending down to pet the dog. He’s cute, with his brown and white fur and short ears. He also drools, but Lucy doesn’t mind. “And aren’t you the most adorable boy?”
Angela chuckles at that. “Don’t let his sweet face fool you. This little monster has destroyed at least three of my designer jackets. He’s lucky I like his owner.”
Kojo whines and looks up at Lucy, saying through his puppy eyes that he isn’t guilty of murdering Angela’s jackets. Lucy believes him.
“Is there a problem with me leaving the car there?” she asks Angela hesitantly after straightening in her spot and looking towards her car. Her orange Datsun is parked almost in the middle of the road, and she knows that back in Los Angeles that would get her an expensive ticket, or make it easier for her car to get stolen.
Angela waves a hand around. “Relax, I promise she will be there when we come back.”
Lucy is not totally convinced, but it’s not like she has a lot of options either.
“We?”
Angela nods. “Yeah, I’m taking you to my friend’s pub so you can make a call if you need it while I do my magic. Unless, you’d rather be alone and depressed inside your car while you wait? Which, I totally respect.”
Lucy chuckles in spite of herself. “No, I’d rather not.”
And that’s how she starts following a stranger with a cute dog through the streets of an unknown town.
They don’t walk for long before they reach a small pub, the front of it lined with glass window panes that allow for people passing by to look inside. Lucy has noticed on the way there that the town seems almost too quiet, as if asleep, very few open shops and even fewer people walking on the streets.
Angela pushes open the glass door and a doorbell above them chimes, stepping right inside as if she owns the place with Kojo tailing close behind, the sound of his tags clinking as he moves. She holds the door open for Lucy as she steps in, and then starts walking towards the counter, where a tall man is turned away from them.
“Hey, Bradford, look what I found!” Angela yells.
“Please, let it be money,” the man says, his voice sounding deep and rich. Lucy briefly wonders if she can tell if someone is handsome just by their voice, probably not.
“No, but it’s just as pretty.” Angela winks at Lucy and she feels her cheeks growing warm.
The man behind the counter chuckles. “Debatable.”
But it’s then that he decides to turn around and-- okay, maybe Lucy underestimated her judgment of this man’s looks by his voice alone, because he definitely is handsome.
His brown hair is buzz cut short, and his dark blue eyes immediately connect with Lucy’s from across the room, widening slightly the moment he sees her. He’s built, the muscles of his chest and arms noticeable under his gray Henley.
He has what Lucy’s mom would call a heartbreaker’s smile, and it makes her notice his full lips, the lines of his face that form around the curves of it, and the sharp edges of his stubbled jaw.
Lucy has seen many attractive men in her life, but none has caught her attention as much and as quickly as him.
She stares enough that she can see the smile disappear from the man’s face as he presses his lips together on a thin line, and when she looks up, he’s still looking at her, a hint of curiosity dancing in his narrowed eyes.
Angela gestures towards Lucy and keeps talking. “ This is Lucy, she got lost and her car broke down a block away. I just came to leave her and Kojo here while I go back to check it up.”
Lucy tries to put the best polite smile she can muster on her face. “Nice to meet you, sir.”
She doesn’t even know where the sir comes from, probably from being raised to be overly polite, probably because she’s just now noticing he’s quite a few years older than her.
The man nods slightly without breaking eye contact but doesn’t smile back at her, taking a beat before introducing himself as well.
“Bradford…Tim. I’m the owner of the pub.”
There’s a long pause where the two of them just stare at each other, caught in a sort of mutual assessment, until Angela clears her throat loudly. This seems to shake both Lucy and Tim enough to break their staring contest and turn to look at the woman.
“I’ll leave you two to get acquainted while I go back to your car,” Angela says to Tim with the biggest smirk before taking Kojo to a back room and coming out again, hurrying out of the door’s pub with a wave.
Lucy waves back at Angela and turns in time to catch Tim scoffing at her before he turns to keep wiping glasses, acting as if she was never there. She tries asking him where the power sockets are but gets nothing in return.
Nevermind, not like she needed his help anyway, Lucy is a big girl that can handle herself. After a brief walk around the pub, she finds where to plug her phone and sits to wait for it to charge.
She doesn’t get Tim’s attitude. When Angela arrived, he was all smiles for a second until he saw her, polite when he introduced himself –by his last name first, no less–, but beside that he’s been cold. And she gets it, they don’t know each other, but if he treats all his potential clients like this it is no wonder why the pub is empty at this hour of the day.
With not much else to do, Lucy decides to pass her time by checking the place around. The furniture consists of five wooden tables with four chairs each, their surface old and worn, and the counter that serves as a bar with the cash register at one end of it. The walls are painted a dull blue color, which Lucy knows it’s a bad choice for a restaurant, as well as the overall placement of the tables. It doesn’t let the energy flow at all .
The sudden sound of Tim’s voice as she’s focused on some travel pictures hanging from the wall startles her. “So, what brings you here?”
Oh, so he’s aware of her presence.
Lucy turns around and walks slowly towards the counter. He’s facing her now, but still focused on tidying stuff around. “In short, a malfunctioning travel app. I was supposed to land on the Pacific Coast Highway from LA, but clearly took some wrong turns, and the signal here is pretty bad, so I couldn’t check where I was going.”
This earns her a loud, mocking laugh from Tim, who stops whatever he’s doing to finally look her in the eye again.
The man shakes his head, the hint of a smile appearing on the corner of his lips, and she hates how her stomach flips at the sight of it. “That’s a rookie mistake, Miss LA. You should always print the map and get familiar with the route before starting a road trip.”
Lucy feels like laughing too, at the nickname he used for her and the idea of printing maps in this day and age, but knows he won’t take kindly to that, so she barely smiles and raises her eyebrows.
“Print the map? Seriously?”
Tim shrugs, looking at her as if not printing maps was actually an offense to him. “Well, technology isn’t always reliable.”
Lucy can’t help herself when she rolls her eyes. “Guess I learned my lesson on that,” she mutters, before she feels her stomach grumbling.
“Do you have anything vegetarian on the menu?”
Again, Tim looks as if her question has insulted him. “Do I look like someone who cooks vegetarian?”
“No.”
“That’s your answer.”
Lucy sighs, knowing it’s going to be a long wait until she finds out if she can leave and get back on the road.
Angela arrives an hour later, messy hair pulled back in a high ponytail and a frown on her face, and Tim has been her best friend for long enough to know she brings bad news.
He looks from his spot as Lucy perks up on her bar seat, abandoning her cesar salad on the counter –the only thing with just vegetables Tim has on the menu–. A hopeful smile forms on her plump lips, pushing up her cheeks and lighting up her face.
He sighs, knowing it won’t last for long. Not because he would like to see her smile more, no. He just feels bad for the woman, that’s all.
So what if she’s beautiful and took the air away from him when she stepped into the pub behind Angela? That’s the normal response any man would have at the sight of a woman like Lucy, with the delicate features of her face, those bright brown eyes, her wavy long hair falling around her shoulders and the curves of her very well-proportioned body…
But that’s there is to it, a normal response from the body when looking at another attractive human being. Nothing more.
Yet, some part of Tim knows there’s definitely something more, because he keeps finding himself interested in her despite him trying not to.
He’s aware he has probably been making an ass of himself with the way he’s treated her, but it’s just his natural response towards any unidentified threat that he doesn’t know how to handle.
Angela approaches the counter and gives Lucy a worried look. “Ok Lucy, already checked your car.”
Lucy deflates on her seat at Angela’s look and lets out a sigh. “Rip the band-aid off, how bad is it?”
“In short, it’s a miracle your car is even working at all. I can fix it, but it will take me a couple days at best.”
Lucy’s eyes widen and she almost falls from her seat. “A couple days?? No, that won’t work, I need to leave today–”
Angela places her hands on her hips. “Well, unless you can teleport, I don’t think you can.”
“But I need to get to San Mateo before the week ends,” Lucy blurts.
“Why San Mateo?” Tim asks before he can stop himself.
Lucy turns to look at him, a defeated look on her face while she purses her lips. “I have to meet someone there, but I was supposed to visit all these places first…”
Angela chimes in, excited. “Ohhh, is this a trip done for love?” She asks with a huge grin and hopeful eyes.
Tim braces himself for the annoying conversation he’s sure to be witness of, regarding love and all its virtues, but it doesn’t come.
Instead, he sees Lucy as she tenses in her seat, forcing a smile while talking to Angela. “It’s more complicated than that, but I really need to get there. Is there a rental car service in this town?”
Angela shakes her head. “Nope.”
“Any taxi lines?” Lucy asks.
Tim scoffs. “None with a driver that’ll take you out of town.”
“What if I could pay good money?” Lucy tries again.
At this Angela perks up again, narrowing her eyes at Lucy.
“How much is good money?” She asks before throwing Tim a look. And shit, it’s that look she uses when trying to convince him of something. “Because I might know someone that–”
Tim immediately shakes his head, giving her a warning look. “Lopez, no–”
But his friend just rolls her eyes at him before walking around the counter and grabbing Tim by the arm.
“Excuse us for a second Lucy,” Angela says and throws her a charming smile, while she drags Tim to the back office.
Once inside, Angela doesn’t let go of him, tugging on his arm until he’s eye level with her. And he’ll never stop being impressed by how much strength she has despite being so tiny.
“Tim. Listen to me. When have I ever had a bad idea?” Angela asks and Tim doesn’t like the tone she uses, nor the way her look has upgraded from bad idea to bad idea that I can totally convince you to be part of.
It seems like it’s too late to escape now.
“I can list a few, starting with the time you tried to go blonde.”
“Ok. So that was a fashion disaster, but this one is a good idea. Lucy needs someone to drive her through the Highway. Someone that knows the route well, sort of like a travel guide…”
“And that someone is…?”
Angela throws him a pointed look at his question, and Tim’s eyes widen.
“Me? No. No fucking way . No. You know I haven’t driven through there since…” He trails off, not wanting to even think about it.
Angela’s looks softens. “I know. But it’s been almost a year. And, you need the money for the pub, or did you forget how many debts you have?”
“I haven’t. But it’s not like I can just close the business and go–”
Angela grabs Tim by the shoulders, giving them an encouraging squeeze while she smiles at him sweetly. He suddenly feels like he’s five again and his mom is trying to get him to eat all the vegetables he doesn’t like.
“You know that Wesley and I can handle it for a few days. Besides, a change of air could do you some good. When was the last time you did someone—” Angela giggles at her mistake and Tim rolls his eyes. “Sorry, I meant, something out of your comfort zone that could actually benefit you?”
Ok, so maybe she’s right about him needing to take a break from working, but there’s a huge difference between that and driving around a complete stranger for days.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Come on, Bradford. You know you need this.” She smirks and looks behind her, towards where Lucy is sitting with her back towards them. “And, maybe it can also help to have a travel companion that looks like that.”
Tim frowns. “I wouldn’t be doing it because of how she looks.”
“But it helps, doesn’t it?”
It does, but he won’t admit that.
“I hate you.”
Angela smiles up at him, pleased with herself, before she lets him go. “No, you don’t.”
Tim sighs and passes a hand over his face. He hates that Angela is technically right, he is in over his head with debts, he knows the highway route like the palm of his hand, and driving someone around for a couple days is not a bad way at all to fix most of his problems.
The thing is there is a reason he hasn’t taken that route in months, and he had rather it stayed like that for a while longer. There’s also the fact that he’s too drawn to Lucy in such a short time for his liking, and that could be a problem.
Still, the money.
He throws a look at Angela before starting to walk back outside. “I’m so going to regret this tomorrow…”
He finds Lucy on the same seat they left her, her hands nervously twisting the ends of her mustard cardigan while she bites her bottom lip. She looks five seconds away from crying when Tim stops to stand in front of her and clears his throat to grab her attention. “Hey, Miss LA. What if I have someone familiar with the route and tourist spots that can drive you to San Mateo?”
Lucy straightens in her seat, her eyes regaining some hope as she looks up at him. “Really?! Who?”
“Me.”
“You?” Lucy asks with disbelief.
Tim crosses his arms over his chest. “You have a problem with that?”
Lucy quickly shakes her head, trying not to smile but failing. “No, sir. You just didn’t strike me as someone who drives strangers around on impromptu road trips.”
“You’re right, I do not. But I can recognize opportunities when they land in front of me.”
Lucy nods slowly, seemingly understanding what he’s getting at. “What’s your price?” She asks.
He grabs a piece of paper and a pen from over the counter and does quick math on his head. After a couple seconds, Tim scribbles a three-digit-number and hands the piece of paper to her. “No less than this,” he says.
Tim lets her read the amount while he keeps talking, “you will also have to pay for gas, food and hotels. I’m not a photographer. I’m not there to hold your bags, and I’m not traveling with you.”
He watches Lucy’s eyes widen as she stares at what he wrote down on the paper. “Holy shi–”
“Don’t tell me you thought it would be cheap.”
Lucy presses her lips together as she looks at him again. “I did not.”
“So, what do you say, Miss LA?” Tim asks, holding his breath while she takes her time answering.
Lucy stands up from her seat and takes a step towards Tim. “First of all, it’s Lucy, not Miss LA ,” she says with sass before extending an arm towards Tim, a determined look on her face. “Second of all, deal. I’ll pay you to drive me.”
Tim uncrosses his arms and takes Lucy’s much smaller hand in his, feeling a sudden warmth cursing through him at the touch. He decides to ignore it, for now.
“Pleasure doing business with you, Lucy. We leave tomorrow morning.”
They shake hands and Tim lets himself smile at her, earning a smile back from Lucy before he lets go.
“See you tomorrow, Tim.”