Fabricating Jada Read online

  I sighed and closed my eyes for a moment to regain my composure from the strangest line of questioning I'd ever encountered. "I'm here because I want to learn and I want Jesse to be the one to teach me."

  "Why him?"

  A smile pulled at my mouth. "Easy. He's the best there is. Everything I know is self-taught, but that won't get me far if no one is willing to take me seriously. Jesse is a master blacksmith, welder, fabricator, and mechanic. I want that. I want to create with my hands and have pride in everything I produce and he can be the one person to help me get there."

  I could have sworn her blue eyes sparkled back at me. "So you work at Auto Depot?"

  "Yes," I admitted on a whisper. It was probably a joke to someone like her.

  "How long have you worked there?"

  "Seven years."

  DeAnna whistled. "So why haven't you tried to work at a real shop? Or go to college for automotive classes?"

  I huffed at her assumptions while at the same time my eyes skimmed the floor. "I've applied to over twenty shops in town. No one will hire me and I can't afford college."

  Why is she judging me?

  "Why not take out a student loan?"

  Her question was reasonable, but it really chapped my hide.

  "Look, it's not an option for me. My dad is sick and he can't work anymore. His insurance sucks and his disability checks don't cover a quarter of what we have to spend every month to keep him alive. I work because I have to. We have bills to pay and college just isn't in the cards."

  After a few beats of silence and the way she studied me, she finally spoke. "You get riled up very easily."

  I puffed out my cheeks and blew out a breath. This was the worst I'd ever tanked any interview. "Not usually. Normally I'm a pushover. I guess I'm just tired of not being taken seriously or being told that I haven't tried. I want this. The smell of metal that has just been ground down is like heaven to my senses. That first flash of a welding arc to make my helmet change from light to dark makes me downright giddy. I've exhausted every option available to me." My eyes drifted from her desktop back to hers.

  She scribbled something down as I spoke. Looking back up at me, she narrowed her eyes. "Do you weld?"

  I snorted and chewed on my lip. "Kind of."

  "What do you mean kind of?" Her beautiful face pulled together in a scowl.

  "I learned from watching YouTube videos. I bought an old arc welder off Craigslist and that's what I use. I don't know if I'm actually doing it right or not, but my beads seem to look like the ones I see online."

  DeAnna laughed. "That is the best thing I've ever heard. Do you have any pictures of the stuff you've welded?"

  A nervous smile crept up my face. "Yeah." I pulled out my phone and scrolled to the projects I'd created.

  She hummed with each swipe of her finger. My heart thrummed in my chest.

  "These are really good, Jada," she admitted, glancing up at me.

  My cheeks flushed pink again. "Thanks."

  "Your application says you live in Long Beach. Will you be able to get here every day?"

  I nodded with a huge grin. "I'll do anything it takes to get here."

  "I like you, Jada. I think you'd be a good fit for the last spot, but I feel like I need to warn you about Jesse."

  Here we go again.

  I arched my own brow and watched her expectantly, waiting for her to continue.

  "Here's the thing. My brother is a bit of a dick. Okay, that's a lie. He is the biggest asshole on earth, but he's good at what he does. You are going to have a harder time than everyone else here. He is going to question your motives and make you prove why you're here. Don't let him break you."

  Her brother? DeAnna is Jesse's sister? Break me? Why am I even here?

  It took my mind a few minutes to process everything she just said. "Can I ask you something?"

  She looked a bit apprehensive before she replied, "Sure."

  "Why me? I obviously lack a lot of experience and if he's just going to chew me up and spit me out, why would you choose me?"

  A fond smile overtook her face. "Because you remind me a lot of Jesse in some ways. I think you would be good for him. Lord knows he wants nothing to do with this class."

  What? My stomach dropped along with my smile.

  "What do you mean he doesn't want anything to do with the class? Wasn't it his idea?"

  She shook her head. "No. It was mine actually. He needs to get away from this fame crap and all the women throwing themselves at him and just be Jesse again. I think having him teach other people what he knows will help ground him, and it will help the lucky few excel in their own endeavors."

  It broke my heart he wasn't the one behind the idea, but then again I knew nothing about him. Only what I saw and read, and I doubted any of that was real. It was probably all an act.

  I liked DeAnna. She didn't beat around the bush and she seemed to think I could do this.

  I guess the next step was to meet Jesse.

  We walked over to the shop, with every one of my senses in overdrive. Not only was my heart fluttering and my stomach full of butterflies, but I felt incredibly self-conscious. I wondered if I would actually be able to handle him if he was as bad as DeAnna said he was. It's not like I was known for having a strong backbone when it came to standing up for myself. My job was the biggest example. "Good luck," she whispered before she pulled the heavy metal door open to the shop.

  My throat was suddenly dry as we walked around the benches to where Jesse, clad in a blue flannel shirt he was known for wearing, a pair of gray Dickies work pants, and a black bandana cloaking his full head of dark hair, was bent over a jig, grinding on a frame.

  I took a deep breath, inhaling one of my favorite smells. There wasn't anything else like it.

  If I thought he was attractive in magazines and on TV, they didn't do him justice. The muscles in his forearms flexed where his sleeves were pushed back with every movement he made, and the dusting of dark facial hair made my knees weak. He was the only man I'd ever seen rock a pair of safety glasses and look hot doing so.

  Stop looking at him like man meat. You're here for a reason, and his sex appeal is not it.

  DeAnna waved in front of him to get his attention. "Hey, Jess."

  He glanced at her, and then his eyes locked onto me. I could have sworn I heard music in the background like I was in a Hallmark movie. He released the trigger on the grinder, and the sparks stopped flying immediately.

  "Who's this?" he asked in his baritone voice, nodding toward me.

  "This—is Jada. She is the last person to fill your fabrication class."

  He scoffed and looked at DeAnna with disbelief. "No way."

  Re-engaging the grinder, he ignored us both and went back to the frame he was working on.

  I glanced at her with a frown pulling at the edge of my mouth. Taking the moment I actually had to watch him work, I studied the movement of his hand as the disc of the grinder sent sparks flying in the air, leaving a smooth surface in its wake.

  DeAnna stomped over to the outlet connecting his grinder to power and yanked the cord out. His head whipped in her direction with a murderous scowl. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

  "What I have to—in order for you to listen. She is going to be in your class, and you're going to be nice to her."

  His eyes roamed over my body before he settled on my face. "Why her?"

  My cheeks and chest flushed pink. Same thing I asked, dude.

  She stomped back over to us with her heels clicking with each step. It made me nervous for her to wear those kind of shoes in a garage. Lord only knew what she could slip on. It wasn't safe. "Because she reminds me of someone I used to know, and she's very talented."

  Jesse's face morphed into a sinister sneer as he dragged his eyes over me again. "Talented, huh?"

  "Don't flatter yourself," I snapped.

  His eyes darted to mine. "Why are you so talented, Jane?"

  "It's Jada, an
d I'm not. I just want to learn."

  He set the grinder on the floor and stood up. Jesse was a beast of a man, especially compared to a girl my size. His broad shoulders rolled back, and his pants hung low on his hips. The white tank top he had on below his open flannel stretched across his wide chest and tapered waist. There was so much to look at, but I had to mentally smack myself to stop staring at him.

  One thing I'd mastered over the years was keeping on a mask of indifference, no matter how much what people said cut me inside.

  Jesse crossed his arms over his beautiful chest and narrowed his eyes at me. "What exactly do you think you're going to learn from me?"

  I rolled my shoulders back and stood as tall as I could for being only 5 feet 2 inches. "Anything you're willing to teach me when it comes to metal and fab."

  Please don't let him be able to turn that into another innuendo.

  He rolled his eyes and gave DeAnna another unimpressed look. "What do you drive?"

  Oh, no. Not this question.

  I huffed and tried to remain stoic. "I don't."

  He let out an annoyed laugh. "You don't drive? Oh, this is rich. Where the hell did you find this girl, Dee? The Valley?"

  Narrowing my eyes at him, I refused to let him make me feel bad. "I drive, I just don't have a car right now."

  "Let me get this straight. You want to be a fabricator and learn to build cars and bikes and you don't even have one of your own? That's like showing up to a drag strip without a dragster and telling them you're a driver. It doesn't work that way, Jane."

  Before DeAnna could say anything, I cut her off as my blood boiled below the surface. "How does my lack of ownership of a vehicle have anything to do with my ability to work hard?"

  His brow arched up against his bandana. "Because if you actually worked hard, like you claim, you would have found some way to pay for a car."

  My hands balled into fists at my side. "You have no idea how hard I work and making that assumption based off something that isn't a priority for me right now, is bullcrap."

  He snorted. "Bullcrap? Wow." Jesse rolled his eyes and shook his head at me. "A car or bike should be your priority if this is what you want to do. Nothing should stop you. Maybe if you put half the time into your craft as you do dolling yourself up with makeup—you'd be somewhere. This isn't going to work, you don't have the drive. Pun intended. Don't waste my time or yours. Get out."

  I fought back the nerves and the tears that threatened to spill down my face. "You want to know something about drive, Mr. Valentine? Drive is giving up everything to help my family. Drive is working twelve-hour days, six days a week and only keeping fifty dollars from every paycheck so my dad can have the medical care he needs. Drive is riding a bus for two hours one way to get here and being willing to do that every day for the chance to work with you. But I'm starting to think that was a huge mistake. I will find another way to make my dream a reality, but you—you will always be a pompous, self-centered, jerk."

  I turned to DeAnna and forced a smile. "Thank you for the opportunity, DeAnna, but he's right, this isn't going to work." I pivoted on my heel and searched for the exit sign.

  His scoff was louder than before. "Wow, you're a quitter too? Yeah, I don't have time for that shit. My time is precious and you won't be a part of it."

  I whipped around, marched over to him and stood on my toes so I was in his face. "I'm no quitter, Valentine. I will find a way to learn to fabricate on my own, and my only mistake was admiring you for all these years."

  Something in his scowl softened but his honey eyes stayed as hard as ice. "So you admit you have an admiration for me?"

  It was my turn to scoff at his arrogance. "Your work, yes. The way you handcraft everything that has your name attached to it is incredible. But you as a person? Heck no. I'd hoped all the crap they said about you was just exaggerated, but now I know it wasn't. You are a jerk and I don't have to stand here and listen to you berate me and my life choices."

  I'd said my piece and accepted that this was just another one of those things life was going to teach me. Sometimes we built things up in our heads too much and the reality of them was nothing like we'd imagined.

  Just like Jesse Valentine.

  I marched out of the shop with my head held high and prayed I wouldn't regret my decision later.

  My phone rang three times with DeAnna's number across the screen while I waited for the bus. I refused to answer it. There was nothing left to say. Jesse's act wasn't an act at all, and maybe I just wasn't strong enough to put up with his abuse. Maybe abuse was too strong of a word, but I didn’t know if I could deal with someone like him every day. The bus pulled up to the stop in front of me with a horrendous screech followed by the air brakes releasing as my text message pinged. I waited until I was seated to look at it.

  DeAnna: Be here at 8 a.m. tomorrow. You're in. No one has ever stood up to him like that before and he was impressed. I also loved the fact you were able to tell him off without using one curse word. :)

  Figuring it was my mom or my best friend Carter, the last thing I expected was to see DeAnna wasn't going to give up. That much was evident. I just needed to decide what I wanted to do. Was I strong enough to put up with Jesse's arrogance? While I'd convinced myself I was okay with walking out of his shop, I wasn't sure that I was. Maybe he was right. Maybe I was a quitter? He hadn't said anything to me that I hadn't heard before, so why did I give up so easily when the one opportunity I wanted more than anything was right in front of me?

  I pulled up Carter's contact info and typed out a message.

  Me: SOS. I need fro-yo therapy. On my way. Bus ride will be long. I don't know what to do.

  It wasn't even a second later when the text bubble popped up on my screen followed by a chime.

  Carter: What happened? Did that bastard make a play at you? I'll chop off his balls and make them into yogurt!!

  I snorted at her response.

  Me: That's disgusting. No one would pay for ball-flavored fro-yo.

  Carter: This is California. We can sell anyone anything. They use whale sperm for facials. If we told them they'd look younger if they ate ball-frozen yogurt, they'd do it.

  The tension fell from my shoulders as I laughed silently at my crazy best friend. She was my opposite in every way. While I looked more like a prepubescent boy, Carter was built like every plastic surgeon in the greater Los Angeles area's wet dream. Her blonde pixie cut was edgy to my long dull locks. Everything about her screamed fashionista while I was lucky if my jeans were washed after four wears and my tank tops didn't have grease stains on them. But none of that mattered when it came to our friendship. We'd been best friends since second grade, and even though we were polar opposites, she believed in me and I knew she would have the advice I needed.

  A battle raged inside me on the long ride back to Long Beach. I flipped through the latest Hot Rod Magazine, running my fingers over each car. The time, blood, sweat, and tears that went into these machines made me ache. I wanted to be a part of that. This was my chance. When the bus pulled up to the stop a block from Carter's job, I jumped out and walked the rest of the way.

  The bell above the door dinged alerting them to another customer. Carter's head popped up from the register as she made a beeline for me. Thankfully, the place was empty for the moment.

  "Hey! Give me just a minute. Grab a table."

  I nodded and gave her a forced smile as I made my way to the table in the corner. A minute later she plopped a giant bowl of swirl fro-yo topped with strawberries, brownie crumbles, M&M'S, gummy worms, cherries, and whipped cream in front of me and slid into the booth. It was my go-to comfort food, and no one knew it better than her.

  "All your faves. I know that look. What the hell happened?" Concern pulled at her perfectly manicured brows.

  I scooped a giant bite into my mouth and chewed slowly. "You know, the usual."

  "What was he like? Did you meet him? What did he say?"

  Snorting at her
questions I replayed all the crappy things he said in my mind and shoveled another bite into my mouth.

  "He talked down to me like I was worthless. Apparently because I don't have a car I'm not serious enough about doing this." I took another heaping bite and then pointed my empty spoon at her. "Oh, and if I spent less time on my appearance and more time on car stuff I wouldn't be the loser I am."

  Her nostrils flared with annoyance. "First of all, you are not a loser. You are an incredible person and if he can't see that then he's a douche canoe. Second of all, you have more important things to worry about than owning a car. Can he say he's helped keep his dad alive by providing? I doubt it. And for the record you get dressed faster than anyone I know. It takes you like what, ten minutes? So he can go fuck a duck."

  I smiled at her mini-rant which had caused her cheeks to flush. "I love you. You're the psycho a girl could call her friend."

  "I love you too, J. You're my best friend and I refuse to let some TV asshole treat you like shit."

  That was my biggest problem. I let people treat me like crap my entire life. I wish I had lady balls of steel like Carter did. Something about DeAnna and Jesse brought a fight out in me that wasn't usually there.

  "I know." Playing with my yogurt instead of eating it, I laid my head in my palm.

  "So what's the dilemma? You said you didn't know what to do—about what?"

  Slowly, I glanced up at her. "He told me to get out of his shop. And then by the time I got on the bus, DeAnna had called me a bunch of times and then she sent me this." I slid my phone over to her.

  She scanned the message, and her green eyes darted back to mine when she was finished. "So if you're in, then what's the problem?"

  "Jesse. He thinks I'm a joke already. I don't know if I'm strong enough to do this. It's apparent that we'd go head to head on a daily basis. And with him, Carter, I stand up for myself. I told him off. I think he's really exactly how his show portrays him. Hard to work with and his ego … my God his ego—I'm surprised it fit in the shop with us."