Intermission - Lucy White (Part 1).

All it took for Mila to instinctively know that Alice was thinking exactly the same as her was a single glance between them.

This girl here was absolutely Oliver’s type. Smoking hot, incredibly cute, looked like a badass in that bike and leather suit, had a tiny beauty mark under her left eye… and this last part was just a hunch, but she had a very friendly smile that made Mila believe, or at least want to believe, that she was a good person.

“Lucy? You came to the meet, too, huh?” Alex asked her, smiling and answering the girls’ handshake after she removed her glove.

“Not really, I was just coming back to town and took the long way on a whim,” she said, stopping the engine of her bike, parking it and leaving her helmet on top of the seat. “I didn’t know there was a car meet tonight. This is so cool.”

“You know each other?” Alice asked her brother.

“A bit. She’s been frequenting the shop lately,” Alex said. “Her old bike had an accident and she wanted us to fix it. We couldn’t, so…”

“Wait, I thought that bike looked familiar,” Alice said, eyes wide. “That’s the bike you were working on with Oliver!”

“Yep. His mom didn’t let me give it to him as planned, and your dear sister-in-law won’t let me drive it, either. I had to make back the investment, so I sold it to Lucy.”

“Wait, what’s that? This bike was meant for someone else?” Lucy asked, now looking a bit worried.

“Ah, no, no. Sorry.” Alice started. “I’m Alex’s sister, Alice. Our boyfriend,” she quickly gestured to herself, Mila and Fernanda. “was helping Alex fix that bike, so I’d seen it at the shop before. Alex wanted to give it to him as a gift, but we ended up fixing a van for him instead, so… don’t worry about it,” Alice finished with a reassuring smile.

“Ah, I see. Lucy White, by the way. And well… For what it’s worth, the bike’s been performing even better than my old one, so send my thanks to your boyfriend, too.”

“We will,” Mila said. Oh, they definitely would… The gears in Mila’s head were already turning, and she had a mission right now. She wouldn’t let a repeat of what happened with Diana and Fernanda happen again. By that, of course, she meant losing them for months not knowing if Oliver would ever see them again.

Sure, maybe Mila was jumping to conclusions too quickly. For all she knew, Oliver could get one of those warnings that said this girl was completely incompatible with him. But in case the opposite was true…

…

…

She was too hot to let go. Just adding her on social media would be enough for now. Here's hoping she was single.

Truthfully, Oliver would probably be against this. He’d tell them not to bother her, that this wasn’t the right time or that things were fine as they were right now. Good thing he wasn’t here to stop them.

“Excuse me, but… You said you had an accident?” Fern asked with a worried frown. “I hope it wasn’t anything serious?”

“Oh, no!” Lucy laughed. “My old bike had an accident, not me. I had it parked and someone ran it over. I can laugh now, but God I was pissed when it happened.”

Fern let out a sigh of relief. “I can imagine.”

“So you’re into bikes?” Alice asked, taking a single step forward and leaning against the railing separating the parking spots from the road. Mila stopped herself from smiling. If Alice was getting comfortable, it meant she wasn’t willing to let this girl go just like that, either.

“Yes and no,” Lucy said, also getting comfortable against the railing. “I like bikes a lot, but I’m not exactly an expert in them. I’m learning how to maintain this new one.”

“Lucy, right?” Mila jumped into the conversation. “What do you do?”

“Right now? Nothing,” Lucy said with a wry smile. “I just graduated university and can’t find a job.”

“Ugh…” Mila and Alice groaned sympathetically. “That sucks.”

“What did you major in?” Fernanda asked.

“English,” Lucy said with a self-deprecating smile. “Nothing special, but I was hoping to work as a book editor.”

“Oh, you’re a big reader?” Alice asked.

“Woah, girls, what with the interrogation?” Alex asked, smiling and in good humor, but clearly trying to put a stop to their questioning of a total stranger that had just stopped to say hello.

Alice, Fern and Mila flinched and grimaced. “Sorry, we didn’t mean…”

“Nah, it’s fine,” Lucy said, her smile bright. “Since I bumped into this, I was thinking of staying for a while to watch. Alice, right? I think I heard your brother say you’re super into cars.”

Alice looked at her brother with a raised eyebrow, almost as if asking “do you tell everyone about me?” but she didn’t say anything to him. Instead, she turned to look at Lucy again.

“Well… Yes, I am. This is my car,” she said, nodding to her RX-7.

“Then… would you mind showing me around?” Lucy asked.

Alice turned to look at Fern and Mila, both of whom smiled and nodded.

“Sure, it’ll be fun,” Alice said. “Let’s hang out together.”

“Cool! I was going to ask Alex, but I’d rather not ask a married man, you know?” Lucy said with a teasing grin.

Alex cleared his throat. “Speaking of… I think I feel a glare in my back. Don’t go too far, you hear?”

“What happened to watching over us?” Alice asked, smirking teasingly.

“You’ll be fine so long as you don’t race,” Alex said, sighing heavily and looking around. “Honestly, I don’t have a good feeling about tonight. I see too many faces I’ve never seen before.”

“Oh, then better be careful on the road,” Lucy said. “You know what they say, right? Drive like everyone around you is an idiot. It’s what keeps me alive riding a bike.”

Alice laughed and nodded in agreement.

Yeah, so far, Mila was getting a good feeling about Lucy.

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