The Mechanic

Alexis had always gotten surprise looks from customers when they saw that she was actually the owner of Perry’s Auto Repair. She was never much to conform to what a woman should do—she’d worked on cars practically her whole life and it was a dream of hers to eventually end up owning her own repair shop. Her dad started teaching her about cars when she was ten and she loved it so much, she even helped her brothers whenever their cars broke down.

She took shop in high school and went on to get a job at the local car dealership, getting in the required two years of schooling in order to maintain the job. After her parents died, she’d moved from Chicago to Detroit. She had some friends who lived near Detroit, and they let her stay until she got on her feet. Once the settlement of her parents’ estate was final, she took her share of her inheritance and opened her own repair shop at the age of thirty-five, fulfilling the dream she’d had since high school. Earning trust and loyalty from her customers, her business thrived within just a few months, requiring her to hire a couple more mechanics to help ease the workload.

Her best mechanic, Vince, had literally stumbled into her place. He was walking past her shop one day on a cold, snowy morning, slipped on a patch of ice right into her arms as she was coming out to sprinkle rock salt on the sidewalk, almost knocking her down to the cement. He saw the help wanted sign in the window, discovering his destination. When Vince found out she was the owner, he apologized profusely, hoping it wouldn’t ruin his chances of finally landing a job after months of searching. It didn’t of course—she hired him practically on the spot, instantly smitten.