Out of Nowhere(114)

My face turns hot at once, and I want to kick her under the table, but Daniel just laughs and goes, “Right?” like he was thinking the same thing.

“Hey, did you ever invite Sam?” Daniel asks me.

“Yeah, I asked him at work.” I hesitate and Daniel rolls his eyes.

“Dude, it’s not like it could be worse than what I’ve heard from you guys my whole life.” Rex puts his hand on the back of Daniel’s neck. “I just—uh, sorry—just… what’d he say?”

“He said, ‘I’ll just let you two hang out since you have so much in common now.’”

“Has he been… shitty to you?” Daniel asks.

“Nah, he’s been fine at work. Normal. But every time… like, when I said you were moving back, he was just kind of whatever about it.”

Daniel sniffs. I used to think that sniff was him being prissy, but I’ve realized it’s one more of the things he does when he’s trying not to show he’s hurt.

“Yeah,” he says, “well, he didn’t care before; why would he now?”

“I think maybe he’s just being grouchy ’cause he’s got his own shit going on at home,” I say. I’m not sure if Sam would want me to tell Daniel this, but Sam’s not here, so…. “He and Liza were trying to have a baby and she had a miscarriage.”

“Oh shit,” Daniel says. “That’s awful.”

We make polite small talk about Daniel’s job and about the shop, though I stop myself from going into detail when Daniel’s eyes start to take on the faraway look they always got when Pop or me, Brian, and Sam would talk about sports and cars. Instead, I tell them about Ricky, who’s started working with me.

“She’s awesome. She’s this kid from YA—uh, the Youth Alliance—and she’s a genius with cars. She asked me some question about a carburetor once, for a science project or something, so I brought her to the shop to show her. She’s just…. She loves it, man. She’s so into it, so I asked her if she wanted a job and she jumped on it. She’s… not autistic….” I look at Rafe for the right description.

“She was born addicted to meth, and some symptoms that are on the autism spectrum go with that.”

“She’s just kind of vacant with people, but she’s amazing. Dude,” I say to Daniel, “remember when Pop would open the hood and have us see if we could guess what was wrong?” Daniel nods, a slightly pained expression on his face. “Well, asking Ricky’s like running a human diagnostic. She inputs all the stuff that’s wrong and she remembers every detail about the make and model’s system and she, like, spits out the most likely scenario. She can’t really talk to customers, but who cares.”

Rex looks at me consideringly. “It’s great that you gave her a chance even though she isn’t… great with people,” he says, his voice low. I remember Daniel telling me he used to be really shy. I didn’t notice it at first since he throws up such a protective vibe, but I can definitely see that shyness tonight.

Ginger’s telling a story about a client who came to her shop today when there’s an obscenely loud sound of something vibrating against wood. Daniel jumps, jerking out of his chair, and fishes a battered flip phone out of his pocket.

“Jesus Christ, sorry, guys. I thought it was on silent.” He shakes his head, looking awkward as he sits down. Then he flips open the phone and gets a kind of puppy-dog look on his face. “Aw, poor Leo—sorry, Ginge.”

“Ooh, what’s the latest in the tale of our young bizarro Daniel?” she asks. “Daniel made friends with this kid in Michigan who’s basically exactly like he was as a teenager,” she says to me with a wink, as if she assumes I know what she’s talking about.

“Poor Leo,” Daniel says, shaking his head in amusement. “He’s, like… how would you explain it?” he asks Rex. Rex thinks about it for a minute before saying anything, like he and Daniel are alone.

“He’s exactly who he seems to be,” Rex says finally. Daniel nods, like this is exactly right, but I have no idea what that means.

“Yeah, there’s no mask or anything. He’s guileless,” Daniel says, seemingly satisfied with that description.

Rex shakes his head.

“Oh,” Daniel says, “yeah, he’s totally genuine—like you said. So he’s just really easy to hurt, I guess. Vulnerable. You know?”

“That is just like you, then,” I say.

Daniel looks surprised. “What? No! What?” He looks between me and Rex. Rex gives him this barely there smile, but the way he’s looking at Daniel… it’s like there’s a whole history behind it. Daniel blushes and looks down, mumbling something I can’t make out.