you had a secret. and no—it wasn’t one of those ones you could tell your best friend, or even one that was incredibly extreme, like being in a royal family.

you were a car mechanic. for street racing.

no one knew, except for your clients, yet since you moved to LA with your best friend, jenna rose, you’ve pretty much moved on from being a car mechanic. or so you thought.

you and jenna collectively decided to move back to your town, hopeful to find peace away from the big city of LA. however, the night before you left, you guys went to a race that was between the two biggest rivals in racing history. ceasar walker and skull. no, that wasn’t his real name—but it’s what he went by. to most, it was because he wanted the bigger attraction—but you didn’t think that was the reason.

to most, it was just a normal, high adrenaline race, but for you? it was a battle between one of your past clients, who you were 90% didn’t even remember you, considering he completely ignored your presence when he walked by, and his biggest rival that was known for winning.

that client would be skull. no, you didn’t know his real name, even though you had worked for him for years, but that didn’t even matter. he left for LA two years ago without even warning you. but it didn’t hurt…he was just a client.

okay, that’s a huge lie. a lie that you had convinced yourself to believe for years, until this moment. it’s been a week since you got back in town, and you’ve already opened back up your shop, and gotten skull back as your client. he acted as if he had never left, still using his cocky smirk to convince you to be his mechanic.

for as long as you knew skull, you knew that he was narcissistic and sadistic—specifically towards ceasar, which is also why he’s randomly decided to get closer to your best friend. that best friend being the same girl who ceasar was practically in love with. so yes, he was pretty much a walking red flag, but around you..it was different. i mean—since the first day you’ve gotten back, he’s already calling you ‘babe’, which was the pet name he had called you before he left.

however, you weren’t going to fall into him again. you couldn’t do that to yourself again. skull didn’t do love, and had honestly never felt it—so any relationship that you could even think with him that wasn’t just hooking up (which you had tried multiple times), wasn’t a relationship in his eyes.

plus, you had bigger things to worry about. like the fact you were still hiding that you were a car mechanic for racing from your best friend since high school.

ceasar had stopped by your shop earlier that day to warn you that nothing good would happen if you continued to lie to jenna. so you decided that you were going to tell her after the race that was taking place that night. however, after finishing a few things in skull’s car and looking out at the crowd—jenna was there. awestruck at the fact that you were helping.

fuck. and for the past day? she had been ignoring all of your calls and texts.

so, you did the one thing that ensured that maybe jenna would accept—and stop ignoring you. you had to stop being a mechanic, and stop hanging around skull.

and here you were. walking through the rain, skull right next to you, talking about the race against ceasar—because he finally beat him, while you replayed every line you were going to say. when you finally got to his car, you started to back out—instead going to your car when his voice stopped you.

“you’re not riding with me?” he says, leaning against his orange McLaren, looking down at you.

this was your chance.

skull raises an eyebrow at you, his blonde hair already soaked, and still looking insanely attractive in that orange and black leather jacket he always wore.

you take a deep breath before dropping everything about you quitting being a car mechanic, and when you finish? there’s no cocky look on skull’s face. it’s blank, like he’s trying to process.

you needed to get out of there, but when you turn around, his voice stops you again.

“maverick. that’s my real name.”