Marlowe
Two senior patched members had a running bet going about whether a stripped bolt on Duke's old cruiser could actually be salvaged, and I made the mistake of overhearing it while I still had a torque wrench in my hand and something to prove.
"Twenty bucks says it's junk," the bigger one said, arms crossed, watching the bolt like it had personally offended him.
"Twenty bucks says the new kid fixes it in under ten minutes," the other one said, and I realized with a jolt they were talking about me before either of them noticed I was standing right there.
"You want to make that bet official?" I asked, and both of them turned, startled, then grinning, the particular delighted grin of men who liked nothing better than a reason to lose money in an entertaining way.
Nine minutes and fo
