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Ava wore long sleeves.
Soulmarks were always on your wrist. She’d seen many of them. She’s certain they were on her parent's wrists, though she scarcely remembered anything else about them.
But Ava’s was wrong. She didn’t have a name. No, she had a smudge of a letter that she’d spent years discerning was either a B or an E and that was it. It was unfinished. Or, she was one of the cursed few who had no soulmate.
She’d visited the doctor after recovering from the car crash that took both her parents from her. She was only seven years old. At the time, they’d stared at her splotchy mark and had written it off as her being a later bloomer of sorts. It would come eventually.
She went again with her foster carer at the age of thirteen. They’d shared their horror at her almost blank arm with the doctor, an expression that this time was matched. They had no answers and only theories.
Ava hated the most prevalent one. Her soulmate's name had begun being written during that drive. But, at that moment where she faded out of life before being brought back, she’d nullified the mark. They believed that her would-be soulmate may have eventually been marked by another name if her name had even begun to be written on their wrist in the first place.
It made her want to scratch off the letter and forget all about it. If she was someone’s almost soulmate, at least a bare wrist would be better than the cursed hope that letter gave her that the doctors were wrong.
Eventually, her foster mother became her mother and stopped bringing it up. She’d thanked Jillian for that.
She tugs at her sleeve as she rounds the corner leading to her work. The bright neon sign catches her eye and the name ‘Cruciform Automotive Repairs’ sits proudly in those lights.
It wasn’t a job she’d planned for originally. But over time, the idea of fixing the things that took away her ability to have a soulmate just made sense. She’d make sure that no one else would need to suffer as she does.
“Ava,” one of the mechanics, Mary, greets, waving a ratchet spanner over her head as she squinted at the engine bay of the car she was working on.
The name ‘Shannon’ sat proudly on Mary’s wrist in large text. Shannon was the business owner who sorted out the accounting side of the job and together, the two of them kept the shop open.
Ava walks over to Mary’s side. “What’s the issue?”
Mary sighs. “Hell if I know, the thing just won’t turn back on.”
Ava leans forward and slides her hand over one of the wires at the back. The sleeve of her shirt rises but she finds she doesn’t mind. No one judged her for it here. “That wire is way too loose.”
Mary tugs it slightly and it snaps in half. “Old too,” Mary agrees. “I guess we’re going to need a new wire now.”
Ava nudges her with her elbow with a grin. “I think we were going to need it from the start.”
Mary rolls her eyes. “Alright, enough bossing me around. I’m your boss and you’ve got a client waiting for you.”
Mary points in the direction of the roller door at the back where a simple black sedan sat with a woman leaning against it.
Ava pouts but leaves Mary’s side and meets the woman. “Hey there,” she greets, taking a step forward to get a better look at the woman. “I’m Ava, what seems to be your issue, um-”
The woman steps forward and Ava immediately notices the dark circles under her eyes that contrasted against the dark blouse and slacks she wore. “Beatrice.”
The woman, now known as Beatrice, continues. “I was on my way to work when some,” she takes a breath and pinches her nose. “When a person hit the back of my car and broke the tail light.”
Ava steps around Beatrice and sure enough, a shattered tail light comes into her view. “Oh, well, if it’s just that, it shouldn’t take too long to fix.”
Beatrice tilts her head and assesses Ava. “That’s good. I’d appreciate it if it could be ready by the evening.”
Ava rubs her chin. It’s a newer model despite its simple design. She’s certain they have some parts out back that could fix it. “Yeah, I think it can be done.” She steps back and meets Beatrice’s eyes before holding out her hand. “I’ll just need your keys to check on whether the fix works and move it around the shop.”
Beatrice pulls the keys out of her pocket and rests them in Ava’s hand. For a moment, their hands graze and Ava stops herself from jumping back in shock at the tingling feeling that had settled in her wrist. “I’ll have her perfect in no time.”
A small smile quirks on Beatrice’s lips as she pulls back and shakes her hand slightly. “Thank you.”
Beatrice leaves the shop shortly after and Ava hops in the car to move it to her working area. Once it’s parked and the keys are stowed away, she gets to work carefully removing the light and cleaning up the area to replace it.
Just as she begins undoing the last screw she clenches her teeth and drops the screwdriver. Her wrist was burning. She rubs at it and when it does nothing, she huffs and pulls the sleeve up.
What she sees has her falling backwards off the stool she’d been sitting on and onto the grease-covered concrete and groaning.
“Ava!” she hears Lilith, the painter of the shop yell, rushing over to her side. They weren’t exactly close friends but, they respected each other enough not to want the other dead. It was progress for them.
Ava blinks blearily as she watches Lilith click her fingers in front of her face. “You better not be dying right now or I swear-”
Ava waves her hand in front of her face and pushes Lilith out of the way. “I’m not dying.”
Lilith purses her lips. “Then what are you doing?”
“I,” Ava frowns. “I might be going mad.”
Lilith rolls her eyes. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
Ava shakes her head. “I’m not joking. I swear, just now, I saw another letter on my wrist.”
That has Lilith’s eyes widening as she stops her teasing and reaches for her arm. “But that’s impossible.” she scans Ava’s wrist. “And somehow, you’re right. It says I think ‘Be’ now.”
Be? She’d spent the past twenty or so years with just the letter B on her wrist and now suddenly there’s an E? The only thing that changed was she touched that woman’s, no, Beatrice’s hand.
Beatrice. Beatrice.
It was impossible. She asks anyway. “That woman I just served was named Beatrice.”
Lilith releases Ava’s wrist. “A coincidence. There are very few people in the world without a soulmark and I highly doubt some woman with a broken car is one of them.”
Ava sits up and winces at the pain at the base of her skull. “I’ll touch her again. If the letter ‘a’ appears, will you believe me?”
Lilith sighs and helps Ava off the ground. “I’ll believe it when her whole name is on your wrist.”
Ava grins. “You said when.”
“I’ll change it to an ‘if’ with that attitude,” Lilith answers with a hint of a smile on her face.
Ava shrugs. “Camila will support me.”
Lilith rolls her eyes. “My soulmate will support anything you do. That doesn’t necessarily mean she should.”
Ava rubs the back of her head. Hitting concrete hurt. A lot. Still, she smirks at Lilith and raises her voice. “Hey Cam’, do you support me?”
Camila pokes her head out of the door of the car she was putting a radio into. “Yes!” She shouts. She was their technician and no one else could quite wire up a car the way she could. She made the impossible seem possible.
Ava spins on her heel and looks at Lilith. “Well, there’s your answer.”
Lilith pinches the bridge of her nose. “She doesn’t even know what she’s supporting.”
Ava places a hand on Lilith's shoulder and pats it. “I think we both know she’d support the soulmate searching part of it.”
A smile forms on Lilith’s face as she watches Camila pull out the existing radio. “She would.” She looks down at Ava’s wrist. “Fine. I won’t stop you. I’ll even celebrate it if the name Beatrice appears on your wrist.”
She wipes some dust off Beatrice’s car. “Just, promise me you’ll be safe.”
Ava nods and drops back down onto her stool. She rolls it over to the tail light she was working on. “I promise.”
Lilith pats the roof of the car and steps away. “Good.” A smirk forms on her face. “Well, as one of the better mechanics, I’ve got some cars to fix.”
When Lilith turns around and walks away, Ava flips her off. Lilith somehow senses it and returns the gesture behind her back.
Ava shakes her head in amusement and picks up her screwdriver. Lilith was an absolute pain. She couldn’t ask for a better friend.
It takes another ten minutes for the headlight to come off and the pieces to be placed in the plastic bin she’d wheeled over. Once she’s satisfied that there are no shards of plastic or glass left in the slot, she walks out back.
Half an hour passes quickly and she groans as she shuffles through another shelf of tail lights that weren’t the ones she needed.
A voice behind her speaks. “Having fun?”
Ava groans. “No, Shannon. This is the fifth shelf of tail lights I’ve gone through. I was sure that model was in this section.”
Shannon leans over her shoulder and reads the part numbers. “Try one shelf over.”
Ava grumbles and trudges over to the next shelf. Sure enough, five across sat the tail light she was looking for. “Thanks, Shannon.”
Shannon hums. “It’s not a problem.” Her eyes flick down to Ava’s wrists as she speaks. “That girl, Beatrice, was it? She was pretty.”
Ava shrugs and tries to play it off. “She’s okay. She’s a client like all the others and when I fix her car, she’ll be gone. That’s how it’s supposed to be.”
She turns to walk back to her station to fit the tail light but Shannon steps in front of her, cutting her off. “I don’t think she’s just a client.”
Ava finds she can’t meet Shannon’s eyes as she remarks, “Right, she’s a paying client.”
She steps to the side to get around Shannon but Shannon grabs her arm and pulls her back. “Ava.”
Ava gulps. “Shannon.”
Shannon loosens her grip. “It’s her isn’t it?”
Ava feels the corner of her eyes prick and blinks rapidly. “I think so. I mean, I hope so.”
Shannon lowers her hand to Ava’s wrist. “May I?”
Ava nods.
Shannon lifts her sleeve and reads the additional letter now printed on it. “Be,” she reads. “That’s a start.” She lowers Ava’s sleeve. “You know, we have a lot of different services at this company.”
Ava frowns. “Sure?”
Shannon sighs and releases Ava. “What I’m trying to say is, offer her one of them. Get her to come back until that mark is complete.”
Ava clutches the tail light to her chest. “What if she says no?”
A small smile forms on Shannon’s face. “Then give her time. But I know she’s likely feeling the same excitement and fears you are. She’ll come back.”
Ava matches Shannon’s smile. “Thanks, Shannon.”
Shannon ruffles Ava’s hair. “That’s boss to you.”
Ava laughs and walks past her back to her station. “Thanks, boss.”
She hears Shannon’s laughter follow her until she’s back at her station with the tail light next to her, ready to be installed.
She places it into the slot and gets to work rewiring it and screwing it in. Within half an hour and a quick shine, it’s as good as new.
Which means Beatrice will be picking it up none the wiser. Ava wishes she had more letters on her wrist to confirm it wasn’t just a wild coincidence and Beatrice was her soulmate. But, as much as she hates to agree with Lilith, ‘Be’ could be anyone.
So, with the hopes of finding another problem she could fix, she starts looking around Beatrice’s car. New radio… vacuumed floors, perfect leather chairs and brand new tires. Her car didn’t have a single fault.
She tilts her head back and groans. What service do you offer to the girl who doesn’t even have a scratch on her car for you to buff out?
She contemplates this for the rest of the day and stares at Beatrice’s car mournfully while she works on the engine of another client’s. In just a few short hours, Beatrice would be back asking for her keys and leaving Ava’s life.
It was all too soon.
The hours pass by and while she’s covered in grease as she performs a complete oil change on a car, she hears her name called by Camila. “Ava! A client is waiting for you!”
Ava quickly rolls out from under the car and rushes to the wash station, doing her best to scrub the worst of the grease off her hands. A few minutes later, it’s not perfect, but she hopes it’s enough that Beatrice won’t recoil from her in disgust.
She rushes back over to Beatrice’s car, throws a towel on her seat to protect it, and drives it out the front where Beatrice is waiting.
Just as quickly as she entered, she pulls the towel off the seat, takes the key out of the ignition and hops out. Ava huffs out a breath as she meets Beatrice. “It’s as good as new.”
Beatrice holds her hands behind her back and walks over to what used to be a damaged tail light. “You’re right,” she confirms. “Thank you, how much do I owe you?”
“Ah, two fifty to cover the repair job and the tail light,” Ava answers.
Beatrice pulls out two fifty in cash and holds out her hand. “Is cash acceptable?”
Ava nods. “Yeah, of course,” she reaches out and the tips of her fingers graze Beatrice’s as she accepts the money and places Beatrice’s key in her hand. She shivers at the shock that runs up her arm as a result.
Ava wets her lips. “A um, pleasure doing business with you.”
Beatrice rubs her arm against her side. “And you.”
Ava opens her mouth to offer all of the services Shannon had told her to. But, as she stares at Beatrice and watches her hop into her car, her mind goes blank. She gapes widely as Beatrice spares her a single glance and pulls out of the shop.
No.
No.
No.
“Wait!” Ava shouts, reaching her arm out with the letters ‘Bea’ now imprinted on it.
But Beatrice is already driving down the road, oblivious to Ava’s calls.
No.
She slumps to the ground in front of the shop and she’s not sure how long she’s there before she feels two hands sliding under her arms and pulling her up to take her back into the shop.
She’s carried until she’s placed on a patched couch in the breakroom. She heaves out a breath when she realises Mary, Shannon, Camila, and Lilith are standing in front of her.
She buries her face into one of her hands and lifts the other. Her sleeve falls down.
“Bea,” Camila whispers. “The client?”
Ava shakes her head with watery eyes. “I think so. But I was just so nervous I tried to speak and nothing came out and then,” her lip wobbles. “And then she was gone.”
Shannon nudges her across the couch and wraps an arm around her shoulders. “It’ll be okay, Ava, she’ll come back.”
Ava sniffs and looks up. “But what if she doesn’t?”
“Then I’ll ram her car on the other side so she has to come back,” Mary answers.
“Mary!” Shannon exclaims, narrowing her eyes at her. “No, we are not going to ram our client’s cars.” She wipes Ava’s eyes with her thumb. “We are going to trust her to come back.”
Lilith raises her hand. “And if she doesn’t, I’m ramming her car.”
“Seconded,” Camila adds on.
“Thirded,” Mary says with a grin, “Obviously.”
Shannon heaves out a sigh. “When you’re all arrested, I’m going to have to find new shop hands to replace you all.”
Mary leans down and places a kiss on Shannon’s forehead. “No, you won’t. You’ll be bailing us out of jail.”
Shannon sighs and smiles as she leans into the kiss. “I would be, that’s true.”
She redirects her attention to Ava. “Give her a week. She’ll notice the start of your name, and it’ll click. When that happens, she’ll be here.”
Ava leans into Shannon’s arms. “Okay.”
Shannon rubs her back. “Okay.”
The next weeks pass by slowly and painfully. Ava begins to wonder if she’s ever going to come back or if she’s going to be stuck with a half-finished soulmark to mock her.
It’s a Tuesday evening when she’s called to the front of the shop to meet a client.
Ava blinks her eyes as she takes note of the old corvette, likely 1960s era sitting on the back of a truck. “Wow,” she whispers. “That sure is something.”
“Do you think you could fix it?” A voice beside her asks.
Ava feels her heart beat a little faster as she turns to face the source of the voice. It’s Beatrice. She swallows sharply and grins. “Yeah, yeah, I can do that.”
Beatrice smiles and places her hand in Ava’s, giving her the keys. “Good. It’s an inheritance I received from my grandmother. She absolutely adored it. I have fond memories of the rides she used to give me.”
Ava clicks her tongue. “A C1?”
“From what I understand, yes,” Beatrice answers.
Yeah, she could fix it. She smiles widely at Beatrice. “Just tell me what you want to be done.”
Beatrice hums with a small smile and leans forward. “I prefer a more hands-on approach. I’d like to be a part of the process. What do you say to me checking in daily with some design choices, starting off with fixing those dents?”
Ava’s smile somehow gets wider. “Yeah, I like the sound of that.”
Beatrice matches her smile. “As do I.”
So begins the long task of repairing the car. It starts with the panels and her friends, despite the rules to not have a client in the shop, turn a blind eye and even offer Beatrice a chair as she sits next to the car and listens to Ava’s explanations of what she’s doing.
Piece by piece the car comes apart and is repaired with some filler or a full part replacement and put back together again.
The engine is surprisingly clean and functional and only needs a few minor updates to get it running smoothly again.
Each day, Ava brushes her hand against Beatrice’s. Some days, another letter appears, others, nothing.
In a month, her wrist has the letters, ‘Beatric’ sitting on it. It hadn’t changed for a week since then, despite Ava’s increased touches. It was almost as if the mark was waiting on something.
“I’m thinking yellow,” Beatrice says one morning, looking at the sanded-down body of the car. They'd agreed it was best to strip the fading paint with all its repairs and give it a new coat.
“Yellow?” Ava questions. “That’s not the typical colour that would go on a C1. At least, not this era of it.”
Beatrice smiles and shrugs. “I suppose I’ll just have to be atypical.”
Ava laughs and calls over Lilith. “She wants it yellow.”
Lilith raises a brow. “What kind?”
In a way that had become common for Beatrice since she’d started spending time with them all, she shrugs. “Whatever you think would be best.”
That draws a smile from Lilith as she mutters to herself and assesses the car, listing off a series of different yellows she’d think would look best. Eventually, she returns to their side. “Yellow it is.”
With Ava’s help, they wheel it into the paint shop before she waves them off and gets to work.
Ava joins Beatrice in the breakroom while they wait. “So,” Ava hums, “What do you think of the Cruciform Automotive Repairs shop?”
Beatrice laughs. “It’s quite good. I enjoy one of the workers in particular.”
Ava blushes and grins. “Oh? Who would that be?”
Beatrice taps her chin with her index finger. “Well, Camila is a great friend.”
Ava pouts. “Just Camila?”
Beatrice slides her hand into Ava’s. “I suppose there’s a mechanic named Ava that I’m rather fond of too.”
Ava leans into Beatrice. They’d talk eventually. Once their names are completely on each other’s wrists, Ava’s sure they’d have a lifetime of catching up to do. After all, it’s not often that you meet your soulmate so late in life.
“There’s a client named Beatrice that I’m fond of,” Ava answers.
Beatrice squeezes her hand. “I’m glad.”
They sit together for a while, leaving the word ‘soulmate’ unspoken. They share lunch together with the rest of the shop hands that they could both proudly call their friends, and wait for the paint to dry.
It’s late in the evening when it does. It still needed another few coats that would be done tomorrow, but when Ava and Beatrice get an eye on the car they’d spent so long working on, they cheer.
“It’s beautiful,” Beatrice comments. She looks at Lilith. “You did fantastic with the paint choice.”
Lilith smiles. “Thank you.”
They chat about all the final pieces they’d be putting on over the next day, and eventually, their tiredness catches up to them.
Ava hates this part of the day.
Their soulmarks weren’t confirmed yet, and while they were friends, it wouldn’t be right of her to ask Beatrice to stay at her house or vice versa. So, they hug and hop in separate cars with the promise of meeting tomorrow.
In the morning, Beatrice shows up an hour late with coffee and cakes in hand. “I thought we should have a treat together after all of this.”
Ava hums as the steam of the coffee filters across her face, removing some of the chills of the early morning. She picks a donut from the box of cakes and takes a bite. “This is perfect.”
“Yes,” Beatrice agrees immediately before flushing and clearing her throat. “I mean, yes, the cakes are perfect.”
Ava blushes. “Yeah, yeah,” she takes a hurried sip of her coffee and sticks her tongue out when it gets burned. “Great coffee too.”
She ignores the laughter of her friends and focused on Beatrice as she averts her eyes and sips her coffee, her cheeks an almost bright red.
Once they’re done they separate and leave Ava and Beatrice to finish the last touches of the car. The paint gets completed and late in the evening, after a quick shine of the wheels, Ava opens the driver’s side door and waves. “Well? What are you waiting for?”
Beatrice smiles and hops into the seat before leaning her head out to look at Ava. “Take the other side.”
Ava obliges and hops in, careful to not dirty the seat or carpet.
“Could you explain all of this?” Beatrice gestures at the dash. “My car doesn’t have quite as many, uh, items.”
Ava nods and unconsciously uses her marked wrist to reach over and point out all of the features. “So this measures your RPM,” she points at the next one, “Your oil levels,” she points at the next and her sleeve falls down to her elbow. “Your speed,” she turns to look at Beatrice. “Well, that one’s pretty self explana-”
Her words are cut off by the shocked expression on Beatrice’s face as she looks down at… Oh. Her soulmark. Beatrice could see it.
She panics and covers her wrist. “I, I can explain.”
Tears form in Beatrice’s eyes and Ava starts to panic further, “I’m sorry, I-”
Beatrice shakes her head and wipes her eyes. “I’m not mad.” She lifts her own sleeve where ‘Av’ is written. “I thought I was just making it up in my head.”
Ava stares in awe and her almost completed name on Beatrice’s wrist and rubs her thumb along it. “I um, I think you might be my soulmate?”
Beatrice nods rapidly her tears free-flowing. “I think so too.”
Ava lifts her hands to Beatrice’s cheeks and wipes away her tears. “Beatrice.”
“Ava,” Beatrice responds.
As if by magic, the final letter on both of their marks is added, completing each other’s names.
Without thought Ava leans forward and captures Beatrice’s lips in a kiss. They meet in a hurried mess, so desperate to catch up on all the years they’d missed.
They only pull apart when the sound of knocking on Ava’s window becomes too loud and they’re met with the grinning faces of their friends.
When their eyes meet, Mary throws open the door. “It’s about damn time.”
Ava lifts her wrist to show Lilith. “I was right.”
Lilith rolls her eyes but her fond smile is apparent. “I’m happy you were.” She winks. “For once.”
Beatrice leans forward with a wide smile on her face. “She’s my soulmate.”
“Good luck,” Lilith answers, followed by an “ow” as Camila jabs her side with her elbow.
“We’re happy for you two, truly,” Camila answers. “And now, I think you both have a car to test drive.”
Ava grins and turns to look at Beatrice as she turns the key in the ignition. “You’re right, it looks like we do.”
With those words, Beatrice pulls out of the shop and onto the road.
Ava holds her hand as they drive down the relatively empty roads, their soulmarks pressing against each other.
“I’m so glad that person hit my car,” Beatrice speaks. “Perhaps I should send a thank you after their insurance company comes through.”
Ava laughs. “I’ll send one too.” She squeezes Beatrice’s hand as she turns onto the highway. “To all the years we have to catch up on.”
Beatrice smiles and speeds up. “And to many many more after that.”