Master’s Maserati

My husband Jacks auto repair shop hired an apprentice.
The kid, Leo, was hardworking and a smooth talker, and Jack took a real shine to him. He poured everything he had into training the boy, hoping hed become his right-hand man.
Then, out of the blue, the kid quit. He turned around and opened his own shop right next door to ours, siphoning off all our business.
Just as we were about to go under, our luck took a sudden, dramatic turn.

1
After dropping our daughter Mia off at her dance class, I swung by the shop. From a distance, I could see a line of cars waiting outside Leo's Auto Repair, while my husband's place, Jacks Garage, was completely empty.
As I pulled up, I saw one of our regulars, Mr. Henderson, heading for our entrance in his white Kia. But as he passed Leos shop, Leo himself stepped out and flagged him down.
Henderson rolled down his window, and Leo leaned in with a wide grin. "Hey, Mr. H! Come on in for a bit, I just brewed a fresh pot of coffee. First cup's on me."
"Maybe next time, son. I'm just taking the car to Jack for a tune-up."
"I can do that for you right here! You know my work, I learned everything from the master himself. Itll be perfect, I promise. Ill take real good care of your car."
Leo flashed a number with his fingers. "I'll give you a deal you can't refuse. And I'll use the best synthetic oil, top of the line."
"Alright, let's go have that coffee." Henderson was beaming. "Okay, okay, I'll give you a shot."
Seeing Henderson about to pull into Leos lot, I slammed on the gas, screeched to a halt beside them, and yelled, "Mr. Henderson!"
"Jack was just saying yesterday he hadn't seen you in a while! Speak of the devil. Come on, let him get that tune-up done for you."
Leo just smiled and waved at me, as polite as ever. "Hey, Sarah! Want to join us for coffee?"
I fought to keep my voice steady, but in my head, I was screaming, Go to hell.
I ignored Leo and called out to Henderson again. "Come on over to our shop."
Henderson just smiled apologetically. "Next time, Sarah. Im going to see what the kid can do."
I knew, deep down, there wouldn't be a next time.
Staring at the line of cars waiting for Leo, a knot of pure frustration tightened in my chest. It was so suffocating I could barely breathe. I stomped my foot in anger, and a mocking voice floated over from next door.
"Easy there, Sarah. Don't want to break a heel."
That was it. The dam broke.
"You ungrateful, backstabbing snake!" I screamed at him. "You'll get what's coming to you!"
Spinning on my heel, I stormed into our empty garage.

2
The first thing I saw was my husband, Jack, humming to himself as he methodically polished his tools. He looked so damn calm.
My anger flared. I marched over and slammed my car keys down on the desk with a loud crack.
Jack looked up. "Who got my girl all fired up? Tell me who it is, and I'll go set 'em straight."
I shot a furious glare out the open garage door, then pointed at the wrench in his hand. "Our business is being stolen from right under our noses, and you're in here polishing your tools instead of trying to find customers!"
"Are you that bored? Instead of this, why aren't you calling our old clients, seeing if they need anything? You have to cast a wide net to catch any fish!"
"Or better yet," I fumed, "why don't you go over there and punch him in the face? That's better than just sitting here"
My tirade faltered as my eyes met Jacks. I saw a flash of deep, bone-weary exhaustion in them before he could hide it.
The words died in my throat.
The shops failure was hurting him more than anyone. And everything I was yelling at him to do wed already tried it all a year ago. We'd tried everything, and nothing worked.
While trying to win back our clients, Jack had also been trying to win back his peace of mind.
"It's a tough economy," he said softly. "Business is slow for everyone. We have to try and stay positive."
"Besides, it's not like we're completely empty. We still have enough coming in to get by."
That just made me angrier. "But we used to be booming! Ever since Leo went out on his own, he's been systematically stealing every single customer!"
Just like he did with Henderson, right in front of my eyes. Hed intercepted him, poached him. It was a bitter pill I couldn't swallow.
"He's making a living based on his skills. Good for him. I just need to hold on to my loyal customers."
"The auto repair business is cutthroat. If it wasn't Leo, it would've been someone else."
"And look at it this way," he added with a weak smile, "I trained an apprentice so good he could compete with me. That's a skill in itself, right?"
"Come on, Sarah. Try to see the bigger picture."
"I can't!" My face was tight with rage. "It could have been anyone else, Jack! But it shouldn't have been him!"
Just then, Leo himself strolled into our garage.
"Hey, boss. Sarah. Arguing again?"

3
I rolled my eyes. "What do you want, Leo? You're not welcome here."
Jack didn't even look at him, just kept fiddling with his tools.
Leo rubbed his nose and chuckled, walking over to the water cooler like he owned the place and pouring himself a glass. "Polishing the old tools, huh, boss? Another slow day? You better be careful. A few more days without a car to fix and you might get a little rusty."
Jack finally looked up, his voice flat. "Leo. If you're done gloating, you can leave."
I wasn't nearly as calm as Jack. I grabbed a broom and started sweeping aggressively in his direction. "Yeah! What's there to brag about anyway? Get out!"
Leo dodged the broom with a smirk, then planted his foot on the bristles, stopping me. "You should really learn to control that temper, Sarah," he said, his smile laced with malice. "Or Jack might get tired of the nagging and find himself someone younger."
That son of a bitch. Stealing our business wasn't enough; now he was trying to poison our marriage? Did he really think I was that easy to push around?
I was about to grab the glass of water off the table and throw it in his face when Jack stopped me. "Sarah, don't. Let me handle this."
Jack stood up and walked over to Leo. "What do you need, Leo?"
Leo laughed. "You always could read me like a book, boss."
"I must have missed a few pages," Jack said, his voice dangerously quiet. "Like the part where you were secretly adding all our clients on social media, or the part where you secretly rented the garage next door. You hid those pretty well."
Leo's smile faltered for a second, but he pressed on shamelessly. It turned out there was a car he couldn't fix, and he wanted Jack to take a look.
He framed it as asking for help, but it sounded more like bragging. Or giving an order.
"There's a five-figure profit on this repair, boss, so you better be careful. Don't want to tarnish the great Jack's Garage reputation."
He smirked. "You've never cleared ten grand on a single car, have you? Guess its true what they sayout with the old, in with the new. You're just too honest, boss. You don't know how to make real money."
I remembered Jack telling me one of the reasons Leo left was because he wanted to "make more money," while Jack was content to make an honest living. In the auto repair world, there were plenty of ways to "make more money"using cheap, off-brand oil, padding the bill with phantom problems. Unless you were an expert, youd never know you were being fleeced.
Leo had once suggested that Jack start up-selling customers more aggressively. Hed argued that if a customer came in for a simple cabin filter change, you couldn't just change the cabin filter. That was chump change. You had to convince them to change the oil filter and the air filter too. Otherwise, what was the point?
Jack had his principles. He told Leo that auto repair was a matter of safety, of life and death, and there was no room for cutting corners. Leo had nodded and said he understood, but the greedy glint in his eye was impossible to ignore.
And now, running his shop his way, hed made more in two years than Jack had in five. Some money, I guess, just isn't worth making.
When Jack didn't immediately agree to help, Leo made a show of generosity, offering to pay him fifty bucks for his time.
Jacks face darkened. "Get out, Leo. Now."
Leos expression soured. "Come on, boss. The car it has a brake problem."

4
Brakes were Jack's obsession.
Back when he was just an apprentice, his skills were still green. One year, right before Christmas, his own father's brakes went out. Jack, full of confidence, volunteered to fix them. He didn't do it right. Driving home, the brakes failed, and his dad got into a crash that nearly killed him.
From that day on, Jack dedicated himself to mastering his craft. He treated every repair with deadly seriousness, especially the brakes. He wouldn't sign off on a job if there was even the slightest squeak.
So when Leo said the car had a brake problem, Jack felt compelled to go.
"That's more like it," Leo said, his smile returning. "Stick with me, boss, and we'll both get rich." He started to lead Jack toward his shop.
Just then, my phone rang. It was the teacher from Mia's dance studio.
"Mrs. Miller? It's about Mia. She's been injured"
The moment he heard our daughter's name, Jack forgot all about the brakes. We jumped in our truck and sped toward the dance school.
"Boss, just let Sarah go by herself!" Leo called after us. "Money's more important, right?"
For the first time in years, I heard Jack swear. "To hell with the money!"
"Fine! Fine! You don't want to help? You'll regret this!"
At the school, we found out Mia had dislocated her arm. It was a huge relief. After a trip to the hospital confirmed it was nothing more serious, Jack and I could finally breathe again.
When we got back to the shop, Leo heard us pull in and came out, sneering.
"Don't think you're the only one with skills, Jack. I figured it out without your help."
"You're a stubborn, washed-up old fool. You can just sit there and watch me get rich while your shop goes bankrupt!"
We didn't know it then, but that phone call, Jack not going over to help Leo with those brakes, had saved us from a disaster we didn't even see coming.
And for the struggling Jacks Garage, it was the beginning of a miraculous turnaround.

5
The next morning, I was woken by a loud commotion. It wasn't coming from our shop, but from next door.
My stomach dropped. Did that bastard Leo launch some new grand-opening promotion to steal our last few loyal customers?
I threw on some clothes and ran downstairs.
Wow. The scene was pure chaos.
A tow truck was blocking the entrance to Leo's Auto Repair, and behind it, a police car was parked with its lights flashing.
A middle-aged man in a loud Hawaiian shirt and a thick gold chain was screaming, pointing a finger right in Leo's face.
"You son of a bitch! I just bought this Maserati a month ago, and you turned it into a pile of junk!"
"You couldn't even fix the damn brakes, and now the engine won't even start! You're gonna pay! If I don't see a hundred fifty thousand dollars today, I'm tearing this whole damn place down!"
Leo's face was chalk-white. He was bowing repeatedly, babbling apologies. "Mr. Russo, please, sir, calm down. It's a misunderstanding, I swear, just a misunderstanding."
"I was supposed to have my old boss come look at it yesterday, but he had an emergency and couldn't make it. He was the one in charge of this repair"
Okay, now I understood.
That little weasel was trying to pin this on Jack.
I rolled up my sleeves, ready to march over there and give him a piece of my mind, but a hand caught my arm.
It was Jack. He'd come down sometime after me and was standing there calmly, watching the train wreck unfold.
"Don't," he said. "Let him handle it."
"He's blaming you for this! How can you just stand there?" I was practically hopping with rage.
Jack just shook his head, a strange, knowing look in his eyes. "He can't handle it."

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