[b][center][h2]Joel Nicolosi[/h2] [/center][/b]

Ryan was so formal it was nearly comical to Joel. They couldn’t have been more opposite. Normally, a car spoke a lot about the person driving it. He’d seen it all over the years, however, he would never have matched Ryan to a big block Ford had he only seen the car and had to pick out the driver. Ultra-polite and soft-spoken didn’t tend to lend itself to rare muscle cars. “I would hold on to it for you, but I’m a little pressed for space at the moment.” He said motioning around in response to leaving the car at the shop. With one in the air and everything else tucked close nose-to-tail, he could still fit Sio’s Corvette inside by about an inch and he wasn’t going to leave her’s out on the street or behind the shop. “It will be fine to drive, trust me.” He said casually. “Just take it easy. I assume you have something else to drive?”

Siobhan’s cooking had filled the majority of the shop with a pleasant aroma of marinated spice and charcoal-grilled steaks that overcame the regular, pungent aroma of oil and race-tires. With the smoke from Joel’s small grill wafting up out of the large garage door, the scent would carry for several blocks. He gave her hand a firm squeeze and motioned for Ryan to go ahead and help himself to the food as their guest; listening as Sio continued the conversation. She was much better with people. Ryan was a perfectionist, which was relatable and how he managed his business was up to him to decide. He took a nice long pull at his beer to finish it off while his eyes watched a car pass by in front of the shop. If they were going to have more guests, he was going to have to move the Jeep to the back to leave another space on the curb.

What grabbed Joel’s attention more and caused him to narrow his glance slightly was Ryan’s words in relation to dealing with Victoria and what sounded like more of a problem in understanding his self-worth as a man. Gossip wasn’t really Joel’s forte, but if Ryan wanted an opinion, he would get one. Joel gave a small shrug, but he wasn’t any good at hiding his distaste in the subject. “I told you what I did, because you asked,” He said, swirling what was left in the bottle for a moment and searching for a little more tact. “Look, I [i]know[/i] these people,”  That car behind you has their name on the side. He said referring to the [url=http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-pg2VbtJrqsE/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAAHY/EInDn5jUhy0/s640-p-no/photo.jpg]giant gear[/url] of Olympus sponsorship on the 300. “The granddad is a cool old guy and we get along well. I’m gonna drive for him again in the Fall, but the rest of them are just fucking nuts.” Tact abandoned. “I wasn’t going to say anything, because it’s not my business where you sleep, but since you wanted to know, I had to give you the truth.” He said. “And being mixed in with that freakshow that Aster runs is just gonna land you in a lot of fucking pain and suffering that you don’t need.”

[@Almalthia]
[@Infinite Cosmos]