"She is my first love, but now I have to let her go."

☆

Oliver's eyes began to hurt as he scrolled through advert after advert trying to find a functioning car for sale for £300. He was beginning to realise that Morton was probably right. Maybe he should just admit defeat and give up. 

He sits back in his chair at the kitchen table, stretching his hands over his head as he lets out a yawn. He then hears a click of a door and realises he is not alone. 

"Hey." His older sister Clementine enters the kitchen, dropping her handbag on the table, before heading straight for the fridge. 

"Hey Clem." He replies as he again hunches over his laptop. 

Clementine takes a bottle of wine from the fridge and pulls a glass from the drainer and proceeds to fill it, just enough for her need to be satisfied, before drinking it in one go.

"Bad day?" Oliver says, glancing up at his sister's actions. 

"Ah, usual." She sighs as she refills her glass. She holds it in her grasp as she casually walks over to Oliver. She rests a hand on the back of his chair as she takes another sip of wine. "What are you doing?" 

Oliver sighs heavily. 'Trying but failing to buy a car for £300." 

"Good luck with that." She chuckles. "Why do you need a car anyway? You have an oyster card and London is a hassle to drive in." 

"Morton and I are planning a road trip. I just need functioning transportation." Oliver enlightens her. 

"You and Morton Strange?" She looks at her brother quizzically. "Going away together? Are you two an item?"

Oliver turns and looks up at his sister. "What? No! Why does everyone think that?" He looks back at the screen, feeling rather disgruntled. 

"Just teasing Olly." She ruffles his hair. "But can I make a suggestion?" 

"What?" 

"Widen your search. I mean, you'll both need somewhere to sleep for the night right? Why don't you look at vans for sale?" 

Oliver deletes the specifications he had entered and re-enters 'vans' into the mix. 

"It's no good. They're all in their thousands." Oliver sighs. "Look. The cheapest comes in at £1000." He points to the advert... 

Green camper 1976. In need of some restoration £1000.

"It's too much. Plus how much work would it need to get it roadworthy."

"I'll lend you the money." Clementine says, patting her brother's shoulder.

"You will?" He looks up at her again in surprise. 

"After the day I've had, one of us needs to break the wheel." She smiles. "Keep your £300 for the other stuff." 

"Aw Clem. You are the best!" Oliver pulls her in by the arm for a side hug as he stays seated. 

"It's a loan, not a gift." She adds. 

"I know I know. I'll pay you back, I promise." Oliver says with renewed excitement. He clicks a few more buttons before deciding to seal the deal.

***

"Hello?" Oliver calls out a little nervously as he sets foot inside the given address, where his new purchase resided. A working garage. He could hear the faint sound of the radio playing, indicating that there should be some form of life somewhere but was still yet to see a single soul. 

"Can I help you?" 

Oliver jumps a little at the sound of a voice behind him. He turns to see a taller man, wearing navy blue coveralls, partially done up his chest. A black t-shirt underneath. His hair is dark brown, rather messy looking, covering what looked like almond shaped eyes. He swallows hard, thinking how handsome the guy looked. Rough, a little dirty, but not in an unhygienic way. "I… I'm looking for Brian Chan. I'm here about the camper." 

The man smiles, holding out his hand. "You're Oliver Smith. I'm Brian." 

"Oh, hey." Oliver says with a nervous laugh as he takes the hand, appreciating the strong handshake the guy had. 

The hand gets released, with the man called Brian walking past him and into the office space of the garage. "Follow me. I take it you have your paperwork and ID etc." 

"Yeah, it's all here." Oliver pulls his backpack around in front of him to rummage for his drivers licence amongst other things, as he follows the other male into the small office space. 

Brian takes a seat on the overused and worn swivel chair, the other side of the desk, pulling open a drawer to find the relevant paperwork.  "You know its condition right? It needs work." He holds out a hand as he looks up at Oliver, gesturing for his driver's licence.

Oliver hands it over. " I don't care what it looks like, it needs to be road worthy, that's all." He says as he watches Brian take his time with his ID. 

"You're 24." He looks up at Oliver. "You look 18." 

"Well I am 24." Oliver insists, making the other male smirk as he hands back the licence. 

"Come and see what you've purchased." Brian says, getting up from the chair and heading for the office door, with Oliver obediently following.  Brian leads Oliver out of a backdoor into a courtyard, where on a patchy ground of concrete, stood the green VW campervan. "Here she is. I call her Jojo." 

"Jojo?" Oliver questions. 

"She is my first love, but now I have to let her go." Oliver sees a glint of sadness in Brian's eyes. 

"I'll take good care of her, I promise." Oliver says with a smile. 

Brian approaches the camper and opens the back to reveal the engine. "She needs some work to become road worthy again, new tyres, new brakepads, spark plugs, the linkage need changing, wheel alignment etc. Plus you will need to tax it." 

Oliver wasn't going to pretend he knew everything he had heard, he just needed to know one thing. "How much? For all that, how much?" 

Brian lets out a deep sigh at the question. Probably unnecessary. Oliver suspected it was just for show. "You're looking at £500 minimum." 

Oliver feels his mouth and heart drop to the floor. "That seems a bit on the steep side I only have £300, can you take a bit off?" 

"Not £200 I can't." Brian replies, seemingly unaffected by Oliver's pleas. 

"But I need the van to be drivable. It's no good like this. I promised someone." 

"Not my problem." Brian says, pushing down the lid. 

Oliver felt desperate. Having already taken money from his sister and now he was so close. He couldn't let Morton down.  He steps a little closer to the other male. "Please, can you please just do the basics? The very basics, no frills? I need this van." 

Brian looks at the man standing in front of him. Oliver's eyes are all wide and green like that cat from Shrek. Brian tilts his head to one side. "What do I get for knocking £200 off the price?" 

"What?" Oliver looks at the mechanic, "What do you mean?" 

Brian steps forwards. He takes a hand to Oliver's arm and runs the pads of his fingers up the jacket he was wearing, his oiled fingers ending up at Oliver's chin, where he tilts Oliver's head up slightly to meet his gaze. "I said, what is in it for me?" 

Oliver bats the hand away. "What are you doing?' 

It just causes the other male to chuckle. "Fine. Have it your way, but I guarantee you that no one will fix this up for less than £600. I was already cutting you some slack because you're cute." Brian steps away, turning his back on Oliver. 

"W…wait…" Oliver stutters,  his heart is racing. He feels sick, but he also feels desperate. Brian turns around, his hands casually in his pockets. A smugness in his smile. "You'll fix this for £300, yes?" 

Brian puts a hand to his chest. "I promise." 

Oliver nods ever so slightly as he swallows hard. "What do you have in mind?" 

Brian's smirk now turns into a grin. "Let's discuss terms in my office…"