Chapter 3: How much!

As me and the shop lady talked, I noticed that she kept glancing at my bike. With every moment I could tell that she 'needed' to see it.

"Is this yours?" She spoke up.

"Yeah." I said with a smile.

She walked around the counter and squatted down. It was then that I noticed she was wearing leggings, that made her ass more defined. I quickly looked away as I walked up next to her.

Her eyes sparkled as she looked over my bike. I could tell that she was excited, but why? My bike wasn't new or anything. So was she excited?

"How much?!" She said suddenly, catching me off guard.

"What?" I was confused by her question.

"I want to know how much you are willing to sell this bike." She said as she stood up, her eyes sparkled as she leaned towards me waiting for my response.

"I don't know. This bike is special to me. I will probably never sell it."

"Good!" She practically yelled at me.

"Why?" I couldn't help but raise a eyebrow as her sudden change in demeanor.

"That bike..." she pointed at it. "It is special. The company only made a few thousand of them. They were also only sold in Europe. They were also expensive to get because some people would by them and up the price."

"I didn't know." I said softly. I was shocked, my dad must have spent a lot of money to get the bike. Along with international shipping it must have been a fortune to get it.

"How much did you spend?" She said as she continues to look at the bike.

"I don't know. Dad got it for me when I turned thirteen." I said as I looked at the bike.

"You have been riding a track bike since you were thirteen!" She looked at me like I was mythical animal.

"Yeah." I said softly as I rubbed the back of my neck. 'What is wrong, it is just a bike.' I thought to myself.

Suddenly she smiled at me, her eyes continue to sparkle as she looked at me. "You are something else." She said as she looked back at the bike.

"What? Is it not a normal fixed gear?" I was confused.

"Normal!" She said through a laugh. "Everything about this bike isn't normal. To the rarity and the price. You have something that cyclist around the world dream of having. This bike was modelled off of a famous Olympian track bike." She said as she picked the bike up and hug it on a rack.

"Look here." She pointed at the underside of the frame near the handle bars. I looked and saw a name next to numbers that said 185/3,200.

"If I had this bike, it would be locked in a display case her in the shop." She said with a smile as she set the bike back down.

"Huh, I never knew about this." I said as I nodded my head impressed.

She began to chuckle. "You have a lot to learn, pleb." She said as she smirked at me.

'Pleb. What the hell!' I yelled internally. I had never been called a pleb. I was slightly offended, but at the same time I was happy. Her little tease was nice. It felt like I knew this woman for all my life.

"My name is Lexi." She said softly.

"Jack."

"Well Jack, take care of that bike. I won't forgive you if you end up destroying it." She as with a small glare.

Chills ran down my spine as I thought of all the things I have done with this bike so far. My face began to blush as I rubbed the back of my neck.

"No you didn't!" She said as if she read my mind. "What have you done to it!" Her voice began to get louder.

"A lot." I said shamefully.

"Sigh." She sighed and shook her head. She was disappointed of my actions and I knew it. "Follow me." She spoke up.

I looked up at her, my face was still flushed red from embarrassment. I followed as she lead me through the back of the store. As we entered the back of the store, even more bikes filled the room. Large shelves that reached the ceiling had all kinds of parts on them. It was like a small bike factory.

Lexi lead me to a corner of the back. There was several large tool boxes with stands near them. She stopped and looked at several bikes. She looked at me and then back at the bikes several times before walking up to one.

She rolled a bike up to me. "What do you think?" She said as she looked at the bike. There was some noticable things about the bike. The tires were flat and the grip tape was torn badly.

"Uhh, elaborate?" I said confused.

"Fix it, and it will be yours. I don't know what you have been doing to your current bike, but I don't want to know. So fix this one up and keep it. I just don't want to see that holy grail in shambles.

'I am sorry.' I thought to myself. I didn't know what that bike was special, and now I feel bad. That bike is practically the world to me, I didn't think of it as something other than my bike.

I took the bike from Lexi and rolled it over to the workbench. I hug it on the stand and began to take it apart.

"If you need to put new parts on it find one on any of the bikes over there." She pointed at a pike of bikes.

"What's wrong with them?" I said as I went back to disassembleing the bike.

"Those are 'defects'. We buy them from a factory across the city. Most of the parts on them are new, but the factory messed up while making them. Like denting the frame, or stripping multiple bolts." She said as she worked at a different workbench.

"So the factory doesn't want to put them on the show room floor for sale because of that."

"Yeah. Most of the problems are easy to fix but they refuse to do them for some reason."

I stayed silent for a moment as I continue to take the bike apart. We continue to work and talk, it was nice to have someone to talk about a shared interest.