I wasn’t all that much in the mood with the Saturday morning group. Just sort of languishing for a while and really not feeling it, I kept pace but didn’t push it at all. When we pulled over at the big turnout at the top of ACH, Stephen asked me what was up.

“Leah, you’re not your usual self,” he said as we looked at the collection of cars and bikes gathered there.

“I’m just…” I said. “Just having an off day, you know? I’m having a hard time focusing on the road. Too much stuff going on.”

“I think Geoff appreciates it,” Stephen said with a laugh. “Normally he’d never even come close to being able to pass you like that.”

“Yeah,” I said with a rueful grin. “Maybe I’ll just head home, call it a day.”

“Hey, Leah,” Teddy Bear said as he ambled over. “I saw you and Emmy on TV the other day at the Rams game. It was awesome the way that new guy from USC, Temple? Gave Emmy the ball after the sack!”

“Yeah, Andy Temple. He and I go way back. I’ve known him since we were little kids,” I said. Then, on the spur of the moment, I asked, “Hey, you two. Do you guys have plans for Wednesday evening? We’ve been doing a little dinner and sort-of party at our place on Wednesdays and it’d be cool if you guys could come. Don’t tell the others- I want to keep it low-key.”

“Can I bring my girlfriend?” Stephen asked.

“Sure,” I replied.

“I’m between girlfriends right now,” Teddy Bear admitted. “But I’d be happy to come over. Just text me the deets and I’ll be there.”

Emmy was over at Lee’s house and Angela was out somewhere, so I had the apartment to myself when I got home. Pleased to have some time to myself, I changed clothes, put on some London Grammar (which I had Jen to thank for) and relaxed into a nice couple of hours of yoga. It had been a few months since I’d taken the time for a good long session, and I could feel the tightness in my back and shoulders. Stretching, working the kinks out and simply letting the tension go felt absolutely fantastic. I followed it up with a nice, long shower, after which I slipped into a pair of sweats and a soft old T shirt. Comfy and relaxed was how I was going to spend the rest of the day.

I was relaxing on the balcony couch with my iPad when Angela got home.

“Hey, Leah,” she said. “What are you doing?”

“Shopping online for a yacht,” I joked. “I think I like this one,” I said, tapping on the screen.

“Must be nice,” she said with a sigh, plopping down on the armchair.

“What’s up?”

“I need a car,” Angela said. “But I can’t get a loan or lease, since I don’t have a real job, and I don’t have a green card. I mean, I show income, but still…”

“What were you looking for?”

“It needs to be something cute, you know, for my socials, and new, too. I was thinking maybe a convertible, you know?”

“How much cash can you spend? The reason I ask is because maybe you should just go ahead and buy outright,” I suggested.

“Says the woman shopping for a yacht,” Angela replied, rolling her eyes.

“Out of curiosity, did you notice anything about the three cars we have parked down in the garage?” I asked.

“Yeah- they’re really nice,” she said.

“Did you notice that two out of three are BMWs? And you haven't seen them yet, but both our cars in New York are BMWs, too.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Angela asked, puzzled by where I was going.

“Here’s the thing- we own a couple of BMW dealerships.”

“Of course you do,” Angela said, slumping down in her chair. “Of course you do.”

“So, I guess where I’m going with this, is if it’s a BMW or Mini you’re thinking of, I can get you a really good deal.”

“Can you get me a lease on a Z4?” Angela asked, suddenly enthusiastic.

“Are you sure you want a lease? The buy-outs can hit pretty hard here in Southern California, since we tend to drive a lot here,” I cautioned.

“The payments are so much lower,” Angela said. “It’s the only way I can afford that nice a car.”

We talked a little bit about realistic budgets, then I pulled out my phone and called down to Temecula BMW.

“Hey, Walter,” I said when the sales manager got on the line. “I’ve got a friend here who wants a Z4. What’s the best deal you can give her? Yeah, family pricing. Buy or lease. Just go ahead and email me the options. Thanks, Walter- talk to you soon.”

Angela was sitting on the edge of her seat, watching with wide eyes.

“He says he has a leftover from the last model year that’s been sitting in the showroom. It’s the base model with the four, so there really hasn’t been any interest in it. It’s been taken out for a few test drives, so he can sell it as a demo model, and that takes a big chunk off the price,” I explained.

“How much?” Angela wanted to know, cutting to the heart of the matter. It seemed it didn’t matter that it was the slow version or didn’t have any of the fancy packages, and I could respect that.

“We’ve got to give Walter a few minutes to put a deal together,” I said, setting down my iPad. “I’d say that probably means half an hour.”

“So, since you own the dealership, do you get your cars for free?”

I laughed and said, “No, I wish. We’ve gotta pay for ‘em. We just get a better deal than anybody else does.”

Nervous and excited, Angela jumped up out of her seat. “I’m gonna grab a drink,” she said. “Want anything?”

“Nah, I’m good,” I said with a wave, returning to the article on the negotiations just getting started between the UK and the European Union now that Brexit had passed. It seemed as if a whole world of self-inflicted grief was headed their way, and I idly wondered what impact would be felt by the Lascaux business interests.

Emmy came home just then, so I set the iPad down and opened my arms so she’d join me on the couch.

“How was work today, babe?” I asked.

“It is a bit frustrating sometimes,” She admitted as she lay on top of me. “There are times I think the three of us share a vision, and other times it seems we do not see eye to eye at all.”

Kissing the top of her head, I said, “Just tell them I said they need to do whatever it is that you want them to do. And that’s that.”

“If I do tell them that, they will probably listen,” Emmy said with a laugh. “They are terrified of you.”

“That’s what Jen said,” I replied, amused. “I have a hard time believing it’s true.”

“It is absolutely true,” Emmy said, snuggling more closely. “They like you, and respect you, but are also terrified of you.” Thinking about it a little bit more, she said, “I think that is actually true of most people we know.”

“Terrified of Leah?” Angela asked, only having heard part of the conversation. “Why’s that?”

“It is because they know her,” Emmy said with a cheeky grin.

“Ha Ha,” I said, giving Emmy a squeeze. “I am absolutely not terrifying.”

“I will tell that to Lee, Jackson and Jen.” Emmy said. “They will stop being terrified of you if you tell them to stop, since they absolutely do not want to go against anything you say. I will also tell Michael, Eddie and the rest, too. Oh, and Donny and Sana.”

I had no witty comeback for that, so I just rolled my eyes.

“I can imagine being terrified of you,” Angela admitted. “You are really, um, intense sometimes, and that can be super intimidating.”

“Et tu, Brute?” I asked, but Angela didn’t know the classics, so the reference sailed right past her.

“Hey, babe, Angela went out car shopping this morning. When she told me about it, I suggested maybe she could get a deal at Temecula. I called and talked to Walter James and he was going to email back with some prices. How would you feel about a drive down this afternoon?”

“We could visit your mother and sister!” Emmy suggested.

“No, they’re in Glasgow right now,” I said. “They went to Scotland for vacation this summer. They come back next week in time for school.”

“That is too bad,” Emmy said. “It has been a couple of months since we have visited with them.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Mom sent me some pics- I guess they really loved Edinburgh. We should go some time.”

“I would like that,” Emmy said, nestling herself a bit more comfortably on top of me. “Wake me up when it is time to go.”

“To Scotland?” I asked.

“Yes,” was her reply as she closed her eyes.

Becoming more and more convinced that Emmy had actually fallen asleep draped all over me on the couch, I gently reached over and picked up my iPad from the coffee table, trying not to disturb Sleeping Beauty. I checked my email, looking for anything from Walter James.

“Here,” I whispered to Angela, handing it to her so she could read the options that Walter had laid out. She read through it a couple of times, zooming in on the picture of the car.

“Is this…” Angela whispered. “Is this real? I mean, can I go down and buy this at this price?”

“Yeah, you sure can,” I agreed. “Think you want to do it?”

“Can we go now?”

Glancing at my watch, I said, “Well, it’s a two hour drive, and it’s almost five now. How about we do it first thing in the morning?”

Looking at Emmy sleeping peacefully on me, Angela bit her lip. “Promise?”

“Yeah, sure,” I said.

Angela made a nice grilled chicken salad for dinner, and even waved me off when I offered to clean up afterwards.

As Emmy and I relaxed in bed later, Emmy asked, “Do you think Angela is beautiful?”

“Well, yeah, sure,” I said. “She is a professional bikini model, after all.”

“Do you find her sexually attractive? You have seen her completely nude- she has shown off her body for you.”

“I mean, sure, she’s hot,” I said. “Maybe a bit too muscular for me, but that really only shows when she flexes, you know? But otherwise, yeah, she’s pretty sexy. Why do you ask?”

“I think she is beautiful, too,” Emmy admitted.

I didn’t say anything, waiting for Emmy to continue, which took a while.

“I think that she has… She has feelings for you,” Emmy said.

“She’s straight,” I objected halfheartedly.

“I think that for most people, those distinctions are more, um, fluid than we realize,” Emmy said. “I think that Angela has only ever had male lovers in the past, but I believe that she would be happy to share a bed with you.”

“Well, it’d be pretty crowded, then, since I am absolutely not going to kick you out to make room for her,” I replied, pulling Emmy in tighter into my ‘big spoon’.

“What would it be like, the three of us in this bed?” Emmy pondered. “I wonder how that would be?”

“Well, you’re gonna have to keep wondering, because I’m in no hurry to invite her in here with us,” I said, doing my best to slam that door shut. I will admit that a threesome is kind of a hot fantasy, but I just couldn’t imagine how it would ever be sustainable in the real world. I could, however, imagine all sorts of ways that feelings could be hurt and rifts develop. Just not worth it, in any way that I could see.

Emmy pulled my arm tighter around herself and didn’t reply, which I guess is its own sort of answer.

The next morning, Emmy didn’t want to get out of bed early to go to Temecula, so Angela and I went without her. Angela was excited and nervous, which I could understand, but it was still a bit annoying to spend two hours in the car with her like that. Hey, at least she’d be driving back home in her own car, I told myself.

We got to the dealership pretty much just as it opened. Walking into the showroom, I stopped to look at my new toy, all cleaned up and pretty.

“Why do they have a race car on display?” Angela asked. “Is it for sale?”

“Not until I get bored of it,” I replied. “This is my new baby.”

Just then Walter James walked up and saw us looking at the GT3. “Ms Farmer! The guys told me you really tore it up there at Willow Springs!” he said, in his overly friendly way. The guy got on my nerves a little bit, but he was good at his job, so what could I do but put up with him?

“Yeah, it was a lot of fun,” I agreed.

“When this thing came in from Germany and word came down it was for you, a lot of the guys here were just so jealous, you know? I mean, this thing is by far the most expensive car to ever come through this showroom. The most expensive BMW I’ve ever even heard of, actually.”

“Their Formula One cars were worth millions of dollars each,” I pointed out, just to be contrary.

“How much is this car worth?” Angela asked, curious.

“Nearly half a million dollars,” Walter replied.

“You need to take me for a ride in it!” Angela demanded, turning to me, giving my that little-girl look she somehow managed.

“Sorry, can’t,” I replied and pointed inside the car. “Only one seat. But if you want, I can take you for a hella fast drive in the M6. That’s basically the street version of this same car.”

“Faster than we went in your, um, Bentley?” she asked.

“Aston Martin,” I corrected. “And yeah, we went slow the other day.”

“Felt really fast to me!” Angela said.

“Anyhow, we’re here for you to buy a car,” I said. “Angela, go with Walter. He’ll show you the car, to make sure it’s what you want. I’ve got to go talk to Joe Wilson in the service department.”

They left to go out to the lot, and I went back to the service area, looking for the guy I needed to talk to. I wandered back into the service bays, and a guy I didn’t recognize tried to stop me. “I’m sorry, ma’am,” he said, blocking my way. “You can’t be back here. This is employees only.”

I was just about to come up with some sort of ‘well, what about employers?’ retort when Joe Wilson came hustling up.

“It’s O.K., Luis. She can go anywhere she wants,” he said. Then, seeing the look on Luis’ face, he said, “Her family owns the place.”

“Oh! Sorry, ma’am,” Luis said. “I didn’t know.”

“No problem,” I said, waving it away. “I understand.”

“Ms Farmer, this is Luis Muñoz, our new service writer. Luis, this is Leah Farmer, Mr Lascaux’s daughter-in-law.”

“Pleased to meet you, Luis,” I said, shaking his hand.

“You, too,” Luis replied.

“So what can I do for you this fine morning?” Joe asked, once the niceties were taken care of.

“Two things,” I replied as we walked the service bay. “I want a nice wrap on the GT3 car, to protect the paint. Basically mirroring the M Sport color scheme, but put ‘Temecula BMW’ on there in big graphics,” I said. “The shop should get some advertising out of the deal, after all.”

“Sure, that’s no problem,” Joe said. "We can get that done in no time.”

“Second thing, my new M6 should probably get a quick oil change and tire rotation, since I was beating on it pretty hard on the track.”

“We can do that right now,” Joe said, leading me to Luis’ little office. Joe explained what I wanted to Luis, telling him the M6 service work was priority and make sure Alex did the work. He also had Luis write up the ticket for the vehicle wrap, but had him mark the invoice ‘No Charge- Promotional Service’. I paid the reduced rate for the service on the M6 and handed Luis the key, then wandered back to look for Angela and Walter James.

I found them as they walked back into the showroom, apparently having been out for a test drive.

“What do you think of the car?” I asked.

“It’s beautiful!” Angela gushed.

“And you’re O.K. with the price? I know Walter has pulled some strings to make you the best deal we can,” I said, and he nodded.

“It is a very good deal,” Angela agreed. “I did some looking online last night and it’s thousands less than any other I could find anywhere in the country!”

“Glad to hear it,” I said. “If you need me, I’ll be in the waiting room.” I didn’t want to be overprotective and hold Angela’s hand through the car-buying process, since she was an adult and could take care of things on her own. Besides, I knew that Walter really had set up the most favorable deal possible, and he knew I’d check it all over after the fact, anyhow, so there was no way he was going to sneak in some high financing rate or anything like that.

I got myself a cup of coffee, then, wandering around the gift shop area, I bought Angela a BMW key fob and a ‘Temecula BMW’ T shirt.

About an hour later, Joe Wilson found me to tell me the car was done. “You took about ten thousand miles off the life of those tires,” he joked as he handed me the service report and my key. “It’s great to see a competition package M car get used like that.”

“It’s a fun car,” I said.

I’d just returned to reading my email on my phone when Angela and Walter walked up. Angela held up the key for me to see, beaming proudly.

“It’s all mine now!” she said, giving me a big hug when I stood up. “Want to go for a ride?”

“I’ll tell you what. How about we take my car back home, then you can give me a ride,” I suggested, handing her the things I’d gotten her.

“It’s a deal!” Angela said, her eyes wide with excitement. “See you at home!”

When Angela left, I turned to Walter. “No ugly surprises on the paperwork, right?”

“Well, getting her financed wasn’t easy, since she doesn’t actually have a real job, so I had to do it in-house. I gave her our best rate, but my underwriter is gonna yell at me for it.”

“Need me to co-sign?” I asked.

“If you would, that would take a whole lot of heat off my back,” Walter said, grateful. “In fact, if you’ll co-sign, I can get the rate down even lower. But you know that means if she can’t make the payments, you’re on the hook, right?”

“Emmy had suggested we simply buy the car for her,” I said. “But I wanted Angela to feel like she had something of her own, that she’s earned and not just had somebody give to her.”

As we walked back to his office, Walter said, “Man, I wish… You don’t know how many rich parents come in here to buy their kids a 3 series or something like that, and the kids complain it isn’t the M, or have the whatever package. Spoiled little brats. If any of those kids have to work for anything, ever, it’ll be the death of ‘em.” Then, realizing he was talking to a rich kid, he suddenly shut up.

“Did I ever tell you I used to work in my uncle’s rare tree nursery down in Fallbrook when I was a kid? And I used to take the city bus to school?”

“Yeah, see, you get what I’m talking about, then. You understand the value of work,” Walter said, relieved to be let off the hook.

“It’s funny,” I said as we sat down to fill out the paperwork. “Emmy is a very hard worker with her music, but obviously she’s never had to save up for anything in her life. Her family’s had money from the freaking Middle Ages, but they all seem to be pretty good about buckling down and doing what needs to be done."

“Middle Ages?”

“Didn’t you know?” I asked, surprised. “The Lascaux are a noble family from southern France. They have a castle that dates back to the twelfth century or something like that.”

“Mr Lascaux never talks about that,” he said, shaking his head. “But you’re right about being a serious worker. When he bought the place, he reviewed every aspect of the way the dealership was run and step by step made a lot of changes. We went from barely doing enough business to justify staying open, to being one of the top dealers in the region.”

“He’s got a string of BMW dealerships in France,” I said. “From what I understand he’s the number one dealer there.”

“I can believe it,” Walter said.

After co-signing and getting almost a full one and a half percentage points off the rate for Angela’s loan, I thanked Walter and hit the road. I knew Angela would be itching to take me out in her new car, so I didn’t want to keep her waiting too long, even though that meant skipping Ortega Highway’s twisties, to my regret.