Out of Alignment — Chapter Three: After Hours | Elise POV

Chapter Three — After Hours

Elise POV

Three days after a broken MINI brought Elise Saar into James Moore’s garage, the line between mechanic and customer is getting harder to pretend is still there.

She arrives after closing expecting paperwork. Instead, she finds a locked garage, an empty car park and fifteen minutes alone with every insecurity she thought she had under control.

Then James comes back.

What follows is an evening neither of them quite planned: an empty workshop, exchanged phone numbers, conversations that run far too late, a drive home — and more than one moment that comes dangerously close to becoming something else.

Elise has spent years surviving the end of a marriage. James is the first man in a very long time to make her remember what it feels like to want someone looking back.

Slow burn • dual POV romance • adult characters • emotional tension

This is Chapter Three of Out of Alignment and is written from Elise’s point of view.