Hart's Delight

Jennifer Hart's hands tremble as she tightens the last stubborn bolt beneath the battered belly of her newly acquired food truck. The metal is greasy, cold, and the autumn afternoon has already begun to slip into brisk evening, but determination keeps her knuckles moving. Every dime she's saved from bartending, tutoring, and the summer's insufferable office temp job sits in this temperamental, powder-blue truck. The food truck's logo—a hastily painted "Hart's Eats"—is already flaking at the corners, but she tells herself it's "charming." She believes in her culinary vision, even if no one else is buying yet. The day started with promise and her signature cinnamon-sugar popovers nearly sold out at the Farmers' Market, but a sudden shudder and an alarming clunk left her stranded on the side of West Street. The engine had died, refusing to turn over, and her phone's battery gave out in perfect unison. She spends the next hour cursing the carburetor, her ill fortune, and the persistent ache of uncertainty in her chest. That's when a stranger's shadow falls across the gap beneath her truck, and a firm but not unkind voice says, "Looks like a stubborn one. Need a hand?" She slides out and squints into the golden twilight. The stranger is tall, late thirties maybe, with a kind face and the kind of blue work shirt that says he knows his way around an engine. He introduces himself as John Evans, and his smile is the unhurried kind, like a sunrise.