Rico Marquez, 52, has restored 117 vintage motorcycles out of his cinder block garage in east Austin since his wife left him eight years ago. He can tear down a 1972 Honda CB750 engine in 47 minutes flat, can spot a fake chrome fender from 20 feet away, and has not once voluntarily opened a social media app since he found his ex-wife packing her bags for a travel influencer she’d met on TikTok. His biggest flaw, he’d admit if he was drunk enough, is that he judges anyone who posts more than one photo a year online by the worst possible interpretation of their feed.
It’s 82 degrees at the quarterly east side food truck rally, thick humidity sticking the collar of his faded work shirt to his neck, brisket grease crusted under his fingernails that he couldn’t scrub out even after three rounds of Lava soap. He’s got a cold Shiner in one hand and a paper tray loaded with two carnitas tacos in the other, avoiding the group of college kids taking selfies in front of the elote truck, when he spots Clara Bennett. She’s his next door neighbor, moved in three months prior, he’s only ever waved at her from his driveway when he’s hauling bike parts. He’d rolled his eyes so hard he’d gotten a headache two weeks prior when his buddy sent him a 30 second reel of her doing a burlesque number at the public library’s summer reading fundraiser, fringe dress swinging, red lipstick smudged at the corners, and he’d typed a snarky comment under his buddy’s throwaway account about “performative charity.”