Inked in the Steel City Series(3)

“Found what?”



“The perfect dress,” Jess said, thumbing breathlessly through a dog-eared catalogue.



“Let’s see.” Mina leaned over Jess’s shoulder as she opened the magazine to a specific page and pointed to a teenaged model wearing a purple gown. “It’s beautiful.”



“I know,” Jess said, clutching the catalogue to her chest. “Mina, do you think we could… I mean, I don’t know how much it costs, but do you think we could check?” She gazed up at Mina hopefully, her dark eyes shining. Eye color was where the two girls’ similarities ended. Jess’s hair was honey-blond like their mother’s. She and Mina had been born ten years apart to different fathers – Mina’s Korean-American and Jess’s Caucasian. Most people didn’t even realize they were sisters at first, though Mina felt closer to Jess than any other person on the planet. Although Jess was confined to a wheelchair, she was as vivacious as they came. In comparison, Mina was more reserved, but the ten year age difference and the fact that Mina was completely responsible for her younger sister easily explained that dissimilarity.



“Is there a website where we can do a price check?”



Jess nodded, pointing to a URL printed at the bottom of the page.



Within minutes, Mina had pulled up the dress in an online store, using the computer that sat in one corner of their living room, which was just large enough for Jess to navigate in her chair. Her stomach dropped as she eyed the price. It cost almost as much as a month’s rent.



Jess sat unusually still and quiet in her chair, her eyes darting between the screen and Mina’s face as she awaited the verdict.



Mina suppressed a sigh. Jess had been chattering about the homecoming dance ever since school had started in August, anxiously anticipating the event, which was now only weeks away. She already had a date. Mina was the head of the household, but she was still only twenty-four and she vividly remembered being fourteen and in high school. She knew exactly what it was like to pour over the teen dress catalogues with a group of girlfriends, oohing and ahhing over all the pretty gowns. She also knew what it was like to watch her friends choose their gowns one by one and to be left out. Her mother hadn’t been able to afford a dress for her, and hadn’t wasted any tears over the fact. Mina hadn’t been able to turn to her dad and beg like several of her friends had, thanks to the fact that her father had disappeared when she’d been a toddler. She’d never gone to any of her own high school dances. “What size do you wear again?”



If Jess wasn’t going to let the fact that she couldn’t walk stop her from attending the dance, Mina sure as hell wasn’t going to let lack of money ruin it for her.



Jess’s eyes widened. “You mean I can get it?” The magazine crackled as she gripped it tightly, wringing the pages in her excitement.



“Sure do.”



Jess threw her arms around Mina’s waist. “You’re the best!”



Mina tried to smile and wince at the same time and ended up grimacing. “Thanks, but you’re hurting me.”



“Oh, sorry!” Jess exclaimed, quickly unhanding her. “I forgot about your new tattoo.”



“That’s all right. Are you sure this is the dress you want?”



“Yes.”



“Then you’re going to have it.”



****



Eric carefully removed the last of the excess ink from her skin, wiping away a stream of it before setting the towel aside. “OK. We’re finally done.”



Mina sat up slowly, clutching the cover she held over her chest and eyeing her reflection in the large mirror that took up all of one of the booth’s walls. Eric looked too, and she was careful not to meet his eyes in the mirror. His gaze was arresting, and she knew that she wouldn’t be able to look away if she made eye contact. She’d come to the shop several days a week for a week and a half and had spent hours lying on her side in the reclining chair as Eric filled out the ornate design that stretched from just below her shoulder to her hip.



“What do you think? Are you happy with it?”



She couldn’t deny the pull of his gaze any longer. Lifting her head, she looked at his reflection in the mirror. “It’s perfect.”



He smiled. “Great. I think it turned out beautifully too. Is your friend still planning on taking those photos?”



Mina nodded. “You’d need a small army to stop her.” Once Karen decided that she wanted to photograph something, denying her was like stopping a freight train.