Mina swallowed, trying to ignore the way her throat had tightened. Eric didn’t know how close to the truth he’d come, but she couldn’t tell him that now – there was enough sadness in his story to last a lifetime, let alone a day or a single conversation. Hers could wait. She really was lucky to have Jess, and apparently, she’d underestimated Eric. She was lucky to have him, too. “I’m sorry,” she said, clasping his hand tightly.
He shook his head, as if shaking off the sorrow of his sister’s death. “That was years ago. I’m not trying to depress you; I just wanted to let you know that I could never fault you for caring for your sister.” His smile returned, and his eyes were the color of a summer sky again. “Actually, I don’t know if you’d noticed, but…” He pulled off his shirt in one smooth, unexpected movement.
Mina’s heart went crazy, fluttering like a caged bird as she eyed the broad expanse of his inked shoulders, all fair skin and contrasting dark ink. And then – oh God – there was everything below that: the arms she hadn’t been able to stop eyeing since the day she’d met him and his flat stomach…
“This was my first tattoo.” He indicated the design on his bicep, and Mina noticed for the first time that he was pointing at something.
She dared to lean closer, her pulse quickening as she examined the design up close. The tip of his index finger rested on a place where the spiraling ink formed an ‘A’ that blended seamlessly with the rest of the design. “Amanda,” she said. “You got this tattoo in memory of your sister.”
He nodded. “I had it done a few months after she died, and that was when I started seriously considering tattooing for a living. So I took up an apprenticeship, and the rest is history.”
Mina touched her own side lightly, trailing her fingers over her ribs. If that poor little girl hadn’t died, Eric never would have done her tattoo. She probably never would have met him. The thought twisted her heart. She reached out to touch Eric on the shoulder, but he seemed to have moved on.
“So if you really thought I wasn’t interested,” he said, “what in the world were you thinking when I kissed you after dinner?”
Heat rushed into her cheeks. “I figured you were interested…for the night.” She tried not to eye his perfectly toned torso as she said it, but that proved impossible.
“That wasn’t the case.” He was silent for half a moment. “Though I guess I can’t blame you for thinking that after the way I acted. I’m sorry.” He was so close his breath rushed across her lips, warm and tempting.
“Don’t be.”
“No, really. You deserve to be treated much better than that.”
She would have pinched herself if she could have gotten away with it without Eric noticing. This was all going so differently than she’d imagined. She’d entered his apartment with a storm cloud over her head, and now she felt like she was walking on air instead of sitting on his couch. His lips brushed hers, and she was more than ready for another kiss. Unfortunately, the door swung open as soon as she parted her lips, ready to admit his tongue.
She and Eric pulled apart, though he still held her hand, and turned to face the front door. A tall man who was perhaps a few years older than Eric had walked in, and the expression on his face was one of surprise. “Sorry. I didn’t even realize you were here Eric, let alone that you’d brought someone with you.” He eyed Eric’s cast-off shirt dubiously, looking increasingly embarrassed as he took in the scene.
Eric’s expression was wry as he turned his gaze back to Mina again. “Mina, this is my roommate Garret. Garret, this is Mina.”
They exchanged cordial hellos, and though there was a certain air of awkwardness in the small living room, it couldn’t douse the inner glow that Eric’s words had sparked in Mina.
“You want me to, uh, leave?” Garret asked.
Eric shook his head. “No, you’re fine. I was just about to take Mina back out anyway.”
Garret shuffled back to a room that was presumably his bedroom, leaving Eric and a mildly disappointed Mina alone. Now that she knew Eric was really interested in a relationship with her – the real her, not the girl on the poster – she wasn’t exactly eager to go home to wallow in the loss of her job.
“I hope you don’t mind,” he said, “but I have an idea, and if it sounds good to you we’ll need to leave here anyway.”
She looked at him, curious. “What is it?”