Vida turned back to the sink, finishing the dishes as Colton continued to eat his breakfast. She had just finished when she heard a knock at the door. Quickly, she dried her hands and grabbed her backpack as Colton answered the door to Henry.
“Hi, Henry, how’s it shaking?” Vida joked with the burly man.
Henry smiled and Vida returned it with a smile of her own, both ignoring Colton as they turned to leave.
“What time do you get finished? I have some errands that need to be taken care of today and I don’t want another visit from King for not keeping track of you.”
Henry answered for her. “I’ll feed her lunch then drop her off at your shop around one.”
Colton nodded, watching as they disappeared down the apartment staircase before getting his bike keys and leaving the apartment. They had already left the parking lot by the time he got there. As he climbed on his bike, he took a deep breath of air. He didn’t think he would ever again take his freedom for granted.
Throttling his bike, Colton put Vida and King out of his mind as he headed to his shop.
* * *
As Vida came out of class, she saw Henry leaning on the door of the expensive car.
“Ready?” Henry asked.
“Yes, I’m finished for the day.” He held the car door open for her as she climbed inside the luxurious car.
Vida sat quietly in the backseat as Henry drove through the city. It wasn’t long before he pulled up in front of a brightly painted tattoo shop with the name Green Dragon Tats. The dragon claws looked like needles.
She sat, hesitating to get out of the car until Henry opened the door. “Come on, Vida; it’ll be fine.”
Vida liked Henry. As King’s main bouncer, a lot of the women threw themselves at him to get closer to King. Henry found it amusing that Vida went the completely opposite route of using him to avoid contact with King. Both Henry and Sherri had become unexpected friends since she had begun stripping.
“Can’t I just go back to the apartment and wait there? I promise not to go anywhere.” Vida really didn’t want to spend the rest of the day in Colton’s grumpy presence.
“You know King won’t be happy with that, Vida.” Henry was her friend, but King’s orders would always come first.
Vida sighed, getting out of the car. Henry watched her go into the shop before pulling out.
When she opened the tattoo shop door to find the front lobby empty, she waited hesitantly by the door for several minutes before a tall, leggy blond came out. Vida felt like a brown mouse next to the extremely attractive woman. She had a natural sexiness that Vida had to work to bring into her act and was only able to maintain for minutes at a time.
“Can I help you?” The woman pasted a polite, plastic smile on her face, waiting for Vida to answer her question.
“I’m supposed to meet Colton here.” Vida made her voice firm, not wanting the woman to know she was nervous.
Her eyes narrowed and the plastic smile vanished. “I’m sorry, but Colton isn’t taking any appointments today. Call back later in the week and I’ll schedule you with someone—”
“That’s enough, Tessa. Vida isn’t here for a tattoo. I hired her to watch the front desk.”
Tessa rounded on Colton as he came into the lobby. “We don’t need one of your whores sitting on her ass behind the desk. I did fine without having someone sitting here all the time while you were gone.”
“It doesn’t matter what you want, Tessa, it’s what I want that matters. You don’t like it, go work for another shop.”
“Fine, she can stay, but her paycheck comes from your share of the profits,” Tessa snapped back her response.
Vida watched the exchange between the two, turning red as Tessa cast her a venomous look before turning and leaving the room. Colton pulled out the chair from behind the desk.
“Make yourself useful.” Vida came to stand behind the counter. “If someone calls, make an appointment for them. Here are the names of the artists available, rotate them out so that the customers are evenly spaced. If someone requests a certain artist, fulfill their request if possible, but try not to overload any particular artist.
Vida nodded her head.
“Any questions?” Colton asked.
“I don’t think so, it seems pretty simple,” Vida answered, looking over the appointment book.
“It is. If you need anything, just yell. I need to get back to my room.”Colton walked away.
Vida sat down in the chair, studying the appointment book as she familiarized herself with the artist’s names. The phone began ringing and for the next several minutes, Vida made appointments. When the phone finally quieted, she opened her backpack and took out her laptop. Vida quickly became engrossed with her homework, only lifting her head when she heard the bell over the door ring.