“Ah! Little Chachi’s girlfriend and her equally hot sister! Welcome, welcome!”
I decided to let the “girlfriend” slide this time. “We want small matching tattoos, nothing crazy today. Shouldn’t take long; do you have time?”
“Do I have time for you? Of course I do, you’re practically family already. Dudes, Riss is gonna hate me for meeting you before she gets to.”
“Riss?” Kira whispered to me.
“His wife,” I whispered back, and held up the bag I was holding toward Brian. “Liam said you like tacos.”
“Oh, sweet sustenance. Where have you been all my life?” he asked as he gently took the bag from my hand—like it was precious and would break if he moved any faster. “Liam tell you that Riss starves me?”
My mouth curved up when I eyed his beer gut. “You look like you’re doing okay to me.”
Brian’s face lost all emotion, but his eyes look horrified. “No. Dude number one, you don’t understand. She’s on a plant-food-only kick. She. Starves. Me.”
“Eww.”
He looked at Kira and nodded. “Tell me about it, dude number two. Okay. Now that I’ve gotten my payment, what matchy-matchy do you want today, and where do you want it?”
Kira immediately pulled out her phone to show Brian the tattoo and talk placement with him.
It had been five months since our quick and unexpected move to California, and while there were still things we hated about this place—like the fact that we were still in motherfucking California—I’d been right all those months ago. This move had been good for both Kira and me.
In the last three months, Kira had slowly but surely gotten better, and gotten over the whole Zane thing. It didn’t take long for her to admit just how messed up their relationship had been—once she stopped torturing herself by stalking Zane’s social media accounts. It was after that that she’d been able to realize the reason she’d tried so hard to continue to make it work between Zane and her was that she’d wanted a perfect marriage like our parents have, but wanted to be able to say that she’d married her high school sweetheart on top of it. I could understand that to an extent. It was hard not to want the kind of marriage our parents had, but Kira’s would have been anything but perfect with Zane, so I was glad she was moving on from that dream and him. And to be honest, I think the guys at the gym had a lot to do with it too. There were a handful of men who talked specifically to her whenever they came in, and although she had yet to give it over, she’d been asked for her number more times than I could count.
As for me? I was doing better all the time in dealing with my past and the fears that came with it. I knew what had happened to me had happened for a reason, just like I knew I needed to let the past stay in the past without letting it keep me there; but letting go had been harder than I’d ever imagined. It wasn’t until Kira had brought it up last week that I’d realized how little of a hold it still had on me. And it was because of the progress of us both that we were meeting Brian today.
Kira and I didn’t get matching tattoos often. Our tastes were too different, just like our polar opposite personalities. But our deep love for art on our bodies was something we’d always shared with Dad, and every now and then something in our lives called for “matchy-matchy,” as Brian had called it. This was definitely one of those times.
Because of the relationships that had been life consuming and life altering for both of us, we were getting “free hearts” tattoos to show how we felt like we’d finally been released from the past. A tattoo of a small red heart with free in black inked across it, as if the word had been stamped on top.
After Kira was done and Brian was set up again, I was lying next to him with the outline on my left collarbone, and the familiar buzzing started up. Nothing was more soothing to me than the buzzing of these machines, and I couldn’t help but smile as I waited for the process to start.
“You in love with my boy yet?”
And there went my smile.
A short laugh bubbled past my lips, and my eyebrows pulled down as I looked over at Brian. “Uh, what?”
“Have you finally figured out you’re in love with him?”
“No,” I responded, slowly drawing out the word. “Why?”
“Because it’s gonna happen,” Brian said, like the fact that I didn’t already know this was blowing his mind.
After a few minutes passed with him focused only on what he was doing, he moved his head so it was directly above my face. “He loves you, you know.”