Chapter 10
Drew
I twist my fingers, nervous as I look at my phone on my nightstand, my heart in my throat.
For years, despite my stage fright, I have excelled at ballet.
I've grown as a person and come to enjoy moving the audience every time I dance and I have come to love the proud faces of my parents front and center, but there is one person I am terrified to dance for, one person I’m scared to ask to come to my show this afternoon.
We’re raising money for underprivileged kids—a show his club donated to—and even though he has seen me practice, I’m scared to ask him to come.
Bellamy.
I’ve known him for a week, I have this urge to want to hear his voice, heck, to be near him and it's scary, but not as scary as having him sitting front and center while I dance my heart out. I mean, he probably won’t even want to come anyhow.
Okay, so maybe that is my real fear.
“Just ask him, sweetheart, I promise he’ll want to be there.”
Mom’s words yesterday echo when I mentioned my worries, and I swallow hard.
For the past week, Bellamy has been at my studio unless he has a call with his club.
Yesterday was the first day I didn’t see him.
I only received a message before bed, and I don’t know how I feel about it.
I’m not proud of it because he never gave me any reason not to trust him, but I thought maybe my sister got to him.
Again, I’m not proud of it, especially since he didn't once look her way five days ago. I guess the messages she sent me claiming he’s too good for me and should be with her were bound to get in my head at some point.
“Just call him and stop being a wuss,” I mutter to myself, and I grab my phone and unlock it, refusing to allow my mind to make crap up.
A picture of him and me that my dad took flashes before me, and my heart flutters, the feelings I thought I’d never feel for someone slowly creep in.
I’m looking up at him like he hangs the moon while he’s half smiling at the camera.
“Okay, I’ve got this,” I whisper, then, taking a deep breath, I find his number, and without thinking too much of it, I press on his name and put the phone to my ear.
“Hey, baby, everything alright?” he answers on the fifth ring, concern lacing his voice, and I slowly close my eyes with relief.
I thought it was going to go to voicemail, and the relief I feel is choking me.
“Hey, I’m not interrupting, am I?” I ask hesitantly, hearing some buzzing in the background.
“Nah, I’m just at the tattoo shop,” he replies, and I swallow hard.
Did he get a chair, or is he getting a new tattoo? Though I’m not sure where he’d get one, his body is covered in them. I only noticed them when he wore the button-down shirt with a few buttons undone.
“Are you there all day?” I ask, and the buzzing stops for a moment.
He replies, “No, just this morning. Why don’t you come down? I want to show you something.”
My eyes widen a little bit in shock at the offer, and I stutter, “O-Okay,” then whisper, “I’ll be ten minutes.”
“Great.” He says, and I swear I can hear the smile in his voice as he rasps, “I’ll see you soon.”
I hang up, drop my arm, and take another deep breath. The disappointment I felt at the thought of him being busy makes me realize how much I want him at the show.
"Dammit, I should have just asked him five days ago!" I mutter before grabbing my bag and storming out, disappointed he might miss my show.
***
“Can I help you?” a woman standing behind a glass desk that is full of jewelry asks eight minutes later, because yes, I timed it, as I walk into Hills Tats and Piercings, and I swallow hard.
She has her pierced brow raised as her dark purple eyes, which have to be contacts, look me up and down. Not in a ‘wow, I love her jeans’ kind of way, no, she’s judging me, which is funny considering her spiked hair is dark orange, and her crop top barely covers her breasts.
“I uh, Bellamy asked me to meet him here,” I say, and she gives me a funny look.
“There is no Bellamy, you’re at the wrong place, sweetheart, so why don’t you get your snobby ass out of here and get lost?” she sneers, and I sigh.
It has to be the low bun that makes her think I’m snobby right?
Shaking my head, I grab my phone from my pocket and bring up Bellamy's name before calling.
“You here?” he answers after three rings, and I confirm, “In reception.”
“Seed, I’ll be right back,” Bellamy says, and a deep voice replies, “No problem, Cage,” and I furrow my brows as the phone goes dead.
Did he just hang up on me?
I pull my phone away and frown before I hear heavy boot steps and look up just as the receptionist husks, “Hi Cage…” While biting her black nail.
He completely ignores her as he strolls my way. My stomach flips at the intensity he has aimed at me, but I grin wide as he walks right up to me and cups my cheeks with his rough, strong hands, and I grip his cut just as realization hits me.
She called him Cage.
Well, that would explain why she didn't know a Bellamy.
“Hi,” I whisper, and he leans down and gently presses his lips against mine.
I hear a gasp from behind, but we pay no mind as he murmurs, “Little bird, I missed you yesterday,” I hum in agreement because I missed him too, so fricking much that I spent an hour on the phone with my mom of all people.
“You were busy,” I remind him because by the looks of things, he was if my insinuation is correct, and he huffs.
“I spent hours bent over a client, tatting his back, something he should have prebooked for instead of being a walk-in,” he grunts, “If I didn’t need to get my name out there to get more clients, I would have told him to fuck off. I don’t like not seeing you.”
“You got the chair?” I confirm with a massive grin, and he returns the grin.
“I got the chair,” he replies, and I do a little squeal before pressing my lips against his, and he chuckles.
“What the hell does she have that I don’t?!” the woman behind the desk snaps, and I roll my eyes but ignore her and ask my well, I guess, my boyfriend, “You going to allow me to see a part of your world?”
He grins, despite the tension on his face caused by the woman, and I gently run my finger over his brows, causing him to melt a little and relax, and he replies, “Only if you invite me to your show this afternoon.”
Okay, so my mom was right…
“It’s why I called,” I admit, “I was going to see if you could go.”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Besides, your dad already got me a ticket. You know, being one of the largest donors and all that,” he says and I poke his side, making him chuckle. “Come on, come watch me tat. Then maybe once I’m done, you can do a butterfly on my neck.”
Wait what?
I open my mouth to instantly decline because hello, cannot tattoo, not trained, but before I can protest, he pulls me towards the back, completely ignoring the scowl on the receptionist. He yanks me into a large room where a man who has to be over six foot and wearing an MC cut which says New York on his rockers along with ‘Nomad’ like Bellamy’s.
The bald man covered in tattoos gives me a golden grin—yes, his teeth are gold—and I smile back as I sit on a stool that Bellamy drags over.
For the next two hours, I watch in awe as Bellamy shows me his world and his passion.
He jokes around with the man, whom I learn is Seed—named because the women loved his, which is just gross.
I then spent another hour tattooing the outline of a butterfly on his neck, beside Angie’s name.
Of course he got his way after he explained why he wanted it and why.
I was the only one who could do it and even though I had no idea what I was doing, I did it while I straddled his lap and tried my hardest not to drool over his body.
***
I breathe heavily as I look out to the crowd, holding one arm out, keeping my pose, and my eyes find the ones I know I am going to fall in love with four hours later.
Bellamy stands with my parents, a grin on his face, as he claps and whistles along with the crowd, which gets wilder as my little four-year-olds and my teens all walk out and stand around me.
God, they did amazing. No, more than amazing. I couldn’t be any prouder of them.
They all bow and the crowd cheers louder and while my mom has tears in her eyes, Dad is grinning. Bellamy’s sole focus is on me, a look of pride covering his face, and everything deep inside me settles because I know that man is my forever, I know that man will be my husband, the father of my kids.