Chapter 7
“What are you doing, Avi?” Eri asked as she placed their drinks on her coffee table.
It was Thursday afternoon, and they’d come to Eri’s apartment to do some homework together and hang out after classes.
They’d finished their assignments half an hour ago, but her friend had been on her laptop researching something.
“Do you remember the tattoo competition we discussed at the Halloween party?” Avian inquired.
Eri nodded. It had been a few months ago, but she remembered. She’d volunteered to make media content for them. She remembered Marco agreeing to it but not wanting to do it until the middle of the year.
“I’m looking up spaces to have it and what vendors might want to participate. Marco hasn’t set a definitive date, but it’ll be between June and the beginning of July.”
“Getting a jump start on it is a good idea,” Eri said, grabbing her lemonade.
“Once you’ve chosen the location to have it, I can create a site page for the competition.
You can have vendors fill out interest forms and contestants fill out entry forms there.
I can also link a payment option so they can pay whatever fees Marco charges. ”
“I know the price of the chosen space will determine the vendor fee. I’m not sure what the entry fee for contestants will be since there will be cash prizes for the top three.”
“Are our favorite tattoo artists participating? Because it might not be much of a competition if they are.”
Avian shook her head. “No. They’ll do a few tattoos during the event since a major reason is to get people to come and pay for the services, but they’re judging the competition.”
That made sense because she didn’t see anyone else being able to judge it. They could let attendees vote, but most people wouldn’t recognize superior work if both pieces were good, and the most deserving person may not be chosen.
“I wasn’t going to ask and wait for you to tell me, but the anticipation is killing me,” Avian started. “How was your date with Elias?”
“It wasn’t a date. We just hung out.”
Avian furrowed her brow. “It wasn’t? It looked like a date to me.”
“I thought it was, too, but he made it clear it wasn’t.” Eri paused briefly. “He said, since I had fun, I shouldn’t be opposed to him taking me on an actual date.”
Her friend put the laptop on the coffee table, picked up the other glass, and turned towards her. “So you had fun?” Avian asked with a smile.
“Yeah, I did; I met one of my favorite animators.”
“Yes, but did you have fun with him?”
“I did.” She thought only momentarily before continuing. “Each time I’ve been around him, I’ve had fun.”
Eri had no reason to keep that from Avian, and aside from her therapist, she didn’t have anyone else she would be comfortable talking to about the emotions she felt when she was around Elias. Things she hadn’t felt in a long time.
“You just like pretending that you don’t and giving that man a hard time.”
“With anyone else, they would take it as me being uninterested, but not him.”
“Because you aren’t uninterested. I can see that, and Elias clearly can see through your faux meanness to see that you’re attracted to him, too.”
Eri didn’t respond. What was she supposed to say to that? She wouldn’t lie and say it wasn’t true. She’d known that from the first moment she’d seen him, had even said so much to Avian at the gathering she’d invited her to at Marco’s house for the first time before her friend had moved in with him.
However, she hadn’t realized then how attracted she was to him, how he’d be able to start chipping away at the wall she’d had up to keep any man at bay.
It didn’t help that when she tried to be mean to him, he laughed it off or said something that lent itself to the fact that he knew she wasn’t as irritated as she pretended to be.
“I can understand if the thought of dating is still scary for you,” Avian stated. “And you should take all the time you need, but you said it yourself, you have fun with him. Is there something other than what you went through that’s keeping you from giving him a chance?”
That wasn’t a difficult question. It was one Eri had already asked herself.
“If I pursued something with him, I’d feel inclined to tell him about the assault if we became serious.
Hiding it and not bringing it up would seem like lying to me, and I wouldn’t want to do that.
” She paused for a beat that felt longer than it was.
“I don’t want to be looked at differently or like something I did caused what happened. ”
Avian took Eri’s glass from her, putting both glasses on the table before taking her hands in hers.
“Nothing about what happened is your fault, and anyone who tries to find a reason for it to be isn’t someone you want in your life, and they can go straight to the bowels of hell.
” Avian squeezed her hands. “I understand that’s a fear, and you should absolutely take your time until you’re ready.
If it helps, I don’t see Elias doing either of those things, and if my telling you that doesn’t help or you need another perspective, be sure to talk to Cherell about it. ”
Eri would like to believe that, but you never knew how someone would act in a situation like that until you put them in it, and she wasn’t sure she was willing to put herself in that position.
Realistically, she knew that if she ever wanted a meaningful relationship, she would have to open up and put herself out there, but was she ready to do that?
“Thank you, Avi,” Eri replied, squeezing the other woman’s hands before releasing them.
“You don’t have to thank me. I want you to be happy in all things, and I will support you in every aspect.” She paused. “So, do you plan on going on a real date with him?”
Eri thought about it briefly. “Maybe,” she responded, but they both knew what she was saying: if he asked, then yes.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Elias redrew a part of the bike frame in the sketch he was working on.
He’d started working on a design for the second referral he’d gotten from Rei, the streamer who commissioned a bike from him last year.
As he looked at it, he realized it didn’t have all the elements the man had requested, but Elias liked it and decided to finish it, put it aside for a future project, and restart on the commission.
He would start on the first bike next week since the last of the parts he ordered would be in.
He could have started and continued once the parts arrived, but he liked to ensure he had everything on hand before starting.
Once he got started, he liked to focus on it.
He only worked on one bike at a time and reduced the number of tattoo appointments he took during that time by forty to fifty percent.
His phone rang, and he glanced at the screen, debating whether or not to answer it when he saw who it was, suspecting why they were calling and what they wanted. Elias figured he might as well.
“Hello?” he answered, putting the phone on speaker.
“Elias, hey.”
“What’s up, Amanda?”
“I was calling to see if you were free,” she responded.
“I am not,” he replied.
“Oh, come on. Would it help if I said I missed you?”
Elias snorted. “Nope.”
“Don’t be that way. I need you,” Amanda tried.
“You should have thought of that before you cheated on me with my cousin,” he countered.
“What did you expect me to do? You weren’t taking tattoo appointments for a month, and I needed to get it done. Marco was available, and I just kept going to him.”
“And now that he’s booked out for the next few months, you’ve come crawling back,” he jested. “But this begging is amusing.”
“I’m sure you’d make me grovel if you thought you could,” Amanda said.
“It would be pointless to make you, considering I still can’t do whatever tattoo you want. My time slots for the next few weeks are booked, and I’m starting a new bike next week. Why don’t you ask Nesiah or Javier?”
Amanda sighed. “I guess I could, but you and Marco have similar styles, and I wanted all of my ink to look the same.”
Elias didn’t respond. He and Marco didn’t have similar styles.
They happened to be good at mimicking one another.
Elias, because his cousin had practically taught him how to tattoo before he’d even completed the course, and Marco, because he was just good at mimicking most styles if he had a reference for it.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Elias finally said. “My earliest availability is in like six weeks. Unless you want to wait that long, you might have to bite the bullet and let someone else do it.”
“Patience has never been my virtue when I want new ink, but put me down for your soonest appointment.”
“Alright. I’ll text you the day and time, but this is the only time I’ll let you come crawling back to me,” he teased.
Amanda laughed. “Fair.”
She’d been one of his regulars a few years ago until she called to make an appointment while he was in the middle of building a bike.
It was when he’d just started making custom motorcycles and wanted to focus on it uninterrupted.
Amanda hadn’t wanted to wait, and Marco had done the tattoo for her.
From there, she’d continue to make appointments with his cousin, contacting him when Marco was booked out like he was now.
Elias didn’t mind; he only enjoyed giving her a hard time about it.
“Tell your husband he owes me money. My team wiped the floor with his,” Elias told her.
Amanda laughed. “That man sucks at betting and continues to do it. I’ll let him know.”
They ended the call, and he turned his attention back to the sketch. He knew the perfect design for the side of it and began working on it. Once he finished it, he’d move on to the commissioned piece.
Elias sat on his couch later that evening, watching some random movie, when he looked at the time and decided to call Eri. He grabbed his phone off the table and went to her contact.
“Hi, Elias,” she greeted.
“Hey, Amate. Did you miss me?” he teased, knowing that she would deflect and not answer him.
“If that helps you sleep tonight,” she responded, and he chuckled because she always went out of her way not to tell him yes when he asked her something, but she never told him no either.
“How was class?”
“It was okay. One of my professors gave us an extra project for the semester that was not on the syllabus, and I’m sure he did it to be a jackass, but other than that, it was the usual.” Elias heard her shifting. “What did you do today? Tattoos or motorcycles?”
“Both. I had two tattoos today, and then I worked on a design.”
“For the second referral you were telling me about?” Eri asked.
“It was supposed to be, but it ended up being something else. I liked it and decided to keep it for a future project, but I got about halfway through the commissioned one after that. I might finish it tomorrow after two tattoo appointments.”
“What kind of pieces are they?”
“A cartoon piece on a wrist and an hourglass on a forearm,” he responded.
“What cartoon?”
“Powerpuff Girls.”
“Ooh, which one are they getting?” Eri asked.
“Mojo Jojo,” he responded.
She sighed. “The way you just deflated my excitement.”
Elias chuckled. “I didn’t do it, Amate. The client did. I take it you enjoy The Powerpuff Girls.”
“I do. It’s one of my comfort shows. I haven’t watched it in a little while. I might binge it this weekend.”
“You can do that. After going out with me this weekend.”
She paused for a minute. “Are you asking me on a date?”
“I did say I needed to take you on a real date, but so there isn’t any confusion. Will you go out with me on Saturday?”
She was quiet for a second, and Elias half expected her to give him a non-answer, but that wasn’t what he got.
“Yeah. I will.”
“I’ll pick you up Saturday at seven.”
They continued to speak for a while longer until Eri yawned, and when he glanced at the clock, he saw it was after eleven.
He hadn’t realized they’d been talking for over three hours.
They said their good nights, and he entered his bedroom, tossing his phone onto the bed.
He wasn’t sure yet where he would take her on Saturday, but he’d know by the time he picked her up.
Elias planned to show her the difference between hanging out with him and going on a date with him, then maybe he could crumble a bit more of that wall.