Chapter 26
“Thank you,” Eri said as Marco brought in the last box.
She’d packed everything over the week, and it hadn’t taken them long to get her moved.
Now, all she needed to do was unpack. Since she’d met the delivery people for her bedroom furniture yesterday, she’d spent a couple of hours cleaning the apartment.
Eri knew that the complex had someone clean it, but if she did it herself, it would be to her standards.
“I’m starving,” Avian announced from where she sat on a windowsill.
“Same,” Eri agreed.
“You sure? Because I had my dic—” Marco started.
“Could have sworn I filled you up—” Elias began simultaneously.
“Be quiet,” Eri demanded, cutting them off.
“Both of you. We didn’t ask you that,” Avian added, and both men laughed. “What time are your first tattoos today?”
Marco looked at his phone. “Two and a half hours.”
“Same,” Elias said.
“Then the two of you can take Lorenzo’s truck back to him and bring us food,” Eri informed.
“Ah, yours is bossy too,” Marco joked.
“She tries to be,” Elias responded with a smirk.
“Get going, or I’ll show you bossy,” she threatened her boyfriend playfully with narrowed eyes.
“And I’m not bossy,” Avian countered.
“Of course not, Micio.”
“Call me if you need me to pick up something else, Amate,” Elias said before kissing her temple, and the two men headed out the door.
“Lock the door,” they threw over their shoulders simultaneously.
Eri locked the deadbolt and turned around to find Avian heading into her bedroom. “Come on. We can start putting your clothes away while we wait.”
Putting her clothes away would be easy. Anything that had been on hangers in her closet was left on hangers, and she’d gotten dry cleaning bags to put over them.
Currently, they were all across her bed.
The master closet was bigger than the one in her campus apartment, and with more room, she could rearrange it differently.
They worked in comfortable silence for a while, and it was only when they’d gotten everything put away in the closet and moved to the dresser that Eri broke it.
“Do you remember when you told me that if I told Elias about what happened, he wouldn’t look at me differently?”
“I remember,” Avian responded, passing Eri a stack of sleep shorts.
“You were right. You know, I told him a month ago, and subconsciously, I was waiting for things to change, even though he said they wouldn’t. Consciously, I believed, and it hasn’t. Now, I feel guilty for thinking the other shoe would eventually drop.”
“I don’t think you should feel guilty about that. Given the circumstances, it’s only human nature. It isn’t like you actively doubted him.”
“That’s true. Anyway, I wanted to say thank you. I don’t think I would have given in to what I felt for him, or opened up if it weren’t for you.” Eri pulled Avian into a hug. “You’re a great friend. I love you.”
Avian squeezed her tight. “I learned from you. Of all the friends I made freshman year, everyone got irritated with me for never going out with them or being too busy studying. But not you. You were always understanding. Always there, pulling me away to get me to live my life and encouraging me to challenge myself. Hell, if it weren’t for you taking me to get my first tattoo, I wouldn’t have met my husband. I love you, too.”
Eri squeezed her a little tighter, and then the two returned to what they were doing.
It didn’t take them long to finish unpacking and putting away her clothes. They broke down the boxes and put them against the wall by the front door. They were unpacking her dishes and putting them away when there was a knock on the door.
She answered it, stepping aside to let both men enter. Elias set a bag from The Grove Cafe & Market on the counter while Marco carried a drink holder. Eri made a mental note to go to the grocery store that afternoon. Once they each had food, they stood around the counters eating.
“When is the rest of your furniture coming?” Avian asked.
“Everything will trickle in over the coming week. The last thing scheduled for delivery is the desk I ordered for my office,” Eri replied.
“You’ll be in the house for most of the week then,” Avian pointed out.
“You’re right. They gave me delivery windows for everything, but they’re so wide. It gives me time to work on my portfolio and set up freelance gigs on sites. Maybe I’ll get a few clients from them.”
“Once the event happens, and your name is on all the promotional items as the designer, you’ll have people and businesses running to contact you,” Avian replied.
“She’s right, Amate.”
Eri appreciated the confidence they had in her, and she was putting out good vibes that was what happened.
She’d applied for a couple of other positions and was waiting to hear back, but she wasn’t hopeful.
Eri knew her salary request for both positions was higher than what was listed in the job post, but it was lower than that of competitors for the same position, and she wanted to be fair to herself.
When they finished eating, Eri grabbed a trash bag from under the kitchen sink, where she’d placed all her cleaning supplies the previous afternoon.
“Micio, we should go. I still have to take you home before getting ready for my client.”
“I’m going to stay and help Eri unpack. You don’t mind taking me home later, do you?”
“Of course, I don’t mind,” Eri responded.
“Alright. I’m leaving then,” Marco said.
“Thanks again for the help.”
“It was no problem,” he responded.
“I’m going too, but I’ll be back after my appointments,” Elias informed. “I’ll mount the televisions when I come back. Don’t try to do it.”
Eri knew he not only had a few tattoos to do, but a motorcycle consultation as well.
She wasn’t in a hurry to get them mounted.
She didn’t even have furniture in her living room yet, and they weren’t coming to hook up her Wi-Fi until Monday.
So if he was tired when he came back, he didn’t have to worry about it.
“I won’t,” she assured him, and she got the feeling that he wouldn’t let her touch anything that needed to be put together when it was delivered. Eri wouldn’t complain.
“Call or text me if you need me to pick up anything on my way back,” he instructed.
Eri nodded, and he kissed her before heading towards the door. She followed him, locking it behind the two men.
“Let’s get the rest of this unpacked, and when we finish, we can imagine how all your furniture will be set up.”
Eri had a general idea of how she wanted to set everything up, but another perspective wouldn’t hurt.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
“How long have you been a tattooist?” the girl in his chair asked as Elias removed the transfer from her arm.
“I’ve been licensed for almost seven years.”
“Does it take long to achieve?”
“It depends on the route you take,” he responded, turning on the gun. She jumped before laughing.
“Sorry. It’s my first one, so I’m a bit nervous.”
Elias paused and looked at the piece she was getting on her lower bicep down to her forearm.
It was large for a first tattoo. He hadn’t done her initial consultation because he hadn’t been in the shop when she’d come.
It had been done with Nesiah, and she’d chosen to book with him from his portfolio.
Since he only did specific hours in the shop, he’d given the other three free rein to set appointments for him, if he had them available.
Even when she’d come in a few days ago for him to draw what she wanted, she had said nothing about it being her first.
“I’ll be fine. I have a few piercings, so this should be a piece of cake once we get started.”
Elias understood her logic, but that wasn’t always the case. While piercings were a quick pain. This would be continuous until he finished, and where she was getting it was a sensitive area, but he would play it by ear.
He was a third of the way through the design, with minimal twitches on her end, but he could tell she was uncomfortable. He figured when they got to the halfway point, he’d give her a minute if she needed it, unless she asked for a break before that.
“This might be uncomfortable,” he informed her some time later, before he began tattooing over her inner elbow.
She hissed and jerked a bit, her free hand attaching to his bicep and squeezing. Elias turned the gun off as he pulled his arm from her grasp.
“Sorry. I felt the need to grab something,” she told him with a smile.
He refrained from pointing out that she could have grabbed the chair or one of her own body parts. Instead, he rolled over to one of his drawers and pulled out a stress ball, passing it to her. She could squeeze it to her heart’s content.
“Thanks,” she said, with an air of disappointment in her voice, and Elias knew it was because she now had no reason to touch him under the guise of reflex.
He continued the design over her inner elbow, and the soft music Nesiah played as she worked on a design filtered through the space, matched by the humming of the tattoo gun.
The peaceful atmosphere persisted as he finished all the black sections of the tattoo.
It was when he started shading in the color that she spoke again.
“Any plans after this?”
“More sessions,” he responded, and from his periphery, he saw Nesiah turn to look at them.
“No rest for creativity,” she responded. “What time will you be finished?”
“Late.”
Conversation again ceased as he continued to shade in her tattoo.
“Well, if you’re free. There’s this place on Eleventh that stays open until one a.m. if you want to go. I wouldn’t mind waiting.”
Elias removed the gun from her skin and looked up to find her batting her eyelashes. Before he could respond to her last statement, her face was closer to his, and instinctively, he leaned back. She laughed.
“Sorry. You just have such pretty eyes.”
“My girlfriend thinks so too,” he responded, figuring that would be enough to stop her not-so-subtle advances. When he’d drawn her tattoo, she hadn’t attempted flirting with him, but maybe she'd decided she’d go for it today.
“Of course, you have a girlfriend. The attractive ones always do.”
The rest of the tattoo was done with no conversation between them. When he finished, he sprayed it, then went through the aftercare steps with her as she looked it over in the mirror. She’d already paid him, so Elias cleaned his station, then wrapped her arm.
“Well, if you find yourself single—”
“I won’t,” he responded, cutting her off.
“Right. Thanks for the amazing tattoo.” She was gone a few seconds later.
“If you find yourself single,” Nesiah mocked. “I’m telling Eri,” she teased.
“Tell her tomorrow.”
“Why tomorrow?”
“Because by that time, I would have already told her,” he replied with a shrug.
Did he feel like Eri needed to know whenever a woman flirted with him?
No, not really. Would he tell her anyway?
Yes, because Elias knew that if the shoe was on the other foot, even if he didn’t need to know because the person was insignificant, like every woman who wasn’t her that flirted with him, he might feel some sort of way if he found out from someone other than her.
He also didn’t want it to seem like he considered it if she found out, and he wasn’t the one who told her.
“I just love it when we women have you men whipped,” she responded with a teasing smile, then turned her attention to Javier, who’d come in a few minutes ago. “And don’t say anything smart.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it, baby,” Javier responded.
Elias finished sanitizing his station and set up for his next client.
“I’m not surprised,” Eri said, shaking her head as she settled on his chest several hours later. “I can’t be upset with her for shooting her shot. Too bad for her, she missed.”
“Complete air ball,” Elias responded, drawing a laugh from her. He wrapped his arm around her. “There’s a ride up to Jemez that a club hosts in a couple of weeks. It happens twice a year. A bunch of motorcyclists meet up, and it’s like a street carnival. You want to go with me?”
“Sure, baby. It’s on a Saturday?”
“It is. Things are usually in full swing by noon. We can stay at the hot spring and come back Sunday afternoon.”
“Do you go every time?”
“Nah. I went once last year, and I didn’t go at all the year before that,” he replied.
“You said it’s like a street carnival. What all goes on?”
Elias spent the next twenty minutes telling her about the different games, people selling their crafts, amateur performers, and anything else he remembered being in attendance over the years he’d gone.
It wasn’t until he looked down that he realized she’d fallen asleep.
He refrained from chuckling at the habit she’d gotten into of getting him to talk about something, anything, and falling asleep to the sound of his voice.
He glanced at his phone and found that it was after eleven.
Elias turned the lamp off, pulled her closer, and settled in to sleep.