Chapter Two
Brent
Nearly one year later
“I’m gonna do like Altan here and grab one from the machine.”
I hadn’t planned on doing that. If anything, I came in expecting to hem and haw about what tattoo to get.
But as I was chilling with Bunny Foo-Foo, I knew that I needed to get one from the machine.
Not that it would be fun or that it was easier.
Nope. A necessity. I didn’t fully understand why I was so sure, but as she looked up at me with her beautiful eyes, it was all the assurance I needed.
“You do know that the only person tattooing today, besides your bestie’s man, is me, and I’m taken.” Greta batted her eyelashes.
I liked Greta, but I’d never say I understood her. Was she teasing? Did she think everyone wanted her man? Was she looking for positive affirmations? Not a clue. Instead, I did what I always did when she made comments that caught me off guard, I played it off like a joke.
“I’m not under any notion that I am going to leave here with a beau.” I scanned my card, and Greta rolled her eyes.
“Just plop this quarter in there. Let’s see what you get.”
I did, surprised by the anticipation that flooded me as I waited the milliseconds for the capsule to drop.
Suddenly this felt big, life-changing even.
I pulled it from the machine and opened it.
It was a bear, although nothing like the one my bestie had gotten.
The more I looked at it, the more it looked more dragon than bear, but if you were to ask me in what way, I wasn’t sure I could pinpoint it. It just did.
“Huh? How’d that get in there?” Greta reached in the drawer and gave me another quarter before I fully took in the masterpiece that the machine gave me.
“Wait, why do I get another quarter? This is perfect.”
“Nah, that’s our little brother’s. He doesn’t work here anymore.”
Theo.
She could’ve said Theo. It wasn’t like I hadn’t met him before. Had he mentioned me leaving and ghosting him after that night together? Was this her way of saying he didn’t want to see me again? That wasn’t going to happen.
I hadn’t talked to him enough to know he was an artist, but that didn’t mean I didn’t know him.
At least physically, I did. It was my first time going home with someone I hadn’t dated for eons, and what did I do?
I bailed on him before so much as saying goodbye.
Maybe I deserved to never see him again, but now that the possibility was dangling in front of me, I couldn’t let it slip by.
“Nope, that’s the one I want.”
“Okay, I’ll call him and see. He’ll probably say no.”
She left with her phone in hand. Did she expect him to yell at her over having me at the shop? If so, I’d deserve it. She came back pretty much right away.
“He’ll be here in an hour.”
An hour in the waiting room of the dentist was an eternity. An hour to decide if I should run away and pretend I never put the token in the slot? That might as well be a second. The heaviness of the decision weighed on me when only a few minutes earlier, I was demanding he be the one to tattoo me.
What was wrong with me?
The reality was, there was no decision. I was staying. It was fear and nerves and panic that gave me pause, but not enough to change my mind.
The number of times I wanted to ask my bestie how his brother-in-law was doing or to accidentally on purpose mention him in front of Greta and Xavier?
Dozens. Out of all of them, Greta would’ve been the easiest to get info out of.
I wouldn’t have needed more than to mention his name, and she’d start talking.
Would it have come with a heavy dose of teasing or possibly grumbling?
Yeah, but then at least I’d know something.
It was the not knowing that was driving me bonkers. Xavier and Greta were hunched over a book, possibly one with appointments, whispering to each other. Alton was with Sothea and their little one, also speaking in hushed tones. That left me all alone in a room filled with others.
Not completely alone. Bunny Foo-Foo was there to keep me company like the fabulous cat she was.
As the minutes ticked by, no amount of cat cuteness or snuggles could distract me from Theo’s arrival.
“This is your fault.” I scratched under the left side of her chin, the way she loved. “If you didn’t have me pick a mystery ball, none of this would have happened.”
It wasn’t her fault. She was a cat. She didn’t make me do any of this. Just because I was chilling with her when I made the decision didn’t make that any less true.
Telling myself that if he got here, took a look at me, and said, “Nah, peace out,” helped calm me down. I wouldn’t like it, but I’d have my answer instead of playing the what-if game with myself.
The number of times I replayed that morning from the moment I opened my eyes all content and warm until getting in the car and having him drive away…it was embarrassing. Even more so, the varied endings I concocted for us.
I’d wake up and he’d kiss me and tell me I was his and not to leave.
Or I’d wake up to the house smelling like bacon and a burnt omelet because he tried to spoil me despite not being able to cook.
Or we’d take a shower together and then spend the day exploring the woods behind his house, finding morel treasure.
At the end of the day, that night had been just a little too intense. I liked him far more than I should for some random person I met, and I panicked. No amount of creative imagination could change that.
“Whatever comes to be, will be, Bunny Foo-Foo.” I kissed the top of her head. “I know you’ll still love me. I love you too.”