Chapter 29
Eri looked over the designs she had created.
She had several, likely more than Koa would need, but she wanted to have options for the other woman to choose from.
She knew how much of a big deal working with Koa was.
It would help Eri reach potential clients she otherwise wouldn’t have.
Having several designs also allowed her to add more to her portfolio, even if Koa didn’t choose them.
Koa had reached out to Eri the day after the event.
It had quickly turned into a video call, where they discussed what she was looking for and paid a deposit for the work.
They weren’t meeting until the following week, which would have given her two weeks to create merch designs, but she’d been so excited that she’d gotten it done in a few days.
Eri would do some touch-ups before the meeting, but was happy with what she came up with.
She glanced at the time on her computer before saving her designs. She exited her office, grabbed the gift bag, and left her apartment.
Twenty minutes later, she pulled in behind Avian’s car. Eri knocked on the door, and when her friend answered, she held up the bag.
“Happy birthday!” she exclaimed, doing a little birthday jig.
Avian laughed, stepping aside to let her in, and they shared a hug.
“Thank you,” Avian responded.
“I didn’t just come bearing gifts,” Eri announced. “I’m also taking you to lunch.”
They entered the living room, and Eri set the gift bag between them once they were seated on the couch.
Avian removed the decorative paper before pulling out two yoga sets.
One purple and one green. Eri thought it would be perfect for her to teach in.
After the sets, she pulled out a small foldable duffel with her name on it, with a water bottle holder at the end.
She could use it as a dance bag. Eri knew she currently used her backpack.
She’d also made sure that it wasn’t something Marco planned to get her.
“Thanks, Eri. This is perfect.”
“You’re welcome. Eventually, when you open your own studio, I want to get you some with the name you choose on there.”
“I think that’s a couple of years from now, but I love the confidence.”
“The same confidence you have in me,” Eri replied. “Come on. Let’s go to lunch.”
“Do you know what Marco has planned for your birthday?” Eri inquired when they were halfway through lunch.
“I have no idea. He won’t tell me. I know he’s taking me out tonight, but he also has something planned for the weekend because he asked me to make sure my schedule was clear.”
“We both know that whatever he has planned, you’ll enjoy it.”
“I always do,” Avian responded with a smirk.
“Anyway, on another note, a woman who frequents my classes told me about this Fourth of July event happening at the park. She said it’s like a carnival.
The company she works for and a few others are hosting it.
We should go. It sounds like it could be fun. ”
Eri nodded. “I think I saw something about that on social media yesterday. But yeah, we should. We can invite Nesiah and Javier and make it a triple date.”
“That works for me.”
Eri knew they’d invite Ricardo too, but recently, unless they were hanging out in a group with other singles, he’d taken to turning down their offers, not wanting to be the seventh wheel.
“Did your mom call you today?”
“Yeah, she did. She called this morning and wished me a happy birthday. We didn’t talk long, but she wants to take me to dinner next week to celebrate.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That I would let her know if I was free.”
Eri was silent briefly, wondering if she’d be overstepping, but knew Avian would tell her if she was.
“Do you think it’s a good idea to give her more access to you when the two of you haven’t really resolved anything? Or is that what you’re hoping to do if she takes you to dinner?”
“That would be nice, but I know my mom. She’s set in her ways, and one dinner will not change that. I’m just hoping for a sliver of progress, but if I go and she disrespects my husband or my marriage, I have no issue pushing her right back to the edge of my life and leaving her there.”
Eri understood where her friend was coming from and knew she’d be capable of doing so, but that it was also hard on her not to have her mom in her life and to be supportive of her happiness.
Avian had gotten to share none of the things a woman normally would with their mother regarding wedding planning or the general excitement.
Eri would not get to either, but their circumstances were different.
At least Avian had Lorna and her aunt Willa.
They finished lunch, and their plates were taken away, only to be replaced a few minutes later by a mini strawberry shortcake. Eri placed a candle in it and lit it as she and a few servers sang “Happy Birthday”.
They enjoyed their dessert before Eri paid the bill and took Avian back home so she could take a nap and be energized for her night out with her husband.
Eri didn’t have any other plans for the day, and she knew Elias was working. She decided she would take some time to research new gig sites and set up social media ads for her work.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Elias had dealt with plenty of difficult or…
unique tattoo clients, but this was the first time he’d had to deal with one during a motorcycle consultation.
The issue at hand was one he thought he’d handled over the phone when making the appointment.
However, either Dan, the client, hadn’t understood, or he was under some delusion that the more he said it, the facts would change.
Elias was a few seconds away from putting the man out.
“So you want a touring motorcycle or a chopper,” Elias stated, knowing full well that wasn’t what the other man wanted, but thought saying it that way would get the message across to him.
“No, I want a standard bike.”
“With that type of motor in it?” Elias confirmed, pointing at the picture on Dan’s phone. The other man nodded. “Then you want a touring bike or a chopper because that motor is too big for a standard bike. It won’t perform well.”
“That’s impossible. This is the best engine on the market. It should perform exceedingly well.”
Elias refrained from sighing. “It’s the best on the market for touring motorcycles, and it would work for a chopper, but not a standard bike.
It would be too heavy, and maintaining control of the motorcycle would be too difficult.
You also run the risk of it exhausting the other parts and blowing something.
Depending on how often you rode it, you’d have a year.
Two tops if something doesn’t explode before then, but inevitably something will go wrong. ”
“It’s fine. I’ll only ride it so often. This is the engine I want.”
This time, Elias did sigh. “I can’t in good conscience do that.”
“Listen, I will take my business elsewhere if you can’t make this happen.”
Elias raised a brow. “Go ahead. Anyone who would build that for you is ripping you off and potentially signing your death certificate. That won’t be on me.”
Motorcycles in themselves could be dangerous depending on who was behind the wheel or on the road, but he wouldn’t build something that he knew would cost someone their life because of the parts.
“You can exit the same way you entered,” Elias told him. He didn’t want Dan to feel the need to continue to argue for what he wanted because Elias was not giving him his way.
Once Dan was gone, he decided to work on an extra frame he’d been dabbling with. He was waiting for neon paint for the siblings’ motorcycles that he was building. They weren’t common colors, and he didn’t keep them on hand. Since he was there, he figured he should work on something.
He turned on some music and got to work. He didn’t have a sketch or an idea for the frame, so he was winging it, letting creativity spur him as he did some freehand detailing.
“I forgot you had a consultation today.”
Elias looked over to find that Christa had arrived. “Yeah. I finished it…” he trailed off to look at his watch. “Over an hour ago.” He hadn’t realized how much time had passed.
“How was it?”
“He wanted something dangerous, and I sent him on his way.” Christa raised a brow in question, and he elaborated.
“Wow. People are really willing to put their lives at risk to get what they want or not to seem wrong. It’s far from worth it.”
“Tell me about it. What are you doing here?”
“I need to put in a few material orders. I was nearby and figured I’d do it today. I also need to go through and see if any of the paints, waxes, and whatnot have expired.”
Elias nodded. She went up to the office, and he got back to work.
He barely noticed she was there when she went into the storage area to take inventory, but that was usually how it was when he worked on a motorcycle.
Everything fell away around him, even the music sometimes.
The only time that didn’t happen was when Jordan was at the shop, and Elias was mentoring him.
He worked a while longer, managing to get paint on himself in the process, and looked at his watch. He was meeting Cade for drinks in two hours and decided to head home and shower the paint away. Elias said bye to Christa before leaving, the bottom lock clicking into place automatically behind him.
“How’s business treating you?” Cade asked as they sat at a table in the corner.
“It’s good. I’m working on three bikes currently, and most of my tattoo slots are booked out for the next two months,” Elias replied. “What about you? Still having trouble with your co-lead?”
Cade groaned. “He’s insufferable. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t want to strangle him. He’s gotten worse recently too, but that might be because he’s leaving soon. There’s talk of it, and I’ve never wanted anything to be more true in my life.”
Elias shook his head. Since being promoted to the position, Cade had been having trouble with the other lead. At least, anytime the two of them had spoken or hung out, he had. He could understand his friend wanting the news of the man leaving to be true.
“If he leaves, are they going to promote someone else, or will you hold the position alone?”
“They’ll promote someone, or hire externally. There are too many employees for one person to oversee. I don’t care who it is. Anyone would be better than him. As long as I’m not contemplating murder every day, it’ll be an improvement.”
Elias chuckled as he shook his head because he knew Cade was serious. He also knew he shouldn’t have been laughing, but it was slightly amusing.
They were an hour and a half in and on their second drinks when his phone rang. Elias looked at where it sat on the table and saw Eri’s name flash across the screen.
“Give me a minute,” he said to Cade before answering the phone. “Hey, Amate.”
“Hey, babe.” She paused. “Are you busy?”
“I’m having drinks with Cade. What’s up?”
“Oh. My bad. I didn’t want anything. I just wanted to talk to you before I went to bed,” she replied.
Elias looked at his watch. It was a quarter to ten. “Give me about an hour, and I’ll come by when I leave here.”
“You don’t need to rush. Take your time and have fun. Honestly, I just wanted to hear your voice before I went to sleep. Mission accomplished.”
He shook his head in amusement, even though she couldn’t see him. “Alright, baby. I’ll text you in the morning.”
“You’ll text me when you get home, so I know you made it, even if I might be asleep,” she corrected.
“Bossy,” he countered. “But you got it.”
They ended the call, and Elias turned his attention back to the conversation he and Cade had been having.
It was a little over an hour later when he found himself at Eri’s front door.
He should have just gone home, but he didn’t want to.
He hadn’t seen her in a few days, and he wanted to.
Elias was aware he was being selfish as he knocked on the door because she was likely asleep.
It opened after a minute, and Eri stood there, eyes lidded, in a T-shirt that looked suspiciously like his.
“I told you, you didn’t need to rush on my account.”
“I didn’t,” he responded, picking her up and stepping inside. Cade had to work the following morning and had headed home forty-five minutes after Eri called. Elias locked the door behind them and headed to her bedroom.
He laid her on the bed before undressing and joining her. Reaching over her to turn off the lamp, he was sure she turned on when he knocked. Elias pulled her to his chest as her easy breathing filled the room, and his would soon join hers.