Chapter 38
Eri knocked on the door and waited. Koa had texted her a few days ago asking if they could meet.
This time, she’d given Eri her address. Part of her was nervous that the other woman was having an issue with the designs she’d sent over, but figured if that were the case, she wouldn’t have approved them, and told her so as soon as she sent them over.
“Eri, hey,” Koa greeted when she answered the door. “Come in.” She stepped aside to allow Eri to enter.
“Hey,” Eri replied. “Was there something wrong with the designs I sent? Did they not translate to the merch well?” she asked, getting to the point.
“No, they were great. The merch is the reason I asked you to come over. Follow me.”
She followed her down the hall and into a room that had been turned into a storage area for her merch. Shelves and racks lined the walls, and the closet door had been removed. Koa pulled a keychain out of one of the bins on a shelf, a tumbler off another shelf, and a shirt off one of the racks.
“These are some of the items I had made with the initial designs you made for me. The rest sold out pretty quickly, but I wanted you to have these.” Koa handed her the items.
Eri looked them over with a smile. It wasn’t the first time she had seen something she designed come to life, but the feeling was still the same.
It excited her. Gave her a sense of pride knowing she was the one who created it.
Knowing that the others had sold out quickly gave a boost to her ego, and she mentally patted herself on the back.
It wasn’t that she ever doubted her work because she always put her all into it, but those words were confirmation that others enjoyed it also.
“I’ve got so much more coming in over this week, along with the items for Halloween’s drop. I’ll put some things aside for you when it comes in, and again when I order the Christmas merch.”
“Thanks,” Eri replied. “I’d like that.”
“While you’re here, do you want to sneak a peek of the Halloween special animation?”
“Is that a serious question?” Eri asked. “Of course I do.”
Koa laughed and led her across the hall into another room. This one was filled with what Eri would equate to a gaming setup, except she knew it was where Koa created magic. She pulled the chair from the second desk and gestured for her to sit as she got everything pulled up.
Eri took the room in as she did. Everything was organized and had a specific place. She was sure it made it easier for Koa to work that way. At least, that was how it was for Eri.
She got to see the first five minutes of the special, and she couldn’t wait for it to drop. She looked at the timestamp and noticed that the episode was almost forty-five minutes long. Typically, Koa’s episodes ran between fifteen and twenty minutes.
“I can’t wait to see the rest of it. Will it be that long?” Eri asked, indicating the timestamp.
“It will. I’ve done all the cuts and edits. I just have to get the audio from the voice actors, and it’s good to go. I want to try to do longer specials since I’m thinking of taking more time off between seasons.”
Eri nodded. Koa released an episode a week for three months, then took a month off before returning for the next season with new episodes. So, there were three seasons a year on her page. Eri knew she animated everything herself, so she didn’t blame her for wanting to take longer breaks in between.
“You definitely should. You work hard, and your fans will understand.”
Koa smiled, closing out of the video. “So, how’s Elias?”
“He’s good. I actually plan to stop in to see him when I leave here.” Eri paused before deciding to be nosy. “Are you dating, Koa?”
“Nah, I haven’t dated for a while. I spend a lot of time in this room creating, and when I’m not, I’m on my bike somewhere getting inspired.”
“Do you have your eye on anyone?”
“Not really. I mean, I find a few people attractive, but I can be a lot, and I need whoever I’m with to be able to handle me,” Koa responded, wiggling her eyebrows, and Eri laughed. “How’s business?”
“It’s been good. I’ve gotten more jobs, and I’ve noticed an increase in followers on my socials since you tagged me after announcing you had more merch available. So, thanks for that.”
“You don’t need to thank me. All I did was tag you; the work you did spoke for itself.”
Eri stayed at Koa’s for a little longer before saying goodbye and heading towards Body Expressions. She knew Elias was there because he had four clients that day, but he should have been free at that time. She stopped and grabbed smoothies for everyone.
When she arrived, she passed out the smoothies, putting Marco’s in the refrigerator when Elias told her he was with a client before sitting in her boyfriend’s chair.
“Did you come to get a tattoo, Amate?” he joked.
“Maybe another time.”
“How was your meeting with Koa?”
“It was good,” she started. “She wanted to give me some merch, and I got a sneak peek of her upcoming special. It’s going to be forty-five minutes long.
I can’t wait!” Her boyfriend chuckled at her excitement, and she glared at him playfully before changing the subject.
“I found some of the cutest snowsuits while I was looking last night, and I found us matching ones.”
Eri pulled out her phone, brought up the shopping app, and went to the list she’d made for their trip to show him everything she was thinking of getting.
“Put it in the cart,” he told her as she scrolled to the bottom of the list. He pulled out his wallet and handed her his credit card.
“Which one?” she asked.
“All of it,” he replied.
Eri added them all to the cart, and a couple more she’d seen that she liked for him.
“That’s fine,” he told her when she showed him the total, without even looking at it. She didn’t question it and checked out before giving his card back to him.
“I’m going to look for flights tonight for everyone, and I’ll send a message to the group chat to let everyone know,” Eri informed them.
She would find the flight, and everyone would send her their money and information for her to book them. She’d been put in charge of flights while Avian had been tasked with accommodations for the eight of them.
Eri stayed for another half hour before kissing Elias and saying goodbye to the others before his next client came in. She headed home to start her search for flights.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
“Can you teach Javier that?” Nesiah asked as Elias ensured everything was set up for his client, who was due to come in at any minute.
He looked up at her and raised an eyebrow. “What would that be?”
“Paying for carts without asking questions. Teach him your ways.”
Elias chuckled, shaking his head as he finished getting the stencil ready.
“You remember that when you start shopping for this trip,” Javier said.
“I didn’t say you didn’t pay for them, I said you ask questions, and if I want it and it makes me happy, I don’t see why you need to say anything other than okay and give me the money.”
“She has a point,” Elias threw in, and Javier cut his eyes at him. Before the other man could respond, the door opened, and Elias’ client walked in.
Over the next three hours, he did his last two tattoos of the day.
As he was clearing up after his final one, someone came in to schedule an appointment with him for one of the days they would be on vacation.
Elias checked his schedule, and they set the appointment for two weeks after their vacation instead, which was his earliest open time slot.
He went down the hall to see his cousin before he left. Marco’s last client had left an hour ago, and the other man hadn’t come to tell them he was leaving, so Elias knew he was in his office. He knocked on the door before pushing it open.
“You good?” Elias asked, taking a seat across from him.
“Yeah, I’m just looking at all the candidates that applied to the job post. I didn’t think there would be so many this quickly.”
Marco had finally decided to hire a piercer and a part-time tattoo artist. Ideally, one person who could do both. There was a free station in the main area, and they would turn the storage room they didn’t use into a place for private piercings.
Elias wasn’t surprised that so many people had applied in the seventy-two hours since the post. Eri had made a graphic that was eye-catching and interactive.
“If you want, I’ll help you look through the submitted portfolios.”
“Yeah, we can do it this weekend,” Marco agreed.
“Alright. I’m headed out. I’ll see you Friday,” he informed. Elias didn’t have any tattoo clients tomorrow and would put the finishing touches on the motorcycles for the siblings.
He exited the office, said goodbye to Javier and Nesiah, and left the shop, headed home.
Once there, he went into the kitchen and started making dinner.
His phone went off a few times with notifications, and it was only when he finished cooking and was seated in the living room with his food and television on that he checked them.
They were message requests on social media, and it reminded him he hadn’t checked them in a couple of days.
He read through them. Accepting the ones with tattoo questions or consultation requests.
He also checked his email before putting the phone aside and tuning into whatever was on the television as he finished eating.
After finishing dinner, he took his plate into the kitchen and washed the dishes, then grabbed his tablet off the floating shelf in the living room to work on a bike sketch he’d been toying with for the past few days.
He worked on it for a while before putting it aside and going into his bedroom. Elias put his phone on the charger, then went into the en suite and started the shower. He stripped out of his clothes as the water heated and then stepped inside.
After his shower, he put on a pair of boxers and moisturized before getting into bed and turning on the television to watch a movie while he waited for the goodnight call he knew he would get from Eri. He still had an hour before she usually called.
Elias was over halfway through the movie when his phone rang at a quarter after ten o’clock like clockwork.
“Hey, Amate.”
“Hey, baby. What are you doing?”
“Watching a movie and waiting for you to call. How did flight searching go?” he asked.
“It was okay. I found three different flights. I’m trying to decide between them,” she responded. “I should know by tomorrow. I don’t want to wait too long to let everyone know and have us book flights at the last minute.”
“I’m sure if you take a little longer to decide, it’ll be fine,” he replied. “Oh, that graphic you made for the job at the shop caught a lot of people’s attention. There’s been a large number of submissions already.”
He hadn’t asked Marco how many, but knew it was far more than his cousin had expected, and that he’d taken Elias up on his offer to go through them with him meant it was a good amount.
“That’s good. A bigger candidate pool means he’s more likely to find exactly what he’s looking for. He wants one person, right?”
“Ideally, but he isn’t opposed to two if he needs to fill the position that way. I’m going to help him look through portfolios this weekend.”
They continued to converse until Eri yawned, and Elias knew it wouldn’t be long before she fell asleep and started talking about an engine he wanted to build for a small bike. When fifteen minutes had gone by, and she’d stopped giving him answering noises, he knew she’d fallen asleep.
“Good night, Amate. I love you.”
He hung up, turned off whatever movie had come on after the other finished, and settled into bed. He had a few errands he needed to run tomorrow before going to his garage.