Chapter 17 Your Dimples Are Gonna Ruin Me
“Vincent, let’s do yours first,” Thalia, the tattoo artist says. “Better to get the crying out of the way now.”
“I’m not gonna cry,” I say, sitting in the chair in front of her.
I’ve known Thalia my whole life, she’s always done the tattoos for our crew.
We have a really good relationship. She was close friends with my mother, and her personality reminds me a bit of her, too.
She’s putting a pair of black latex gloves on, they hide the large tattoos on her hands, while the tattoos on her arms cover nearly all of her skin.
Her partner, Rui, has done all of her tattoos, but Rui never does any of the ones for our crew, despite being obsessed with pirates.
Rui and Sivan are standing over us watching as Thalia places the stencil paper of my first tattoo on my forearm. Captain.
She had already made the stencil before I got here, so I need to let her know that we’re changing things a little bit.
My father and Sivan’s are on the other side of the studio whispering about something.
We may have forgotten to mention the tattoo changes to them, but honestly, we’re adults, so, I’m gonna do it no matter what they say.
I look down at my arm, admiring the cursive writing. “Looks great, Thalia, but we want to change the tattoos a bit.” I don’t think my father heard me, because he and Captain Crawford haven’t reacted.
“Change the tattoos?!” Rui says loudly.
I drop my head knowing that her exaggerated reaction is likely going to draw our fathers into this now.
Sivan rubs my cheek with his thumb. “It was cute you said that quietly. They’re coming over now.”
“What?” my father asks. “Who’s changing the tattoos?”
“It’s not a big deal. We want them to make sense for us,” I say.
Thalia tilts her head to the side. “You couldn’t have told me this before?”
“We’re just adding one word to each tattoo. That’s it,” I say.
“The tattoos are one word each, so don’t say ‘that’s it’ like it’s not a big deal,” she counters.
“If you don’t want to do it, maybe Rui will do it for me.” I look at Rui who shakes her head in disagreement.
“Nope,” she says, patting Thalia’s shoulder. “I only paint on one canvas, and it’s the most perfect canvas around.”
“I’m doing your tattoos, Vincent. Don’t flash your dimples at my wife. You know she has a thing for pirates.” Thalia giggles, while Rui pumps her eyebrows at me. “Just tell me what the word is, you insufferable little shit.”
“That’s not very nice. I’m pretty much a captain now, Thalia. I mean, the paperwork was signed yesterday, so tomorrow is really just for show. Seems like you should be more respectful,” I joke.
“If you keep mouthing off, I might write something truly horrible on your arm. What’s the word that you want added?”
“Yeah, what’s the word?” my father asks.
“I told you that I didn’t like the captain tattoo, and I thought it was kind of stupid. I still do, but now that Sivan is my captain, I want to have the word my added to this one. Everything I do will be for my captain.”
Sivan leans in and kisses my cheek. “Right, and I want the same. For the crew tattoo we want to add the word our because we will build a crew together. And we will always do what’s best for our crew.”
“Oh, fuck me, that’s cute,” Thalia says.
“Well, it is kind of cute,” Captain Crawford says. “Don’t you agree, Rodri?”
My father nods. “Their mothers would’ve loved this idea.”
· · ·
It’s been several hours since we got our tattoos, and my arms don’t feel sore, but they feel weird with these clear coverings on them.
I really like the way the tattoos look, though.
I’ll be happy when everything is healed.
We’re standing on the deck of my father’s ship with a few crew members that had some concerns about how a co-captaincy would work.
Our fathers, along with Sivan, are talking things out better than I could.
“What about Matteo?” Sam, the cook, asks my father.
What about Matteo? What the hell is gonna happen tomorrow?
I’ve been trying so hard all day not to think about it, but how can I ignore what’s happening?
Michael mentioned having a friend that went down a similar path, and was kind of urging me to help Matteo, but at the same time, he was warning us to be cautious.
I don’t know what the right thing to do is.
“Can you give me a sec, Captains?” Sivan asks our fathers.
He’s pulling me by the hand away from the group. “Hey, what’s going on?” he asks softly.
I shake my head and look at the deck, avoiding eye contact. “Nothing. I’m fine.”
He lifts my chin and kisses me. It’s a soft, sweet kiss, that makes me momentarily forget what I was even worried about.
“Better? Or should we go somewhere to talk alone?” he asks.
“No. It’s just…Matteo. Sam asked about him, and I realized that I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.
Is he really going to leave the crew? I know what I saw, but it still doesn’t make any sense.
And if he didn’t care about us being gay, then why didn’t he want us together?
Why join up with pirates who stand against everything we believe in?
Is there any way it was all a misunderstanding?
Could Michael and Brody have been wrong? Be honest with me.”
He pulls me into an embrace and tucks my head against his chest. “Shhh. Slow down. Vincent, listen to me, I don’t want to hurt you when I say this, but I just can’t see how they could have been wrong.
I want to fix this for you, but I don’t know how.
It’s possible he’s been planning this for a while, and that’s what they meant by it not having anything to do with us.
You said you won’t believe it unless he tells you himself that he’s leaving, but is that really what it’s going to take? Is that what you need?”
I can’t cry right now. I absolutely can’t cry. I have to be strong. “Sadly, I think that is what it’s going to take, but how stupid does that make me?”
“It doesn’t make you stupid. Do you want to try and text him? I’ll do whatever you need me to,” Sivan says, rubbing my back.
I keep my face pressed against Sivan’s chest. “Do you think we could just go to the hotel he was at? Maybe we could wait outside until he walks by and try to talk to him?”
Sivan exhales. “We’d be breaking the treaty if we do that. I think texting him and asking him to meet you somewhere would be better. Just know that if you’re going to meet with him, I’m going, too.”
“What do you think I should do?”
Sivan kisses my forehead. “I want you to do whatever you need to do. If talking to him would help, then we can try and do that. I’m not sure if he’ll meet up with you, anyway.”
“I have to try.” I pull my phone out and send Matteo a text.
Hey, can we meet somewhere and talk?
“We’ll see what happens,” I say, sticking my phone in my coat.
Sivan holds my hand and kisses it softly. “Okay, now let’s go get something to eat and head back to our ship.”
Our ship…we get to spend the night on our ship, tonight—together.
Pretty much all of our stuff has been moved over there, so it doesn’t make sense for us to stay on one of our father’s ships.
Everything is supposed to be ready to go by noon tomorrow, so there can’t be many pirates that haven’t moved their stuff over yet either.
Thankfully, Rooster and Lyndon have been handling all the transfers for us.
“Are you guys headed out?” my father asks. He looks a bit sad, maybe because we’re leaving for the night, or it could be because Sam brought up Matteo.
I give him a playful salute. “Yep. We’re gonna spend the night on our ship. But first we’re gonna get something to eat.” Sivan elbows me, reminding me that we talked about inviting our fathers to eat with us tonight.
“Captains,” I say. “We’re gonna get a few drinks and something to eat at Muffy’s. Do you want to come with us?”
Both of our fathers’ faces light up. They look at each other then back to us. “That sounds fun!” Captain Crawford says.
My father smiles at me. “We were just talking about going to Muffy’s ourselves. Are you ready to go now?”
“Yes, definitely. Sivan and I are starving.”
· · ·
It’s packed inside Muffy’s bar, which is normal for a Thursday night.
There’s usually karaoke around ten o’clock, so people get here early for that.
I can’t remember the last time the four of us walked into a bar together.
Even if we had done it recently, this is the first time I’m walking into Muffy’s while holding Sivan’s hand.
Everyone in the bar turns to look at us as we walk inside.
They’re staring even longer than usual. It could be because we’re all together, or maybe it’s the fact that we’re holding hands.
“Look at everyone staring,” Sivan says. “People are obsessed with you,” he jokes.
I chuckle and push him toward the empty stools. “They’re staring at you, probably wondering how you ended up with me.”
As soon as the four of us take our seats at the bar, I feel my phone vibrating in my pocket. I take a deep breath as I pull it out, knowing it’s Matteo. This one text could change our entire lives. What if he refuses to meet me? I almost don’t want to look at it, but I have to.
Where do you want to meet?
I hold my phone in front of Sivan and show him the text. “What should I say?”
“Hmm. Somewhere with lots of lights in case it gets dark. You could ask him to meet you on the ship. As far as he knows, you have no idea about what he’s been doing.
So, asking him to meet you on the ship isn’t a crazy thing to do.
I mean, it’s a bit like rubbing salt on a wound, but if you didn’t know he was planning to defect, wouldn’t you want to show him the ship? ”
I scoff. “Maybe before I basically told him to fuck off by saying we were gonna be co-captains. I don’t know, Sivan. Am I the asshole here? Did I do something wrong?”
His fingertips graze my cheek gently as he brings his lips to mine, giving me a soft quick kiss.