Page 12 of Broken

The guy is standing, leaning his shoulder against the stained-glass divider between our corner and the seats behind it. He’s cute, blonde and covered in tattoos, but he’s young. He barely looks old enough to be drinking the beer in his hand.

One of the women is in my seat. She has a huge grin on her face as she listens to something Sin is telling her. She is also covered in tattoos, all visible with her thin strapped top. She has a red band around her hair in a huge bow tilted to the side of her head. Kind of like the woman in the famous J Howard Miller warposter, proclaiming women are helping during World War Two. She’s cute as a button, tiny and her laugh is loud.

The other woman is dressed head to toe in a long black dress, the sleeves down to her wrists so it’s hard to tell if she has any tattoos. There are a lot of piercings on her face and her hair is bright white. An interesting group of people for sure.

“Oh hey, sorry I stole your seat.”

“No, it’s fine,” I hold up a hand, reaching for my drink.

“This is Calli,” Sin points to me. “Calli this is Lucky,” she points, and the perky dark-haired girl waves. “Katja.” The white-haired woman gives me a shy smile. “And that hunk is Shane.”

He tips his chin and winks at me. Way obvious in how he checks me out.

“Oh, this girl is way too smart and too hot for the likes of you,” Lucky slaps Shane’s arm.

His cheeks turn pink, but he straightens up and gives me a boyishly flirty smile. He grabs me a stool, even though I protest and tell Lucky again she doesn’t need to get up.

Shane disappears after that, leaving us to chat. Sin tells me they all work at Blackhawk Ink, a few doors down the block. I glance at all of Lucky’s tattoos.

“I know, total cliché right?” she laughs.

“Are you a tattooist?”

“No,” she widens her eyes. “I would totally ruin people if they gave me a tattoo gun. I work reception. Katja is our piercer, she doesn’t tattoo either. Shane is an apprentice. The rest of them are around here somewhere,” she waves behind us.

“How’s Phoenix?” Sin waggles her eyebrows.

Lucky scowls, then shrugs it off with a laugh. I didn’t miss it. Whoever Phoenix is, something about him is under her skin. “Phoenix is Phoenix. He’s probably got some woman cornered.”

“He’s not like that,” Sin shakes her head. She looks at me. “Phoenixisa tattooist and her ex.”

Ah, that makes sense. I give her a sympathetic look. It has to be hard working with an ex.

“It’s not like that,” Lucky tells me. “We’re friends.”

“Really?” Ruby asks.

“Yeah, we even go on double dates,” she adds and picks up her glass. I exchange a glance with Sin but neither of us comment.

Turns out Jericho is a regular customer at Blackhawk Ink, which is how Sin got to know everyone there. We discuss tattoos and Ruby begrudgingly admits she has an ex’s name on her hip and can no longer wear a bikini because she hates people seeing it.

“You should come in and get it covered up,” Lucky says. “Any one of the guys could do something amazing for you. Even Shane, I mean he’s still an apprentice, but Garrett won’t have anyone in the shop who isn’t good at what they do.”

“Who is Garrett?” I ask.

“He owns the shop. Phoenix is his business partner. He’s a good guy.”

“He scared the shit out of me for months,” Katja says.

“He’s a pussycat,” Lucky laughs. “He doesn’t talk so much. You get used to him.”

“What would you get to cover it up?” Katja asks. “Although heaven knows why you got someone’s name, that is like a huge no, no.”

“I know,” Ruby slaps a hand over her face. “But I was seventeen and in love.”

We all laugh and go over our own stupid teenage love stories. Then Sin has a really dumb idea.

“Let’s all get one,” she shouts.

---