Page 10 of Jay

Damn, she lookssogood.

I shake my head to clear all naughty thoughts of her as we pass. Our eyes stay locked and we turn our heads slightly to keep the connection. I keep my gaze locked on her body for a few more seconds, even after she turns to face the way she’s running. Me, being the knob I am, keep my gaze locked on her pert, little arse in that tight black lycra, which causes me to stumble when I lose my footing. But, being a Castle, I regain my balance and act as if nothing happened. I look around and see that no one saw my littlestumble.

BOOM.

Yeah,nailedit.

I get to my car not long after. I love this hiking path, it gives you a workout going both up and down. I unlock my car and pull open the boot, I know I have some water in here somewhere. I never go to a workout without an extra bottle of water. I open the bottle and lift it to my lips, downing the entire content. Dropping the empty bottle back into the boot, I reach for my towel and give my face a wipe over, then close the boot. Pulling open the car door, I climb in and start it up. Music starts playing instantly through the car’s speakers’. I press a button and my window goes down, allowing fresh air to float through the car, which is a good thing since I stink to high heaven. I turn up the music and pull out of the car park, heading home to shower and change before I gotowork.

* * *

Isetmy pencil down and take a good look at the design I’ve been working on for the past hour, it’s pretty badass if you ask me. The girl is having a Coy fish, surrounded by faint waves and cherry blossoms. The colours are going to look amazing. She only uses Castle Ink for her tattoos, she trusts only us to ink her. Dex did her full sleeve, and it’s fucking awesome. We take huge pride in what we do here at Castle Ink. It took us a while to get where we are, but fuck it feels good to be here. A knock comes frommydoor.

“Come in,” I call out. I look up at the door and see Vee standing there in all her glory. She’s a beautiful woman; long ink-black hair that reaches her backside. She’s wearing a tight v-neck t-shirt and a pair of tight arse jeans. But she does nothing for me, besides the fact that she’s alesbian.

“Hey, Vee. Comeonin.”

“What’sup,Jay?”

“Same old shit, different day. So, I finished adjusting the design, let me know what you think.” I hand her the sheet of paper so she can inspect the design. She smiles brightly and nods her head in appreciation. I mirror her smile, because I know I did a bang-up job on thesketch.

“Oh man, this is beyond fucking perfect. Can I add a little something to it?” she asks me, and her smile falters alittle.

"Oh shit, has somethinghappened?"

“Yeah, ummm, shit.” She chokes on her words. I stand and guide her to thechair.

“Sit, take your time.” She coughs and dislodges the emotion trapped in her throat. I know it’s bad, her face and voice tell me all Ineedknow.

“My cousin died two weeks ago. He had a brain hemorrhage. He went to bed one night and neverwokeup.”

“Shit, I’m so sorry, Vee. That's awful for you and your family to go through. We can add anything you want to the design. Anything.” Vee’s cousin's death makes you realise that life is too fucking short to be second guessing the decisions you make. Live for the now. I rub her arm,soothingher.

“Can we add his date of birth into the waves, please? Also, have one of the cherry blossoms in blue, it was his favouritecolour.”

“Of course.” I get up and start to set up everything that I’ll need. Vee’s having the tattoo done today, it’s been a long time coming. It took her weeks to decide what she wanted, and then she pondered what colours. She’s a perfectionist. Hell, aren’t we all. I get the design set in the correct place on her ribs and we get started. It should take about two hours. It’s a good thing we get along sogreat.

“So, how's work?” I ask Vee. I hate a quiet room while I ink someone up, that's why I always have music playing inmyroom.

“It’s good. I have a few more gigs booked. I have a big summer festival in Magaluf at the end of August, seriously can’t wait for that. My cousin was going to come with me. I wanted to cancel, but my aunt told me that Rob - that’s my cousin - would be pissed at me if I pulled out. He would have loved all those sexy bitches walking around in bikinis. Damn, it will be a very hot and wet event, if you know what I mean.” She winksatme.

“God, Vee, you’re fucking crazy. If I called a woman a ‘bitch’… I would have my head bitten off. But I’ll agree with you, I would be a very happy man watching all those sexy ladies strut around in barely-there bikinis.” I chuckle as I make another outline of a cherryblossom.

We talk all the way through the tattoo, and Vee tells me more about her cousin. How he loved music just as much as her. He was a huge Manchester City fan, hence the pale blue Cherry blossom. Vee tells me about the set that she’s looking at doing at the summer festival. Me and the boys went to one a few years ago, and it was fucking epic, we fucked like crazy. The ladies love tattooed men. Dex even ended up working a shift in a tattoo studio over there, now that was some funny shit. The word spread like wildfire that Dex was there tattooing, and the girls came from everywhere to get tattooed by him. Luckybastard.

Liam and me sat next to him and lapped up the extra attention we got from being at Dex’s side. The ladies got close to us, to get to him, but we didn’t give a fuck. We were there for fun, booze, and women, and by fuck we got that. There was one chick that wanted Dex’s name tattooed on her tit, but Dex refused. Instead, he tattooed a silhouette heart, because she refused to leave without having a tattoo from him. That pleased her, she kissed him and bounced out of the room, bragging that she got atattoo.

Just over two hours later, I clean up Vee’s skin, wiping away the excess ink from around the tattoo. Vee is a fucking champ, she never complains when getting inked. I drop the paper towel into the bin and give the design one last look over before telling Veeshe’sdone.

“Dude, you’re done. Take a look.” I gesture to the mirror. I sit and watch Vee walk over to the full wall of mirrors, and inspect the tattoo. A lump forms in my throat when I see tears roll down her face. I feel her pain. I remember when Fiona died; it’s heart-wrenching. You never forget a loved one who has passed away, they are always in yourheart.

They may not be here in body, but they’re here in spirit, I have alwaysbelievedthat.

Vee and me shoot the shit for a little while, as I cleaned up her new ink. Luke came in and I made the introductions. It was funny as fuck to see Luke flirt with Vee, and not clicking on that she was gay. Priceless, I tell you, fucking priceless to see his face morph into shock, and then smug as he passed it off as a test to see if she could resist him. Dopey bastard. I say goodbye to Vee and walk back to my room to prepare for my next client, who just so happens to be a wicked older lady, who has her grandkids names tattooed on her shoulder blade in an awesome scroll. Her daughter just gave birth to twins, so we get to add two more namestoday.

Twins… Now that sounds like a handful, but I would love to have that handful one day. Hell, even just the one baby. It will happen one day. Iknowit.

cassie

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