Page 65 of Love at First Ink

Work was slow. On top of that, there were two cancellations. Cisco had a pretty aggressive cancellation policy to persuade clients to reschedule. Of course there were special circumstances, but both clients had no excuses. According to Tiny, they were short in their responses and didn’t offer her an explanation.

The two clients weren’t random either. They had been long-time clients. One was a successful businessman, and the other played football professionally. For them to cancel and not reschedule their appointments was odd. He couldn’t help but feel like it had something to do with the reason he was passed up for the building he wanted for his next shop. Perhaps that was just his anxiety talking.

However, there wasn’t much he could do. His lawyer and realtor were working on it. He just had to wait, which was something he hated doing.

He was distracted most of the day, doing his best to push his worries to the side and give his other two clients who hadn’tcancelled his full attention. He also didn’t want his dark mood to trickle down into his conversations with Marisol.

His girl was on a high after her meeting with the other volunteers yesterday. It was rare to hear such excitement in her voice as she spoke, and he wanted her to keep that feeling a little longer. Which was why he didn’t need to bother Marisol with this news. He’d share that dark history later. If his lawyer was as good as his high price point deemed, then this should all be settled in the next few days.

He hoped.

The last message he got from Marisol, though, had him scratching his head in confusion. Another family party? Last one didn’t go great—minus their moment in the bathroom. He couldn’t ask her more about it because his last client of the day arrived, and he needed to devote the next four and a half hours to the chest piece that snaked around his neck down to his pecs.

After that grueling session and arrangements for a follow-up in a month, Cisco and Tiny were the last two left and closed up the shop. Normally, Cisco was teasing and joking around with Tiny as they closed down, but today he was too deep into his own mind. He couldn’t even appreciate the music Tiny put on as they cleaned.

“What’s wrong with you?” she asked as soon as they got in his car. He had promised her parents he’d drop her off after work.

“Nothing is wrong with me,” he said, his grip on the steering wheel tightening. Cisco then made a reckless turn onto the busy interstate, earning himself a shriek from Tiny and honks from the pissed-off driver of the car behind him.

“Could you maybe not try and kill me just because you’repissed about something?” Tiny gasped, gripping her seatbelt like it was her only lifeline.

Seeing her this scared made him ease his grip. He silently cursed himself for his impulsive driving. It was one thing if he was alone, quite another when he was in the car with his cousin.

“Fuck, T, I’m sorry. I just have a lot on my mind,” he apologized.

“Clearly. You’ve been a zombie all day. Did you and Marisol break up?”

“What? No.” He shook his head adamantly. He could see why she would think that, but if that were the case, he would be much worse. “No, Marisol and I are fine. It’s…remember that property I checked out to open the next shop?”

“Yeah, the one in that bougie-ass neighborhood?” she asked.

“Yeah, that one. We should have been closing on it this week, but Ernesto called me and said they pulled out.”

“What?” Tiny’s confusion matched his own when he first heard the news. “Why? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Yeah, well, apparently they dug into my past and found shit that was supposed to be buried.Isburied. I don’t know how they got that information, but they did, and they didn’t want someone like that to be in the area.”

“What the fuck? That’s not fair. First off, you were proven innocent in those charges. It should have never even been a thing.”

“But it was,” Cisco said, turning into her neighborhood. “I have people working on this. It should be fine soon. If you see or hear anything, you’ll tell me, right?”

“Duh.” She grabbed her bag from the back seat. “Try not to kill yourself in the process though. It’ll getfigured out.”

Cisco wanted to have her attitude about it, but his nerves were shot. Still, he nodded and leaned over to hug her. “Need me to order you lunch tomorrow?”

“And my friend Tori too? She’s coming over to hang out tomorrow. Pizza will be great.” Tiny unbuckled and got out of the car. Before shutting the door, she offered him one last wave before heading inside.

Cisco waited until she was safely inside her house before pulling out. For now, he was going to try and have Tiny’s attitude about this. He needed something to distract him, so he quickly found Marisol’s name in his phone and called her. The ringing came through his car speakers.

A few seconds later, Marisol’s sultry voice filled his car. His body immediately responded to her. “Hey, baby. How was work?”

Fuck, he really liked being called “baby.” He didn’t think he was one to like pet names for him, but clearly he was a fool. “Princesa, it’s much better now. Do you have any chocolate left for me?”

“Only one. The others were very delicious. Thank you again.” He could hear the smile in her voice.

“You’re very welcome. You deserved them.” He paused before asking, “So, want to explain your text from earlier?”

Marisol groaned. “My dad called. We chatted, and he apologized again for the family dinner. He agreed to be a sponsor for the fundraiser, though. Said all proceeds can go to the shelter.”

---