Page 28 of Unrivaled

With some alarm, Grady realized that he had no idea if Tony was fucking with him. He could’ve understood if Tony had gotten it to be ironic. And if he’d liked the design, sure, it was his skin, and he could do what he wanted with it. Grady made a living out of the slow destruction of his body. He couldn’t fault anyone for decorating theirs.

But there wereLooney Tunesepisodes that involved a tattoo like that, for fuck’s sake.Original?Was he living in the Twilight Zone?

Worse, was he too young to remember those cartoons?

Grady hated dating.

Weren’t there professionals he could pay to screen his dates for him? Some kind of matchmaking service?

Ugh, no, that made him look desperate.

Tony was still talking about the tattoo. “… been thinking about what I want for my next one. I think it’d be cool to get a Chinese character, you know? Something that means, like, ‘strength’ or something.”

Grady was pretty sure he knew the answer to this question, but something compelled him to ask anyway. “Do you speak any Chinese?”

“No,” Tony answered easily. “But it looks cool, right?”

Fuck it. Grady finished the first beer in his flight and picked up the second. “If you can’t read it, how will you know the artist didn’t write ‘fuckface’?”

Tony shrugged. “I won’t, I guess. But, like, no one else is going to be able to read it either.”

Grady downed the second beer. Was he going to do this?

He was going to do this.

He picked up the third glass. “Pretty sure a lot of people can read Chinese.” He was dimly aware that there was more than one Chinese language, but he doubted Tony could grasp the concept and he didn’t remember enough details to fake confidence in the knowledge. “Like Chinese people, for example. More people speak Chinese than English.”

Snorting, Tony reached for his own beer. “Yeah, okay, but nothere.”

Jesus Christ. Grady took a deep breath and then a deep sip, because if he didn’t, he was going to throw the beer in Tony’s dumb face. That woulddefinitelybe a meme.

Then he set the glass back on the pretentious wooden serving board. “Tony, I’d like to tell you it’s been nice getting to know you, but you’re a racist asshole and your tattoo is basic.” He tilted his head toward the remaining drinks. “I’ll settle the tab on my way out.”

He called a cab and spent the ride back to his place stewing.

All that negative energy needed an outlet or it was going to build up inside him and give him indigestion, so he started a text to Coop.I’m starting to think celibacy is underrated.

He was expecting sympathy, or maybe a tiny violin, or a question about what fresh dating hell Grady had discovered, but the message that pinged back fell firmly in the category ofnone of the above.

Am i supposed to take that personally? i think i take that personally.

Grady blinked, then groaned. He’d selected the most recent text thread, which was Max’s, not Coop’s.Take it however you want.

Not ten seconds later, he got a reply.Now theres an invitation !!

Despite his sour mood, Grady snorted. It wasn’t like he didn’t know Max was easy for it.

but srsly did u fuck up another date? I need the deets. Spill the tea

Grady felt a very inconvenient need to defend himself.This one wasn’t my fault. The guy had a heart tattoo with “Mom” on it because it was “original.”

ok ill give u that 1

Grady rolled his eyes.Thanks.

But like how r u striking out this bad all over. I dont get it. do the guys in philly just suck

Oh my god that’s it isn’t it

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