Page 87 of Tattoo My Heart
I stare at her side, almost as if I’m expecting her to start bleeding to death. Now that I take a closer look, it is obvious that she has something underneath the tank top.
“I’m so nervous now.” She fans her hands by her face, looking like she wants to take off running.
“You’re worrying me now, baby. Just tell me, or show me, or… I don’t know.” I throw my arms out in defeat. “Do something.”
“Okay, okay, give me a minute.”
She stands up and starts pacing, then stops to stare at me.
“I’m not sure this was a good idea, now that I’m thinking more clearly.”
I shake my head in confusion. “What was?”
“Okay,” she lets out a long puff of air. “When you didn’t get back to me, I went to your shop.”
A happy grin escapes my face. Out of all my business,Tattooed Dreamsis my baby. I am very proud of it.
“What’d you think of it?”
My question stops Evie in her tracks. “It was… unexpected,” she finally tells me. “You never said it was in such a fancy location in the city.”
Her tone sounds a bit accusatory.
“You never asked,” I shrug.
“I know.” Evie looks guilty now. “I just assumed that… I don’t know, I thought you were just a rough around the edges tattooed bad boy.”
I raise an eyebrow in question. “Are you disappointed that there’s more to me than that?”
“No, Cal,” she stomps her foot at me in annoyance, but then looks at me sheepishly. “It just made me realize that I never trusted myself to ask you more personal questions. I am truly sorry.”
“Understood,” I nod her way. I don’t feel offended in any way. We started our relationship in a pretty unconventional way, and not like I sat there asking her details about her flower business.
“Anyway,” she continues. “I went to your shop. There was this girl there, her name is Micki?” She stops and waits for confirmation.
“Yes, Micki works for me.”
“She’s super nice,” Evie assures me. “I also think she has a little crush on you, just a heads up.”
“I know she does,” I chuckle softly. That gets Evie’s attention really fast.
“What?”
“She told me,” I shrug. “I told her I was in love with you. She respected that. There’s nothing more to it.”
Evie stares at me in awe. “Wow. That’s… interesting.”
“What is?”
She takes a deep breath in, like she is bracing for the worst.
“Micki talked me into getting a tattoo.”
For a second, I can’t even process what she just said. She spoke so fast, her words just blended all together.
Without further ado, Evie whips the tank top over her head, standing proudly in her small bra and a patch of what seems to be the sterile bandage we use at the shop.
I move as if in slow motion when my hand goes up to reach the edge of it. I run it all around it, messing with a corner that seems to want to come undone.
