Page 13 of When Love Becomes A Need
“Son, you can’t shut down your love life because of one bad experience,” my mom interjected.
“I’m not shutting down my love life. I see women from time to time.”
“Having meaningless sex isn’t a love life,” she scolded.
“Loraine, Autumn, leave the boy alone. If he’s not ready to get back out there, then y’all have to respect it.” My dad shut both of them down, which I appreciated.
Neither my mom nor sister could respect that I wasn’t trying to date anyone right now. All I wanted to do was build my shop, open another location, and have occasional sex. Nothing too complicated, and nothing that’ll force me into any type of commitment.
Every other week they were trying to hook me up with someone, and I was shutting them down every time. I would think by now they would take the hint, but my sister and mom were very headstrong. Once they set their mind on something, they were determined to see it through.
“How’s your shop, son?” My dad asked, changing the subject.
I didn’t reply right away.
When I first told him that I didn’t want to work with him at his construction company, he wasn’t happy. He was even less happy when I told him I wanted to open a tattoo shop. We went back and forth until he saw it was something I was passionate about. I wasn’t going to give up what I wanted to do because he didn’t approve.
Eventually, he got on board with it and supported me.
“It’s been good, great actually. I’m considering opening another location soon if business keeps picking up.”
My dad smiled proudly at me. “That’s good, son. You know I had my reservations about you wanting to do tattoos for a living, but you proved me wrong. I’m happy you stuck to your guns.”
His eyes went to my sister. “What about you Autumn? How’s the boutique?”
Autumn smiled brightly at him. “It’s going good. We’re getting ready to bring in our summer clothing line.”
“That’s what I like to hear!” My mom praised.
Even though Autumn was spoiled and could get whatever shewanted from our dad, he made sure she knew what to get her own meant, too. He gave her until she was twenty-one to figure out how she wanted to make her own money.
“I’m so proud of both of you!” My mom gushed.
It was times like this I saw why my parents were so stuck on us having these family dinners. Even though I hated the forty-five-minute drive to get here, I appreciated my bond with my parents and sister even more.
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“This shit nice as fuck.” I stared at my back in the mirror.
“Did you expect anything less?” Neal questioned offensively.
“Shit, you not better than me, but you did a good job.”
I looked back in the mirror. I had gotten angel wings outlined a few weeks ago and finally had time to get the shading done. The shop had closed a few hours ago, but Neal and I stayed over so he could get my back together.
“That shit gone be nice as fuck once it’s healed.”
“Hell yeah, I might have you add some color to it later on, but for now it’s cool.” I took one more look at my back before walking back over to the chair so he could wrap me up.
“I been thinking-” I started staring into space.
“What’s up?”
“You know how I been talking about opening up a second shop?” I stood up and stretched once he was done wrapping my back up.
“Yeah, what about it?”
“You trying to run it for me?” I gave him my attention.
