Page 110 of Make Me Swoon

Harvey nods, looking concerned and I want to put him at ease.

“You’ll just have to make sure that my tattoo is perfect so that I can always remember my little food truck era,” I joke, trying to lighten the mood.

“I will. It’s going to be perfect,” he says, kissing my forehead before he steps back over to his desk and grabs some papers.

He passes them over to me and my breath catches as I study the design that Harvey has drawn for me.

It’s perfect.

I knew that Harvey had to be talented if he worked at Eye Candy Ink. I mean, the place is a legend and they have that insane waiting list. I heard that they even tattoo celebrities sometimes, so they have to be incredible artists.

“I love it,” I tell him, taking one last look at the miniature version of my food truck.

“Good. Where did you want it?” he asks and I mull it over.

I don’t want it to be visible, so it has to be somewhere under my clothes or something that I can hide easily.

“How about right here?” I ask, rubbing the spot on my side over my ribs, where my bra lies.

“I can do wherever you want it. It might hurt a little bit going over your ribs,” he warns me and I nod.

“I want it there.”

Harvey gets to work then, asking me to take off my shirt and bra and lie on the tattoo table. He does something with the tattoo, transferring it onto a different kind of paper and lining up a few cups of ink, gloves, ointments, and paper towels.

I climb up onto the table and wrap one hand around my breasts, covering them and moving my arm out of the way so that he has room to work.

“Alright, I’m going to get it in place and then you can take a look at the stencil on you before we get to work. Sound good?”

“Yeah.”

He takes his time lining it up on my side and I love how focused and patient he is. He hands me a mirror and I check it out, nodding when I see that it’s exactly where I wanted it.

He pulls on a pair of black latex gloves and fits a needle into his tattoo machine before spinning around to me.

“Here we go,” he says, giving me a reassuring smile and I try not to tense as he starts to outline the tattoo.

We’re silent for the first part of the tattoo, Harvey because he’s concentrating on getting the lines perfect, and me because I’m trying to get used to the sting of the needle.

“Are you getting everything set for the restaurant?” he asks me after a few minutes.

“Yeah, we finalized the menu, and the sign and logo for the menus and social media stuff should be here soon. We just have to hire staff, order supplies, and then train everyone.”

“Oh, is that all?” he jokes and I laugh.

“I know, but I love it and it doesn’t seem like work. You know?”

“Yeah,” he says, finishing up the outline.

The tattoo is small and won’t take him long to finish up. The Culinerdy Cruiser is written in a circle around the pale blue food truck. He added some stars along the circle and then a fork and spoon above the truck so that it looks more like a logo.

He stops the machine and trades out colors, dipping his needle into the light blue color.

“Are you doing alright?” he asks as the needle moves along my skin.

“Yeah, I think I’m starting to get used to it.”

“Is it making you want to get more?”

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