“I’ll be there soon,” I assured him. “Go get yourself cleaned up.”
Albie’s brown eyes looked watery and he nodded. Heading to the door, he looked back over his shoulder and gave me a small smile.
“Sorry I’m always bringing shit to your door, sis,” he said.
I smirked. “No, you’re not. Albie, keep your head down and be safe.
He gave a final nod and left. Giving myself a few moments to collect my thoughts, I glanced over to the photo of me, Albie, and our father that I kept sitting on my desk. Picking it up, I traced the edges of the frame and took us in. The only reason that I kept it was because my mother had taken it. In my mind's eye, I could see her smiling and trying to coax one out of me. I’d been about twelve when my mother had snapped the photograph of the three of us. Albie’s hair had been long and my father had been smiling for once. Sitting the photograph back onto my desk, I adjusted myself and headed back out intoTainted Ink.
For months, I had been pouring my everything into the place. This place was my baby…after leaving the Thieves Guild, it was all that I had. Every penny that I had earned from all my years of stealing had gone into the foundation.
Now here comes, Albie ready to take it apart, brick by brick,I thought.
But I wouldn’t let him.
Albie had a long record of popping up unexpectedly and needing help with being bailed out. Our father had stopped, citing him as nothing but trouble since the day he’d been born. My heart seemed to bleed a little too much for him.
“Boss,” Miguel snapped me from my thoughts. “You got a client waiting for you.”
Miguel had a small teardrop tattoo under his right eye and a Texas accent. I’d recruited him from another shop in Michigan. The man did Van Gogh level work and he was pretty easy on the eyes. The female customers seemed to love him.
“Thanks, Miguel,” I replied.
A clipboard was handed over to me as I went into my room in the shop. I scanned the name and saw it was a girl, Marie. She smiled at me and we immediately launched into what she wanted. She was a cute little bubbly blonde who was snapping on chewing gum.
“So you want the name right above…”
Marie smiled, “Yes.”
“Babe…,” I stopped what I was writing on the clipboard. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. I want Ralphie in big bold letters, right above my pussy,” she popped the pink bubble gum bubble.
The urge to vomit hit the back of my throat. I had never in my life understood the need to get a tattoo of someone’s name on your body. The body was a canvas and could hold so much more than a temporary reminder that you’d let some man enter your body.
Not that I knew much about having a man enter my body, lately. I’d been celibate by choice for the last three years. In my line of work as a thief, I hadn’t wanted to form bonds. Only one night stands seemed to do the trick.
However, they left me feeling empty and my voicemail full from the men I’d ghosted. To preserve my sanity and keep my body count low, I’d backed off from men. I just simply hadn’t been interested and even now, I wasn’t.
The unmistakable snap of the black gloves covering my hands filled my ears. I’d closed the door to my suite to offer both Maria and me plenty of privacy. Sounds of One Republic filled the air as Ryan Tedder’s voice told me it was too late to apologize. Maria’s tanned body came into view as I wheeled the stool I sat on daily over to her body. There was no need to remove any hair because Maria was waxed within an inch of her life. She giggled as if reading my mind and soon the distinctive hum of my tattoo gun was going.
With one hand, I firmly held her pale skin into place. I could see the pinks and blues of the veins beneath her fragile flesh as I pressed against her body. The tattoo gun began to easily move along her skin as if it were writing on a high school whiteboard. Little droplets of blood pooled here and there. Every once in a while I would swipe at them and resume the cursive letters. Here and there, Maria would tell me about this Ralphie leading me to believe they were both even bigger idiots than I imagined.
The customer is always right,I reminded myself.
I, of course, didn’t believe that.
The customer wasn’t always right.
Sometimes the customer was an idiot girl who had just turned eighteen and would get her just as stupid boyfriend’s name on her.
Soon the tattoo was done and I was spreading a salve across her area and sending her to the front to pay. I noted the time on the clock and started to clean up. Briefly, thoughts of Albie floated around in my mind.
A knock came on my door just as I finished straightening up and putting the inks back into their spots. Turning I found Miguel, a slight smile on his face.
“We’re all just about to head out, Boss. You want to come for a drink?”
Part of me wanted to.
