“I see that.” I tugged my lips up in a smile too.
“You can do both of ours tonight?”
“Sure. Matt is working with me, and he can take one of you while I take the other. We can bang both of these out in probably an hour or so, depending on the size you want it.”
“Nice. Okay, we’re going to put hers on her upper thigh, right over here,” he said, pointing to the spot near my groin. “And I’ll get mine on my lower calf.”
They kept chatting about the details and size of the tattoo, but I tuned them both out as I processed this design. It was beautifully done. And technically, it wasn’t his name. That was important to me, and he respected that. It was just our first initial, and it was barely even noticeable inside the intricate design.
“Lydia… Lydia,” Blake called.
“Hmm. Sorry, what did you say?” I pulled my head out of my thoughts to find Blake, Renee, and another man—presumably the other artist, Matt—watching me.
“Are you okay with this plan?” Matt asked, his gaze focused on me in a serious look.
“Yeah, of course she is. We made this plan together just a few hours ago,” Blake laughed.
“I was asking the lady,” Matt’s harsh words cut in.
“Yeah. I’m good. I can’t wait.” I smiled at Blake and leaned toward him for a kiss. He met me halfway, his lips crashing into mine with more force than I expected.
“Okay, well, you can follow me over here, and we can getstarted,” Renee said to me, gesturing to the chair where she had her supplies laid out.
It was a good thing I loved him, and I knew that he loved me. Matching tattoos with our initials permanently inked into my skin was a commitment. But Blake was my endgame. Our love was the kind that people dreamed about. I would be proud to wear his initial on me until the end of time.
* * *
Present Day
Embarrassment kept me in my room until after I heard Seb leave for the day. I was such an idiot sometimes. When he asked about my tattoo last night, I panicked. It wasn’t my finest idea, and I hated that tattoo more than anything. Just like Blake had told me, it was a brand, marking me as his. And I wasn’t his. Not anymore.
I didn’t want to talk about it though. No one else needed to know that I was just as foolish and naive at twenty-eight as I was at eighteen.
I guess some things never change.
I showered and got dressed, taking my time to apply my makeup today. The concealer was needed to cover the dark circles under my eyes from staying up all night. I told Seb that I wasn’t waiting up for him, but that wasn’t true. I had tried to go to sleep, but the nightmare jolted me awake before midnight.
Maybe it was the strangeness of being in his house alone.Or maybe I just felt safer when he was here.
Either way, I couldn’t fall back asleep after that, wondering where he was… who he was with.
Did I intentionally blind him with the lights when his drunk ass stumbled home though? Hell, yeah, I did.
The heavy eyeliner and black lipstick helped me feel more like myself. The old me… the old, old me, before my sense of identity was stolen, hacked away bit by bit until there was nothing left. Back when I was strong and feisty, independent and self-assured. That was the girl I needed to channel again.
The drive to SD Ink wasn’t nearly long enough, so I circled the block, stopping in at Flour Power Cafe for a coffee and donut before heading into work.
“Morning,” I greeted Seb with a grumble, handing him a coffee as well.
“What’s this?”
“Coffee,” I answered with narrowed eyes. It was my version of a peace offering for pushing him away last night when he was just making conversation. But if he questioned me about it, I wouldn’t hesitate to take it back and drink it myself. Even if I hated my coffee black.
Seb took the lid off, looked down at his coffee and then back at me. “You know how I like my coffee?” he asked, that annoying dimple of his making an appearance on his cheek.
I rolled my eyes with a huff. “It’s black, Seb. It’s not a difficult order to remember.”
He took a sip of the piping hot coffee, ending with that irritating “ah” sound.
