Seb turned to face me, his gaze soft and tender. “Nah, we wouldn’t have lasted. I made too many bad decisions in my life to think that I wouldn’t have fucked this up. We’re right on time, little wild.”
He was right. We were so young and stupid back in the day. Missing out on this because we tried and failed when we were barely older than kids would be nothing short of tragic. We had life and experiences behind us now. Experiences that should make falling for someone scary, but with Seb, I had never felt safer.
I dragged my limp body on top of him, holding his face in my hands to kiss him. Surrounded by candlelight, soft music playing in the background, Seb and I kissed until his length grew hard beneath me, and we enjoyed each other for round two of the night.
26
Lydia
The late-afternoon sun left streaks of pink and orange painted across the sky. Lisa and Jerry had invited me and Seb over for dinner, and since it was a beautiful night, we had decided to eat on their back patio. Grilled chicken and vegetables were cooked on their outdoor grill. Lisa had made a delicious salad with green goddess dressing, which was my favorite and relatively hard to come by in Calla Bay.
“I can’t believe I’m famous,” Lisa cooed, slightly tipsy. Seb and I locked eyes, and his dimple popped as a wide grin spread across his face. It had been like that all night. Hanging out with Lisa and Jerry was a lot of fun. They were funny and easy to talk with, not to mention great cooks.
“Famous might be a little far,” Seb laughed. “But I think you could definitely get a following on TikTok if you wanted.”
“Yeah, a following of twelve,” Jerry chuckled.
“Shut it, Jerry. No one was talking to you,” Lisa said, swatting at his arm playfully.
A few days ago, going through SD Ink’s socials and engagement trends, I realized how well Lisa’s content was doing. Ithad really taken off recently, with people commenting from all over the country. A lot of people were commenting on the actual art, but so much of it was directed at Lisa, how strong and resilient she was, people wishing her good luck and congratulating her on beating the disease that took far too many, my mom included.
“Honestly, the feedback has been incredible,” I said. “There’s a huge outpouring of support that’s come through for you.”
“That is the sweetest thing.” Lisa touched her hand to her chest.
“It’s got me thinking, actually,” I started. I’d had this thought for a while now, before I’d even seen the results from Lisa’s content, but now that I had, it had been circling my mind for days. Seb might not like it though, so I had been hesitant to mention it. He was so secretive about the mastectomy tattoos. They were very personal, both to the client and to Seb, and I never wanted it to look like I was trying to cheapen it. That was the last thing I wanted to do. I locked eyes with Seb, trying to read his face when I explained my idea. “I wonder if any of the past clients that have come in would be interested in doing an interview and photoshoot? We could do a whole series on it. Give the survivors a platform to tell their stories, be proud of their strength, and bring awareness to the cause.”
Seb’s steady gaze never left mine. I couldn’t read his face. Did he like the idea? Did he hate it?
“Oh, my goodness, that’s a wonderful idea, Lydia. I love that,” Lisa praised.
“That could be very poignant. Really heavy, but inspiring stuff,” Jerry added.
Seb still hadn’t said anything. “What do you think about it?” I asked as I tried to casually take a bite of salad. My forkhit the edge of the cherry tomato, making it roll away. I tried again, chasing the tomato around the plate, distracting myself from his answer.
“I think that if anyone can do it right…” He picked the tomato off my plate and held it out for me between his fingers. I opened my mouth, letting him feed it to me. “It’s you.”
“So, you would be on board with me reaching out to some of them?” I had to cover my mouth to chew while I talked.
“Sure. As long as you don’t harass anyone, I’d be fine with it. I can think of a few of them that will jump on the opportunity.”
“Yeah. I can do it? Do you think my brothers will care if I tell my mom’s story?”
Seb’s slow smirk sent a flutter through my belly. He was so damn sexy it wasn’t even funny. Just sitting in Lisa and Jerry’s backyard, a plate of half-eaten food in front of him, and his inked-up forearms on the table, he easily made my pulse trip over itself.
“Yes, of course you can. No, I don’t think they’ll care. And if they do, tell them to talk to me. I’ll set any one of them straight.”
“I already knew he was one of the best, but you, dear, have found yourself a keeper.” Lisa swooned.
“Maybe. We’ll see.” I shot Seb a quick wink, and he just laughed and shook his head.
We finished up our meal and chatted for a while longer, but all evening, all I could think about was how I wanted to structure the series. Ideas on how to showcase their tattoos without distracting from their stories. Now that I had a plan, I was itching to get started on it. First things first: try to convince some of the clients that this was a project they would want to be involved in.
* **
The clacking sound of the keyboard distracted me just enough to focus. The door to SD Ink opened, and my head spun in that direction. A woman in her twenties walked in wearing a sports bra and bike shorts. A full sleeve decorated one arm with colorful art. Her long, dark hair was in loose waves around her shoulders. A septum piercing drew my eye to her wide nose. It suited her perfectly, and I idly wondered if I would look good with a similar piercing.
“Krista, welcome back.” Seb smiled.
