4Jared
Jared got to Ink Envy early the next morning. His intention was to talk to Faye about the time off he needed, before she opened up the shop and the day got crazy busy, but he ended up waiting outside the shuttered entrance for almost half an hour before she arrived.
She arched an eyebrow at him. “You’re early.” She began to unlock the shutter. “Did you take my advice and go out last night?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“It was fun.” He was pleasantly sore from the pounding Kyrone had given him, but he wasn’t going to tell his boss that.
“Great!” The shutter clattered as Faye pushed it up. “Why are you here so early?”
“I need to ask for some time off.” He cringed as he said the words.
Faye nodded thoughtfully, but they said nothing more until she’d let them both inside and turned off the alarm. She locked the door from the inside, and they went up to the top floor. Unlike Jared, Ezra and Liam both had keys to let themselves in, so they could get set up for a day of tattooing and piercing.
“Coffee?” Faye asked as she put the kettle on.
“I don’t drink caffeine.”
“I have decaf.”
He shook his head and sat down in one of the armchairs, retrieving the hospital letters from his pocket. He waited for the kettle to boil and Faye to make her coffee. She brought it over and sat in the chair next to him, cradling the steaming mug in her hands.
“Time off?” she asked. “Do you want to go away?”
“No, nothing like that.” He held up the letters. “Hospital appointments. It’s no big deal.”
She looked at him thoughtfully. “Are you okay?” she said at length.
“Yes.” He grimaced. “Well… you know… I’m getting there.”
She nodded.
“The appointments have all come at once because I transferred my care here from…” He paused, not wanting to say home, because Surrey didn’t feel like home; nowhere did. “Where I used to live.” He held the letters towards her again. “I’m sorry. If it’s a problem, I can try and change some of them to spread them out more.”
“It’s not a problem, Jared,” Faye said kindly. “You have to see a lot of people?”
Jared had guessed this conversation would lead to questions. While he’d told her that hehada brain injury and that, as a result, he had frequent headaches and processed some things more slowly, he hadn’t said much else. He didn’t want to be a victim or someone to be pitied. Nor did he wanted to be treated any differently to anyone else, although it was pretty much a given that he would be by everyone who knew.
“Notthatmany,” he assured her. “The main one is the neurologist. Then there’s a pain clinic—”
“For the headaches?” Faye cut in.
“Yes.” He paused, taking in the concern on her face. Had she been expecting more? “I used to see a physical therapist, but now I go to a regular gym on a special programme. Then there’s a dietician.”
“A dietician?”
He gestured to himself. “You might have noticed I’m pretty skinny.”
Faye pursed her lips. “I had…” She looked at the floor. “I’d been wondering about that. I thought maybe you were anorexic or something.”
“No!” Jared shook his head fiercely. “That’s an awful disease. I lost a lot of weight and muscle mass when I was recovering from my accident. I’m working to put it back on, but it’s a slow process.”
Faye leant forward and squeezed his knee. “I’m sorry, kiddo. It sounds like you’ve been through hell.” She blew across the top of her coffee. “I’m fine with you taking time off for your appointments. Just put it in the calendar downstairs, okay?”
“Thank you.”
