She would take me on adventures
With those books
She killed me
And brought me back
Butjust knowingCharlie
Was my best adventure…
Until it wasn’t.
Chapter 6
Charlie
I had to talk myself out of eating an entire box of chocolate covered pretzels, two-dozen white chocolate dipped strawberries, and a five-pound box of some expensive, decadent, milk chocolate crunchy pecanthings. Becausethat, and two-dozen red roses, was what Bren thought he should buy me tohelpme toforgivehim andforgetabout his messed up drug party. You know, becausethatcrap will make me want to stay with him.
Stupid much?
I sat in front of the wilting flowers and the chocolate-covered crap, and went over the night before in my head.
An hour before closing¸ Bren stormed into the shop with all his idiotic gifts, looking nothing like a coke-head and everything like the beautiful GQ guy he once was. The girls and I ignored him and continued with ourdeep,meaningfuldiscussion about opening another business in the empty storefront across the street. Violet wanted a revenge shop for jilted lovers, and Hazel thought it would be best if we bought the space and made it a slap and tickle kind of a bar. Me? I wanted it to be an ice cream shop. One of those old-fashion ice-cream parlors where you have special names for all the flavors, like “He’s Not Worth It Vanilla¸” and “Instant-No-Strings-Attached Orgasm Chocolate,” maybe even a “He Had a Small Penis Pistachio.”
Bren interrupted our laughter by saying, “And you girls always say that us guys are bad…”
“No, Bren. We usually say you guys are douche rockets,” I snapped.
“Shit,” Bren whispered, turning pale. “Sage,pleasecome inside and talk to me.”
I know!I’m a glutton for punishment; I let him walk me into my back studio as he balanced all the crap in his arms.
He placed all of his guilt-laden-get-out-of-jail-free presents on one of my tables and slowly walked up in front of me, “You haven’t answered any of my calls. You haven’t let me apologize. You haven’t…”
“Just stop. Let’s not make this about whatIhave or haven’t done. The only way to fix this is if you go get help, Bren. If you don’t, like I said to you before, there is no us. Hell, Bren. There’s barely anusnow, anyway.”
“Shit, Sage. You know how much I love you, right?”
“How often do you do that stuff?”
“What stuff?” I watched him tense with the question.
“That’s it, then. I’m done. You either own up to the crap or I bounce,” I turned my face away and started for the door.
He gently embraced me and buried his face in my neck. “I promise, I won’t do that shit anymore, especially if it scares you. I’ve only done it a few times, I swear. I don’t have a problem; I don’tneedto have it, okay?” Leaning his head back, he looked in my eyes, “Sage, I’ve just been really stressed out with trying to get you on television and make this place famous. I have the producers ofForever Inkedflying here next week to scope out the place…”
“But that’s not what I want and you know it. I never agreed to any of that. I told you I didn’t want this place to become a cheesy reality show.”
“Sage, it’s a tattoo parlor. It isn’t a fine arts museum, and you’re not some stuck up art history professor, so just face the facts. You are hot, baby. Me and you, we belong on a hit reality show. Do you know how much money we’re talking about, Sage?”
I tried to pull away from him. “So, you don’t think I can hack it as a professor, huh?”
“Give that a rest, okay? I know you. We’ve known each other for years; you’re too wild, Sage. Stay where you belong, with me. We used to have so much fun together,” he whispered, still trying to cling tightly to me.
“Yeah, well. I’ve done a lot of growing up.”
His fingertips brushed across my chin, and lifted it toward him. “Where’s the girl that used to be the life of the party, huh? Where’s my girl? You used to wear those little tiny skirts, stay out all night with me, drink all my friends under the table, and ride me hard until morning. Hell, you used to shave that sweet pussy of yours bare; you don’t even dothatanymore. Now you’re all grown-up and don’t have time for any fun.”
