Chapter
Eight
Karim
I didn’t do tattoos. It wasn’t that I was afraid of needles, I just didn’t do tattoos until the rude looking, light skinned tattoo guy began to scrape Reminisce’s name into my neck in the brightest of red ink. I could’ve chickened out, he gave me ample opportunities, but I didn’t. The simple fact that he had me here like this should have set off every alarm imaginable yet didn’t was enough for me.
While he and the artist he was obviously familiar with talked back and forth, I just sat there, my mind finding its way back to when we first met at Rennix’s pool party. Had I known I’d be so gone over this man, I questioned if I would have run the other way or turned him down that night when he’d asked me to come eat with him after the party. My alarms went off then, but did I listen to them? Absolutely not. I knew damn well when Jade introduced me to her emotionally unavailable older brother I should’ve kept it moving, but damn I couldn’t. I remembered thinking the same thing I was thinking now, but maybe in a different context.
He’s gonna ruin me and leave me only well enough for his attraction.Given he had done exactly that, with the back-and-forth failed friendship over the passing time, but now here we were doing this. Because he wanted me and, lord, I damn sure wanted him. After only a weekend of intentionality, I was completely stuck.
Twenty centimeters from his name tattooed on my face.
Very sure that if he hurt me this time I’d shoot him.
Ninety-six hours of reciprocal desire.
Comprehensive conversations.
And me in his space.
Shit, I was ruined and branded.
My tattoo session took less time than his, because along with getting my name tattooed at his lower temple, he’d gotten Romance’s name along his lower jaw. While mine was a red script, hers was in a royal blue color that stood out on his skin.
“All to me,” he said once we finally left the shop. We were in the car headed back to the city when he took an exit I wasn’t familiar with.
“What do you mean?” I asked, my hand resting on his neck now instead of his freshly tattooed temple.
“You belong all to me, Rim. All that questioning if I’ma catch you mess is dead.”
“Yeen got no choice but to catch me. Now where are we going?” I looked around, confused.
He chuckled. “I wanna show you something.”
“Okay.”
I studied our surroundings, eyes traveling the dark street before he turned into the driveway of a home. There were no lights, not even porch lights. Now I was fully confused.
“You got it on you?” He looked over at me like we were about to pull a job or something.
“Yeah, now where are we?”
He didn’t respond. He cut the engine and got out of the car quickly. He didn’t give me any time to prepare because he already had my door open.
“Whose house are we at, Reminisce?”
“Why?”
“Because you just asked me if I was strapped.”
He laughed. “I did, didn’t I? Ain’t shit to worry about. Force of habit, now come on.” He held his hand out for me to accept. He closed the door behind me, then led the way to the front door.
Even in the dark I could see it was a massive brick-based home that looked to be under some sort of construction. All the lights were out, and as soon as he opened the door, the smell of fresh wood hit my nose.
When we were inside, he let my hand go and went to turn the lights on. I was right, it was under construction. I could tell by the drop sheets and different contractor tools stacked in one of the corners. My confusion was probably noticeable because he was speaking seconds later.
“At a point I was hitting jobs crazy, with no intention of slowing down. I’m good at everything I do, shit what can I say? Then I started feeling like it wasn’t enough, the same thing I clowned Renny for before we came here. Felt like at some point life would end for me, ’cause a nigga was empty.”
