Chapter Four
Meredith
Watching Luke run from me like his ass was on fire gave my ego a stroke. He hadn’t forgotten about our night together anymore than I had.
Which was bad. Of course.
Very bad.
We needed to keep things professional. For the sake of my career and the shop.
It was clear the shop meant a lot to him, for reasons he had started to explain. He was silly and brash on the surface. But I could see another layer even the first time we’d met. There was a vulnerability in his eyes that simmered just under the surface.
“You look like you’re thinking awfully hard over there,” Roxy said from her station.
I walked over and sat next to her. “I’ve seen art from every one of your artists so far today, and they truly are amazing. Like, could be hung in a gallery.”
Roxy nodded. “We aim for quality first. Tat Shack is more about lower prices.”
I nodded. “So, thanks to the bad reviews, it now looks like you have higher prices and worse quality.”
“Yep, and that will mean fewer customers, even less reviews, and the cycle continues into the toilet.”
I nodded, the idea of a gallery refusing to leave my mind. “What’s the style of the shop? Hardcore face things head-on, or let things roll off your backs?”
“Well, the last man who pinched my ass in a bar ended up with a broken nose so—”
“Yeah, I get it.”
“What are you thinking?” she asked, fiddling with her lip ring.
What was I thinking?
“Well, we can water down the bad reviews by getting a shit ton of good reviews. But since the bad ones will always be there, I thought maybe we should face them more directly. This wall over here is pretty bare,” I said, gesturing to one of the lobby walls behind her. “I was thinking we could frame some of the shop’s best work to prove the reviews wrong. The reviews seem to focus on color and shading, so showcase the best of the best in those categories. Fill the entire wall with it, kind of make an inside joke out of it, if that makes sense.”
Roxy smiled wide. “I knew I hired the right girl. Fuck yes, let’s do it.”
“What are we doing?” Luke asked as he came around the corner from wherever he had snuck off to.
“We’re taking on these one-star fuckers. Do me a favor, apprentice. When you have time, go through our tattoo binders and social media posts and find the best examples of our color and shading work. Need at least twenty examples of the bestwe have to offer.”
Luke flashed a wide smile, and my heart tripped over itself. “On it.”
I turned back to Roxy. “I had another idea, too. Once we have the wall in place, I was thinking we could do some kind of, I don’t know, a day where you do nothing but walk-ins for small tattoos. Maybe have food and drinks available, and anyone who leaves a review gets their name in a draw for a free piece or a discount or something. Draw in a ton of business all at once. Could donate some proceeds to charity to give the shop some good PR.”
Roxy seemed to mull it over. “We can do a flash tattoo day. Basically, we have like thirty or so tattoo options available for people to pick from, and we do one after the other. We can draw up a sheet of the most popular designs.”
“Perfect. Let me get some work done on this, then we have an event to plan.”
Chapter Five
Luke
The definition of apprentice didn’t include the phrasebitch work, but the reality did. I had to pay my dues, so I understood. Besides, it was inspiring to look over all the kick-ass artwork that had come out of this shop.
“Hey, I have what you asked for,” I said as I walked into Roxy’s office after I had a collection of favorites. It had taken me a few days since I wasn’t always at Think Ink.
“Gimme, gimme, gimme,” she grabbed the images from my hand and flipped through them. I turned to leave, but she stopped me. “Hang on, Meredith is going to need help to get this wall done, and since you’re the apprentice…”
