“Bear?”
No answer.
“Baby?”
I went to his room and saw the door was open. There was a lone A4 on his desk.
“Luukas,
I know this isn’t the end of us, but until you go, I can’t see you.
I’ve been so reliant of you since you came to get me from Carl’s, that I need to figure out who I am when you’re not around.
I’ll be at Jamie and Mal’s, and I hope you don’t try to visit before you leave. I’ll see you when you get back.
I love you,
Bear”
I left Sara and the others in charge, and as a surprise, took Zain with me.
He’d never been to Europe even though I’d taken him to cons in the States since he started apprenticing for me.
I figured he could use the experience in more ways than one, and I needed his compassionate, bright energy to keep me from caving into myself.
He knew something was wrong, but it took me until the day before our first clients at my friend Jimmie’s shop in Bath, a little less than an hour away from the festival grounds.
We were setting up, Jimmie’s crew had enthusiastically welcomed both of us and were going to have Zain doing walk-ins with them, whether flash art or his own, depending on what the client wanted.
“So how come you haven’t called Bear yet?” he asked as we worked side by side in the space Jimmie had given us to use.
I sighed. “We’re… I don’t want to say taking a break, but I fucked up in a very stupid way. Communication stuff mostly, and then I only managed to escalate it.”
I saw him nod in my peripheral vision. “And now we’ll be here for a month and you’re not talking at all?”
“I thought about sending him postcards, that’s about it.”
He hummed. “Or take pictures of everything you think he’d find interesting, then send those to him? He doesn’t have to answer anything, but it’ll keep you on his radar.”
“You’re a smart guy, Zain. I’ll think about it.” I nudged him with my elbow, making him drop a pen he was holding.
“Thanks, boss.”
Getting to tattoo few of modern music’s biggest stars was great. When one of them happened to be Clarissa, who was high on Bear and Jamie’s favorite singer list, I asked for autographs for the boys. She not only did that, but had someone in her entourage get me piles of swag and even recorded a video message for the boys.
She also posted the tattoo I did for her all over her social media as soon as we were done, and I knew it would bring more business to my shop at home.
I tried to enjoy my time in the UK. After Bath, we went to London at another old friend’s studio for a week, then to Paris for another one, and finally, since I got a call from an old client in Germany who was willing to come to me in Zurich, I rented chairs for myself and Zain at a shop there for the final week or so before the convention.
When other people who I’d tattooed before got the news that I was in Europe, I was busy as fuck for that week. Zain got decent amount of work as well, and with every piece he added to his portfolio, it seemed like his confidence as a tattoo artist rose a notch.
The night before the convention, we were sitting at our AirBnB, trying to unwind before the craziness that would be the next couple of days.
“Luke?”
“Yeah?” I was stuffing my face with some takeout in the kitchenette while he was lounging on the couch.
“Thanks for taking me with you. It’s been… amazing.”
