He’d told Elias how he'd lost a bet at eighteen and gotten the tattoo. It was hideous, and it was clear it wasn’t done professionally. Now, he wanted it covered up.
“It will, but with as large as it is, we should do it in segments.”
“How many sessions am I looking at?”
“At least five. Two and a half for the line work and two and a half for the shading,” Elias replied.
“That doesn’t sound too bad. When can we get started?”
Elias looked at his schedule, already knowing how he would break the sessions up. He looked for the earliest appointment that would give him enough time to get the first segment done.
“We can do it in two weeks. Saturday at eleven.”
“That works. I’ll take that.”
Elias put the appointment in, adding the man’s number and email to send a reminder to both seventy-two hours before his appointment.
He was sitting at his station thirty minutes later, waiting for his next client to come in, when the door opened. He refrained from groaning at the person who’d walked in. Elias hadn’t seen her in a while. Not since the party Marco had thrown for him last year.
“Bianca,” he started when she approached his station. “What brings you here?”
“Last time I checked, it was a tattoo parlor, and I thought it was about time I got a new one. Do you have time?”
“I don’t. I have a client coming in soon. You’ll have to wait for Javier to finish or Nesiah to get back and see if they can fit you in.”
“That’s fine.” She took the seat closest to his station to wait. “I ran into your aunt the other day. She told me you were dating now.” Elias didn’t need her to tell him which aunt. Celia was the only one who liked to tell other people’s business. “It’s such a pity that you and Marco are both now temporarily off the market, but I don’t mind waiting.”
“I’m sure you don’t, since you’ve shown you’re adept at waiting for things that will never happen, and there’s nothing temporary about it. Or did you forget Marco is married?”
Bianca shrugged, ignoring his slight. “He might be, but you’re not, and divorces are pretty common these days.”
“Regardless, no one wants a hole that the entire city has had. So again, you’ll be waiting for something that will never happen.”
She glared at him briefly before rolling her eyes. “I’ve never met men who enjoyed playing hard to get as much as you and Marco. Vince was far easier.”
“Vince has no standards, and you have no self-respect. It was the perfect match,” Elias responded.
Bianca sucked her teeth. “Are you this rude to all your clients?”
“No, but then again, you aren’t my client.”
Before she could respond, the door opened again, and his client walked in. Elias had already set up for him, and after greeting one another, he got to work on the piece, ignoring Bianca.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Eri resized the design she was working on to take in the colors better. They weren’t exactly what the client had asked for, but she’d had to tone them down from all the bright hues they’d chosen. They’d clashed so much with the design and looked too busy. She would bet money that if someone stared at it for too long, they’d get a headache. She didn’t want that, nor did she want to be associated with something like that. So, she’d softened the colors to make them more appealing to the eye.
She placed her watermark on it when she was satisfied with her inspection and sent it to the client for approval or revision. It was her first submission to them, so they had three revisions. But if they insisted on those blinding colors that wouldn’t even appeal to children, then she’d have to drop the project and wish them luck somewhere else. She understood it was their vision and their money they were spending, but she didn’t always believe the customer was right. Eri also refused to create something she knew wouldn’t do well, and then have them blame her when it turned out to be the case.
She checked her email to ensure there weren’t any more project requests or messages she needed to respond to before grabbing her phone and exiting her office, turning the light off as she went.
Eri settled on the couch and flipped through the channels before settling on aLifetimemovie. She was halfway through it when her phone vibrated. She checked the screen, her brow furrowing at the unknown number.
“Hello?” she answered.
“Guess who’s back in Albuquerque!”
“Romi?”
