Fuck, I’m doing it again. I’m finding someone unavailable, and then I’m pining for him and pretending there’s something there, instead of tracking down someone appropriate to date. I’m fantasizing about who Joey could be, even though I don’t know the first thing about who he actually is.
“Let’s say hi!” Matty says, and jumps out of the car.
I yelp, but he doesn’t slow down. Instead, I watch from the passenger seat while he slips across the snow, waving at Joey. I stare, mortified, while they shake hands and Matty introduces himself, and then wish I could disappear when he gestures over to me with a wave.
Joey’s eyes land on the car, and I sink down in the seat while I weakly wave back. They talk, and I spin out internally, trying to decide whether it’s rude for me to stay in the car without getting out to say hi. Before I can decide, Matty heads into the shop, and Joey lingers by the door for only a second before he walks slowly over.
Heat pours through me. I’m nervous but really, really glad he’s coming to me, too.
I push the door open and hop out. “Hi!”
Joey nods, and no matter how hard I search, I can’t read a thing into his expression. “How’s the tattoo healing?”
Right, because he cares about his work. That’s why he walked over. “Great!” I say. “It looks perfect.”
He nods once, seemingly satisfied. “Glad to hear it.”
“You busy today?” I ask.
He tilts his head back to the shop. “Just some work on a back piece this afternoon. Shading, mainly. It’s a big one, a castle.”
“Cool,” I say, although I have no idea whether shading is fun, or hard, or what. I don’t know anything, really, except that now that we’re standing there looking at each other, I just want to keep smiling at him. “I used to be obsessed with castles when I was a kid, I think because I read so many fantasy novels,” I add, then wish I didn’t.
He nods, and I think to myself that I’m rambling and there’s no way he could possibly care about castles, but then Joey clears his throat. “The piece is Matsumoto Castle. You know that one?”
I blink. “Actually, yeah. In Japan, right?” I can’t help but smile as the babbling starts up. “I haven’t thought about this stuff in years, but I used to get every book that had castles in it from the library and just, like, study for no reason.”
I’m confessing some deep geekery, but Joey nods like he appreciates this. “The architecture is something. I’ve been thinking about it all day.”
I nod eagerly. “That old stuff. It’s really amazing! Like that castle must have been built centuries ago, right?”
“Sixteenth century.”
“Right! Sixteenth century!” It’s funny. Normally, I’m the one who is hyper precise about stuff.
The wind picks up, and Joey pushes his hands deeper into the pockets of his jacket. Right when his mouth opens, and it seems like he’s going to say something more, Matty busts out of the shop and starts toward us again.
“All set!” Matty says brightly, then turns to Joey. “Stone wonders if you have any hunter green pigment he can borrow.”
Joey finally tears his eyes away from me. “Yeah, catch you both later,” he grunts and heads straight in.
Matty waggles his eyebrows. “He’s cute!” he tells me. “Any luck flirting?”
I laugh. “I don’t know if cute is the right word,” I say, quietly as though Joey could hear us from inside. My thoughts linger over the unexpected conversation. For just a second, it felt like we actually had something in common, but I shake the strange feeling away. “And no, sorry to disappoint, but we didn’t get around to flirting.”
Matty sighs. “You can’t win ‘em all. Do you still want a ride to class?’
“Yeah,” I answer, but my eyes keep darting back to the shop door until we round the corner, and Joey stays fresh in my mind for the rest of the day.
CHAPTERSEVEN
JOEY
Most Sundays,the shop is empty, quiet beneath my apartment all day. I didn’t think much about that when I scheduled Milo’s long session, but now that it’s here, and I’m waiting for him in the empty shop, I wonder if some part of me scheduled it this way on purpose, so we’d be alone.
It’s just work, but I’m going to have the guy to myself for the day, and I feel greedy about it.
I even put on one of my best shirts, a black sweater I paid way too much money for. It’s soft and I guess made with some kind of fancy wool.
