Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 79147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
“I mean, yeah, I guess. I like it as much as I can. I enjoy the social aspect, people watching, and shit like that, but it’s not what I want to do forever.”
“What do you want to do?” I ask as we finish fitting the metal frame together.
“I don’t know that I really have anything in mind. That’s why I’m waiting tables, I guess. What about you? I was shocked as hell to discover you’re a tattoo artist. You always expect tattooists to be covered in ink.”
I get that all the time. I love ink; I do. But I’m also picky as shit. I wouldn’t ever let anyone other than Doc ink me, and I haven’t found something I can’t live without yet. “I love it. It’s perfect for me. I didn’t grow up having dreams and shit. I got kicked out when I was fifteen and so at the time, I just needed to figure out how to survive.”
“Holy shit,” Hayden tells me. His eyes go wide, and I can tell he’s surprised I shared that with him.
I shrug. “It is what it is. I mean, at the time I definitely didn’t see it that way. Shit was fucking hard, but I made it. Met Doc. Here, let’s get the mattress,” I add. We move toward the box spring first and lift it to the frame. “Anyway, Doc is older. I was lingering outside a gay club because I was fucking cold and hungry and needed cash.”
He flinches, but I ignore it. “Doc took me home but didn’t touch me. Just told me to go rest on his couch. I didn’t sleep, of course, because I thought he was going to do something to me I didn’t agree to. Blowjobs were one thing, but I didn’t fuck with the rest of it. He didn’t. Made me breakfast the next day and then said he’d give me some money to mow his lawn. I did it. He kept giving me odd jobs to do and paying me for them. I kept staying on his couch and eventually felt comfortable enough to actually sleep there. Nothing creepy or anything ever went down. After a while, he started to bring me to work with him, and I’d watch him ink. I’d draw shit for him sometimes, and when I turned eighteen, I started to apprentice with him. There’s really never been anything else for me.”
I realize then we’d stopped working. We’re standing on either side of the mattress leaned against the wall, Hayden’s eyes telling a story I can’t decipher as he listens to me.
“Wow…that’s…wow.”
I shrug, not wanting to get into it too much. “The world’s not always a pretty place, but sometimes you find what you’re looking for in the midst of all the shit.” That’s the only way I let myself think about it. You can dwell on the bad, or you can move forward. “So, we finishing this or what?” I ask when Hayden continues to stare at me as though he’s in some kind of trance.
“Yeah. Sorry.” We move his mattress on top of the box spring.
“I might not be into ink,” I tell him, “but you’ve seen some of my piercings. That I’m definitely into.”
He cocks a dark brow at me. “Some of them?”
We didn’t manage to get me out of my underwear during our failed threesome attempt. “Yep.” I wink, letting him ponder that. Even if we’re roommates, that doesn’t mean I won’t flirt with, or hell, sleep with him.
“Oh, fuck you. Now you have my mind going.”
“No shit. That was the point.” We both laugh.
“Do you mind if I unpack some? You can stay if you want. I mean, I’m sure you have stuff to do but—”
“Nah, I’m good,” I tell him before I sit on his bed while he starts to unpack. “Do you know what your costume will be for the Halloween party at Flirt?” There’s no reason to ask him if he’s going because everyone will be there. Even if he didn’t plan on it, I would drag his ass out. He can’t live with me and skip a Halloween party.
“I’m not sure. I always had to be careful with my costumes when I was with Lance. He didn’t like anything too revealing and now—”
“Your ex is a dick.” I interrupt him.
“He just has low self-esteem.”
Hayden can call it what he wants, but to me, it makes him a dick. “Anyway, now you’re free, and it’s like your whole fucking world has opened up, right? You want to be sexy and go out and find yourself a piece of ass?”
A cocky grin spreads across his face. “Exactly.”
That’s just what I wanted to hear. “And now you have the perfect wingman in me.”
5
Hayden
“Well, if you want to play wingman, you got a lot of work ahead of you,” I say.