Priceless Ink: A Small Town Romance

by Lagomarsino, Giulia

  I was so distracted by my thoughts that I didn’t even see Sofia walking over until the door was swinging open.

  “Did you hear that?” she asked, shutting the door behind her.

  I nodded. “I have an idea about what happened, but it doesn’t really matter. I’m just glad they’re coming around.”

  She blew out a breath and smiled. “It feels like things are finally falling together. But now I’m tired and I’m going back to bed.”

  I gave her a kiss, brushing my thumb across her cheek. “I’ll be there in just a minute.”

  Stepping out of the room, I pulled the door closed behind me and stood there watching my brother.

  “I’m really sorry,” he mumbled. “I know I fucked things up.”

  “This isn’t some kind of game, is it?”

  “No. I’m not stupid enough to risk pissing you off so much that you don’t want me in your life.”

  “That’s still up for debate.”

  He nodded slightly. He knew that he had put a huge strain on our relationship, and that wasn’t something I could just get over because he apologized, but it was a step in the right direction.

  “So, I figured that I would pack up my shit and find someplace else to stay. I think you and Sofia need your space.”

  “You don’t have to do that.”

  He scoffed. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I do.”

  I shrugged slightly, like I didn’t really care. “I mean, she doesn’t exactly make a lot of money, so I could use the help with rent.”

  His face perked up at that, like he was waiting for me to give him an in. “Yeah, I don’t want to leave you hanging.”

  I nodded and turned for the door, figuring that was a good place to leave things.

  “Hey, you know, I mean it. I really am sorry.”

  “I know,” I nodded.

  “You’re my brother. I just wanted you to be happy. I can see now that you are. I love you, man.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re not gonna kiss me again, are you?”

  Sofia

  Everything was so perfect in my life. Sure, I didn’t have money or fancy clothes, but I also had something I had only ever dreamed of. Freedom. Every day with Joe was like an adventure, despite the fact that we did almost the same exact thing every day. I used to think that I wanted to marry someone rich that could take me places and show me the world, but what would that have mattered if that person didn’t love me?

  I was falling deeper in love with him every day, and the way he made me feel…it was something I had never experienced before. I was lighter, happier, and overall a nicer person. I couldn’t remember the last time I had said something nasty to someone. My face was a perpetual smile and I was actually putting on weight and I didn’t even care. I thought I looked good. My hips filled out more and I looked more feminine, more like a real person instead of a barbie doll. And Joe definitely wasn’t complaining about my looks. If anything, it seemed to turn him on more and more every day.

  Things were finally easing up between his whole family. They were more open with me, inviting me places without even talking to Joe. Andrew even asked me if I wanted to watch a movie with him one night. We ate popcorn as he explained The Matrix movies to me. I had never seen them before, and I was so confused by the plot, but apparently, this was something I had to see at least once.

  The buzzer for the apartment door sounded and I rushed over to get it. “Yeah?”

  “It’s me!” Charlie’s voice rang over the intercom. She was coming with me to the thrift store, though I had no idea why when I knew she could afford clothes from a department store.

  “Come on up!”

  Over the past few weeks, each of his brother’s girlfriends had started inviting me out more. They were so much nicer than my friends ever were. They were real people and they had real problems. And the great thing was, they didn’t all gossip about each other behind each other’s backs. And recently, it felt like they were really trying harder to get to know me, which was something I was eternally grateful for.

  I rushed through pulling my hair up in a bun and then slid my flip-flops on right as she knocked on the door. I grinned and pulled the door open, but she looked anything but happy.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I need you to talk me down.”

  “Okay,” I said hesitantly. “Shouldn’t you take this to someone more…equipped to deal with whatever this is?”

  “I want to leave Will.”

  “What?”

  Shocked was just one of the many emotions running through me. I was sad for Will because I knew how much he loved Charlie. I was also extremely confused because I knew she loved him too.

  She took a deep breath and continued. “I don’t actually want to leave Will. I just need to get this off my chest so I don’t go home and yell at him and tell him I want him to leave.”

  I glanced at my watch. I only had two hours before I had to be at work. “Well, can we walk and talk?”

  She nodded and we headed downstairs. “This is going to sound so stupid, but I went to make breakfast this morning and the pots and pans were a complete mess. They were all stacked upside down and they were just tossed in the cabinet. And the thing is, he knows how much it irritates me when things aren’t put away the correct way, but then he does it anyway!”

  “Wow, that’s…”

  She sighed and we started heading toward the thrift shop. “You wouldn’t understand. You’re still in the honeymoon phase where nothing ever bothers you.”

  “You’re probably right. Then again, I’ve never actually been in a relationship, so I don’t really know how you’re supposed to behave.”

  “Well, you don’t stack the dishes the wrong way, that’s for sure. It’s just bad manners. I mean, come on. Biggest pot goes on the bottom, then the medium, then the smallest. And the thing is, there’s this big hole that allows you to stack them inside each other! And you know what’s worse? He called me earlier today to tell me to have a good day and that he loved me! Can you believe that?”

  “Yeah,” I nodded, not at all understanding. “I really don’t.”

  “He was being nice on purpose so that he could do something evil later and make up for what he had already done. It was a preemptive strike! He was preemptively striking with niceness! That’s what they do. Men are so twisted like that.”

  “So…you think he called you to be nice to you because he knew that he had done something to make you mad?”

  “Oh, he didn’t just call to make up for it. He planned it all out. He messed up the pots and pans so that he could call me so that he could piss me off.”

  My head spun. Could anyone really be that twisted? “Maybe he just wanted to wish you a good day.”

  She snorted. “Oh, you keep believing that. No, he had this all planned out. I swear, men do stuff like this just so they can get out of ever having to do it again.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like, doing dishes. If they do them the wrong way, then you get upset, and they know this. They know that you’ll tell them just to leave them and you’ll do them.”

  “I will?”

  “Yes, because you’ll be so irritated that a man can’t figure out how to wash a dish and then you’ll inevitably have to do it for him, so you just toss up your hands and do it for him. And he knows this about you, so he’ll play stupid and pretend like he doesn’t know how to do the dishes when he does know how to do the dishes, just to get out of having to do the dishes!”

  My head spun and I felt like I was on information overload. Was this what would happen with Joe and I? Were we doomed to fail all because of how I did the dishes versus how he did the dishes?

  “So, what do you do about this? How do you fix it?”

  She sighed. “You can’t fix it. It’s just part of the package, which is why I said I want to leave Will. There’s only so much a woman can take before she walks out the door.”

  We approached the thrift store and C
arly waved at us from where she was getting out of her car. “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know,” I said nervously. “Apparently all relationships are doomed to fail because men don’t want to do dishes.”

  Carly rolled her eyes. “Don’t listen to Charlie. She doesn’t think men and women should live together. She’s just projecting her fears on you.”

  “So, you don’t agree with this?”

  Carly tilted her head. “You mean that men purposely don’t do the dishes the right way so that you’ll have to do them? Oh, she’s right on that.”

  “How did you know that’s what she was talking about?”

  “Because I’ve already heard it five times from her, and I’ve only known her six months. About once a month, she gets really freaked out about living with a boy and she goes on this tirade about how much men suck.”

  “I do not,” Charlie pouted.

  “You do, and it’s about that time of the month.”

  “So, every month I should expect her to get upset about living with a man and start complaining about something?”

  “Yep,” Carly chirped. “Last month it was not cleaning the toothpaste out of the sink. And the month before that, it was tracking mud all over the house after she had just washed the floors. And the month before that—“

  “She gets it,” Charlie snapped. “Alright, I may be a little psychotic about the whole thing, but that’s only because I really think that—“

  “Men and women were not meant to live together,” Carly finished. “You’ll also hear that about once a month. Trust me, you’ll get used to it.”

  “But I thought Will was a clean guy?” I asked, a little confused by this.

  “He is,” Charlie narrowed her eyes at no one in particular. “He does it just to push my buttons.”

  It was all too much to think about. I didn’t want to try and figure out why someone that loved her would push her buttons or why she got so upset about it. I just wanted to get what I needed and get home.

  “Can we just shop for winter clothes? I have to get to work in a couple hours.”

  “Fine,” Charlie rolled her eyes. “Let’s pretend like I don’t have serious issues going on right now and just go shop.”

  “Oh, we know you have serious issues. We’re just choosing to ignore them for retail therapy.”

  We walked into the shop and the manager immediately scowled at me. He still hadn’t forgiven us for the first time we were in here, though Charlie wasn’t part of that.

  “I swear, I’m just here to get clothes.”

  “Yeah, that’s what you said last time and my store was a disaster after you left.”

  I felt bad, but what did he want me to say? It wasn’t like I could go back and fix it, and I had already apologized profusely. So, instead, I ignored him as I moved around the store and tried to figure out what to buy.

  “Ooh, you should get these boots!” Carly said, looking at a pair of knee-high boots that I would normally just hand my card over for. But as I looked at the price tag and calculated how much of my paycheck it would take up, I had to set the boots down.

  “Maybe another time.”

  “Are you kidding? These are like five hundred dollar boots and you can have them for fifty dollars.”

  “I know, and normally I would be all over them, but they’re fifty dollars. That’s way too much of my paycheck. If I spend that much on those boots, I won’t be able to get everything I need. I don’t have any fall or winter clothes.”

  She frowned and looked at the boots. “I’ll buy them for you. I want you to have these.”

  I smiled at her kindness, but I couldn’t accept. “That’s really sweet of you, but I want to do this the right way. I have to learn how to live on a budget. If you buy these for me, it’s not really helping me to do the whole make it on my own thing.”

  “Fine, I’m buying them for me and you can borrow them whenever you want.”

  “Well, I can’t tell you what to do with your own money.”

  I looked through the rest of the boots and found a pair that was reasonably priced in my size and looked like they had hardly been worn. When I moved on to the jeans, I was a little more disappointed. They didn’t have any of the designers I normally liked, but I kind of figured it would be that way so far from the city. Most people didn’t dress in designer clothes down here. But the real prize was the winter coat I found. It was white and had a fur-trimmed hood and it was super warm.

  After ringing up my purchases, Carly headed for her car and Charlie and I walked back to my apartment. She hadn’t found anything she wanted, or so she said. I knew Charlie could afford new clothes, but was just being nice. She didn’t scoff at the clothes or make me feel bad for not being able to afford something better.

  We were just walking up to the door when I saw Lanie hanging out in front of the tattoo shop. I stopped where I was and stared at her, worried that she had brought someone with her.

  “What’s wrong?” Charlie asked.

  “Um…”

  “There you are!” Lanie said, rushing over to me. “I’ve been waiting here for like fifteen minutes!”

  She looked me up and down, taking in my cutoff shorts and t-shirt. It was obvious that she didn’t like my new taste in clothes, but she didn’t say anything.

  “How did you find me?”

  “Well, I had a friend track the number down here. The phone was registered to a Joe Cortell.” She glanced at the tattoo shop and then back at me. “Please tell me that you aren’t hooking up with that guy,” she whispered.

  I flinched back in anger and disappointment, but also a little embarrassment. I couldn’t believe that she was talking to me like this. Had she always been so rude? I thought back to the day she helped me slip out of the church. I thought she was my friend then, but now she was looking around this town with disgust, the same way I had looked at it when I came here.

  “Charlie, this is my…this is Lanie. She’s from Chicago. Lanie, this is Charlie. She’s with Joe’s brother.”

  “With? Like engaged or what?”

  “It’s a work in progress,” Charlie grinned. She looked down at her watch and then leaned in for a hug. She had never hugged me before, but I had a feeling she was doing it on purpose, just to show Lanie that I had friends here. “I have to go pick up Oliver, but I’ll see you Saturday.”

  “Sounds good,” I smiled.

  She walked off just as Joe walked out of his shop. “I see you found her,” he said, leaning back against the window. His eyes moved to mine and filled with warmth. He looked down at my bags and grinned. “Did you find everything you needed?”

  “Almost. I got a winter coat and boots.”

  “Well, you’ll definitely need those. I can take you to the mall for anything else you need.”

  “Thanks.” Joe was so sweet. I couldn’t believe that Lanie couldn’t see that. Of course, she probably saw the same thing I did when I first met him. He looked like the typical bad boy, but Joe was hardly that.

  Lanie gave him a tight smile and turned back to me. “Is there someplace we can talk?”

  “Sure.”

  I didn’t know how long this was going to take, but Joe seemed to read my mind. “Take your time. I can handle things down here.”

  “Thanks.” I leaned in and kissed him, but he didn’t go for something quick. He pulled me into his body and slid his tongue into my mouth, practically fucking my mouth. And when he pulled back, he shot me a wink before disappearing into his shop.

  I was blushing hard when I looked at Lanie again. “Um, we can go upstairs.”

  “Upstairs?”

  I nodded to the door and pulled out the keys. “Yeah, up here.”

  “You live above a tattoo shop?”

  I nodded, like she was stating the obvious. I used to be just like that. I was her just a few months ago. We climbed the stairs and I let us into the apartment. Setting the bags down, I walked over to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water for
her. She looked at the generic brand and set it down on the counter, then picked up a boot from the thrift store bag. Sighing, she set it down like it was covered in disease.

  “Sofia, what are you doing here?”

  “I live here.”

  Her eyes bugged out and she sank into the chair at the table. “You…” She shook her head and looked at me like I was insane. “Sofia, I thought when you ran out that you just needed some time.”

  “I did.”

  “So, what are you still doing here?”

  “I had some time, and I didn’t like where my life was going. I like it here. I like my life.”

  “You can’t be serious. With the biker?”

  “Yes, with the biker.”

  “He’s covered in tattoos.”

  “And he’s got a great heart. He’s so good to me and—“

  “You call this being good to you? You live in a dump!”

  “I live in an apartment and I happen to like it here. There’s nobody telling me what to do or how to dress. Nobody’s locking me in my room because I didn’t behave appropriately at a social event. I don’t get starved by anyone because I’m not fitting in the way I’m expected to.”

  “You’re getting fat!” she exclaimed.

  “I’m putting on weight, but I happen to like it. I’m not hungry all the time and I actually look like a woman now. What’s so wrong with that?”

  “You won’t fit in your wedding dress!”

  “Well, that doesn’t matter because I’m not getting married.”

  She just stared at me like I had slapped her. “I messed everything up. I thought I was helping you.”

  “You did help me. If I had married Graham, I would have been miserable. I would have gone on being the heartless bitch that didn’t care about anything or anyone. I’m not the same person anymore. I like who I am now.”

  “Your father will never stand for this.”

  “I don’t care what my father thinks. I’m not living under his roof. I make my own decisions now and they have nothing to do with him or my mother.”