“He called me and said we needed to talk, so we met up at London and talked.”
“Ut-oh, and neither one of you walked off with a black eye, must have been hard on you,” I joked. “So what did he want?”
“He wanted to know why I didn’t call him about Jaks. I told him I did, we did, not our fault he doesn’t answer his phone or check his email himself.”
“Yea I know,” I muttered. “So could you come by the shop around 8 to get Jaks?”
“I could just pick him up from school Dev, that way he’s not running taz-style through the shop.”
“I know, but Seth is picking him up from school, and then coming back to the shop to hang out with him. Don’t start, he wants to get to know his son and you and I both know I can’t tell him no on this. He deserves to get to know Jaks.”
“Yea I know, I just don’t have to like it. Ok I will be there at 8, love you sis,” he said and hung up before I could respond in typical Drake fashion, when he decides a conversation is over, it’s over.
“Yea love you too bro,” I muttered to a dial tone.
I picked up my latte from the barista and headed next door to face off with Cris. This is going to be a long god damn day.
I pasted on a smile and opened the door to the shop; Cris was setting up his station and ignored me when I entered.
“Hey Cris,” I said in greeting.
He grunted; ok guess it’s going to be one of those days. I followed suit and ignored him going to my station and getting everything set up for my first appointment at 11:15. My first client came and went with Cris still ignoring me. I know him well enough not to try and talk to him before he’s ready, because he just won’t talk.
I was breaking down after my previous client when Cris walked up to me with his arms folded over his chest, looking everywhere but me. Ut-oh, this is going to piss me off and he knows it.
“Did you sleep with him?” he barked.
I spun and glared at him, he had the decency to flinch and look ashamed.
“Not that it’s any of your business Crispin, but no I didn’t sleep with Seth. We went home, ate dinner, put Jaks down and talked.” Since I was pissed I decided to throw this in instead of doing it like I had first decided. “Seth’s picking Jaks up from school then coming back to the shop to hang out in the office while I finish work.”
“You didn’t think you should run that by me since it is my shop, first?” he growled.
“No, it’s never mattered before, so why now?” I knew why, but I will not be cow towed by him for doing the right thing.
“It matters now, especially when it’s Seth. He left you Dev, he didn’t have the decency to answer his god damn phone when you called; he had his girlfriend do his dirty work for him instead of being a man and taking care of his responsibilities.”
“I am not listening to this Cris, I made mistakes too. But it’s not about me it’s about Jaks, he deserves the chance to have his father in his life” I said.
“I asked you to marry me, Dev, I love you, I love Jaks. I know you don’t love me yet, but you could, if you would just let go of him and move on, we could be happy Dev,” he pleaded.
“This has nothing to do with that Cris, and I already told you I haven’t decided anything with that yet, don’t push me on it,” I said. “Now if you would please excuse me, my next client should be here in 5 minutes, I need to get things cleaned up and prepped.” I spun away and headed to the back room to get the equipment I needed.
¯¯¯
I walked into the shop and instantly saw Dev bent over her work, not noticing anything else. I walked over and looked at the piece she was working on; it was breathtaking. A full back piece of wings that started out as angel wings but slowly turned into intricate scroll work that wrapped around the girl’s ribs and the outer breasts.
“Damn, that’s sweet,” I said in slight awe, but then again I was always amazed by Devi’s work.
The girl looked up and grinned, “She’s fucking fantastic at what she does.”
Dev looked up then barely acknowledging me while she dipped into ink and went back to work.
“How many sittings till it’s done?” I asked.
“This is 2 of 3 and I can’t wait until it’s finished,” the girl said then went back to lying down and zoning out at the endorphin rush getting a tattoo gives.
“So Devi, I need your keys and directions,” I said.
Across the room Cris harrumphed but continued to ignore me.
“One sec Seth,” she said. “Ok, hey Cin I’ll be right back, need anything while I’m gone, drink of water or something?”
The girl just shook her head.
With that we walked up to the back and Devi dug through her bag pulling out keys and directions.
“Here ya go Seth, uhm also do you have any plans tonight?” she asked.
I noticed Cris had stopped his gun, which made me even more curious about what’s going on between them. I hadn’t noticed anything on Devi’s part, but Cris has always had a thing for her.
“No not really, I was thinking about going out with the guys tonight, but nothing I can’t get out of,” I said, if she would rather me hang with her, I would drop them in a heartbeat.
“Uhm, well I was wondering if you wanted to get together and talk, just the 2 of us? I already called Drake and he’s going to get Jaks around 8 tonight and babysit for the night,” she said looking nervous as hell and chewing on her bottom lip. Damn, I forgot about how she used to do that when nervous, and how big of a turn on it had always been.
I had to clear my throat before talking, “Uhm yea, we can do that, any thoughts on where you want to go?”
“We can go to the café if you want, grab some dinner and coffee. It’ll still be early so the party crowd won’t be there yet.”
“Yea, sounds good. Ok I am going to head out and get Jaks,” I said. “See you in a few.”
I walked out feeling a bit better about being able to get Devi back, I needed a game plan, but first I needed to find out what was on her mind.
Chapter Seven
I was standing at the counter scheduling Cin for her final sitting when I glanced out the window; Seth was walking up with carrying a giggling Jaks. Damn, that man was gorgeous, all 6 feet 2 inches of muscle that rippled while he walked, I looked back at Cin who was smirking at me.
“So that’s Seth, huh?” said Cin.
“Yea, that’s Seth.”
“Damn he’s fine, Dev.”
“Yea trust me, I know,” I muttered.
With that Cin left throwing me a look over her shoulder that said ‘don’t be stupid’ as she walked out the door.
Seth walked in with a smiling Jaks hung over his shoulder.
“Mama,” Jaks wailed then wiggled to be put down.
Seth put him down then Jaks instantly leapt at me wanting to be picked up. I scooped my son up and gave him kisses all over his face.
“Daddy get me,” Jaks told me.
“He did!” I exclaimed.
Jaks nodded his head then wiggled to be let down to explore.
“None of that Jaks, you and Daddy are going to hang out in the office while Mommy finishes work,” I told him.
I handed Jaks back to Seth, “So how was it?”
“Those women are vicious, Devi. Damn I barely made it in the building before they started giving me dirty looks, hell then some of them tried giving me their phone numbers.”
I laughed, his daycare was something else; the teachers were awesome, but the other parents were judgmental as hell.
“Yea I know, but the teachers are the best.”
“Yea, his teacher was really nice, I liked her,” he said. “Ok we’re going back to the office, how long till you’re done?”
“An hour and a half, two hours max, and Drake should be here around 8. There’s a box of toys in the office, along with an art easel and crayons. Jules ran out on her lunch break, she’s going to bring something back for Jaks. If you need anything
come up front and let me know.”
“We’ll be fine Devi, don’t worry,” he said.
I snorted, don’t worry, I spend most of my time worrying about Jaks. They went back to the office, passing Max and Vic on their way up front to get ready for their evening of tattooing.
¯¯¯
“How does your mom do this all the time, kid?” I asked Jaks.
He just glanced up at me then went back to crashing cars. I looked around the office and it looked like a tornado had passed through, toys everywhere, spaghetti on the desk and the floor under it from his dinner. It gave me a new respect of what Devi had been through the last few years.
I was under the desk cleaning up spaghetti when Drake walked in; he took one look around and started laughing.
“Not so easy, huh man?” he said.
“Unca Ake,” Jaks squealed then took off hugging Drake around the legs.
“Hey kid, looks like you’ve been giving your dad a hard time tonight,” Drake said as lifting Jaks up. “You want to come home with me tonight and give Mommy a night off?”
Jaks smiled at that idea and nodded. Drake put him down, and started helping put toys away, while Jaks went back to crashing cars.
“Thanks for watching him tonight,” I said.
Drake looked over at me, “You two need to talk, figuring things out would be easier without taz here running around,” he said.
“Taz, huh,” I chuckled, “pretty apt description of him.”
“I meant what I said last night Seth, if you hurt them, I won’t hold back this time,” Drake said.
“I know, and I have no intentions on hurting them. I didn’t mean to hurt her last time either.”
“You may not have meant to, but you did hell, you still do. She changed when you left man; she’s not the same girl. She won’t date, all she does is work and hang out with Jaks. Every now and then with a lot of arm twisting, I can get her to go out with friends, but I don’t think she actually enjoys it, she only does it so she doesn’t have to listen to us bitch about her lack of life,” he said looking at me meaningfully. “I don’t think she ever got over you, and yea I know she’s the one who pushed you into going. She’s the one, who ended it between you. She tried to hide how much it hurt her from me, but I saw and I knew and there wasn’t a fucking thing I could do about it and that just pissed me off more.”
“I wanted to make things work, she said she needed a clean break. And yea, I knew it hurt her to say it, but it hurt me too and it pissed me off that she didn’t even want to try. So I went out to LA tried to forget her, but I couldn’t, haven’t and I’m not walking away this time, Drake.”
“Good luck with that, you’re going to need it,” he said. “Ok Jaks, you ready to go hang out with your Uncle Drake?”
He grabbed Jaks’ stuff and led him out of the room. I finished picking up the office and was heading back to the shop when Cris stopped me.
“Hey Seth, can we talk a minute?” Cris asked.
“Sure,” I replied.
I went back to the office with Cris following me. He shut the door then turned around and looked at me, and I knew I didn’t want to hear what he was about to tell me.
“I’ve asked Dev to marry me,” Cris said.
It felt like I was punched in the solar plexus, all the air left my lungs.
“You what?” I managed to get out.
“You heard me man, I love her, always have, she never even looked at me while you were here, but you left and she needed someone. I stepped up, I’ve been here helping her while you were running around the globe, and she was left here with a baby and scared. So don’t you dare look at me like that, you left but I stayed.”
I knew he was right, but it didn’t make it any easier to hear. Cris had asked Devi to marry him, what did she say? Why didn’t she tell me she was engaged? Not knowing what else to do I left the office and headed back to the shop to wait for Devi to get done with her client.
Chapter Eight
I watched Cris head back to the office after Drake left, and I knew nothing good could come from it. A few minutes later Seth came out looking pissed as hell. He went over to talk to Max and I went back to work finishing the tat I was working on. Nothing I could do about it now, I had work to get done. After I finished and had the guy all taped up with after care instructions and some samples of creams, I walked over to where Vic, Max and Seth were standing around talking.
“Hey, you ready to go?” I asked Seth.
“Yea, let’s go,” he said. “See you guys later.”
He didn’t say another word; just put his hand on my lower back guiding me out of the shop and to his car. I got into his old Chevelle—man this car brought back a lot of memories—he started the car and Sevendust’s “Bitch” started blaring from the speakers, we left still not talking the entire way to the café. We got to the café and sat outside on the outdoor patio, watching the cars speed down central expressway. His not talking was starting to really unnerve me, I had an idea on what he and Cris had talked about, but I wasn’t sure on how to bring it up.
“So you and Cris, huh?” he said.
I closed my eyes cursing my best friend, why did he have to do this to me? Why did he have to tell him instead of letting me explain it to Seth? But then again I knew why, he wanted Seth to think more was going on between us than what actually was.
“He’s been trying, I keep putting him off.”
“Why?” he asked.
I was surprised at this, why had I been putting off Cris, well I knew it was because I still loved Seth, but I wasn’t going to let him know this.
“I dont love Cris like that,” I said. “He says he doesn’t care about that, that he loves me enough for both of us, but I don’t think I could marry someone I don’t love.”
He looked to be thinking over my answer but I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Was he happy about me not being involved with Cris? Did he pity me like Chloe had said he did because I couldn’t get over him?
“So what did you want to talk about Devi?” he asked.
I guess he didn’t want to talk about Cris anymore, not that I blamed him, I didn’t really want to either.
“I thought it would be good for us to clear the air, become friends again. It would make things easier when we try to come to terms about Jaks.”
Our waitress came up at that point to take our orders; I ordered a coffee and my favorite spinach crepes. After she got Seth’s order and walked off, I looked at him and still couldn’t get a read on what he was thinking.
“I want you to believe me that I did try and tell you. I tried for six months, but at some point I had to figure out how to do this on my own, I had to make plans to get my life back together. So I stopped trying to contact you, I had a baby to take care of.”
“I understand Devi. I know last night I was pissed, and while I am still upset at not knowing, I understand why you didn’t keep seeking me out,” he said. “But now that I know, I’m not going away; I will have a part in his life Devi.”
“Okay,” I said, “I think he would like that.”
“So how are we going to do that Devi, any ideas, I will of course start paying child support. I want to make sure he has everything he needs.”
“I make enough to make sure he’s taken care of Seth, I’ve been doing it for over 2 years now without your money, and we don’t need it now,” I spit out.
“I didn’t mean to make you mad Devi, or try and make it sound like you don’t take care of him, I just want to help and I need to help. Please let me, I’ve missed so much already, but this would mean a lot to me.”
“Fine,” I said grudgingly.
“Thank you,” with that he reached over and took my hand slowly rubbing his thumb over my knuckles. That small touch made my breath catch; this man could get to me like no one else.
Our coffee came then, I pulled my hand from his so I could fix my coffee and also get a little space between us. I still didn’t know what I wanted with
Seth, was I willing to put my heart on the line again for this man? Hell did he even want more than his son from me, was I being delusional that the spark between was more than one sided?
“Hey, where did you go? he asked.
I shook myself out of my morose thoughts. “Sorry, guess I drifted there for a minute. So how long are you in town?”
He blew out his breath, “I’m not really sure actually, we started on the new album in LA but it just wasn’t working, we thought a change of scenery would help. We go back in the studio on Monday,” he said. “Not really sure how long we’ll stay, all depends on how long it takes to get the album done. We’re scheduling some shows around the area while were here, playing some of the old haunts we used to. Xavier’s been in a rut with his lyrics, and Sam and I haven’t been much better with coming up with riffs and stuff.”
My Misery Muse Page 4