“Not at all. You might want to turn off the stereo though.” He laughed at the dirty look Mackenzie shot me.
“What? I thought you’d appreciate some live music.”
Her eyes lit up. “Of course! For that you can always turn off the stereo.”
He sat back down on the couch and dropped a notebook next to him. “I hope this won’t bother you, just have some ideas to put down.”
I smiled at him and shook my head, hoping he knew just how much I would never mind listening to him play.
“Just warn us if you’re going to sing any of the, you know, more colorful songs, so we can be prepared.”
He chuckled to himself and I found my heart swelling in my chest. He trusted me. He was here in my space and seemed so relaxed. This was definitely a gift I would never willingly turn away.
About three hours in, Karen needed a food break so Mackenzie and Star ran down to the deli and grabbed sandwiches. I gave her some juice so she wouldn’t shock out on me.
Karen sat up, rolling her head on her shoulders. She was such an easy client to work on. We were a little more than halfway done. I did some stretching as well and I walked over to where Devon was sitting. He’d been playing a very cool song for a while and on his sheet of paper he had taken many notes.
He looked up at me and smiled, then narrowed his eyes and played a few chords from Sin on my Face. I rolled my eyes and walked over to the front door to get some air. The weather was perfect, a balmy spring day with little humidity.
Karen joined me for some air and she breathed it in deep. “I can smell the magic in this place! I might have to spend a summer break here. Maybe I can finally write my great American novel!”
I bumped her with my shoulder. “With all the material you’ve gathered over the years, I bet you have a lot to write about.”
She nodded. “Working in schools definitely gives you a lot of material. Some of it I wish I could forget.”
She’d shared some particularly heartbreaking stories with me before. She knew what I had planned to do with my life before my father died and I had asked her for her advice. She assured me I would be great, but that it would take a toll.
“Hey, how is your stepmom? Do you guys talk much?”
I shrugged. “Every once in a while. They came to see me two weeks ago.”
Her eyebrows rose. “And how’d that go.”
“I don’t know. It’s always hard to be around her. I feel like seeing me makes her melancholy and when she talks about Dad, she’s so very sad. She got in a few jabs.”
Karen crossed her arms. “And I hope you jabbed right back.”
I laughed. Karen was a great corner coach.
“Well, I told her I was happy, that I was successful and she didn’t need to worry about me selling my body to support myself. For some reason she didn’t find that amusing.” I heard Devon snicker in the back. I hadn’t realized he was listening. “But Grandma called after they left and gave me a great pat on the back. She’s always been good at that. I promised them I’d come home at Christmas so I have some time to work on my comebacks.”
Karen rolled her eyes. “I love how people try to tell us how to live our lives. Your stepmom certainly never holds back, does she?”
I shook my head, wondering what she would say about Devon. It was mere curiosity, though. I didn’t honestly care what she thought.
We headed back inside when Mackenzie and Star returned and we ate quickly so we could get back to work. After lunch, Devon asked if he and Star could go upstairs for a bit to my flat, he wanted to work on something with him.
“Of course.” I leaned up to kiss his cheek and whispered, “What’s mine is yours, baby.”
He looked down at me with that intensity and I shivered. “Thanks, chère. We’ll be back in a little while.”
“Take your time. I’ve got another couple hours with Karen and then Jonathan will be here. His shouldn’t take me more than a couple of hours.”
He frowned. “That’s kind of a long day, isn’t it?”
I shook my head. “It’s about normal. I usually tattoo about 7 hours a day at least. Today is different because I normally wouldn’t do another after a big one like Karen’s, but I needed to put them together to only be gone one day.”
He shook his head, looking bitter. “You mean because of us?”
I nodded, but grabbed his bicep. “Yes, but it’s fine, really. I feel great.”
He smiled down at me and kissed me before leaning to whisper in my ear, “Me too. I love being here with you. I hope it’s ok.”
I beamed up at him. “It’s more than ok. Now go on, we need to have girl talk time and you won’t want to hear what we talk about.”
Star pouted. “I want to hear girl talk! No fair! You got to hear dude talk all week!”
Mackenzie threw a pen at him and he ducked.
“Alright, geesh. I guess girl talk is more violent than dude talk.”
The two guys went up the back steps and we giggled conspiratorially.
Mackenzie had been busy for most of the morning so far with piercing appointments, but after we ate, Sabrina came in and they got to work on her hair. As she sat in the chair getting processed she called out to me, “Hey Jay, how’d the clothes work out for you?”
Mackenzie spoke before I had a chance. “Sabrina, our little girl has finally gone and done it. She let a boy touch her feminine side!”
I groaned. I knew it was a bad idea to have these two gang up on me.
“Kenz! Seriously? Do you have to?”
She nodded. “Oh baby girl we’ve been waiting forever to see you find happiness with a boy! Of course, being the overachiever you are, you find it with a bonafide rock god!”
Sabrina gasped and I quirked my eyebrow at Mackenzie. “WHO IS IT! ? Omigoddess you have to tell me, Jaylene!”
I sighed. I guess she’d find out sooner or later, especially if he came down while she was still here. “His name is Devon and he’s from Houma and he happens to be a musician.” I waited a beat while her eyes got bigger.
“You can’t mean Devon BOUDREAUX! I’m going to faint over here.” She was fanning herself and I rolled my eyes, trying to concentrate on Karen’s lines but Karen was giggling so hard it made it difficult.
“Would you stop? I’m going to make your phoenix look like Wavy Gravy!”
She apologized. I got back to work and she sighed.
“Is it going to be weird knowing that millions of women want a piece of your boyfriend?”
I paused the machine for a minute and cleared my throat. When I spoke it was in a low voice. “It’s scary as hell. I’m so far out of my league here, I don’t even know the sport!”
Sabrina laughed but Mackenzie got pissed. “I better not hear you talking like that. He is just a man, Jaylene Renee, and he is lucky to have you. Remember that or I’ll kick your ass!”
“Yes, Mom,” I whispered.
Karen laughed, but then she said, “She’s right, you know. And I can tell by the way he looks at you that you have nothing to worry about. But I know you’ll worry.”
“You are worried, aren’t you Jay?” Mackenzie and Sabrina were standing behind me, looking over my progress.
I was a little uncomfortable discussing my fears with these strong women. “I am, a bit. He’s my first boyfriend. What do I know about making things work? And other women? All I can do is trust that he’ll be honest with me. I know temptation will be all around him, but I have no control over that.”
Sabrina pulled up a stool and sat across from me. “Look, Jaylene, I know it’s on a much smaller scale, but Kurt’s band has it’s share of groupies, even for a local band. I worried like hell in the beginning. One night we got in a huge fight about it and he said, ‘Babe, if I wanted all that I wouldn’t be with you. You’re what I want and I’m not going to fuck that up for all the pussy in the world.’” We all burst out laughing. She continued, “I never said he wasn’t crass. But I had to take him at his word, right
? And we’ve been together for five years now. I believe him. He’s shown me over and over that I’m important to him so I take him at his word.”
Sabrina was so confident, I wished I had that kind of confidence in myself. I hoped I could be as confident in Devon as she was in Kurt.
The ladies continued to talk boys and I focused on finishing up Karen’s phoenix. The lines moved gracefully along her shoulder blade and onto her arm. When she lifted her arm it would appear the bird was spreading its wings.
“I think we’re done with the outline, Karen! Take a look.”
She stood up, a little shaky so I handed her some Gatorade, and she walked over to our huge three-way mirror.
“Oh, Jaylene. You’ve outdone yourself this time. It’s perfect! I can’t wait to come back and get the color done! I can’t wait for summer!”
She hugged me and I was careful not to touch her new ink.
“Thanks for coming all this way, Karen. I hope you like it.”
When she pulled back, she had tears in her eyes. “It’s exactly what I needed.”
I handed her a tissue and looked up to see Devon and Star coming in from the back.
“Did you guys want to look before she wraps it up?”
The guys walked over and whistled appreciatively at her tattoo as I cleaned up all the excess ink and started applying the antibiotic ointment.
“You know the drill, keep this bandage on until maybe right before bed and then gently wash with antibiotic soap. Keep applying bacitracin after that.”
She nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I know. I promise I’ll take good care of it ‘til I come back.”
Once I had the bandage on she went into the dressing room to change. I started to clean up my station, but Star had already donned some gloves and was wrapping up all the plastic.
“Since when do we have a shop boy, Kenz?”
She looked up at him and laughed. “I was wondering about that. But he’s a looker, he’ll probably help bring in more chicks who want to get pierced.”
Speaking of chicks, Sabrina was staring wide-eyed at the guys. She cleared her throat and elbowed Mackenzie. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friends, friend?”
I would have been mortified to meet these guys with my head wrapped in plastic, but she thought nothing of it.
“Devon and Star, this is our friend Sabrina. She owns a vintage clothing shop here in the Quarter.”
They both shook hands with her and she barely contained her eyelash flutters. Jeez, if even one of my best friends got that flustered meeting Devon, what would it be like for all the women he met while on tour? I had to stop thinking about that. It was non-productive and I refused to let it impose on the time I had with him.
“It is very nice to meet you guys. My boyfriend and I are big fans.”
They both said thank you graciously but blushed a little, like maybe after all this time they were still a little uncomfortable with the fame.
I listened to them chat while I got my station set up for Jonathan, who was due in a half hour. “Guys, I’m going to run upstairs and grab a snack before my next appointment comes in.”
They waved at me and Devon followed.
His arms came around my waist, “I could use a snack, too.” He bit my neck and I squealed and broke away, running up the stairs, him chasing me.
We burst through my door and he caught me up against the wall inside the door. His kisses were hungry and I was so happy to have my hands back on him. I kissed him back with matching enthusiasm. When he pulled away we were both breathless.
“I know you really need a snack, I just needed to do that. I’m sorry.”
I shook my head and slid my hands around his waist, pulling him closer to me. “Don’t ever be sorry for kissing me like that. I love it when you kiss me like that.”
I reached up and bit his neck and he groaned. As I pulled him closer to me, I could feel that this was more than just playing for him. I looked up at him and he gave me a sexy half smile.
“I kiss you like that because I’m like a starved man around you. I can’t get enough. Watching you work today was nice, but I couldn’t focus too much on your hands because it made me think of last night and just how good your hands felt on me.”
I rested my cheek against his chest and he enveloped me in his strong arms. We stood like that for a few moments and I drank it in. I knew what he meant about starving. Now that I’d allowed myself to care about him, to let myself want him, it was all I could do not to tear his clothes off and keep him naked in my apartment forever. That thought made me giggle and he rubbed his chin on top of my head.
“What’re you thinking down there, beautiful? That sounded wicked.”
I looked up and he kissed my nose. “Hmmm, I was thinking about how I could explain your disappearance to the guys. ‘See, he was here Saturday and then he just left. I have no idea where he went.’ And in the meantime, I’d have you naked and tied to my bed where I could look at you and touch you whenever I wanted.”
His eyes flashed at me and he reached down to cup my ass, pulling me closer to him. “Oh, chère. I like how your mind works. I’d like nothing better than to be naked in your bed with you.” His eyes searched mine and then looked over my shoulder at the clock. He let out a little breath with an impatient whine mixed in. “How much longer are you going to be?”
I knew what he meant, but I had to stand my ground. “I’ll probably be another two and a half or three hours. Then Mackenzie is going to cook for us. We have to behave until then.”
He smiled down at me. “I know, I was just checking. And I promise, me and my phallus will do our best not to distract you while you’re working.”
I burst out laughing and swatted at his arm. “Great, now that’s all I’ll be thinking about! I really do think it’s amazing.”
He rolled his eyes and groaned. “I love you, chère.”
Those words would never cease to warm my heart. “I love you, too, you big sexy man. Now this working girl needs to eat something.”
I pulled away from him and opened a cabinet to pull out a protein bar. I offered him one and he accepted. I grabbed a Diet Coke from the fridge and turned to ask him what he wanted.
“I’ll just have a water, thank you. So speaking of working girls, you were serious about your stepmom thinking that?” He was frowning so deep he was almost scowling.
I shrugged. “I doubt she would think I’d go that far, but yeah. She really doesn’t think I’ll be able to support myself with my art. I told you she was quite unhappy with my decision to leave my internship.”
He shook his head. “Yeah, but how could she not support you? How could she not see how amazing you are?”
“I don’t know. It’s just not something in her frame of reference so therefore it’s not possible I guess. It’s fine though. I know I’m doing well and that’s what counts, right?”
His frown lessened but was still there. “Sure, but I wish she would be more supportive of your dreams. I guess we were just lucky that our whole family was behind us when we started out and they’ve stuck with us ever since. I want the same for you.”
It made me feel warm inside to hear him speak so kindly to me. “Thanks, but I had to accept a long time ago that she and my father weren’t going to agree with my life choices. I could either do what they wanted me to do and not feel satisfied or follow my heart and be happy. So I chose happy.”
He wrapped his arms around me again. I could never get tired of being in the safety of him. “Happy is good. I want you to be happy. It’s going to be my mission to show you all kinds of happy”
I felt like such a sap, but the waterworks were threatening again. “You already have,” I whispered. “You mean there’s more?”
He laughed, dropping his head back and accentuating his gorgeous neck. I couldn’t resist kissing him at the base of his throat. That got a sigh out of him.
“There’s so much more. But for now, you have work to do, woman.” He smacked at m
y ass playfully and I scooted away from him.
“I know. I’ll be out in a minute.” I took a moment for a bathroom break. I looked at myself in the mirror before heading back out and was pleased to see that my smile and my proximity to Devon had left a glow on my face.
When I went back downstairs Mackenzie was chatting with Jonathan and Sabrina, who was now blonder than me.
“Hey Jaylene! Long time no see!” Jonathan greeted me with a hug and then stepped back quickly. He was looking way up so I figured he’d noticed Devon.
“Glad you could make it, Jonathan. This is my boyfriend Devon, and this is his friend Star.”
Again with the wide-eyed stare. He stuck out his hand but seemed unable to speak.
“Pleased to meet you, Jonathan," Devon said quietly.
Jonathan nodded back and then looked at me and whispered, “Do you know who they are?”
I quirked my head at him and deadpanned, “Well, as much as I can. We met in an online dating forum this past week. You think there’s something I should know?”
He looked startled and the others were doing a poor job of keeping it together. “Jaylene, they're in that Metal band, Maggie’s Bones! Haven’t you ever heard of them?”
I frowned and turned on Devon. “How could you keep something like that from me? How could you?!”
He threw up his hands and said, “Don’t blame me. Rock star wasn’t one of the options on the employment section.”
I turned back to Jonathan and his expression was priceless. “Guess I’ll have to get my money back.” His eyes were wide and I couldn’t, in good conscience, keep up the shenanigans. “I’m sorry Jonathan, that was mean. Yes, I am fully aware of what this man does for a living.”
He looked confused for a minute and then laughed. “Damn, Jaylene! You are too good at that!”
I smiled guiltily and the others just shook their heads. “Couldn’t resist. Alright, shall we get started?”
I brought out the drawing for his tattoo. He wanted to get a Traditional style American Eagle tattoo on his forearm. It was good sized so it took me some time to shrink it down on the copier until it would fit. Jonathan was busy talking to the guys and didn’t mind the wait a bit.
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