by Ysa Arcangel
“‘Oh, come on’ my ass.” Roxanne slapped the towel against his chest. “Perhaps you should take a shower to clean up.”
Wish wiped some sweat off his chest and pulled on his shirt. “Are you going to be here all day?”
“Yeah, I think so. Ma will need a hand.”
“Okay, I’ll be back later. See you in a bit.”
“Okay, see you.” He enveloped her in a hug and tapped her back as if she was one of his boys.
She nuzzled into his chest before he released her from the choking grip he called a hug.
It had been an exhausting day, but she seemed to be having a lot of fun lately. She no longer felt depressed.
The stage was set for the band to perform that night, but at the last minute, they received a call that the lead vocalist was sick. Bad omen.
A number of vehicles were parked outside that almost occupied the entire lane. The place was packed.
There was no option left but for Roxanne to perform instead. It had been a while since she’d last sang, but she was going to go out there and sing her heart out. They couldn’t let this setback ruin the soft opening.
Roxanne stepped up onto the mini stage. “Due to the absence of the lead singer,” Roxanne announced over the microphone, “I guess I will have to cover for tonight.”
The crowd cheered and clapped. She blinked and the nervous feeling overpowered her. She was sweaty, her stomach feeling as though it were full of wriggling worms.
Roxanne glanced at her mother, and Roxette nodded. She couldn’t be more proud of her daughter.
She took a deep breath and thought about her song, just when Wish arrived.
The song that she’d picked reminded her of Wish, in a way. Whenever she was around him, time was still, but flew by too fast. She was never more sane than when she was around Wish, but she also felt like she was losing her mind.
Suddenly, there was a spotlight on the stage.
“I will sing ‘You Got Me’ by Colbie Caillat.”
The crowd applauded, and then all was silent.
The first few notes played, and Roxanne began to sing.
Wish watched her the entire time. He was making her feel more uncomfortable than she already was.
The beat of the song picked up pace, and for the next few minutes she was trapped in his eyes, feelings rushing through her, and she couldn’t look away.
When Roxanne finished, the entire audience was on their feet, applauding. She smiled shyly and left the stage.
Wish stood with the crowd, looking equally shocked, clapping and cheering the loudest for her.
“Hey, glad you made it!”
“Of course, I wouldn’t miss if it for the world!” Her eyes widened even more as he wrapped his arms around her. “That was an amazing performance!
They broke away. Together, they took a seat and Roxanne took a quick drink on his beer.
“You did great up there! I’m impressed. You know what? You should be arrested for theft.”
“What? Why?”
“Because you took my breath away.”
Roxanne laughed. “That was corny!”
“But I got you there!” Wish said, laughing with her.
Roxanne stopped laughing and replied, “Yeah, you got me.”
Chapter Fifteen
Moving On
The seats were often full since R&R Fusion Café, Bar and Restaurant first opened its doors.
During the day, they served breakfast, lunch, pastries and a variety of coffee. At night, they served dinner and more alcohol than necessary. Their resto bar had grown to be well-known to locals on Hermosa Street in just a week.
Mina was sitting in a corner, her legs crossed as she flicked through a random fashion magazine. When the bell tinkled, she looked up and saw Roxanne walking in, sporting an R&R uniform. She looked professional in her black trousers and white blouse. Her pride was tangible. The expression on her face said: Look here, world! I run this business!
A wide smile spread across Mina’s face as she dropped the magazine, and ran over to her friend.
“Roxy!” Mina enveloped her up into a hug, squeezing her. “Oh, my God, I missed you, girl!”
“I missed you too!”
The two pulled away.
Mina pointed to someone behind her and stepped aside to give her a clear view.
Roxanne’s face drew a confused expression, which made Mina chuckle. “OM?” She recognized the man. It was Benj, her former Operations Manager from the call center.
The smirk said it all.
“You?”
Mina nodded.
“Him?”
She nodded again.
“Oh, my God! I’m so happy for you, Mina!” The pair smiled. “Have you introduced him to William?”
Mina’s smile dropped. “No, I haven’t.”
“I think it’s better to introduce your son to your boyfriend right away.”
Mina looked in Benj’s direction. “We’re not at the I think we’re falling in love stage, okay?”
“Think about William and not just yourself, Mina. What if he sees you with some guy and thinks, who this guy my mom is with? He’s no longer a kid,” Roxanne said in a low voice.
“Look, we’re not here to talk about my parenting. We are actually here because we wanted to get a matching tattoo and I thought of you. Well, not actually you, rather your boy-toy, Wish.”
“Wilhelmina! He’s not my boy-toy!”
“Whatever,” Mina rolled her eyes. “He’s got nice tats, so I assumed he can point us to the best tattoo artist in town.”
“He is one of the best, Mina,” Roxanne proudly said.
“Wow, what progress, huh,” Mina teased. “And look at you! You’re really on a different level now. As in, like, wow!” Mina commented, looking around the place. “If I didn’t know you, I would assume you have a dirty old man benefactor.”
Roxanne chuckled. “I missed you, Mina. I really missed your antics!”
“So, are you free? Can you accompany us to the lion’s den?”
“Wait, let me ask someone to man the shop while I’m gone.” She went over to the counter and assigned someone to do the work, then went back to Mina. “Let me call Wish.”
Roxanne dialed Wish’s number, waiting for him to pick up. On the third ring, Wish answered.
“Wish!” Roxanne chimed.
“Hello?” he asked groggily, his voice still thick with sleep.
“Awww, I’m sorry I woke you up.” Her heart skipped several beats as she listened to his bedroom voice. “Did you work last night?”
“Yeah, the bar was packed. I had to go overtime. It’s fine. I love waking up to the sound of your voice. It always makes my day. What’s wrong, buddy?”
She walked a few steps away from Mina to hide her blush. At the gentle sound of his voice, Roxanne felt sensations within her stomach. More butterflies?
“Nothing’s wrong, but my friend Mina is here. Remember her? The girl I was with during the speed dating event?”
“Yeah.”
“She and her boyfriend wanted to get matching tattoos.” He replied with a hmmm. “Well, I recommended you!”
Wish chuckled on the other line. “You’ve got a lot of faith in me, buddy.”
“I do!” She glanced at the couple. Mina wrapped her arms around Benj, and they both leaned in and kissed.
Roxanne felt a pang of jealousy. Had she really waited, all this time, just because she thought the only way she could be happy was if Chris came back, or because she was waiting for him?.
“Okay, I’ll take them to the shop,” he said.
Her eyes lit up. She turned to Mina and gave her a thumbs up. “I’ll go change. Wish will be here in an hour.”
***
“You know what? This tattoo parlor had pretty good reviews on the internet and some of their works are really cool,” Mina said, looking at the signage outside the tattoo parlor. “Babe, you okay? You look kind of pale,” she said to Benj.
&nb
sp; Benj managed a small smile and nodded.
Wish opened the door for them and a bell tinkled overhead. Roxanne entered the shop behind Mina and her boyfriend. They stopped just inside the door, looking around curiously.
Wish fist-bumped his friends and introduced each tattoo artist.
A woman with a short, rainbow-colored hairstyle came out of one of the backrooms. She looked to be about their age, dressed casually in a T-shirt and jeans.
“This is Jess. She’s Kurt’s wife, our piercer.”
“Hey, how’ve you been?” she asked Roxanne.
Roxanne remembered her, the woman who’d picked up her clothes.
“I’ve been well. Thank you for the clothes,” she said shyly.
“Ah yeah, don’t mention it,” Jess smiled, waving a hand.
“Welcome back, La Femme Drunkita,” Kurt teased.
“What did he call you?” Mina asked. “And about the clothes? What does that—?”
“Long story,” Roxanne cut her off.
“What can we do for you love birds?” Don asked.
“My boyfriend and I would like matching tattoos, but honestly, we don’t have anything in mind yet.”
“Dude, show them some of our designs that they could choose from,” instructed Don.
Wish led them to a comfortable black leather couch and gave Mina a booklet of matching ‘couples’ tattoo designs.
Mina flipped through the booklet and squealed, “I like this one! What do you think, babe?” She pointed at the picture of a man and a woman’s arm, each with an arrow and a heart.
“That’s so original,” Paul commented sarcastically, earning him a bonk on the head from Wish.
“Get out of here, Paul. Finish your damn work.” Wish turned to Mina. “So this one, huh? I can finish this in less than an hour.”
Don took the booklet from Mina. “This is easy. How about your friend? Isn’t she getting anything done?” Don glanced at Roxanne.
“Me? No! Not yet.” Roxanne raised her hands in defense.
“Come on, Roxy! Don’t chicken out! It’s on your bucket list, right?” Mina said in loud voice.
All heads turned in their direction. The shop was full of people getting inked and pierced. It was as though the words “first timer” were inked onto Roxanne’s forehead.
Roxanne kept shaking her head.
“Roxy, please?”
“Mina.”
“Come on! What are best friends for?”
“Don’t force her, babe,” said Benj. The words seemed directed at himself.
“Pleeaaaase?”
“You’ll be fine.” Wish was definitely not in her camp.
“But I don’t know what tattoo to get.” She looked at Wish, silently pleading him to rescue her from her pushy friend.
“Wish, do you have any more of those booklets she could choose designs from?” Mina asked.
“Let me get it for you.” Wish grabbed a few albums from the design shelf.
“Okay, fine,” Roxanne agreed. Mina had her way of winning her over.
“Yes!” Mina couldn’t contain her excitement. “That’s my girl!”
“If you don’t feel like it, you don’t have to. It’s your body.” His face looked genuinely worried.
“I will do it.” Roxanne made up her mind.
“I’ll take care of her,” Wish told Paul as he led Roxanne to a black leather seat that was raised up high, and pulled the curtain shut.
She sat on it and shivered against its chilly smoothness as she flipped through the album.
Don and Kurt took care of Mina and her boyfriend after they were finished with their clients.
“So, what were you thinking about getting?” Wish walked over and peeked at the designs she was looking at.
“I’d like this one on my back extending to my shoulder blade, but I want to change the phrase to something that says Moving on, with birds flying away on the end.”
“Cool.” He went to work copying her desired design and adding the phrase Roxanne wanted to appear in the tattoo. Roxanne watched, intrigued. His eyebrows were knit together in concentration as he copied the design. Once he was done, he put the image down to the thermal copy machine and it automatically ran the stencil and copied it onto a white sheet for transfer. “So, you ready?”
Was she ready? She’d never been more ready for anything in her whole life. This tattoo meant a lot to her, and when she saw his design, she’d known it was for her. It embodied everything she felt about being free and finally moving on.
She wasn’t sure if it was the prospect of getting a tattoo or of having Wish tattoo her that was making her so nervous.
“Ready.” she forced a smile, hands reflexively gripping and relaxing on the leather armrests. “Will it hurt?”
“Well, by the time we’re done, you’ll be screaming and crying in pain.”
Roxanne’s face paled.
“No, I’m just kidding.” Wish laughed and that made her relax a little. “The first sixty seconds are usually the worst, and then the rest feel like a hot scratch; you’ll calm down for sure. That’s just my opinion, though, everyone has a different threshold of pain. What one person considers not painful at all could be devastating to another,” he explained, grinning down at her. “You’ll be all right. It’s not going to hurt any worse than anything you’ve already experienced.”
Roxanne nodded.
“You might want to take off your shirt, buddy, so I can get this tat on your back.” Wish stood behind the reclining seat and whispered to her. It was a voice one would speak to a lover, full of love and need.
“Turn around,” she told Wish. She pulled her shirt up and tucked the ends into her bra, desperate not to expose what was beneath the red lacy thing. “Done.”
Wish turned around to face her and cleared his throat, “Okay, then.” He pulled out a rolling tray and set his tools on them. “Okay, I’m gonna apply the stencil first.” He deftly applied the stencil to Roxanne’s shoulder. His gloved hands were cool and firm against her skin, but his touch burned into her.
Roxanne took a deep breath.
He tapped her shoulder and said, “Okay, it’s done. I’ve got you. You’ll be fine. Okay? If it hurts too much let me know. And if you want me to stop for a bit, we can do that.”
She nodded. “Okay. Let’s get this over with.”
“Okay, this is the real deal. Here we go.” Wish placed his hand flat down against the area just below the stencil as he placed the gun against it, the heel of his palm barely pushing against the top of her bra. He turned on the tattoo gun. “Ready?”
“Yes.”
Feeling the buzz of the tattoo gun caressing her skin, then leaving a stinging fire, took everything for her not to shiver in pain. Her breath hissed out, but after the initial shock, it didn’t hurt that bad.
“Just tell me if you want to take a break, alright? Your first tattoo can be scary. It’s alright to take a break.”
“I think I’m okay.”
Wish went on, tenderly working the needle around her flesh. “Relax,” Wish whispered. “Can I...can I pull this strap down? The strap is covering the area.”
“Oh--okay, go ahead.” She almost melted from the gentle caress of his fingers pulling the small strap down, neither realizing they were both holding their breath. His touch sent an almost electric tingle from his fingers to the rest of her body.
“You’re really tense.” He pulled back and frowned slightly when he looked down to see her knuckles turning white with how tightly she was holding onto the armrest. “Do you want me to stop?”
Roxanne shook her head quickly, not willing to look into Wish’s eyes. “No, I’m fine. Don’t stop.”
By pushing herself through the pain of the needles and emerging from it intact, she would be assured that she would be the victor in her struggles with life once again.
“Okay.” He penetrated her with the needle as gently as possible. As he finished the outline, Roxanne finally relaxed. She start
ed to get used to the sensation.
The buzzing sound joined with the music seemed to help calm her nerves.
“Okay, shading the birds now.” She tried to stay still as the needle pressed against her skin again.
Wish pushed the black ink into Roxanne’s skin. His brows pulled together in concentration as he wiped the excess ink away.
“It was my last day at the Tavern last night,” he blurted.
“What? Did you resign?”
“Someone offered me a job at a newly-opened fusion café resto bar.”
“Seriously?” She couldn’t believe what she just heard. “And is that someone named Roxette Mabini?”
Wish just innocently shrugged. “I guess so.”
“That’s crazy. Ma is crazy. We can’t afford you.”
“The offer was quite competitive. I’ll get to see you every day, annoy you every day, hear you sing every other day…and you’ll get to know me better.”
Roxanne became aware of what his words implied. Her cheeks turned vivid red. “Are you finished with that yet?”
Wish chuckled at the blatant way she attempted to deflect the topic. “Just doing the finishing touches.”
“So, Kurt is the only one married here?” Roxanne tried to distract herself as Wish brought the gun back to her skin.
“Yeah.”
“Are the other guys seeing anyone?”
Wish shook his head, eyes focused on the gun’s movement. “Nope. No one.”
“And you? Are you...seeing anyone?” Roxanne asked slowly.
Wish smirked, “No. I’m not seeing anyone.”
“Why not?” Roxanne and her big mouth asked. “I’m sure you have lots of girls just lining up to go out with you.”
Wish stopped for a second. The corner of his mouth twitched. “I have multiple clients who wanted to get served, but no one is worthy of my attention. I guess I was just waiting for the right one to come along.”
“You haven’t met ‘the one’ yet?”
“Once, I thought I had,” he paused for a moment. “I hadn’t met you yet.”
Roxanne blushed. She could feel her heart speeding up.
“What about you?”