Forever in Ink

by Jude Ouvrard

  Kyle had chased away the first guy to openly flirt with me, and then turned around to have a drink with the first girl who showed him interest after our little chat. Well, fuck him. Sure as shit, I was not inviting him home with me tonight. He had pissed me off.

  Over the next hour, that sorry smile of his kept flashing in my head. I couldn’t wash it away from my mind or even pretend to be having fun. His attitude had bummed me out. I preferred how we used to be before trying this friendship thing out. Why did things have to be so complicated?

  “Hey, can I have a beer?” The man startled me, and jerked me back to living in the present.

  “Of course, I’ll be right back.” Working the floor meant I walked around the club all night. I didn’t hate it; at least I was getting some exercise. As I went behind the bar to get a cold beer, I noticed Kyle sitting at the staff table with the girl from before. She had no clue how to be subtle, because I could see her shenanigans from a mile away. I couldn’t believe Kyle would fall for this. It disgusted me.

  “Miss, over here,” the man said as I started back into the crowd with his beer and almost went past him.

  “Oh, my god, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you had followed me.” I chuckled. “Here’s your beer.”

  Handing me a ten and telling me to keep the change, he added, “I like the accent. Are you from the UK?”

  I rolled my eyes, wishing my accent wasn’t so thick. “I am, yes.”

  He gave me a wink. “Love the accent. It makes you different, you stand out. I visited London a couple of months ago. Very nice city.”

  “That’s my home,” I offered with a small pinch to my heart remembering how far away my family was. He took a swig of his beer, and I took it as my cue to go. “Well, see you around. Enjoy your evening.”

  “Hey, hold on.” He grabbed my arm. “Can I get you a drink?”

  “I’m not supposed to when I’m working.” As if I ever followed the rules…

  “Funny. I didn’t take you for the type of girl who would follow the rules.”

  “You know what? You’re right. Do you want a couple of shots?”

  “Absolutely.”

  I ducked behind the counter and grabbed an available mixer, then filled it with rum, curaçao, lemonade, and ice, and gave it a good shake. Placing six shots on the counter, three for each of us, I said, “Blue lips, one of my favorites.”

  “Cool. I’m Axel, by the way.”

  “Tiff,” I said pointing at my name tag, then tried to impress him with my moves as I gave the mixer a good shake. He was making me smile tonight, so he deserved the shots. “You ready?” I filled the last shot glass on the counter. All eyes were on us now.

  “Yes.” Axel seemed excited.

  We slammed the shots one after the other and then started laughing.

  “That was a lot better than my beer.”

  “They are indeed.”

  “How much do I owe you?”

  Like I was going to charge him, he’d made me forget Kyle for five minutes. “This round’s on me.”

  “Hey, sunshine.” Kyle’s arm wrapped around my shoulder. Speak of the devil.

  “Kyle.” He was ruining my joyful moment with Axel. “Axel, this is my friend Kyle.”

  “Hey,” they both said as the atmosphere grew more awkward by the second.

  Kyle turned toward me with a smarmy grin. “Do you have any more of that mix? I’d love some.”

  If I’d known agreeing to be friends with him would turn him into an ass, I never would’ve done it.

  “Nice meeting you, Tiff, but I need to get going. Um, maybe I’ll see you around.” Axel’s smile said it all; Kyle had made him uncomfortable.

  And he’d now chased two guys off.

  “I can’t wait to be with you tonight, Tiff. We’ve had a long day, haven’t we?” Is he for real?

  “We aren’t spending the night together, Kyle. And I think I’ll have to reconsider the idea of us being friends. I’m not sure it’s working.”

  He angled his head to the side, and frowned in disbelief. “What have I done?” he spat in my face.

  “Right. I think you’ve had too much to drink. You should... never mind. You’re old enough to do whatever you please, so, piss off.” With that, I walked away.

  For the rest of my shift I didn’t think about Kyle.

  That night I laid in my bed alone, wondering what I’d gotten myself into. Neither of us wanted anything to do with a relationship, let alone a friendship. I’d hated watching him with that bimbo, and he’d interrupted both times I’d interacted with someone else. This was turning out to be more fucked up than I could’ve imagined.

  While I hated it, I knew ending our friendship of less than twenty-four hours had been the best idea I had come up with.

  Now, what we were going to do about the sex?

  Kyle

  “Hey, Ty, you seen Tiff?”

  “She left already. Haven’t you noticed that we’re the only two in the club right now?”

  Crap. “Yeah, yeah.” Jesus Christ, how much did I drink tonight?

  “Are you really that drunk?”

  Am I? Maybe. Yes. I could remember some parts of the night, but not all, and from what spoken words I remembered with Tiff, I’d probably screwed up. Bad. “Shit,” I whispered to myself. If only I could recall everything, but I couldn’t piece together the events of the night.

  “I have to go. I have to talk to Tiffany.”

  “K, wait.” I paused, turning around to hear what he had to say. “She looked pissed and it’s almost four a.m. Why don’t you wait until later this morning? Get some sleep first.”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  I still wanted to see her; I had to see her. There was a feeling inside telling me I had been an asshole to her. If I had said something mean to her, it could affect all of us as friends. We both knew being “just friends” wasn’t going to be simple. While I cared about Tiff as a friend, I still held my wish not to have any other strings attached.

  In no shape to drive, I walked to her place, and remembered running with her almost twenty-four hours earlier. So much had happened today. What the fuck was I doing anyway? Since when did I care who I was friends with or not? The thing with our circle of friends was simple; we were tight and like a family. Because Tyler had liked her enough to let her in, we all respected his choice and tried to get to know her better. The problem with Tiff and me was that we’d met before knowing about our connection. I’d never have hooked up with her otherwise.

  Knocking—banging—on her door, I wanted to make sure she could hear me. “Tiff, wake up.”

  Noises came from inside her apartment, then the sounds of steps coming to the door. Good.

  “Kyle, I said no. Go home, I don’t want to see you here,” she said around the edge of the door.

  Not taking her “no” for an answer, I pushed the door open wider and let myself in. “What happened tonight?”

  “Are you kidding me? It’s four in the morning, Kyle. Go home, and we’ll talk tomorrow, but I need space.”

  “Why space?”

  She groaned at me, her eyes livid. “You acted like a total ass. You say no strings, but you can’t deal with the attention men give me when I’m working. You had to mark your territory.”

  I should have said something, but didn’t know how to respond to that.

  “And while you were with me, trying that whole friendship thing, you let that bimbo work you right in my face.” There was a vein on her forehead, threatening to pop any second now. “Nothing to say? What a surprise.” She pushed me, and I stepped back. “Go. I don’t want anything to do with you, Kyle. Not tonight.”

  “I’m sorry, Tiff, I really am. I had too much to drink and I acted like an idiot. I’m okay now—”

  “I’m not,” she cut me off.

  I wanted to say something but didn’t know how to handle her hating me so much. It had me lost. While we stared at each other, I waited for her to break down, to forgive me, bu
t she didn’t. Her eyes made me weak, even when she was mad. I stepped closer to her, but she didn’t move or react to our proximity.

  “Friends?” I asked, offering her my hand.

  “No, Kyle. We can’t be friends.”

  I hated that I’d failed her, and broken something I hadn’t even given time to grow. Tyler would probably have my ass kicked for this.

  “Right. Like I need you anyway.” Words I didn’t even mean rushed out of my mouth, and the back of her hand hitting hard on my cheek told me they had been hurtful nonetheless.

  “Get out now or I’m calling the police.”

  There was no hope for me to fix this now. She hated me as much as I hated myself.

  “Please, Tiff,” I tried anyway. Tears appeared in her eyes. She looked hurt and exhausted, and I had caused her this.

  “Please, Kyle. Just go.”

  “Look what I’ve done to you in a matter of twenty-four hours. I won’t be bothering you again.” This time, I didn’t wait for her to say something and I avoided looking at her. The time to leave her alone had come. I’d made an asshole of myself way too many times today. I left.

  Outside, it was a matter of time before the sun rose. I hadn’t slept yet, and by then, my body had grown weak. With the lack of taxis at this early hour, I walked until I reached my loft. After a quick shower, I went to bed to think on a way to fix things. Tyler had always been protective of his friends, and I expected no less for Tiff. Fighting or arguing with one of my best friends sucked, but I knew it was going to happen. Probably sooner than later.

  I woke up hours later not feeling any better.

  With Nix or Bekka there were no issues, we clicked. We could all spend time together and never get in a single awkward moment. The difference with Tiff was the sex, and my fear of attaching strings or getting feelings involved.

  I wouldn’t do that to Cassidy, certainly not before, and not now either. She might be gone, but she was the love of my life, and I had no intention of ever replacing her.

  Mom had tried to talk to me about it, reminding me how young I was and how I had all my life ahead of me. She said that growing old alone wasn’t the way I should be living. My response to that had been that without Cassi, I shouldn’t be alive at all, but here I was.

  The shop had opened its doors for the day an hour ago, and yet, I still found myself at home. I just couldn’t go on with my day. Yesterday, I’d acted like a jerk and didn’t know how to fix it. Time might help, except I hated waiting.

  My thoughts were disrupted by the ring of my phone. Tyler. Here we go.

  “Hey, Tyler.”

  “What have you done?”

  Well, shit. He already was aware. “I messed up. Big time.”

  “You did. Tiff came back here, to Seattle, to have a good time. Because her life in London has been tough for years. So, what the fuck did you do to her that made her so angry she came banging on my door at six a.m.?”

  Words. I had to find the words to explain to him, but knew no matter how I explained it, I would be the asshole in the end.

  “We… um… had sex before I ever knew she was your friend. We kept that going for a while. No strings, no friendship, only sex. Then, two days ago she showed up at the shop and asked if she could train with me in the morning. That got me thinking maybe we could try to be friends. Yesterday, we went for a morning run together and then to the gym. She was playing around and started doing ballet shit, and I lost it. She left, but later I went to her place, to explain and tell her I was sorry.” I paused knowing this was the moment I’d fucked up.

  “That’s it?”

  “No.” I cleared my throat. “While she was working last night, I had a few drinks too many and don’t remember much. Apparently, though, I acted like an asshole when guys flirted with her and I let a girl buy me a drink. So, Tiff told me she didn’t want to see me after her shift, but I ended up at her place anyway. It didn’t go well.”

  “What the hell, Ky?” He sighed. “She’s my friend. Friends are family. We don’t treat them like shit.”

  Fixing this would be near impossible, considering she’d made it clear I wasn’t welcome at her place anymore. “How am I supposed to fix this?”

  “You better find out.” He hung up then, and I slammed my phone back on the nightstand with an enthusiastic, “Fucking hell!”

  This situation sucked. I liked Tiff. She had an energetic personality, beautiful eyes, and there was something different about her which made me feel like, maybe, she understood my burden. That last part might be the reason I was so frustrated over how bad I’d fucked up.

  Climbing out of bed, I started my day with a round of push-ups, sit-ups, burpees, and planks. No time for a run, I jumped in the shower and then got ready to head to work. Levi probably had his hands full, plus I had an appointment due in forty minutes. The whole time I felt like shit, and couldn’t stop thinking about a plan to fix my non-existent friendship with Tiff.

  After grabbing coffees, sandwiches, and dessert, I entered a laughter-filled shop to find Nix sitting at the front desk while Levi was working at this station.

  “Hey, Kyle.”

  This was perfect! Nix was a woman, and as such, would be able to help me with my issue. “Hey, lovebirds. I got some food but didn’t know Nix would be here. You can have mine, if you want?”

  “No, no. That’s fine. I’m not hungry.”

  The laughter had stopped and I started wondering why. Until I noticed both of them watching me as if I had grown an arm on my forehead.

  “Is there something wrong with me? Do I have toilet paper stuck under my shoe or something?”

  Nix looked to Levi, waiting for him to answer, and Levi shook his head slowly. “I don’t want to be part of this, but Tyler is pissed at whatever happened between you and Tiff. You have to do something, man.”

  Fuck, if only I knew what. “I’m trying to come up with a plan, but it’s not easy. She threatened to call the cops if I ever show up at her place again.”

  Levi started laughing. “Do you really think she would do that?” Hm, yes.

  “She wasn’t kidding when she spat it in my face, trust me.”

  The door chime interrupted us then, and I heard the footsteps behind me.

  “Speaking of the devil.” Levi shook his head in disbelief. “Eastwood is in the house!”

  What? “Lennox?” Happy for the first time in hours, I turned around to see for myself. “What the hell are you doing here?” He hadn’t stopped by the shop in a long time. Lennox got along with us all right from the start. We met under sad circumstances but in my heart, he was part of us. Levi liked him too.

  “Well, I’ve been itching to get a new tattoo, so I thought what the hell. I brought my friend Matthew with me.”

  “How long are you staying in town?” I asked, cursing that my schedule was already full for the afternoon.

  “Long enough to get some ink done by you.”

  I nodded checking my schedule, and then was shocked when I saw the block: Len, four hours. “Len?”

  Laughing, he nodded back. “Yeah, I wanted to surprise you.”

  Lennox and I shared some kind of awkward friendship. Being the police officer who’d tried to catch Cassidy’s murderer, I always gave him the utmost respect. He saw me at my lowest and tried to help me back up. We’d kept contact and he’d became a good friend of mine.

  “So, what’s up with you?” he asked.

  “Trust me, you don’t even want to know.” I didn’t want to talk about it, but, hey, he was a cop. Tiff might talk to me again, if I were to bring him with me.

  “Girl problems?”

  Nodding, I dropped my pen on my schedule. “Not like you think, though. It’s complicated, of course. I’m in trouble now, and I have to fix things. She’s a friend of Tyler’s, and I’ve been acting like a complete ass with her.”

  “Fix it, Kyle. If she made it into your circle, then she’s worth the fight.”

  Worth the fight!

 
; Tiffany

  Painting my nails dark grey, to match my mood, I was listening to Pink Floyd and singing along with every word. After a shit night of sleep, I’d slept through most of the day. Thankfully, I had the night off and planned on staying home to chill. I didn’t feel like hanging out with anyone today. And after last night, I was starting to reconsider making a permanent move here. I could go to New York or California and make it on my own. Nothing was holding me here. Tyler was my friend, and always would be, no matter where I lived.

  Kyle meant nothing to me, so there was nothing to keep me in Seattle. We’d been having fun until he became someone else, someone I never would have expected him to be. So often Nix and Bekka mentioned good things about him, but from my side, there was nothing but a big fail to mention. Something had to be wrong with me. Why did I always pick the wrong people to be friends with or date?

  Once my nails were done, I laid down on the couch and listened to music while the polish dried. Trying to understand why I cared so much about Kyle had me lost in my thoughts. As an outsider watching Kyle with Nix or Bekka, I saw a guy who played around, joked with them, and acted like a big brother.

  So, why is it so hard for him to be that way with me?

  Was it all about the sex? Since that night I’d gotten back to town, I hadn’t been with anyone else, but could he say the same? We had clicked. Even Kyle couldn’t deny it. Did I have other feelings for him? No… not really. I didn’t know him well enough to trust him. Yet. Trust didn’t come easy with me. Maybe he’d pushed me away and acted like an arse because he was afraid to feel something toward me. Yeah, that had to be it. He’d pushed me away now, rather than have to feel attraction or interest later. At least that made some sort of sense.

  Being friends with him hadn’t seemed such a dead end, but that didn’t work out at all for us. The big problem now was figuring out how I’d be able to hang out with everyone if Kyle and I weren’t on good terms. It seemed impossible, which stressed me out.