Ruin The Wedding (The Murphy Brothers #1)

𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐞𝐬

Sweating like a pig, she drank another glass of water before rushing to the customers who had just walked inside, ready to prove that she was worth hiring despite not having any experience of tattooing.

There was a teenage boy who was currently looking around the tattoo shop and all the drawings on the walls that the employees had drawn as an example of what to choose. A few customers had also gotten their drawings there with permission.

Since there were only two rooms, that meant that they could only take two customers at the same time for either tattooing or getting piercings. That usually meant there had to be at least three people working at the same time because one had to be at the cash register and talk with the customers.

This was only the third week Charlie had worked here which still amazed her. She had been fascinated with tattoos and the job since she was about twelve which was why she had rushed to get her first tattoo as soon as she turned eighteen and didn't need parents' permission anymore.

After that, she had gotten a few more over the years, of more like ten. Some of them had meaning such as the birthday of her daughter while others were chosen only because they looked nice like the one butterfly on her neck.

"Hey, do you have an appointment?" Charlie smiled at the brown-haired boy who looked like the most stereotypical jock in the universe.

"Yeah, with Charlotte? I talked with her last week when I called. My name's Cody Kingston," he explained, looking at her from head to toe and repeating it a few times.

She couldn't help but wonder how fast that would turn into disgust if he heard that she was pregnant. Since she was still only in her third month, there was only a small baby bump that she managed to hide under her shirt.

Ignoring his staring, Charlie said, "You talked with me, I'm Charlotte. If you're ready then we can go there and go over everything before we start. I just want to make sure that you're old enough so can you show me your ID? Good, thanks. Mona! Can you come here, I have a customer!"

Her co-worker Ramona Martinez walked out of their break room, a tiny kitchen in the back where they usually sat during breaks, and greeted them with a smile.

"Can I do this alone? I think I've gotten pretty good at it since you've taught me everything. I did the last tattoo myself too even though you watched me like a hawk behind me," Charlie asked, feeling confident of her new skills that she had gotten with the help of her new co-workers.

Their boss had told Ramona to be with her in the beginning and teach her everything there was to know since she had worked here for seven years already. As expected, other employees helped her too but whenever they had a shift together, Charlie had been almost inseparable from Ramona.

In the first days, all she did was watch and learn from afar until she started to give her chances to do things by herself while she made sure nothing went wrong. Of course, they had to ask customers if they were alright with a beginner doing the tattoo or a piercing even if another employee was making sure that things went as planned.

When she first started to make tattoos here, it took her much longer than old employees but the more time had passed, the better she had become. The fact that Charlie had gotten a lot of tattoos herself before coming here also helped because she had seen how the work was made.

"How about I come with you one more if that's fine with you, Cody?" He nodded yes. "If it's good, I can tell Jeffrey that you're good and then he knows not to put us working together all the time because you don't need my help anymore. Not that I don't like working with you but, well you know..."

"Thanks but I'll miss being stuck with you if we don't work together that much anymore. You've been a good teacher and it's clear that you've worked here a long time," Charlie complimented which made her smile almost shyly.