Take No Advice

Chapter 3

A Shadow

Two days I waited painfully slow to see her again. To get to feel her skin beneath my fingers once more. The obsession I had over her was slowing pulling me down and drowning me in an ocean of questions. Who was she really? Why is her body littered with scars? Why did my body feel as though someone lit a fire in my groin when I saw her enchanting green eyes? Why her?

The questions where swarming in my head distracting me from simple tasks and keeping me up at night. I threw myself into working out, trying to tire my mind and body so that I could sleep at night, yet all it did was agitate my already touchy mood. I wanted to be ecstatic to see her again today, to get my fill of her presence before she leaves out the front door of that tattoo parlour and out of my life, but all I could feel was contemptment. Contempt for my own disregard of myself and my standards. The way I've been lusting over a complete stranger with clear issues in her life was disrespecting not only her, but myself.

I didn't need any more complications in my life. I worked two jobs most days, I partially owned a local business and if I didn't work my fingers to the bone I wouldn't have food to put on my table. Two years of student loans all for nothing yet it's still draining me for every cent I've ever earned. The frustration of struggling in a high demand society and expecting to survive on minimum wage built a wall on my shoulders. One I was afraid I would never be able to break.

By the time two o'clock came around and the beauty that had my mind swirling walked through the front door, my breath hitched. She was more beautiful than I remembered. She wore high wasted jeans and a pale loose fitted t-shirt. She didn't have to try and gain my attention because I had already made my way towards her, still utterly speechless. Two days of dealing with Mark's questions on my mood, on why I decided to wear my best fitting clothes, on why I could never sit still dissipated with her smile. It was too much yet not enough.

"Good Afternoon," she breathed my way, her voice not higher than a whisper as her cheeks flushed red.

"Hey," was all I could manage, my heart still beating rapidly in my throat as my palms began to form a layer of sheen. I wiped them on my dark fitted jeans before taking her outstretched hand and motioning for her to follow. I caught her gaze on my body from my peripheral vision. I wondered if she saw the way my muscles tensed from holding myself back from touching her.

"This isn't a quick process, the scarred tissue will be harder to tattoo over so this will take a few hours longer than usual. We'll be here over time." I informed her, while showing her to the seat and asking her to remove her top. I would never get use to seeing how easily she hid her perfect body under slightly baggy t-shirts.

"That's okay, I know the drill." She said, turning around to lay on her stomach before I got to work.

Six hours later, a box of Chinese food in between and a darkened sky outside I was finally done. The pictures I took for her to see and for my own tattoo file didn't do justice to the actual design. I was inlove with it, regardless of it not being on my body, I wanted to beable to see it daily. It was one of my best pieces, and maybe that's just because it was her body it ended up on. The light chatter did nothing for me to gauge any indication of her being anything but straight, so I wrote my name and number on a card and told her to call me if she needed another tattoo or directions on treatment so that her current one could heal properly.