Resentment - (18+)

C13

MIA

The next day...

I'm standing outside the 'Sea of Ink' and wondering if Eric somehow gave me the wrong address for his shop. Not that it's ugly or rundown, but because it's the most unique and beautiful building I've ever seen.

The building's bricks are painted white, but they're coated in crystallized shards of light blue glass. The words 'Sea of Ink' are imprinted within several "floating" ships that are hand-pressed into the building, and the handles on the front entrance are reminiscent of a nautical ship's wheel.

I'm almost scared to touch the place.

Opening the door, I step inside and see a blond receptionist wearing a form fitting black dress. Her eyes are bright blue, and her right arm features a full sleeve of red and black tattoos.

"Hey," she says, setting down a clipboard. "Do you have an appointment?"

"Oh, no. I'm not here for an appointment. I'm here to see my brother, Eric."

"Eric who?"

"Eric Gray."

She looks at me like I'm speaking a different language. "There is no Eric Gray here..."

I pull out my phone and double check to make sure I'm at the right 'Sea of Ink'. Then I remember he changed his last name.

"I meant Eric Slate."

"Oh!" She smiles. "I didn't know he had a little sister. Come on, I'll show you to his studio." She moves from behind her desk and leads me up a set of black steps and into a room that's painted in hues of yellows and reds.

Sitting in a plush white chair with a doctor's mask over his face, Eric is tattooing a guy who's laying on his stomach.

"He's all yours." She pats me on the back and leaves.

"Can I help you with something, Aim?" he asks, not looking up.

"Aim? You called me Mia yesterday."

"Slip of the tongue," he says. "You'll always be 'Aim' to me, you know that. What do you need?"

"Nothing, I was just stopping by." I step closer and notice how intricate the designs on the wall are, how one school of goldfish is actually made up by twenty smaller ones. "How long did it take them to paint all the walls here?"

"Them?" He lifts the tattoo gun. "You mean me?"

"You couldn't have painted all the walls by yourself, Eric."

"I did," he says. "Took me six months. I did the glass outside the building, too. Justin even helped with the permit for that."

Good. He brought up Justin first...

I clear my throat. "Speaking of Justin-"

"Can you hand me that grey metal stencil?" He cuts me off. "It's on the table behind you."

I grab it and hand it to him.

"You've got to be still, man." He warns the muscular guy on the chair. "We only have four hours left to go."

"Yeah, yeah." The guy mumbles, cursing under his breath.

"Now, what were you saying, Aim?"

"I was saying Justin." I lean against a chair. "How exactly did you two meet?"

"At a bar, I think."

"Oh, and from that moment it was long lost roommate at first sight?"

He laughs. "He was actually about to fight me."