kalon [h.s]

one

Sitting in my favorite chair at the reception counter of my tattoo parlor, I looked up when the bell above the door rang, announcing the arrival of an incoming customer.

"Hello!" I smiled warmly. "What can I do for you today?"

The attractive man walking through the door returned my greeting with an equally warm smile, before holding out a piece of paper with various tattoo concepts on it, and handing it to me.

"Hello! I'd like to get a couple tattoos today."

"Sick! Let me check them out, draw them up, and see what we come up with!"

"Awesome! I'm Harry, by the way."

"Hello, Harry. I'm Austen. Nice to meet you."

"Austen? That's a unusual name for a woman.. If you don't mind me asking, what's the meaning behind it?"

I chuckled.

"Oh no, it's fine! You're not the first one to ask me about it. My mom is a huge fan of Jane Austen. She's her favorite author, & I swear she owns every single one of her books." I said with a laugh.

Looking back down at Harry's drawings, my eyes widened.

"Oh wow! Did you draw these? They're incredible! I'm impressed with how detailed they are."

"Yes I did. Thank you!" He said with a smile.

"I'm gonna go ahead and get these drawn up, go ahead and grab a seat, or go get a coffee or something. I shouldn't be too long."

"Right, be back in a few!" He replied, flashing me a brilliant smile.

I sent him a returning smile and nodded at him, before heading over to my tracing table to get them drawn out.

About 40 minutes later, I was done and ready to show Harry his stencils, but he had not returned yet. So I decided to start setting up my tattooing station. I was about halfway through pouring my ink when the bell over the door rang and Harry walked through it again.

"Ahh, there he is!"

"Sorry about that, the coffeehouse down the street was quite literally packed full! But here, I brought you a coffee. I hope you like caramel macchiatos."

"Ah, nah babe; you're perfectly fine. I was just setting up my station. Let me get your stencils so I can show you. Wow, thank you so much! You didn't have to do that. But they're my favorite, actually. Yeah, I'm not surprised, that's a really popular coffee shop."

He smiled while handing me my coffee.

"It's the least I could do for such a gorgeous woman."

I rolled my eyes playfully, while simultaneously blushing slightly. "Alright, alright. How about those stencils, huh?" He nodded.

"Wow these are incredible! Exactly how I pictured them! Better even, actually!"

"I'm glad you like them! Where would you like the mermaid?"

"I was thinking about here." He answered, pointing to his left outer forearm.

"And the ferns?"

"My hips."

"Interesting choice of placement for the ferns. Any specific reason?"

"No, not really," he chuckled. "Just thought that would be a good place for them."

"Awesome! They're gonna look cool there. What one do you want to start with?"

"Hmm, let's see. How about the ferns?"