Tattoo Artist | o. diaz

setenta y cinco: wine glasses

"Oscar, if you don't get off my porch, I'm calling your probation officer." Venus sighed, staring at said cholo in annoyance. For some reason, Oscar doesn't understand the phrase "leave me alone" because now he was on Venus' porch with flowers and a teddy bear.

"Come on, Venus. Don't be like that."

"Oscar, leave. Do I need to get a restraining order?"

Oscar looked to Venus and rapidly shook his head. "I'll leave it here."

Luis peeked out the window and once he saw Oscar set the "gifts" on the porch he gasped. "Bomb!" Luis ran out picking the things Oscar put down to throw them at him before running in the house and closing the door once he pushed Venus in. "He crazy."

Meanwhile, Oscar stood on the walkway, looking at the house he just saw hi- Luis run into. Oscar picked up his stuff and put it back on the porch, even though the bear was dirty and the flowers weren't all on their stems. Oscar looked at the house one more time before getting into his car and driving to the closest liquor store.

Venus finished getting ready and made sure Luis was ready. "I wanna wear these." Luis held up some sunglasses and then put them on, smiling up at Venus in satisfaction.

"It's not even sunny outside, papito."

"They cool." Venus shrugged as Luis ran out of his room and went to meet him st the door. Venus walked out and saw Luis climbing onto the counter to get a banana. "I ready."

Luis sat quietly in the backseat, eating his banana and watching a YouTube video while Venus drove to the tattoo shop. When Venus pulled up, the shop wasn't empty, but it wasn't busy either. "Oh, V! This is the cousin I was telling you about." Luciana greeted. "The one that needs a job. He brought his tattoo license."

Luciana pointed over to the very good looking guy with a buzz cut sitting on a chair and talking to Sergio, one of the other artists. "I'll talk to him in my office."

"Oh, fancy." Luciana smiled. "Keep in mind that he's single."

"Lu, I'm not dating your cousin."

"I know, because you'll be dating me." Venus rose her eyebrows as Luciana kissed her cheek and skipped away.

Venus shook her head and walked with Luis to her back office where she did all the shop's paperwork. "You want candy, papito?" Luis' eyes went wide and he nodded his head quickly while Venus went to grab the candy jar on her desk. "Puedes sentarte en el sofá por unos minutos?" Luis nodded again and unlocked his iPad, flipping over to lay on his stomach while Venus handled the potential new guy.

Luciana's cousin knocked on the door, but he was already open, so he walked in. "Hey, I'm Christian."

Luis gasped on the couch and looked over to see Christian shaking Venus' hand. "That's my name!"

Both of them looked to Luis and Venus smiled. "It's his middle name."

"Yeah? What's your first name?"

Luis sat up on the couch, letting his legs dangle over the edge. "Luis! Mamá calls me papito." Luis told him. "I have a dog. Nugget. He this big."

Luis talked to Christian, making Venus be quiet when she tried to make Luis leave him alone. "Sorry, he talks a lot."

"Nah, it's cool. He's cute with his lil sunglasses." Christan smiled, looking to Luis who went back to watched YouTube videos. "How old is he?"

"He's 3, and a handful." Venus stated. "So, how long have you been doing tattoos?"

× × ×

"Thanks for hiring Christian, but you didn't do it because we're related, right?"

Venus shook her head at Luciana as Luciana sat down beside her on the couch. "If I did that, I'd be risking my customers and the shop."

"True." Luciana hummed. "Is Luis asleep yet?" Venus nodded and once she did, Luciana got up and went to the kitchen.

Venus got confused, but clapped when Luciana came back with a bottle of red wine and 2 wine glasses. "Oh, we're fancy?"

Luciana sat beside Venus and sent her a look. "Who's 'we'? I don't have $2,000 worth of wine in my house. I am, cómo se dice, broke."

Luciana laughed at herself while Venus poured the wine and shook her head. "We live in Freeridge, everyone's considered broke."

"Except you and you're family. Like look at Jamal's dad, he has his own Barbecue shop. Your dad's a lawyer, your mom's surgeon, and you have a whole ass business." Luciana explained, then she gasped when an idea popped into her head. "Can I be your sugar baby?"

Venus lurched forward, almost spitting and spilling her wine. For safety, she put the glass on the table. "I should slap you for that." She coughed.

"But would you really? No." Luciana said, shaking her head. Venus just stared at her before her hand flew and she punched Luciana's thigh. "Aye, I was playin'!" She whined. "You gave me a dead leg."

Nugget heard all of the commotion and waltzed into the room, staring at Venus and Luciana, before going back to Luis' room. "Do you think it's bad I didn't accept that offer to Yale?"

Luciana hummed as Venus slumped down, so she put her drink on the table. "I wouldn't say it's bad. I mean, you like your job, right?" Venus nodded and Luciana poked her side. "I think anyone would rather like their job than do something they don't because an Ivy League accepted them." Luciana told her. "Besides, you saved your parents and yourself money, so you can use it for Luis."

Venus just hummed and shrugged her shoulders. "Stop pouting, you don't need Yale. You're still richer than most of the people here." Luciana grabbed Venus face and pushed the corners of her mouth up so it looked like she was smiling. "Wine makes you sad, no more."

"But it tastes good."

Venus looked up at Luciana from her slouched position with a look mixed between a glare and a pout. Luciana adjusted herself so she was facing Venus with her arm on the back of the couch and her legs on each other. "What?" Venus just shrugged, making Luciana scrunch her face up. "You're weird."

Neither one of them knew if it was the wine, or the fact that they were staring right into each other's eyes, but Venus gently grabbed Luciana's face and pulled her down. Though she wasn't expecting the kiss, Luciana didn't hesitate to kiss back and hold the back of Venus' neck, the way she used to over a year ago. Being completely honest, Luciana missed kissing Venus, but Venus was happy and that's all she wanted for her.

I threw Christian in to throw you off 😤🤪