I STARED AT THE EMPTY field in front of me like it was a foreign place and I guess in a way it was. It had been so, so long since I’d shown up here and been alone. I’d been sneaking away to be close to Adam for a month unbeknownst to anyone but us. And he’d always been here, waiting on me. Except for the last three days and they’d been a helluva three days. I felt like I was going stir-crazy without him.
It was day three and still no Adam. I felt my panic ratchet up a notch. Maybe this was it. I’d felt it for weeks now. As I pushed closer to him, he pulled away. Almost like I scared him. Almost like maybe he’d only wanted friendship from me. How many times in the last month had I begged him with my eyes and heart to kiss me? Hold me?
He’d never taken it further than the hand-holding and that had been momentous in itself. But God, I wanted more. I wanted all of him. I wanted all the teenage fantasies that had seemed so stupid only weeks ago. I wanted Adam Nova to be my boyfriend, damn it.
I looked around the field again for maybe a message in a bottle or some kind of indication that he had been here. I’d done this every day for the last three days and on my walk here today I knew. I knew he wasn’t going to be here, so I wasn’t surprised, just mostly disappointed as hell. I’d basically been a space cadet the last few days, worried about him. Worried about us.
I stood there, kicking myself in the ass for not exchanging phone numbers with him just like I had yesterday and the day before. For not demanding that he give me a way to contact him. But it had seemed so romantic. Us meeting in this field under the stars and sometimes lying there and talking for hours. Well, mostly me talking. Adam was still a closed book most days. But sometimes he’d crack open and show me a page and those days felt like rare, precious gems. Yes, those days. Those intimate moments I stored in the center of my heart. Our nights together were sweet. Sometimes we just looked at the sky silently. I realized what a mistake this was now, because I had no way to contact him. No way to know if he was okay. No way to know if he was ghosting my ass.
I didn’t even know where he lived. I paced my spot in the field, chewing on my fingernail, thinking that maybe I should have brought Harry. What if someone came up on me and since Adam wasn’t here, I was alone?
I thought of all the things Adam had told me while we lay in this spot and realized he hadn’t told me much at all. Except the fact his best friend, Raven, did his tattoos and that he worked at Slinging Ink.
I could go there and ask Raven if he’d seen him. God, I sounded pathetic. But I was genuinely worried. I knew in my heart that if Adam couldn’t make it, he would try to contact me. Also, if he was trying to get rid of me, I thought that maybe he should show the common courtesy of freaking letting me know, to my face.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and started the maps app, typing in the tattoo parlor as I started walking toward North Madison.
It was only a fifteen-minute walk. I could do that. I was a brave, bad chick. I was only five minutes into my walk when I realized this might have been a huge mistake. It was dark and the streets were poorly lit and I’d seen more homeless people in the last five minutes than I’d collectively ever seen in my life. I’d been asked for a cigarette, money, and food. And I was pretty sure I’d seen a hooker if her attire was any indication.
By the time I’d made it to Slinging Ink, I was such a bundle of nerves that the jingle of a bell when I opened the door almost made me jump out of my skin. I looked up from nearly falling over the threshold of the doorway to find what looked like a boy covered in tattoos and too many piercings in his face to count, sitting behind the wooden counter, smiling. He only looked a couple of years older than me and even though he was covered in art and hardware, he was devastatingly pretty with short styled blond hair and sparkling blue eyes that seemed to be dancing with humor. He seemed to enjoy watching me almost bust my behind.
I pulled the bottom of my shirt a bit, trying to right it because I felt so out of place and nervous to boot.
I cleared my throat awkwardly as I approached the desk, but before I could say anything, the boy at the front desk spoke.
“And how can I help you, baby?”
And if I thought I was nervous before—wrong! I opened mouth and closed it about five thousand times because what did one say when she was trying to hunt down the boy she really liked to one of the most beautiful men she’d ever seen?
His eyes roved over my entire body, making me feel hot and twitchy. I rocked back and forth on my toes and swallowed.
“You here for a tattoo?” He smiled wickedly before pulling the ring in his lip into his mouth and giving it a good suck. “I can do you.”
Oh, I bet he could.
I fanned my face with my right hand and smiled awkwardly.
“I’m looking for Raven?”
At that, his smile fell and he rolled the ring in his lip with his tongue before muttering, “Of course you are.” He shook his head. “That bitch has all the luck.”
And then he was gone in a flash behind a black partition that separated the waiting area from the rest of the parlor.
I waited for what seemed like forever, but the time on my phone said it was only fifteen minutes before a stunning dark-haired woman appeared behind the counter.
Her beautifully pale arms were covered in colorful floral tattoos that went all the way up and underneath her sleeves. Her dark hair was cut in a stylish pixie cut that was full-on shaved on one side. The other side of her hair hung low over one of her hazel green eyes. Her face was narrow with high cheekbones and she had some of the most plump and inviting lips I’d ever seen, even if they were covered in black lipstick.
She wore a black T-shirt with a big star in the middle with the words Madison Planetarium over it.
She smiled at me as I stared her down. “Can I help you?”
“Oh. Oh. Uhm.” I looked behind her, expecting Raven to pop out from behind that partition any moment. “I’m looking for Raven.”
Her smile grew and this time she showed me her straight pearly whites. Her hand shot out across the desk. “I’m Raven.”
I felt my mouth fall open, but my Southern manners didn’t fail me as my own hand made its way across the desk and into hers, giving it a squeeze.
I let go of her hand and stepped back, not knowing what the hell to say.
Raven, Adam’s best friend and tattoo artist, was a girl. A really freaking pretty girl. She wasn’t a boney, not quite grown into her body teenage girl. No, she was more woman, with curves, and grace, and my God, she knew how to do eyeliner like a damn pro. I didn’t even wear lipstick or mascara. I wanted to die.
“What can I do for you?”
She was still smiling and looking like some guy’s gothic dream. And I had no clue what to say, so I just muddled through the truth.
“I’m looking for a friend.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Are you now?” She winked and I felt my face flush.
I cleared my throat. “Adam. Do you know Adam Nova?”
Her eyes lit with recognition and I was relieved and pissed and thinking that this was basically the dumbest thing I’d ever done in my life.
Her eyes took me in from the top of my head to the tips of my toes slowly before asking, “You’re looking for Adam?”
She said “You’re” like it was the most unbelievable thing in the world. And I guess looking me over, she could see I wasn’t from around here. That I was out of place. That Adam and I were completely different.
“Yeah. Uhm. We’ve had an appointment every weekday for the past month, but I haven’t heard from him in three days.” An appointment? What the hell was wrong with me? I picked at the bottom of my shirt. “I’m worried.”
God, this gorgeous woman probably thought I was stalking her boyfriend. I was an idiot, teenage girl and I’d let a man play me. With the stars, for fuck’s sake. I needed to get the hell out of there before I made more of a fool of myself.
“You know what?” I turned to walk out the door. “Never mind. This was a mistake.”
Raven flew around the counter and was standing in front of the door I was about to walk out of in a few seconds’ time. She held her hand up. “No, wait.” Seriousness painted her features. “Just hold on. I’ll give him a call.”
Digging a cell phone from her jeans pocket, she gave me a small smile and then went back around the wooden desk, taking a seat on a stool and throwing her feet up on the desk. She gave me another wink and I blushed down to my bones.
“Heyyy, Nova.” She said his name like she’d said it a thousand times in a thousand different ways and I felt my embarrassed flush become one of anger, but I listened on, unable not to, but afraid he would tell her to send me home. That he was done with me.
“You’ve been keeping secrets from me, asshole,” she said in a sing-song voice, her eyes never leaving mine.
She listened intently, her eyebrows raised, like she found this whole thing very intriguing. “I have a friend of yours here looking for you.” There was a pause. “Mmmhmm.” It was a purr, deliberately sexy and cute all at once. Then with twinkling eyes, she asked, “What’s your name, pretty girl?”
“Liv,” I whispered, but she must have been paying extra close attention because she had no trouble relaying my name back to Adam.
“Well then, you better hurry. Ry had his eye on her and me, well, both of my eyes are on her,” she finished with a laugh and hung up.
She stared at me, her smile gone, her face questioning. She looked at me like I was a puzzle she was trying to put together.
With analyzing eyes, she finally said, “He’s on his way. He said to wait here.”
A moment of panic hit me like a freight train. What in the hell was I doing here? He was going to be so pissed that I’d hunted him down. She’d found him easily, so surely if he’d wanted to come see me, he would have. Would she be pissed at him once he got here? This was a huge mistake and I was already feeling embarrassed about it.
Raven must have seen the dread on my face because she stood up and walked into the waiting room and stood in front of the door as she said, “Uh uh uh, gorgeous. He said you weren’t to leave.”
And even though I’d never even been kissed, never been touched sexually, I knew in that moment I was somehow truly fucked.