Emory

 

When things seem to be at their darkest, trust in love to get you through…

 

 

 

 

“Krista Black,” Marcus says to Jensen as we’re in the car heading towards the shop. I open today, and he decided he was going to tag along, my mother has Shyann and is spending the morning at Dillon and Ariel’s with her. We dropped them off before heading this way. Marcus refuses to let either of us out on our own, which is understandable, but still frustrating.

I tune out his conversation, knowing that later I’ll be told who this Krista person is, if he doesn’t willingly tell me, I’ll ask about who she is. I think back to our morning shower session, and I feel the soreness between my thighs that such pleasure brought to me. I’ve never had a lover that could quite satisfy me the way my fiancé does. I always thought something was wrong with me, but now I know it was the men I was choosing to spend my time with. I look over at Marcus and can’t believe I hid from him out of fear when he first started showing an interest in me. I didn’t hide for long, but long enough for him to prove to me that he was serious about wanting to be with me. I’ve never been happier about giving into something as I am that I gave into him. I had the same mindset as my sister, how could someone like him want someone like me who’s covered in tattoos? I don’t have the piercings that my sister has, but I have just as much if not more ink than her. I was in the frame of thinking that he’d need someone to proudly display on his arm, and I am definitely not arm candy material.

I won’t ever apologize for who I am though, I love my artwork and display it proudly. The first tattoo I ever got was at the hands of my sister. Ariel was born to tat, her art is beautiful, and I was happy and proud, to have her pop my ink cherry. From that day forward I was addicted, now I proudly wear work done by both of my sisters. Rainey is more of a portrait tattooist, don’t get me wrong she can do it all, but her portraits are something that people travel from far away to have her do theirs. One person even flew from overseas when he saw one of her jobs that a client showed them while on vacation. That right there shows how much in demand she is. She put a picture of our parents on my right shoulder, it is my favorite picture of the two of them, it was taken right after they started dating. It’s a memorial piece dedicated to our father, but I wanted to show my love for both of my parents.

I have a spot over my rib cage that’s empty and I plan on having her put Marcus and Shyann there. I have other areas that I can have her add any future children that we end up having. I really want the first people I’ve loved, down deep to my bones, to have that special spot, that I had been saving for the perfect design…and to me, that’s them. I plan on having it done right before Marcus and I marry, and surprise him with it on our wedding night.

“Sorry, baby, I wasn’t planning on being on the phone for that long,” Marcus says taking my hand and kissing the back of it.

“No worries, I was lost in thought anyways,” I say as we pull into the back parking lot of the shop. I get my keys out of my purse before we even leave the car, a habit I got into with everything that happened with Ariel.

“Let’s go get you set up for the day,” he says to me as we exit the car. We head up to the front, hand in hand and I’m shocked when I see two prospects pull up. “Is it really necessary for them to be here?” I ask Marcus.

“I’d rather have someone at our backs in case something happens,” he says as I unlock the door and shut off the alarm. He locks the door behind us and follows me to put our lunches away in the fridge and helps me gather ink. I go into my station and check on my supplies and begin a list of what I need to bring in so I’m not going in and out throughout the doors to stock up my supplies.

As we’re gathering supplies, my curiosity gets the best of me and I ask him, “Who’s Krista Black?”

“She was…is, one of Branson’s biggest supporters. She always protested that he was innocent and being framed by us. Which is the biggest load of shit I’ve ever heard, but anyways she was also his lover. I’m not sure if their relationship developed into anything more than that, but if anyone is helping him, she’d be my first suspect,” he tells me. I stop and think about what it is that he just said, and it makes sense. I know that I’d stand by Marcus if he was ever accused of anything that severe and I doubt I’d be able to believe he was capable of causing such turmoil.

“Makes sense to me, Marcus. No woman wants to believe the man she’s in love with could do such horrific things. I mean, he was the cause of so many people to lose their lives.”

“He’s not done, which is why I’m grateful that Wasp is taking this threat as seriously as he is,” he says, giving me a pointed look.

“Okay, I get it,” I tell him. I leave the room and start opening up the lobby, turning on equipment and recounting the money from the previous night. We keep about a hundred dollars in cash in the drawer at all times. If it gets higher than that, we drop it in the deposit box in the back room. One of us goes into the box and takes the money to the bank daily, never the same time or the same sister. We’ve never wanted to form any kind of routine that would give someone the opportunity to rob us. We all made a vow that if that ever occurred, we’d give the money to the assailant, our lives mean more than money ever could.

Just as I’m wrapping up, I see Carson and Rainey walk through the front door. She looks like she hasn’t slept in days, causing my concern for her to amp up. “Rainey, at some point, you’re going to have to tell us what’s going on with you,” I tell her. Carson gives her a look, a look that’s telling. It seems like I’m not the only one concerned by her appearance.

“It’s nothing to worry about,” she says, as she makes her way down the hallway. I raise my eyebrow in question at Carson, who shrugs his shoulders at me and follows his woman.

“What do you think is going on there?” Marcus asks me.

“I have no idea, but don’t have a good feeling about whatever it is,” I reply.

I hear the alarm on my phone go off, which was set to remind me when it’s time to turn on the open sign. I hit the switch, and the place comes alive, this is my favorite part of the day. The joy and satisfaction that comes from reestablishing my father and uncle’s shop, my sisters and I worked hard for this, and the hard work has paid off. I look up at Marcus and think to myself…in all aspects.

Marcus and I go back into my station, and I can hear Rainey and Carson getting into it, and by the sounds of it, it’s definitely not going to end pretty. I hear him say something along the lines of how she needs to open up, and he and Levi aren’t the only ones concerned. That she needs to stop hiding whatever is going on from everyone that loves her. I want to fist bump him, but at the same time I feel like an interloper, and realize that what goes on between them really is none of my business. No matter how much the big sister in me wants to step in, she is grown, and needs the space to figure things out for herself. Marcus’ phone rings and he steps out of the room, a few minutes later I hear the bell chime and go out to greet the first client of the day. It’s Sheila Donavan, a girl I went to school with and we’ve been working on a floral piece that goes from him to armpit. Today is the day that we’re adding her colors and I can’t wait to see what the final outcome is. I welcome her and bring her back to get started.

“So, Emory, I know we discussed going with only spring colors, but I’d like to add something in there to make the piece pop, any suggestions?” she asks me, and we sit and discuss color palettes and the best way to incorporate other colors. By the time we’re done, Marcus comes in to tell me he has to leave, and reminds me…once again, that I’m not to leave the building without calling him first and definitely without Carson in tow. I roll my eyes and instead of answering him, I turn my gun on and begin shading. I know the drill, he doesn’t have to remind me every time he leaves the room. I want to remind him that even when I did follow protocol when Ariel was going through her shit, I still managed to get caught in the crossfire, but that day is hard enough on me and I don’t feel like it’s fair to throw that incident in anyone’s face.

I get lost in my work, it takes three hours to get her piece filled in, and we set up another appointment for me to go back over her outline. Now that it’s colored in, I want the outline to pop a little more with some shading work. But it would be too much on her to sit through all of it today. After she pays and walks out the door, I notice we have a few people sitting on the couch, most are walk-in’s, so I take the first one who signed in and this is how the rest of my day goes. I take one, finish and take another one, my arm feels like it’s going to fall off by the time I take my lunch break.