Evie twisted the envelope in her hands, looking at it back to front. The faint pink finish was charming, and she liked the way her name had been written on the front. The attention to detail was impressive for someone who wasn’t an artist by trade, and she couldn’t help but think that maybe Antonio had more of a hand in helping plan the event than he let on.

Regardless, she was eager to know what was inside. Most times, she didn’t do surprises. The fact that the envelope stayed sealed through the rest of her weekend was a miracle.

But when she got to the heart of the matter, the truth was that she was nervous. Stepping up into a position of leadership was exactly what Antonio wanted her to do, and now he was enabling her to do it.

Evie was running out of excuses to say no.

The Tuesday after the conference, she headed back to work with the envelope in hand. While Antonio counted the cash and the other artists talked and caught up on each other’s weekends, she opened the envelope to take a look at what was written inside. There was an index card inside with simple, printed instructions recorded on it.

Evie Stuart—

Your task is to work with your staff in order to come up with negotiations for Bloom Tattoo’s artists’ contracts.

Evie looked at the prompt, then looked at Antonio and frowned. If she was going to negotiate contracts, it meant that the position of head artist needed to be decided.

She tucked the card back into the envelope, set it on the front desk, then cleared her throat. Everyone turned to look at her.

“What’s happening, Evie?” Kimi asked. “You have something to say?”

“I do,” Evie said. She looked between them. Theo and Red smiled at her. Frank stewed in silence. Kimi watched her curiously. “This weekend, I went to this leadership summit on the outskirts of the city. They gave me a prompt I need to follow, and I want to work with all of you to make sure I get it done, okay?”

Antonio was watching her from behind the desk, but if he was displeased that she’d revealed what they’d done that weekend, he said nothing. He’d been nothing but a gentleman the entire time they were at the conference, and Evie appreciated his self-control. She thought for sure that he’d launch right into dating her and getting handsy after the kiss they’d shared in her tattoo bay, but that wasn’t the case at all.

Antonio was a good guy.

“I’ll be in the back running a quick inventory,” Antonio said softly. He left, and Evie found herself alone with the artists. Wherever he’d actually gone, she was sure Antonio was listening while out of sight.

“Sure,” Theo said. ”What’s happening?”

“Well, since we all came over from Ricochet, not too much has changed in terms of our contracts,” Evie said. She’d heard Antonio speaking about the contracts before, close enough for her to hear it. Evie didn’t think it was eavesdropping when Antonio wanted her to hear. “The only clause from the purchase of Ricochet regarding us as artists is that Antonio can’t fire us in the first year after the takeover. We’re free to leave if we want, but he can’t kick us out.”

“Right,” Kimi said. “And?”

“But that doesn’t mean he can’t change the terms of our employment,” Evie elaborated. “He could knock any of us down to part time if he wanted to. He could reduce our base pay. Hell, he could limit us from taking clients, if he wanted. The truth is, as it stands right now, Antonio could do pretty much anything he wanted. We’re lucky that he’s a pretty chill dude and he hasn’t done anything nasty, but it’s in our own best interest to defend our rights, right?”

“Uh, yeah.” Red nodded. “So what? How do we fix that?”

“We need to negotiate new contracts,” Evie said. “We all signed contracts with Lilian, but I feel like even if she has them hanging around in some dark corner here, there’s plenty of room for improvement. So I think we should come up with a general contract that kind of fits all of us, and then once we have that, each of you can personalize it on your own and approach Antonio about the terms of your service and either get him to sign you on, or compromise on it, depending on what he thinks.”

“Okay,” Kimi said, “but isn’t that kind of something the head artist does? You decided to take the position, Evie?”

Evie felt her cheeks heat. She shook her head. “It’s not like that.”

“Why not?” Theo asked. “You’re a natural. There’s probably not a single one of us who’s a better fit for the position.”

“I don’t know.” Red chimed in. “I think I’d be a pretty dope head artist.”

All of the other artists glared at him. Evie shook her head and covered her face with her hand in embarrassment.

“Okay, okay, yeah, I know I’m a little too out there for head artist. But so what? I can joke around.” Red stuck out his tongue. “Evie’s the clear choice. So why are we still talking about this? Evie, I think you kind of already are head artist, even if you don’t want to acknowledge it.”

That wasn’t what Evie wanted to hear, but the longer she held out, the weaker her case about taking the promotion felt. Antonio was wearing her down, and with the staff on his side, she didn’t know what to think.

“I don’t think it’s right that I’m head artist because of my relationship with Antonio,” she replied.

“Seriously?” Kimi crossed her arms and gave Evie a hard look. “Girl, from the second that man walked through the front door, his eyes were only for you. None of us are very surprised that what we all saw coming is finally happening. But besides that, Antonio would be a fool not to offer you the position, even if he thought you were gross.”

“Yep.” Red nodded. “I always thought something weird had gone on when you didn’t get it when Lilian was serving as manager. I feel like that woman had a few too many screws loose, if you know what I mean.”

“Well, if we’re going to be renegotiating our contracts, then we should have a say in who the head artist is,” Kimi announced. “Show of hands if you want Evie as head artist.”

Evie froze. No, no, no, this was not how she wanted it to go. “Wait, I—” But she didn’t get to finish as everyone raised their hand, even Frank.

Looking around smugly, “Anyone disagree?” Kimi asked. No one raised their hand. “Well, that settles it then. Congrats, girlfriend.”

Evie crossed her arms over her chest more for comfort than out of anger, as she was congratulated. If everyone thought she was a good fit for head artist, then what excuse did she have to say no? Could she really say no now that they’d voted? The terror of taking a leadership position and then letting everyone down was real, but she also knew that in subtle ways, she’d been leading the rest of them without even trying to. From all the little meetings, or all the follow-up she did, to how the other artists listened to her when she spoke….

“Well, all right then,” she muttered, as the other artists snickered around her. “Why don’t we draft a general contract for basic tattoo artists, and then we work on one together for the head artist? I only think it’s fair we all have transparency about expectations and what kind of work is expected of everyone’s position. In terms of salary, we can talk about a fair minimum level, and each of you can pitch to Antonio your own adjusted worth during your individual meetings. Sounds fair?”

“Sounds good to me,” a strange voice said. Everyone jumped. Frank rose from where he was sitting, dusting his hands on his thighs.

Red gasped. “Oh my god, the man speaks.”

“Well shit,” Theo blurted out. “If Frank’s talking, you know that shit just got real.”

Frank shrugged and headed off into his tattoo bay, done with the conversation. Evie took a deep breath and looked up at the clock. Bloom Tattoo was about to open.

“We’ll come back to this discussion after work,” she said. “So think about what you feel is fair, make note of it during the day, and we’ll breeze through it once we close the doors so we can all get off as early as possible.”

No one objected. Antonio came to unlock the front door and open the shop, and Evie was left on her own realizing that the others had just voted her head artist. Was it really that easy? Maybe she did have what it would take after all.