WYATT
“It’s wicked!’’ Ralph exclaimed, showing off his fresh ink.
The tatt looked better than I expected. The colors were fucking genius, and the design itself worked wonders with the existing sleeve. Marissa was talented. Even with the raised skin all red and hard pink you wouldn’t think it’s an apprentice’s job.
Fuck, every time I thought of her since what happened a few days ago I felt like breaking something. I grunted and focused again on my job filling out info regarding a new guy who hired me for light training for his wedding in a couple of months.
“Is that all you can come up with?’’ Ralph asked. I glanced at him as I gave Jenny, the college student working a few hours a week, the paper to put in my new client’s file.
“If you expect me to break out in fucking lyrics over your ink, think again.’’
I turned around and made my way to the smoothie bar to get something to rehydrate myself, and when I realized Ralph was still there, nowhere near ready to get a work out in today, I had to check myself before I snapped at him.
Shit, it wasn’t his fault what happened with Marissa. It wasn’t his fault if I was pissed he went to see her while I had no idea if I ever would again. It wasn’t his damn fault if she’s always on my fucking mind, so burned in there that I didn’t know how to get rid of her or what it meant.
“When I mentioned your name, she clammed up.’’
“Do you have a question or are you just listening to yourself talk?’’ I leaned against the bar. “Hey Joan, can I have a Strawberry Blast?’’
“Right on it, big guy,’’ Joan said with a smile and went to work.
“Hey Joan,’’ Ralph saluted her before his attention went back to me. “What happened the other night?’’
I gripped the towel around my neck and dried my neck and face still damp from the workout I put in with my new client. Once or twice a day I preferred to work with them to show them I wasn’t just the guy here to order them around and torture them. I was a participant. It always helped to bond with the clients and gain their trust. Otherwise, they wouldn’t push half as hard as they could.
“You were busy with Emma, like always when she bats her eyes at you and she’s single.’’
I wasn't judging. Ralph and Emma were adults, and they could fuck each other however and how often they wanted, but their relationship was complicated to follow, even for me and I’d known them for years.
Ralph and Emma had never been a couple, but whenever they were both single and met up, they ended up fucking each others’ brain out. Then it would get ugly, and I ended up with a sullen Ralph who found nothing better to do than to go out, get drunk and fuck the first piece of tail he’d find. I didn’t get it. I didn’t understand why Ralph took up all this shit when he could have fun whenever he wanted with other women. Even if Emma truly was a nice person, but she messed with my best friend’s head too much.
“This time we didn’t fuck,’’ he said distractedly as Joan gave me my freshly made smoothie and we walked away to get to one of the few high tables bordering the bay windows overlooking the streets in Downtown Atlanta. “I dropped her at her place and left.’’
I arched an eyebrow at him.
“I told you two months ago, asshole. Emma and I? It’s over. I’m not goin' to keep up with this shit going on.’’
“It didn’t look like it the other night.’’ I slurped on my smoothie and reveled in the taste of the strawberry, banana, and vanilla.
He turned his arm sideways and looked at his new ink, a smile on his face. “When Emma’s around I momentarily forget not to think with my cock. But I told her I’m tired of her usin' me. She seemed surprised.’’ He shrugged nonchalantly, but I saw it on his face, and I knew this fake smile. The fucker was harboring some feelings for the redhead woman. He and Emma were the perfect example for me to avoid getting attached to one woman other than my mother and my little sister. They were the only women in my life.
“Speaking of, what happened the other night?’’ he asked again.
I sipped my smoothie, trying to come up with something but I knew it’s ridiculous. It’d been days, and the fucker hadn’t stopped asking me questions. At first, he thought I had left with Marissa because I went home after she left. I ended up camping in the middle of the mess from the working crew on the renovation I was doing in my apartment.
“We had a fight,’’ I remembered the look on Marissa’s face. “I think I messed up.’’
Ralph snorted and played with the stud through his eyebrow. “You mean you hurt her.’’
“Wha—''
“Don’t pretend you didn’t. She looks like she’s barely slept and she didn’t smile. Not once. Shit, you can’t go around and spout shit to people you don’t like so you feel better about your mess, Wyatt.’’
I glared at him and finished my smoothie at once. “You don’t know shit, Ralph.’’
“I know you.’’
I ran a hand through my sweaty hair and scratched at my scalp. “When I see her she makes my fucking blood boil.’’
“Like any red-blooded male when he sees her.’’
“Not like that, fucker.’’ I shook my head and cringed. “Well, not only like that. Damn it. It shouldn’t be possible to want to fight with a woman and want to fuck her too at the same time. It should be either or. Not both.’’
“You can always fight, then fuck the anger out of both your systems. It had worked for Emma and me. Guaranteed hot sex.’’
“You want me to fuck Marissa?’’
He shrugged and looked around, eyeing a young blonde woman bending at the water fountain, but in his eyes, I didn’t see the appreciation I should find there when he fixed a round and firm ass in tight pants. “I’d do her if I had an openin', but after seein' all that tension between you two, I’d rather not be mixed up in all of that.’’
I unclenched my fists, now realizing the tension in me flowing out now that I knew he wasn’t interested. I rubbed my face and groaned in my palms. “Fuck. Shit. Damn it.’’
“And he opens his eyes,’’ Ralph said, laughing at my expense.
I scowled at him and sat straighter in the high chair. “I can’t shag my mother’s biological daughter. It’s too fucked up.’’
“Lydia doesn’t have to know.’’ At my silence, he looked around us and leaned over the table. “It’s not like I’m telling you to grab Marissa and drag her to Vegas for a shotgun wedding. It’s just sex. Maybe afterward you’ll be less uptight when you’re in the same room.’’
I didn’t need much to picture her naked. My cock hardened in my baggy shorts as the thought took form. I put a hand over my crotch before a co-worker caught my hard-on and thought it’s my best friend’s doing.
“She’ll never fall for my shit.’’
“You can’t know for sure unless you try.’’
“You didn’t see her look. Fuck, her eyes have been the only thing on my mind.’’
“It’s another reason why you should find her and apologize.’’ Ralph stood up and tapped me on my back. “She finishes at InkSpired at six tonight. Be the man I know you are, Wyatt. You don’t have to be an asshole to everybody outside of the people you trust.’’
***
MARISSA
“Bye, Kam and thank you again,’’ I called out to my mentor as I shouldered my purse and rummaged through it to find my car key.
Kam didn’t look up from his work as he applied the flash tatt for his client, a guy who came here every month to work on his partial sleeve. “You did good, girl. See you tomorrow and don’t come too early. You need to rest, or the clients are going to leave when they have a look at you.’’
“Ah. Ah. Ah,’’ I deadpanned and left InkSpired with a small smile at the thought of my first design tatted on someone other than on fruit or fake skin. It had felt great to tattoo Ralph with my piece, and when I looked at the result, it didn’t feel only good, it had made me proud, and so exhilarated that it forced me to forget how tired I was and how my mind wrecked since that night at the club.
“Marissa?’’
That voice. I froze and looked up to come face to face with Wyatt. I glanced around, sure I’d find Ralph, but he’s nowhere to be seen. “What do you want?’’
He grasped the back of his neck, and the move made his muscles bulge in his arm. The t-shirt he had on didn’t hide much his pecs and tight, defined abs. There’s a gym bag at his feet, and I didn’t know if he’s here on his way to work out or if he’s coming from a workout.
“You won’t accept, but I have to try,’’ he replied and took a deep breath, eyes back on me, keeping me trapped there in front of him. “Would you have a drink with me?’’
I blinked and frowned. “You’re kidding me.’’
“Fuck.’’ He closed his eyes as if in pain, lines etching on his forehead partially hidden by his dark hair. “I made a mess of everything,’’ he mumbled, more to himself than me I imagined.
“You’ve given me enough shit, Wyatt. Let’s not prolong it anymore, okay.’’
I made to walk away, but he quickly grabbed his gym bag and blocked my path, towering over me, his chest so close to my face I got to smell his body wash, something a bit spicy that had me ready to get a sniff.
“I didn’t want to hurt you.’’
I tilted my head sideways and upward to fix him. “Didn’t you though?’’
The guilt striking over his bearded face was answer enough. But of course, it’s soon gone and replaced by a mask of calm. Only his eyes were as intense as usual but less harsh than I was used to when directed at me.
“If I’m honest you’re going to run in the opposite direction and make sure we never cross path again.’’
“It’d show I’m not too stupid or naïve.’’
“Or that you’re the kind of person who plays it safe,’’ he retorted, voice lower, rumbling in the air around us.
I swallowed then. It’s hard to hold his eyes when they were sucking me in like this. Everything in me was screaming at me for not turning around and walking away, but I was still there. Maybe I had a side of me who’s self-destructive because nothing good could come up from another confrontation with this guy. I was only twenty, but I knew enough to comprehend that someone like him couldn’t be any good, not to someone like me.
“There’s nothing wrong with it. I don’t like going out of my way to meet people who pass their frustrations out on me. But I get it. I understand why you’re like this and I’m telling you now I’m not going to see Lydia again. Not anytime soon, anyway.’’
“Don’t,’’ he said and got closer. The tip of his dirty chucks touched my flats. I couldn’t look at his face anymore. Instead, I focused on the t-shirt stretching over his pecs. “You’re not afraid to talk back to me so don’t do something because of me.’’
“Are you trying to convince me to see your mother again? Wyatt… You give me whiplash.’’
He chuckled and brought a hand to my chin to tilt my head up. His touch was soft, so soft it’s at odds with how harsh our relationship had been and how rough he looked. “I have a hard time following my fucked-up thoughts too.’’
Eyes locked again; it reminded me of that moment at the club when we had stared into each other’s eyes. It’d been intimate, but here, standing so close as he touched my chin softly in the middle of the street where people walked around us, it wasn’t just intimate, it was overwhelming.
“Wyatt—''
“Have a drink with me. Just one. After that, you’ll make your choice.’’
“Okay.’’ I pulled away and looked around, trying to come out of this moment that had me weak at the knees when minutes ago I had considered kicking him in the balls. “There’s a bar a few blocks down.’’
He smirked at me, and he put the hand that had been on my face in his pocket, drawing his jeans lower on his hips. “They’ll let you in?’’
“It’s InkSpired haunting spot. I know the bartender.’’