I stared up at him with a regretful smile, thinking of all the reasons we couldn’t be together, starting with his sketchy, dangerous debt.
"I don't know. I guess I do like you a little bit. Maybe it would have worked out in another life," I said sadly.
He loosened his grip on me, but didn't let go completely. "No matter where I go or who I'm with, I'll never forget you, Charlotte."
His words sounded so final that, even though I had just said the bit about a different life, I felt a wave of sadness all over again. I knew I would never forget him either. I left that workout crying and spent the night thinking about Angel and how he'd have to go home and face some sort of dangerous task.
Chapter 13
I worked a few shifts at Magpie that week, and during my off time, I practiced various sewing techniques. Basically, Blake would give me homework, and I'd bring my finished product in the next time I went to work. She was an excellent teacher and seemed to genuinely enjoy sharing her knowledge with me. She mentioned more than once that I could have a career in costume design because Miami had a lot of independent movies and theater productions.
I honestly assumed I was destined to be a history teacher, so the thought of doing something I considered more play than work gave me a new sense of purpose. Between that and planning my next tattoo, I should have been elated, but Angel and his predicament were constantly in the back of my mind. I started work at Maison Blanc that Friday night. I was really nervous, but all in all, it was a success. I made $183 in tips, which was way more than I expected on my first night.
The costumes were beautifully designed, and I took pleasure in inspecting mine when I changed into and out of it. The club was really particular with their property and made me shadow one of the other girls so she could explain the process of borrowing and returning costumes and accessories the way they wanted it done.
I liked that they had so many rules—it almost made me feel better about what type of establishment it was. I worked the early shift, so I was home by 10PM. Megan was at the house when I got there, and we talked for a long time about my first night at Maison Blanc before I asked why she was at home on a Friday night.
"Rory's still on a trip with his dad," she said. "Addie and Drake are in London, so Angel's the only one over at Tom's, and he's never home."
"What are Addie and Drake doing in London?"
"Remember? She's playing with the London Philharmonic."
"Oh that’s right. Didn't she say they were staying a while?"
"Two weeks."
"So, are you just chillin' here tonight?" I asked.
"Yeah, what are you doing?"
"Nothing. Connor had a convention all weekend and won't be back till Sunday. I have an appointment for a tattoo tomorrow."
"Dang girl, you're gonna be covered."
"That's the goal, but I'm not planning on going at this pace for the whole process. I just had a few I wanted to get right away while I had some graduation money."
"They're expensive, huh?"
I sighed. "Yes, but it's better to pay to have it done right than to pay to have it fixed."
"I agree. I really like yours."
"Thanks. I like this guy a lot."
"What are you getting tomorrow?"
"A bouquet of funky looking flowers on my forearm and, if we have time, an Indian girl on my thigh. We might do a whole piece or get the outline done on both. He has both of them drawn up, and I told him I was up for as much as he could do."
"Doesn't it hurt?"
"Not enough to make me stop doing it," I said, giggling.
"Indian with the dot or Indian with the feathers?" she asked.
I gave her a perplexed expression that she answered placing her pointer finger in the spot between her eyes. "Indian with the dot?" She placed her open hand behind her head, letting her fingers show above her head like a headdress. She wiggled her fingers for effect. "Or Indian with the feathers?"
I laughed. "Indian with the feathers. In fact, the one I'm getting has on a full headdress."
Megan and I decided to watch an old movie in her room. I went ahead and fell asleep in her bed. It wasn’t something I did regularly, but I was comfortable and just didn't feel like getting up and going to bed. Thor slept at the foot of the bed, between Megan and I, and I was just too content to move.
It was 6:30AM when Megan woke up screaming at the top of her lungs. "Rory, Rory, Rorrrry!" She yelled. It sounded like she was trying to yell it, but it came out more like a moan, and I was jolted out of a deep sleep by the freaky sound. I instantly sat up and blinked, trying to focus on her in the dim light of what seemed to be sunrise. Her face contorted in agony and she let out a muffled wail that scared me to death. My heart started pumping. My first thought was that she was having a seizure, then for a brief second, maybe she was possessed or something. I grabbed her shoulder and gave her a shake.
"Megan, Megan," I said. I tried to handle her gently because I didn't want to scare her if she was having a nightmare.
Again, she yelled for Rory in that freaky tone that sounded like she was moaning. "Rorrrry!"
I shook her again. "Megan!" I said, with a little more urgency this time.
She sat up, opened her eyes and stared straight at me. There was an underlying sense of terror in her expression even though she focused blankly on my face, and I caught myself wondering if I might have been right about her being possessed.
"Megan, it's me," I begged. "It's Charlotte."
Her gaze shifted from one of blank terror to one of helplessness and then maybe relief as she started to cry. I held her for several long seconds as she sobbed into my shoulder.
"What happened?"
"They took me."
"Nobody took you, Megan, you're right here in your bed."
She sobbed a few more times, and I could tell she was trying to compose herself.
"I got kidnapped last December."
I held her close and patted her back, trying to wake her up since she surely must still be dreaming. "Shhhh," I said. "It's okay. It was all a dream."
Megan sniffled. "It wasn't." She said, pulling back to wipe at a tear. "It was real." She looked at me like she was fully awake and aware of what she was saying.
"What do you mean?"
"I got taken out of the country by some of Tom's enemies as a means of getting Tom to pay a ransom. It happened when I first started hanging out with Rory. He and his dad and brother were the ones who found me."
I sat up and stared at her, begging her with my eyes to tell me the truth. "Are you kidding around right now?"
Thor was standing on the bed watching the action, but sat down again once he realized Megan was okay.
"I wish I was," she said. "It happened last December. It was a group of Puerto Ricans who did it, which is why Rory beat Angel up the first time they met."
"Rory beat him up just because he was Puerto Rican?"
"Well at that point, everything was still fresh, and he assumed Angel had something to do with it."
"Did he?"
"Of course not. Angel's a sweetheart." She paused and then continued, "Rory got shot that night."
"The night you got taken?"
"No, the night he got in the fight with Angel."
"Are you serious? I can't believe all this happened. I'm absolutely speechless about you being taken. Are you sure you're awake right now?" She'd been talking to me as if she was coherent, but I still hoped she was sleeping.
"Yes I'm awake, and yes it really happened. I was still bruised from it when you guys came down for Christmas."
I gawked at her. "Bruised? What did they do to you?"
"Well, it was a kidnapping, so they tied me up."
I put my face in my hand since I had no idea what else to do. I felt an gut-wrenching wave of sadness and fear hit me.
"It's okay," she said. "I'm working it out. The nightmares are getting more and more rare, and less and less intense."
"That was pretty inte
nse," I said. "You were moaning. You sounded like a ghost or a whale or something. It was freaking me out."
"I was moaning?" she asked, smiling.
I smiled at her smile. "Yeah," I said, using any excuse to make light of a subject that had me otherwise speechless, "you were like—Rorrry, Rorrrry," I said. I did my best impression of her possessed-sounding moan, and she put a hand over her mouth and giggled. She was still smiling when she stuck out her bottom lip. "I miss him," she said.
"When's he coming back?"
"In a few days."
"Oh yeah that's right. Blake said they'd be back Wednesday."
She gave me a curious glance. "Is it safe to assume Blake's been in touch with Tom?"
"Yeah, I thought I mentioned that, but maybe I just assumed you knew."
"You had a lot on your mind with starting your new job."
"I probably just didn't want to mention it because I hoped it would go away," I said.
"Why do you hope that?"
"Because I love her, and I don't want to see her get hurt."
Megan didn't say anything for a few seconds. I could tell she wanted to reassure me that it would never happen, but she and I both knew she couldn’t promise anything like that about Tom.
"I think they're a good match," she said, diplomatically.
"That's what I'm afraid of," I said.
"Well, they're certainly old enough to make their own decisions."
I shrugged. "I know. I'm trying not to interfere, but she knows I want her to be wary since he's got such a reputation."
"Maybe it's the reputation she likes," Megan said, raising her eyebrows.
I smiled before switching to an expression of sincerity. "Is there anything I can do to help you with your nightmare? Do you need to talk about it or something?"
"No," she assured me. "I'm okay. I'm glad you were in here with me. I had one by myself one time and it was no fun." She offered me a smile. "You wanna try to go back to sleep?"
I looked at the clock and then flopped back onto my pillow. "I don't know if I can. I'm always amped on tattoo day."
"That's right, and you said Connor's coming back today too." She also flopped back on her pillow, and both of us stretched out, staring at the ceiling. I let out a long sigh.
"What?" she asked.
"I don't know. I don't know how to feel. I think Connor's a great catch, and I'd be really mad at myself if I let him go, but I’m not sure I have passion with him… at least not as much as I think would be possible with someone else."
"You think you could have more passion with someone else?"
"That's not what I said."
"That's exactly what you said."
"I'm just not sure I have the kind of connection with Connor that I think might be possible. The other day I had this eye contact with a random stranger that was more heartfelt and deep than any eye contact I ever have with Connor."
"Was that random stranger Angel?"
I started to hide it, but then I sighed when I realized I wanted to get it off my chest. "Something about me seriously does like that boy, but I'm with Connor, and I just can't think of Angel like that. It's cheating." I knew I'd done way more than thinking about Angel, but didn't mention it.
"I thought that tattoo on your leg might be the end for you and Connor," she said.
"He likes my tattoos."
"I meant because it's a hammerhead."
I didn't even try to deny that Angel was in the back of my mind when I got it, but I didn't confirm it either.
"I might not have fireworks with Connor, but there's something there for sure, and I think he's a good catch. It'd be really cool to be with a senator."
"Do you think he'll be with you when he's a senator?" she asked.
"What do you mean?"
She turned to face me without taking her head off the pillow, and I did the same. Our faces were only about a foot apart. Both of us looked sleepy. I felt slightly offended by her question.
"Can you really imagine yourself with Connor long term?"
"What do you mean? Sure I can. Otherwise, it's pointless being with him."
Megan stared at me. It looked like she was on the verge of voicing her concern again but decided against it. She smiled. "I think you two are great together. I just want to see you happy, you know, like you were saying—find someone you have a connection with."
"I think we have potential to have a great relationship. We're opposites, and you know what they say about opposites."
She gave me a sweet smile. "I just want you to be happy."
I smiled back at her before shifting my gaze to the ceiling again. "I know, and I'm thankful for that."
Chapter 14
My tattooer was in a great mood when I went in the next day on account of a cancellation. It was something he wasn't looking forward to, which made him happy, and it was the appointment right after mine, which meant he had more time to spend with me. I got both tattoos outlined and colored. I got a small bunch of wildflowers tied with a string. There was a white note tied to it that said, 'with love' and had a little red heart. The outlines were bold and clean, and his color choices were interesting and beautiful. I absolutely loved it.
The one on my leg was the Indian girl wearing a full headdress with war paint on her face. That one was on the side of my left thigh, just a couple inches above my knee. Both of them were between five and six inch pieces, so I was in the chair for a total of eight hours that day. I wasn't being tattooed for all of it. We took breaks and he had to take time to draw and talk to me about options, but it was still a long day. We got a lot done, and I was exhausted when I got home. I was sure Tim was as well. He charged me $550 for the day. I knew it was a great deal, and I was thankful for the beautiful work, so I tipped him $80.
Lola came into the shop to pick up her paycheck while I was there, and we talked about my first shift at Maison Blanc. She said Mike was happy with my performance, and thanked her for bringing me in. We joked about how her paycheck from the tattoo shop was for two weeks work, but was about the same as one shift at Maison Blanc.
***
"You mean you spent over six hundred dollars on tattoos yesterday?" Blake asked when I went into work at Magpie the next day.
It was Sunday, and the shop was slow. She normally worked that shift alone, but she wanted to clean some things out and place them on clearance, so she asked me to come in and help her organize for a few hours.
"Yeah, but we did a lot of work." I had on a super thin long sleeve top to protect my arm, and I carefully pulled up my sleeve to show her. She gasped when she caught sight of it.
"I love it!" she said with no hesitation whatsoever. "I was scared when you told me you were getting one right down here on your arm, but it's beautiful and it looks so good there. Aww, look at the little note. That's so cute."
I smiled as she stared at it for a minute, and then I put my arm down so I could lift my skirt. I turned to the side and lifted the edge of my skirt even though my Indian girl was mostly exposed with it down. She focused on my leg and gasped again as she bent to inspect it.
"Good grief Charlotte, This guy is so good!" She stared at it for a second before glancing up at me. "You're gonna look like the girl on American Pickers before you know it. These are beautiful. I can see why you spent six hundred on them."
I smiled inwardly at her Pickers comment. "It's definitely worth paying to get it done right."
"I didn't know they'd be so big. Did it hurt?"
I thought back to the eight hours I spent in the chair. "It doesn't hurt the whole time. The pain comes in waves. Sometimes it'll hurt bad enough to give you cold sweats, and then a few minutes later, it seems like you can barely feel it."
"Do you have any Indian in you?"
I shrugged. "No—at least not that I know of. A portrait of an Indian is a staple in traditional tattooing, and I just really like how they look. I love repetitive lines of the headdress.
She stared at it for a few mo
re seconds before standing up straight. "Well I think they look excellent on you."
"Thank you."
Blake knew about my job at Maison Blanc, but she really wasn't fond of the idea. For this reason I didn't give her any of the details of my first night, even though I was excited about how much I'd earned. Instead, I asked, "Have you talked to Tom Kelly?"
A big smile crossed her face, and I cringed inwardly, seeing how his name affected her. "Funny you should ask," she said. "I was going to mention that we've been talking quite a bit recently."
"I thought he was out of town."
"He is. He was in Nova Scotia last night."
"Canada?"
"Yep. He said they'll be back Wednesday."
"That's what Megan said."
I thought about Megan. I thought about her nightmare and how being involved with these pirates had gotten her kidnapped. I wanted to warn Blake away from Tom Kelly, but didn't know how to do it since Megan asked me not to tell anyone the things she told me.
"Don't you think they're dangerous?" I asked. I thought it was general enough, but still wanted her to know I was concerned. She considered the question for a second and smiled at me. "I know he's not gonna marry me, Charlotte. I'm not really the marrying type either, since I'm married to the store," she said, gesturing around us. She reached out and gave my shoulder a reassuring pat. "He can't hurt me."
I believed her. She was so confident and strong, and I wanted to be just like her. But as of right now, I was perfectly crushable, and that's exactly what happened that evening after I left the store.
Connor was supposed to come by at six, but didn't text me until seven to say that he'd be there at eight. I hated waiting, and was frustrated and hurt when he finally showed up. I tried to hide my disappointment when he came in, but it was hard. I was hungry, which probably added to my bad mood.
"Charlotte, I am so sorry!" he said when I opened the door. He handed me a bouquet of flowers, and I reached out to take them with the arm that had the new tattoo. He turned my arm so he could inspect the work. "That looks good," he said. He smiled and motioned to the real flowers he'd just handed me. "I should have tied a note to them. That would have been a nice coincidence if it matched."
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