When A Bad Boy Wants Your Heart

by Sephiri J

  “Don’t be out here talking to me crazy, bruh. You the one who fucked up,” I said.

  I was already annoyed with my dad and this situation with Rigs. Now this nigga Marcus was telling me he fucked up, and on top of that, I had no way to get at Bo.

  “Yeah, I know. I’m sorry,” he said in a flat voice.

  “Make sure that shit don’t ever happen again,” I said then hung up.

  This day was getting on my fucking nerves all the way around. I was just ready to concentrate on this tattoo convention in a couple days and forget the other noise.

  11

  Bo

  Later that night

  “I love it!” I squealed on the phone with Sade as I lay on my bed looking at my new tattoo. The details were stunning, and I could see every line. The picture of the camera looked back at me, and I couldn’t even tell that a rose used to be tattooed there this morning.

  “I can’t wait to see it in person,” Sade said. “That picture you texted me is beautiful, but I know it must look so much better in person.”

  “I know, it really does. I’ll come by tomorrow, and we can have lunch or something,” I said as I got more comfortable in my bed.

  “Yeah, okay, I’m down. I don’t have to work tomorrow, so I’m open,” she said.

  “You good, though?” I asked.

  When I called her, I could hear a strain in her voice, but I couldn’t tell what was going on. Sade was really private, but she told me everything for the most part. I could tell something was wrong but wasn’t sure what.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired,” she said.

  I frowned, trying to decide if I believed her or should push it. One thing I learned about my best friend a while ago was that she never opened up if you forced her. She told you what she wanted in her own time.

  “Okay, babe. Get some sleep. I’m gonna do some updates on my website,” I said.

  “Okay, hun, we will talk later,” she said before I hung up.

  I looked back down at my tattoo in awe. I really loved it. It was funny, though, that it just happened to be a shop that was owned by the psycho who ran in my house last night. Looking back on it, I knew his face looked familiar when I saw him. But because it was dark, and I was scared out of my mind, I couldn’t place him. But seeing him today, I knew for sure he really was City Bailey. I’d seen him on different blogs as the owner of City Ink, and I knew he was really talented. Plus, he was sexy as hell, which was pissing me off.

  I should have taken my ass to the cops after what he pulled yesterday, but I didn’t, and I wouldn’t. When I saw him today, he had that surprised look on his face like I was the last person he expected to see, but the smile he gave after he recognized me made my pussy jump. And that annoyed me.

  Either way, I didn’t expect to see him again because I wasn’t going into his shop for anything any time soon, especially since I knew he would be there. Plus, there were a hundred other things I had to worry about. My parents were still mad as hell at me about the drama from yesterday. Dontrell had called me again twice today, and I still refused to answer. He could marinate on the shit he did with his new bitch. I was not interested in hearing anything he had to say. I was ready to concentrate on me. Fuck these niggas who were only good for heartache and heartbreak.

  My photography company was still really young, and I had a lot to put together to get it where I wanted it to be. Starting with this website. I was still bummed because I hadn’t heard back from the tattoo convention about the photography job, but I did have one birthday party lined up in two weeks. I knew I needed to get on it, though, because that wasn’t enough to pay my bills. With the way my parents were acting, they would be salty about giving me money since I’d messed up my “happily ever after” in their eyes.

  Just then, my phone started to vibrate. I looked down at it, and it was a number I didn’t recognize.

  “Hello?” I said as I tentatively picked up the phone.

  “Hello, I’m trying to reach Bo Washington?” a lady’s voice said.

  “This is she. Who is this?” I said.

  “This is Stephanie from The Miami Tattoo and Piercing Convention. How are you?” the lady said.

  I sat up in the bed as my heart raced.

  “Hey, I’m good. How are you?”

  “I’m good. I’m sorry to be calling so late. I hope this isn’t a bad time,” she said hesitantly.

  “No,” I quickly said. “I was at home just doing some work. How can I help you?”

  “We got your application to work with us as a photographer at our upcoming convention. We had you on a standby list because you do great work from your portfolio, but you don’t have that much experience,” she said. “But one of our contract photographers had to drop out to go out of town for a funeral. So, we have a last-minute opening. We wanted to know if you were still interested in working with us.”

  I nodded because I couldn’t believe what she was saying to me. But because she didn’t hear anything, I guess she thought I wasn’t sure about my answer.

  “The job is for the entire day on this coming Saturday. You also get shared rights with all the pictures you take, so you can add them to your portfolio. And you get listed as an official service of the tattoo convention, so it should be helpful for securing future work. The compensation is $1,500 for the day,” she explained.

  “Yes,” I said quickly as my heart raced. I was so excited. This was like a fucking dream come true.

  “Okay, great!” Stephanie said. “The convention starts at 9:00 am, but if you could get here at 7:00, so we can get you set up and explain the layout and what we need you to do, that would be great.”

  “Of course. Oh my God, thank you so much for this opportunity. I really appreciate it. You don’t even understand,” I rambled.

  I was so happy I was close to tears. This was just what my career needed.

  “You’re welcome. I’m just glad we could get you on the team. I can see how talented you are just from your portfolio,” she said, and I grinned.

  “Thank you. I’ll see you in two days,” I told her.

  Hanging up, I felt like I was on cloud nine. Throwing myself back on the bed, I squealed out loud. This was the start of a new chapter for me, I could feel it. For so long, everyone around me—my mother and Dontrell—treated my passion for taking pictures like a little hobby that wasn’t a real job. So, for this lady to call and offer me such an opportunity and then tell me that she saw how good I was from my work, even though I was so new in the game, I felt like I wanted to cry. I felt motivated, and I knew I was going to kill the convention on Saturday.

  Two days later

  “You ever worked at one of these before?” this photographer named Natalie asked me as I walked into the convention center beside her.

  “I haven’t,” I said, looking around.

  This place was huge, and there were so many tables and booths with different artists and piercers. I looked over at Natalie, who was looking around the room too. The last few days had been me obsessing about this job and hoping and praying that everything would go great. Natalie was one of five photographers that the convention had hired to take their pictures. And by the size of this place, I wasn’t sure if five of us was enough.

  Natalie was a professional who had been in the game for a few years. She said this was her third year working for this convention. When I looked at her portfolio, I was blown away.

  “You’ll do good. Stephanie and the team are real particular about who they hire. If they chose you, they saw something in you that they loved. Did they tell you which section you’re gonna be working with?” she aske.

  “Yeah, I’m doing the east section over there,” I said waving in the direction Stephanie had told me this morning I would be covering.

  “Okay, cool,” Natalie said. “There are some good artists on that side. Make sure you get their info cuz a lot of the opportunities for you comes from work you can secure outside of this. They are always looking for
photographers for their social media.”

  I nodded. That made a lot of sense. I intended to get my name out there, so I could get my clientele up and make some money.

  “I know there are a lot of good artists in that section too. Did you look at the map? City Ink is over there. Legend is too this year. A bunch of other good ones from out of state,” she explained.

  But I zoned out when she said City Ink.

  “Wait, you said City Ink is over there?” I said and looked back to my right.

  “Yeah, sure is. Watch out for City, though, girl. He’ll have you feenin’ for his fine ass faster than a crack head after her last hit. Something about that man, I promise. He drips sexy, I swear I would drink his bath water,” she said.

  My heart jumped when she said that. I hadn’t even thought about the fact that I might run into this man. I’d just been so happy about getting this gig in the first place.

  “You know of him, right?” she said.

  I nodded. “Yeah I’ve met him before,” I said.

  “Oh, so you know what I’m talking about,” she said.

  I shrugged. “He’s aight.”

  “Girl,” she said, looking at me like I had two heads. Then she laughed. “Okay. Anyway, I gotta get my stuff together, but hit me up if you need anything.”

  “Okay, girl,” I said as she walked away from me.

  I looked back over to my right and chewed on my bottom lip. But I exhaled and shook my head. I had a job to do, and I intended to do it, regardless of who may or may not be in my section. Besides, City Ink wasn’t the only tattoo booth over on the east side of the convention center. I was there for one thing, which was to get my money up, and I needed to keep that in the back of my mind. City’s smile and body kept flashing in my head but I made a mental effort to force him out of my mind so I could concentrate on what I needed to do.

  For the next hour, I approached different booths and took pictures of the artists, their work, the artists as they did tattoos. I passed out the stack of business cards that I made sure to bring with me and made conversation with a lot of potential new clients. After the first hour, I had already booked three appointments for the coming month, and I was ecstatic.

  “How’s that tattoo looking?” I heard a voice behind me.

  When I turned I saw it was Marcus. I smiled.

  “Hey, what’s up?” I said and cocked my head to the left.

  “Nothin’ much. You good?” he asked as he looked me up and down.

  “Yeah, I’m good. The tattoo is healing up good too,” I said while holding my arm out, so he could see. He stepped closer to me and took my arm in his.

  “It looks dope as fuck,” he said as he traced his finger over the ink.

  It made my skin crawl a little because I was not attracted to him in the least. I stepped back so he would let go of my hand.

  “Yeah, it looks great. Thank you again so much,” I said.

  “No worries, I got you. Whenever you want anything else done, just hit me up,” he said. “So, you out here looking around or what?”

  “No, I work for the convention. Taking pictures,” I said and held up the Nikon that was dangling from around my neck.

  “Oh, word? Aight, you gotta take some pics of me and the crew,” he said then stepped back and stroked his goatee as he struck a pose.

  I snickered because he was being goofy.

  “I see we keep running into each other,” I heard someone else say behind me.

  When I turned, my heart started to race. City was walking up to me with a shirt that had his logo and said City Ink with black jeans and white Jordans on. He was grinning at me with his sexy smile. I tried to look away from him, but I couldn’t.

  “Hey,” is all I managed to say as he walked up on me.

  I could tell Marcus instantly became annoyed, but it didn’t seem like City gave a shit.

  “What’s good, Bo?” he asked me as he came to stand right in front of me.

  I looked up at him and tried to seem unaffected. “I’m good. Working.”

  “I see,” he said then reached for the camera hanging around my neck. When he stepped closer to take a look at my camera, and I smelled his cologne, I had to press my legs together to calm down. I was half way annoyed at myself for letting this man affect me so hard.

  “This is nice. Let me see some of the shots you took,” he said, still standing right next to me. I didn’t even know how to say no.

  For the next five minutes, I went through all the pictures I took with him. I glanced up, and Marcus was still standing in front of me looking out of place.

  “Shit, I see you. I guess you more than just a pretty ass face then, huh?” he said while looking down at me.

  “I guess so,” I said and took a step back from him. Being so close to him was doing something to me.

  “Ay, Marcus, go check on the booth,” City said, turning to Marcus.

  “They good. Sam and AJ over there holdin’ it down,” Marcus replied.

  City cocked his head to the side and turned to Marcus. “I don’t give a fuck. Go check on them, niggas like I said, bruh.”

  Marcus frowned then looked away from City’s glare before he walked away. City turned back to me shaking his head. He seemed annoyed, but when he looked back at me the annoyance disappeared.

  “Let me see how he finished that tattoo for you,” he said and reached for my arm.

  I didn’t fight his touch.

  “Nigga went all out, huh?” he said as he traced his fingers down the design.

  Somehow, though, I didn’t get that same feeling toward him as I did when Marcus touched me. Something in me wanted him to keep touching me and not stop. I had to catch myself for a minute.

  “Yeah, he did a real good job,” I said, looking down at City’s hands on mine.

  “I’m glad your little stubborn ass stayed and finished the shit. Saying you leavin’ like I was gonna let you be out here with a half way finished cover up, so you could tell people my shop did that shit,” he said.

  “Let me?” I said, looking at him sideways.

  “That’s the fuck what I said, Bo. You know you heard me. Repeating it ain’t gonna change the shit,” he said.

  I shook my head then looked away.

  “It looks sexy as fuck on your arm, though,” he said, and I couldn’t help but smile. He looked back at me and grinned. “I’m gonna take you out later. Put your number in my phone.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

  “That’s not a good idea,” I said, shaking my head.

  “Don’t start no shit, Bo. Give me your number,” he said to me.

  “City, you and me wouldn’t work out. Do you remember how we met? That shit was crazy. What are we going out to do exactly?” I asked.

  “I want to get to know you. Quit playing with me. I know you like me, so stop playing hard to get. Bitches try to get at me 24/7 because of who I am but I don’t want them hoes. You got something special, I can see the shit. I’m making you mine, eventually, you just don’t know it yet. So, quit actin’ up and give me your fuckin number,” he said to me.

  His assertive, rude ass personality was making me like him even more, but I wasn’t about to let him know all that. I looked away from him because I felt like his eyes were burrowing a hole in my head as he stared at me. But then he reached out and pulled me closer to him. I shrieked a little when he did out of the sheer shock. His hands went down to the small of my back and firmly held me close to him as my head laid just in the crook of his neck.

  “When I saw you, I wanted you from jump. Don’t make me chase you, cuz when I catch you, you not gon’ want me to let you go,” he said, and my pussy started to leak.

  I felt his hand slide down to my ass and reach into my back pocket. Before I knew what happened, he’d pulled my phone out.

  “Unlock this shit,” he said, holding my phone up in front of my face.

  All I could do was what he said and punch in my password, which was my birthdate
, 0421.

  I watched him as he put in his phone number then he called his phone from mine. He pulled his phone out his pocket then saved my name.

  “Text me your address now. I’m picking you up tonight,” he said in a matter of fact tone.

  “What if I don’t want to go,” I said, still trying to play hard to get.

  “Then why you up under me and looking at me like you ready to fuck?” he said.

  I stared speechlessly at him when he said that, but he chuckled.

  “Text me now, Bo,” he said then let me go and stepped away from me. He looked back toward where his booth was and glanced back down at his phone. “Later,” he said before he walked off, leaving me by myself.

  It took me a second to catch my breath. I didn’t know how every time he was around me he had me feeling lightheaded. But I did what he said and sent off a quick text with my address to him. I walked away from his booth and snapped a couple pictures of a piercer and another tattoo booth further down. After another half hour, I was ready to take a break.

  Walking over to one of the food vendors, a stall that sold paninis caught my eye. My stomach grumbled as I waited in line. Thankfully, the convention team had given me a ticket for free food at any vendor, so at least I didn’t have to pay for this. I waited for a second, and as I was in line, I caught the eye of the other photographer, Natalie, who I was talking to earlier. I waved at her and she waved back as she talked to some tattoo artist. When it was my turn, I ordered a turkey and swiss cheese panini then waited around for them to call my number.

  “Bo?” I heard a deep, familiar voice say behind me as I scrolled through my phone.

  When I looked up, my heart dipped when I saw Dontrell. He was walking over to me, and standing next to him was that bitch, Nichole, smirking back at me.

  “What are you doing here?” Dontrell asked, making me look back at him. “I’ve been trying to call you for the last four days.”

  12

  City