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Ever since our first weekend back here, meeting each other’s families, my mom took it upon herself to visit Julia once a week. She brings her a fresh vase of flowers and food each time. When she told us the first time she did it, Elliot had been speechless at my mother’s kindness.
There is a constant blanket of snow covering this part of Jersey now. Elliot and I go sledding using a flattened cardboard box that I find near the dumpster outside my apartment. It doesn’t work great, and we end up soaking wet…but that’s what hot showers are for. Which leads to…other stuff. He isn’t complaining for long.
We celebrate New Year’s Eve together with Ana and her boyfriend, Hayden. Hayden’s father works for a fancy investment firm in Jersey City, and we are able to sneak up to the roof of his dad’s building to watch fireworks. Greeting the New Year with Elliot’s arms wrapped around me, his lips against my neck whispering that he loves me, with my best friend in the world…it feels like a dream. I can’t picture my life being any more perfect.
By the time we make it back to my apartment it is nearly morning and we both crash until dinner time on New Year’s Day. Elliot runs out to grab us Chinese food and we eat it in bed along with doing…other stuff.
I lay across Elliot’s bare chest and he strokes his fingers up and down my back. “I feel like I’ve loved you for longer than a few months…I feel like…I’ve known you, really known you like this…forever,” I whisper. He turns his head into my hair to kiss my head.
“Me too, baby,” He murmurs. I smile and prop my head on my hands to look up at him.
“What are you thinking about?” I ask. He stares at me—the way every person deserves to be stared at.
“Just that I still can’t believe that this is real,” He breathes. I nod and reach up to kiss him. He kisses me back with passion and tenderness. I pull away with a sigh, lying back on my side and he turns to face me. I go to grab his hand, but he draws the heart before interlocking our fingers.
“You didn’t ask me what I’m thinking about,” I say with faux seriousness. He raises an eyebrow.
“Well, I thought that that was obvious.” He motions to his naked body, which makes me snort and I roll my eyes at him. He chuckles. “Seriously, what are you thinking about, my love?” He asks and presses a sweet little kiss to my nose.
“That I want to do something crazy,” I declare and he raises both eyebrows now, his eyes wide.
“What do you want to do?” He asks, sounding scared.
“Get dressed. Come on.” I hop out of bed and start throwing on clothes, a long sleeve St. James shirt and leggings. I put my fuzzy socks on then pull my boots over them. “Let’s go! Time's wasting away!”
He still looks wary but he gets up and starts getting dressed. “I’m terrified right now.”
“O ye of little faith,” I sing to him. Once he is dressed, I pull him out of the apartment towards my car. I skip along the way and twirl myself under his arm. He smiles and kisses me before opening my door for me. He walks to the passenger seat and I pull the map up on my phone. I spend a few minutes doing some research on my phone before putting an address in my GPS and pulling out of my parking spot.
“Baby…where the hell are we going?” He asks suspiciously.
“You’ll see!” I reply in a sickly-sweet voice. He groans and runs his hand through his perfectly messed up hair. I turn the radio on and sing along to the songs as we drive. I glance at Elliot a few times and he is staring at me the whole time, like I am losing my mind. I just smirk and blow him a little air kiss.
Elliot spends the drive trying to guess where we are going, but I don’t give in and tell him. Ten minutes later, I turn the car into the parking lot of a strip mall in a nicer part of town. The storefront I park in front of says ‘Redemption Tattoo’.
“I’m going to get a tattoo!” I declare with a smile. His brows pull in as his mouth drops open.
“Madeline…you can’t be serious,” He manages to say.
“One hundred percent serious,” I confirm and I dig my wallet out of my purse. “I’ve always wanted one!”
“This is…you can’t just…” He stumbles on his words. He looks from the shop to me, and back. “What are you even going to get?!”
“Come on, worry-wart.” I get out of the car. The sun is just starting to set. I walk around the car towards the shop entrance and Elliot is right behind me.
“Mads, did you do any actual research on this place? I don’t think you’ve thought this out at all!” He protests, even though he opens the door for me to walk through. I run my hand along his chest as I walk past him.
“This place has incredible reviews. Five stars,” I tell him as I walk to the front desk. I am welcomed by a cool looking woman covered in tattoos, with half platinum hair and half black hair.
“Hey, what can I help you with?” She asks with a smile.
“I read online that you accept walk-ins?” I ask. Elliot crosses his arms and shakes his head beside me.
“Yeah, we do. We were pretty booked today but one of our artists had a huge cancellation, so you’re in luck,” She says before turning to her computer screen. Elliot groans and covers his eyes with his hand. “What are you looking to get?” She asks.
Elliot separates his fingers over his eyes to look at me. “A tiny heart on my wrist,” I answer surely. I turn to Elliot, “Like the ones you draw with your finger.” I smile at him.
His mouth parts slightly before his face softens. He closes his mouth, then leans in to say, “Are you sure about this?”
