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“That sounds hectic, I hope you don’t fight at school,” I lead her back to the kitchen so I can start on dinner while we talk. We do everything together in the evenings. Make dinner. Talk. Do dishes. Watch movies. Play games.
It’s ‘our’ time.
“So do you like work?” Heather asks me, sitting at the table while I start taking out the necessary ingredients and dishes for mac and cheese.
“Yeah, it’s pretty cool,” I say, getting the grater and cheese so she can do something while we talk. “My boss is pretty nice, you’d like her; she keeps unicorns in her booth!”
“I love unicorns!” Heather explains.
“I know,” I chuckle lightly, watching as she starts grating the cheese. I put the pasta on and start getting everything else ready. I tell her about the tattoos that I did today and she explains what she learned at school; it’s an easy conversation to have and one I always enjoy. I hate speaking to other people, they are generally brainless and it irritates me to no end. My daughter will grow up to be many things, but stupid isn’t one of them.
After the amazing opening we had, I thought we would die down, but we actually kept up a steady stream of work. It wasn’t like we were making thousands of dollars a day, but I had at least two clients a day for new tattoos and in between those I got to know the other artists and did some amazing sketches.
After designing twenty charity sketches I finally decided to approach Lyra about the idea. We had been open a month and I wanted to keep the momentum going for the studio. I put the sketches together in the morning and walked around to her booth where she was busy reading a book.
“Hey Lyra, can I talk to you?” I ask quietly.
Lyra sets her book down and sits straight, “Sure, what’s up?”
“I have an idea for the studio…”
“So do I,” Lacy interrupted as she walked in. “Sorry JJ, but I really need to get this out before I explode.”
I try not to sigh at her; Lacy is like this and it takes some getting used to. She gets overly excited and talks a mile a minute and will hover and bounce around if you don’t let her interject.
“Go ahead,” I say, waving my hand at her.
“Let’s have a party tonight!” Lacy declares, looking around the room. “We can celebrate our first month of having the studio open.”
“Where do you want to party?” Lyra asks her.
“Right here. I’ll go out and get some drinks, and we can order pizzas and play music and just jam around after we close.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Lyra says hesitantly and I agree with her. Even if they do have a party, I have to get home to Heather so I won’t be sticking around for it.
“Aw come on, Lyra,” Lacy says, bouncing on the spot as she is prone to doing. “It’ll be fun and we all deserve it after the amazing month we have had.”
I glance at Lyra and shake my head, indicating I agree with her. She looks at me for a moment, before looking back at Lacy, “Okay, why not? Everyone in.”
Everyone quickly agreed except for me; I shook my head, “I can’t stay.”
“Why not?” Lyra asks.
“Yeah, what do you rush home to every night?” Lacy teases me, trying to put an arm around my shoulders.
I shrug her off and give her a look before saying, “That’s my personal life, which doesn’t belong here.”
“Sorry, I forget how touchy you are,” Lacy quips. “I’m going to go get the booze. I’ll be back shortly.”
Lacy leaves and I turn to talk to Lyra again.
“It would be good for company morale if you stayed,” she says before I can even bring up the charity idea again.
“It’s not like we’re a corporate company,” I comment, leaning against the booth wall.
“We’re not,” Lyra concurs, “But we are a team and sometimes these things are good for the team. It’s why I agreed to do it.”
“So what you’re saying is you want me to stay for the party tonight?” I ask.
