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“She’s getting her first tattoo,” I offer, looking back up at Ryan.
“Oh, sweet! What are you getting? Hopefully, I’ll have time to get it all done for you. If not, you can always schedule an appointment. Any girl who's a friend of Griffin’s gets priority. He doesn’t bring girls around much.” Ryan nudges her arm and Ellis laughs.
“Um–” she considers for a moment before snatching my arm from me and pushing up my sleeve to show the tattoo I have for my brother. Ellis looks at me. “What flowers are these?” she asks.
I look at my arm where she’s still holding me, her hands cold against my skin but somehow making my entire body warm, anyway. “Some lily of the valley, baby's breath, daisies,” I list out.
“I want those,” she says, her eyes catching mine briefly before she turns to Ryan. “I want the same flowers,” she says.
“Do they have some kind of meaning?” Ryan asks with a chuckle, and I can’t imagine how weird it looks that Ellis just decided to get the same flowers tattooed on her body.
“I’m going to get them for my mom,” she answers.
My heart stutters. I’m not sure what to think as my eyes slide toward her, staring at the side of her face and taking in the wide smile she’s wearing. Her shoulders are relaxed, her body casual, as if she didn’t just agree to get a near-matching tattoo to memorialize her dead mother. The same tattoo I have to memorialize my dead brother.
“Anything aside from the flowers?” Ryan asks. “Do you want them in something? Maybe some script with them?”
I’m still staring at her and blinking, my stomach doing weird turns and twists as I try to wrap my mind around this fucking girl.
Twenty-four hours ago, she was just some girl I watched spill coffee on her head who wanted a stranger to plan her birthday party.
And now it feels like, I don’t know, more? Friends?
“I haven't had a ton of time to think about all this,” she says. “I think Finn’s tattoo is sweet. Maybe mine can be on a vintage bike or something? Back of my arm above my elbow?”
Ryan looks at me again, giving me a knowing look–as if he suspects something is going on between me and the girl I brought into his shop.
He doesn’t know the half of it.
“I’ll sketch something up and be right back,” he says as another customer emerges from the door.
When he’s gone, I turn to Ellis. “You’re sure about this?” I ask, and I can’t help the way my throat clogs with emotion. I will notdo something fucking stupid like tearing up in this tattoo shop over flowers and dead people.
Ellis shrugs. “Yeah. I like yours, and it seems like something I won’t regret in the morning. Dead mom and all. It’s not like she’s coming back.”
I suppress a laugh. “I forgot to ask him about mine.”
“Oh, yes.” The smile dances on her lips. “What do you want to get? Please keep it simple. I’m new to this.”
“Surprise me,” I say. “I like my tattoos to bring up memories, and I think that maybe I’d like it if I remembered our time together.” I clear my throat, nervously running my hand through my hair and pulling at the dark strands briefly. “I’d like to remember you, Ellis.” Her eyes light up from where she’s standing, and I suck in a breath, telling myself to be brave. “I’d like to keep not being strangers, too. If that’s okay with you.”
Ellie tilts her head, her finger brushing against mine–just briefly. The touch is so subtle that I feel stupid for the way it makes me feel–the way I can feel it everywhere.
She smiles softly, her lips pink and cheeks flushed.
“I think I’d like that, too.”
Fourteen
Ellis
“You’re just going to ride the tube.” Ryan points to the tip of the tattoo gun. “See that plastic part there? Use that so you don’t have to control the depth of the needle.”
The machine turns on, and suddenly I’m regretting every decision I’ve ever made that led me up to this point. My heart is pounding in my chest as Ryan casually hands me a tattoo gun and tells me to have at it.
This can’t be legal.
Every single direction Ryan gave me is running on repeat in my mind, so I don’t forget a single one as I bring the needle down, slowly following the straight line until it all becomes too much. I pull the gun away.
