“Soon,” Steve answered, surprising Jamie. “You know, she works just around the corner from here, at the vet clinic.” He nodded his head in the direction of the veterinarian clinic that was just around the corner.
“No shit? Guess it was only a matter of time before you two ran into each other,” Jamie said confidently, but Steve shook his head. He knew better.
“No. That wouldn’t have happened. She was in the wrong place when she found me…shoulda never been there,” he replied, tossing his glasses onto the desk. He looked away from Jamie when his phone buzzed, and a smile appeared on his face when he saw the message.
Jamie suppressed a laugh. “Tell her I said hello,” he joked, and Steve looked up in surprise. He opened his mouth to ask how Jamie had known it was Jordyn, but his friend waved a hand.
“What? Don’t look so shocked. I can tell she just texted you by that shit-eating grin on your face. I know you’re new to this whole liking someone thing but that’s a common effect from getting a text from them.” He was already walking back to his station. Heidi, the shop’s receptionist, waved to him from the front desk, letting him know his next appointment had just arrived.
“She’s bringing me coffee,” Steve called out, and Jamie waved an arm at him in dismissal, but his smile was a mile wide as he greeted his client.
Chapter Sixteen
Jordyn was excited.
She was butterflies-in-her-stomach excited. Like bouncing on her toes and trying to keep a nervous shake out of her voice kind of excited. To any casual observer she was just a normal woman going about her seemingly normal day, albeit with two coffees in hand which wasn’t an uncommon thing for anyone to be doing. She glanced down at the coffees in her hand and smiled, because these coffees were special, or at least one of them was.
One of them was for Steve.
She almost had to pinch herself that she was on her way to see Steve. Just thinking his name made her face flush and her pulse speed up. She blew out a heavy breath and almost laughed at herself.
“Get a grip,” she chastised herself, even though she knew there was no use for it. All she had to do was think about him and she was practically going up in flames. She stopped looking at the door in front of her and felt a thrill of nervousness go through her. Why was she feeling nervous? She wanted to see him and he knew she was coming but even still this was his world she was about to step into. She’d never been in a tattoo shop, never had a reason before now but Steve, she knew, was the best reason to have for coming to one for the first time. Jordyn shifted from foot to foot before taking a deep breath and walking forward, her eyes on the glass door of Ink and Bone.
“Stay cool, Jordyn, or at least try for it,” she muttered to herself, forcing herself to walk forward at a reasonably normal speed. No use in speed walking like she wanted to...okay, if she could do what she really wanted she’d be sprinting inside to throw herself at the man.
She couldn’t remember ever feeling this way about anyone before. Maybe Alex in the beginning but it was hard to remember those days. It had turned so quickly into how she could be more perfect for him, what she needed to do or what he didn’t approve of. For too long she had thought he was perfect, but he wasn’t. He was just a man and not a great one at that.
Okay, he was a pretty terrible one but somewhere along the way Jordyn had convinced herself that he was perfect and that to be with him, to fit into his world and vision for life, she needed to be perfect.
She’d lost herself chasing perfect.
Steve wasn’t perfect, she knew that and she loved that about the man. She was free to be herself with him and that was a gift she didn’t intend to waste. Which was why she may or may not have skipped up to the tattoo shop. Steve didn’t want her cool, he wanted her to be herself.
After he had finished drawing her on Sunday, he’d held her for a while on the couch while some movie neither of them paid attention to played in the background. It had been a magical afternoon. Slow, quiet, and dreamy; wrapped around them like a cocoon. The pair had exchanged information about each other, little things like last names and phone numbers, and big things like what she wanted her future to look like.
The answer had been simple to that question, posed by Steve. No matter where she was working or living, Jordyn knew she wanted Steve in it. She’d held back that little tidbit and opted to tell him how she saw her career progressing instead. He might want her as was, but she knew not to divulge too much of her heart straight away. She knew that she was most likely fighting infatuation, but having experienced what society told her love was—she wasn’t so sure.
Everyone had told her what she had with Alex was love for so long that she believed it too. But with Steve? She didn’t know what this was. Whatever spell had fallen over her when it came to Steve felt genuine enough, real enough, for her to lose herself in it if at least for a little while.
She knew he was feeling the same way. He’d called her nearly as soon as he’d gotten home from their day together. Her heart squeezed when she remembered how he had ended their phone call the night before. “Every time I have to stay away, I’ll call you to say goodnight, yeah?” His tone had been casual, at odds with the maddening thumping of Jordyn’s heart, which had felt like it was going to burst out of her chest.
She hoped that he wouldn’t have to call her tonight.
After spending a lazy day with him, everything in her apartment had seemed far too big without him there taking up space and filling the rooms with the sound of his voice. She knew it was crazy, having just met him a few days before, but it felt like he had always been there.
And now she was about to see him for the first time, in a setting outside her apartment, since The Velvet Throne. She smiled down at the cup of coffee with Steve’s name scrawled on it. Inside was a double chocolate mocha with extra whipped cream, something she knew he wouldn’t order, but would love. Plastering a smile she deemed enthusiastic, but not head-over-heels-in-love, she pushed open the shop’s door and stepped inside.
Jordyn paused and looked around uncertainly at the neat space. She hadn’t known what to expect, or if this was what normal tattoo shops looked like, but she liked it. Black and white tiles, arranged in a checkerboard pattern, covered the floor. There were six tattoo stations separated by stands covered in what looked like white sailboat material that created a measure of privacy for clients. An old chrome jukebox stood against the far wall, a mural of what looked like an old rock and roll concert from the fifties covered the wall behind it. The floor-to-ceiling window front flooded the room with light and provided a clear view of the street. If she craned her neck, she could almost see the corner of the building she worked out of from here.
A desk that looked like it was made of the same chrome as the jukebox sat along the wall closest to the door. There were posters of pinups on the wall behind it, along with a raven-haired woman with a lip piercing and a sleek computer. The woman was busy typing, but she looked up when Jordyn walked in.
“Hello. Do you have an appointment?” she asked with a raised eyebrow, her eyes quickly flicked down the length of Jordyn, taking in her attire. When their eyes met, she could tell the woman wasn’t impressed with her outfit, and she suddenly felt self conscious of the pastel pink cardigan she wore over her purple scrubs. She had to wear them for work at the veterinarian office, and she liked them...okay, she loved the shade of purple and she loved her pastel pink cardigan too, just like she loved the tie-dye scrunchies she wore in her hair.
That didn’t mean she thought the other woman didn’t look nice. She actually thought the woman looked chic, if not a little intimidating, especially when she was looking at Jordyn like she didn’t belong but it was whatever to her. She needed to make a good impression. This was where Steve worked, so she offered the other woman a smile and cleared her throat, despite the scrutinizing look she was receiving from the woman, and shook her head.
“No, I don’t have an appointment, but um, I was looking for Steve. Could you point me in his direction, please?” Jordyn asked, turning and trying to see inside the tattoo stations closest to her. Steve had texted her that he would be sitting on a chair at the front of the shop, but he wasn’t taking up any of the five simple chrome and red leather chairs that formed a waiting area to the right of the door.
“Wait ...you’relooking for Steve?” the woman asked her with a sigh. She tapped her pen on the desk in front of her and narrowed her eyes, pinning Jordyn with a hard stare.
