“Yes. Steve.” Jordyn cocked her head in curiosity at the woman’s icy stare.
“And you don’t have an appointment.”
“No, I’m not—”
“Steve is busy. He’s working.” The woman spoke slowly as if she were talking to a child.
Jordyn squeezed the coffee cups a little tighter at the tone. Her excitement at seeing Steve waned, and she suddenly wanted to tug that lip piercing from the woman’s lip. “And if you don’t have an appointment, then you have to leave,” the woman continued on, flatly.
“Excuse me?” Jordyn took a step back. “Why do I have to leave?”
“Look, if we let every single one of Steve’s…” the woman cleared her throat and rolled her eyes before saying, “…dateshang out in the shop waiting for him, the entire place would fill up. Got it? No appointment means you don’t get to see Steve.” The woman’s voice started to rise, and Jordyn swallowed hard when she saw two tattoo artist’s heads poke out from their workstations.
Jordyn blushed and looked towards the door. Maybe she should go? She didn't understand what she’d done to get such a response from a complete stranger, but she knew that she wanted to get away from this as fast as possible. She’d come here on her break to see Steve, not to fight with an unknown woman, which meant she wasn’t going anywhere even if this woman shouted at her until she was blue in the face. Why had she even been thinking she should go? Steve wanted her here, it didn’t matter what this woman said.
She straightened her back and looked away from the woman, her shoulders squaring. “You know what? I’ll just find him on my own.” Jordyn turned on her heel toward the workstations, but she had just taken a step when the woman yelled after her.
“Hey, you can’t do that! Take a hint, all right! Steve doesn’t want to see you after he’s fucked you. Showing up here like all the rest isn’t going to change anything. It's pathetic.”
Jordyn stopped so suddenly she nearly tripped, and the coffees in her hands almost slipped from her grip. It was like she was watching everything happen in slow motion around her, and she felt her heart start to pound, the thump of it all she could hear as she froze under the sudden attention she now had from the entire shop. Both artists and clients were now looking out from behind the dividers at her, and she wanted nothing more than for the floor to open up and swallow her. Could that just happen now? She didn’t know how she was going to manage the trip to the door without running out.
Glancing to the side, she winced when she saw three more faces joined the two that were already watching her. The now avid crowd looked on at the train wreck of a scene with avid attention, and Jordyn knew she had to get out of there. What did this woman meanall the rest? Had this happened before? She had thought she was special and that what she and Steve had, what they had shared the day before and the nights as well, was new for the both of them, but now she wasn’t so sure.
She felt dizzy at the thought that maybe...just maybe she had misjudged the whole thing. Maybe it had never been as serious for Steve, not as true as what she had felt. What if he did this? What if this was just his thing and she was now one of “all the rest”?
She had to get out of there. She didn’t care if she ran, or dropped the coffees or whatever so long as she was gone. Whirling around, she made a beeline for the door, but the sight of the woman standing, hands on her hips and a smug look on her face made her stop.
This woman was an utter bitch when she didn’t need to be and that wasn’t right. Jordyn was debating if flinging the coffees at the woman would be too much or just the right amount of a reaction when Steve’s voice halted her coffee throwing decision in its tracks.
“Jordyn!” She turned to see him striding toward her from the furthest station—the only one that hadn’t had someone staring out at her.
“Steve, I was just telling this—” the woman began, but Steve waved a hand at her, cutting her off.
“Cut it out, Heidi, now,” he snapped, and the woman went silent, a confused look on her face.
“Jordyn, I’m sorry. I had to pick up a piercing at the last minute, or I would have met you.” Steve's voice was softer now as he spoke to her. “Had the damn needle right in their lip when all that was going on. Couldn’t stop.” He put a hand on her elbow to guide her gently back into the shop and pressed a kiss to her forehead, leaning close. “I’m sorry. Heidi can be a lot sometimes, but she means well.”
Jordyn nodded, biting her lip when she saw that everyone was still watching them, but with what seemed like even more interest now that Steve was beside her. The mouths of the two nearest artists had dropped open, and she saw one man with brown hair doubled over with silent laughter while he held a tattoo gun in one hand. She wondered what that was about and if it was even safe for him to be doing that.
“Heidi, the piercing is done. They owe us 40,” Steve said gruffly, to the woman who now looked anything but smug. Her eyes were wide and her face was pale, like she had seen a ghost, and Jordyn felt a flare of satisfaction in her chest at the look. Served her right, even if this was what Steve did, she didn’t need to treat strangers like trash. He put an arm around Jordyn’s shoulders and pulled her past a dazed-looking girl who was gingerly touching a new piercing in her lip.
He snapped his fingers at the girl. “Hey, don't touch that. I told you." Steve ordered her as they walked past and the girl's hand snapped down immediately. Steve squeezed Jordyn's shoulder gently and asked, “One of those still for me?”
Jordyn nodded, holding out his drink to him, silently. Steve took it but continued to watch her, and when they reached his station, he unfolded an extra panel of the divider out and pulled it across the opening to give them privacy. Steve then set his drink on the metal table along the wall and tugged her cup from her hands, placing it next to his. Once he got their drinks out of the way he pulled her close and gave her a concerned look.
“Hey, talk to me.”
“How many girls come looking for you, that you have to have a pit bull at the front desk?” Jordyn asked him, quietly.
Steve sighed, looking down at his feet. “I’m not going to lie to you. More than a few, Jordyn.” He looked uncomfortable but continued all the same. “Enough, I guess,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.
Jordyn nodded and then asked, “Do you sleep with your clients?” As soon as the words left her mouth, she shook her head. “Never mind, I shouldn’t have asked that,” she said quickly, seeing Steve’s jaw clench and unclench at her words. “I don’t know why I asked that.”
“It’s a normal question after Heidi started yelling like that. I would have come out sooner, but I had the needle through that kid’s lip.” He grimaced and shook his head. “I came as soon as I got the bleeding to stop, and she understood she couldn’t have beer until it healed.”
She laughed. “Beer?”
“Yeast,” he explained, making a face. “Yeast grows and infects the whole thing. It isn’t pretty.”
