“Really?”
“Yeah, I fell in love with it, and knew I wanted to make skin my canvas.” I thought of those early days, when I’d been obsessed with learning everything I could about the artform. “Jack taught me everything he knew about tattooing, and the rest is history.”
“You guys stayed friends?”
“Yeah, sure. It’s a small community, you can’t afford to have enemies.”
“Were you two serious?”
“We dated for about a year, but I think we both knew we weren’t in it for the long haul.”
“Mmm, is he married now? Girlfriend?”
I laughed. “Real subtle, Mav. No and no.”
He grunted. “Does he still live in Nashville?”
“Yeah, he has a shop a few blocks from mine, in fact. We get together for burgers, and to talk shop every once in a while.”
“Great.” He drew a deep breath before he asked, “How’d you end up with your shop? Did the ex have something to do with that too?”
“No, but the building I own now used to be the bar where Jack and I worked.”
“Isn’t that special.”
“Shut up, smartass.” We’d always had an easy rapport and loved to tease each other. I’d hate to think we were falling back into that rhythm.
He chuckled. “So, how’d you end up with that place? You said you own the building now?”
It still seemed a little surreal to me that I owned a prime piece of real estate, when for years I couldn’t even afford an old clunker to get me to and from work. “I’d become friendly with the owners, who were set to retire, and they offered me a vendor-takeback mortgage if I wanted to buy the place and open my own tattoo shop.”
“Were you still seeing Jackie-boy then?”
“Jealous much?”
“Only all the goddamn time when I think of you with another man.”
Yeah, not gonna lie, that made chill bumps break out all over my body. “No, Jack and I had broken up so it made working together kind of awkward. So, I was looking for a new tattoo home when they made the offer.” I laughed. “I didn’t even know what a vendor-takeback mortgage was. I had to Google it. But within forty-eight hours of them making the offer, I was signing my name on the dotted line and praying I’d find a way to make it work.”
“And you clearly did.”
“Yeah, that was almost ten years ago now, and if not for Jack and the Clarks seeing potential in me, I cringe to think where I might be.”
“You would have figured things out, with or without them.”
One thing about Mav, he’d always built me up, told me how amazing, smart, capable and talented I was. Which made it even harder when he decided to quit on us. Aside from my mama and sister, I hadn’t had too many who believed in me when I was young.
“I appreciate that. I, um, always appreciated your support, you know. I don’t think I ever told you that.” As I was working through all the anger and resentment I’d felt towards Mav, I thought a lot about all the reasons I’d loved him. And that was one of the things that always stood out to me, how supportive he was. “As a kid, maybe I didn’t think much about it. But all these years later, I realize how rare it is to have a partner who believes in you.”
“Goes both ways,” he said, quietly. “I’ve always had my band and my brother, but you were the only woman who ever saw anything worthwhile in me.”
I knew we were tiptoeing into dangerous territory by peeling back the layers of our past to dissect what made our relationship work. Until it didn’t anymore. “I find that hard to believe. Your talent is undeniable. I can’t be the only woman who recognized that.”
“I’ve had female friends over the years, like Marisa, who lifted me up. But a girlfriend who supported my dreams? No.”
I wanted to ask about all the girls he’d loved since me, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Some things may be better left unsaid. “That’s too bad.”
“Not really. That puts you in a class by yourself, in my books.”
