The last two weeks had been a nightmare. It was as if nothing could go right. His boss had bawled him out three times about being unreliable and given him a final written warning, so he’d had to suck it up and not flip his shit. It was as if Transport for London was conspiring against him. Whenever he needed a Tube, there had been delays and cancellations. Roads were gridlocked, so buses had been at a standstill, and although he didn’t like to splurge money on taxis, he hadn’t even been able to get one. How was that possible? He lived in Zone 2. How could there be nothing available?
Jez hadn’t been interested in any morebullshit excuses,as he’d put it. One day he’d been an hour late, and his client had needed to be rescheduled. He’d then cancelled and gone somewhere else. The piece would have required a few sessions and been over a couple of grand, which was now lost. That was when Jez had flipped.
Added to that, he’d been dodging calls from Grant Kincaid, hoping he wouldn’t come into the shop. Then he’d had Domtop69 stalking him on all the apps. He’d changed his name, but Kieran recognised him from the way he worded his messages. Kieran believed he’d blocked him on everythingnow, but was still being overly cautious, so he hadn’t gotten laid in the past two weeks. He was climbing the walls with frustration, and his collection of dildos just wasn’t doing it. That the only person he could conjure up as a fantasy was his former stepdad was all kinds of fucked up, and something he should probably keep to himself.
The only good thing that had happened over the last fortnight was that he’d met up with Derek another three times, for either coffee or lunch. He was always happy to meet in the location of Kieran’s choosing. They’d talked a lot about Kieran’s career in tattooing and Derek opening a sex club, which was still bizarre to think about after knowing him as a highly successful corporate lawyer. His mum had done a bit of a number on both of them, it seemed. She wasn’t someone they spoke about, and the subject of Derek introducing Kieran to some doms hadn’t come up again either. He was probably waiting for Kieran to raise it. He wondered if Derek had trained those guys, and the thought turned him on. If he couldn’t have Derek the way he wanted, then having a guy who’d been trained by him would be the next best thing. When he’d said that to Hassan, his best friend had pissed himself laughing, which wasn’t helpful. He was hoping his stepdad crush would pass soon, even if Sarah kept asking how “Project Daddy” was coming along!
“What are you doing?” asked Jez, yanking Kieran out of his thoughts.
“I’ve got a client in ten minutes.”
“Well, clean your station up instead of standing around doing fuck all.”
“My station’s clean.”
“Don’t fucking start with me. I don’t need your shit today. Just do something instead of standing around. When Mr Kincaid comes in, send him straight back to my office,” he snapped before storming off.
His boss being an arsehole wasn’t unusual, but he wasclose to blowing his fuse right now and thinking “fuck it” and getting a new job. He could live off his savings for a few months if he had to. No job was worth being made to feel like shit all the time. But Kieran’s mood switched from anger to fear in a nanosecond. The mention of Grant had stopped him.
He was coming into the shop? What was he supposed to do? He’d been ignoring the man’s messages and calls for the last two weeks. Was there a way Kieran could stay out of sight while he was with his client? The shop wasn’t big, and there were only two other tattooists plus Jez. Kieran’s station had a faux wall which didn’t go all the way to the ceiling, but gave the client some privacy. The tattooist could be seen if you were looking, though, and he suspected Grant would look. Before he could come up with a plan, the door opened behind him.
Please be my client. Please be my client.
“Well, well, well. Look who it is,” said a familiar Scouse accent.
“Mr Kincaid,” said Kieran, turning round with a smile. “Jez said for you to go straight through to his office.”
“He can wait. I want to talk to you, Kieran.”
“What about?”
“Yeah, that faux innocence doesn’t really work for me, Kieran. You promised me a date, and yet you’ve been ignoring me.”
“I’m sorry, I’ve just had a lot going on.”
“Anything I can help with?”
“No, just work stuff, you know.”
“What work stuff?” he asked with a frown.
What was he supposed to say? Kieran didn’t know what Grant’s relationship with Jez was. The last thing he wanted to do was slag his boss off and annoy either of them any more than he already had.
“Nothing to worry about,” said Kieran. That was a safe response.
“Let me be the judge of that, Kieran. I want my employees to be happy, so if something or someonehas upset you, I need to know about it.”
“Did you just sayyour employees?”
“Yes. I own this shop. Jez runs it for me.”
How did he not know that? Nobody else had mentioned it. Why would Grant Kincaid have a tattoo shop in the city? From what Kieran had found out from his extensive online research– on some dodgy websites– this wasn’t a typical business for Grant.
“It’s nothing to do with work,” said Kieran.
“There’s one thing I hate more than anything, Kieran, and that’s people lying to me. Are you going to tell me what’s going on, or do I need to speak to Jez?”
“No, please don’t speak to Jez.”
