“Don’t touch anything, unless you’re told so. Don’t piss off the boss, and don’t eat eggs in here,” he’d said, pointing at Seth, before he turned around and walked out. I stared after him until the door shut behind him and Seth cleared his throat.
“Hi, I’m yours—I mean, I’m Seth. Avery.”His cheeks turned a little pink as he grinned and stretched out his hand towards me. And I had no other choice but to grab it.
And the rest is, as they say, history.
Seth followed me around until I got sick of him.
And then I got used to him.
And now he’s basically a part of me.
Kit swirls around, casting a glance at Seth. “The truck’s back on Thursday.”
“Yeah—”
“In one piece.”
Seth shoots him a wink, and Kit sighs before he marches out.
“How’d it go today?” Iggy asks as we dump the food on the coffee table.
It’s Tuesday which means tacos, according to Seth. He introduced—and forced us into to—Taco Tuesday some years ago.
Not hating it.
We used to hit a new place almost every week, but when COVID hit, we started bringing the food here instead. It’s always just Iggy, Seth and I, though. Diaz laughed his ass off when Seth asked if he wanted to join in and Kit didn’t even answer. Just gave him one of his usual tired looks, raised an eyebrow and walked off.
“I finished the back piece,” I say, unwrapping my taco.
“Oh, no,” she cries, leaning back on the couch, hitting me with those brown puppy eyes. “Can’t believe I missed it. Did you see it?” She turns to Seth.
“Oh, man, it was sick!” he exclaims, throwing his head back, eyes closed. Definitely overdoing it only to rile her up.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were finishing it today?” She smacks my arm, almost making me drop my taco.
“The hell?” I wipe some sauce off my pants. “Calm down, crazy. I took pics.”
“What about you?” she asks Seth.
“Only had a small one today.”
Iggy sighs, picking out a pickled onion from her food. “Fucking COVID.”
We all nod in agreement, because even though people are more than willing to get tattoos now that we’ve opened up again, Kit’s been keeping the rules of not letting in more than two customers at a time, but preferably only one. Which means we usually have to schedule around each other. And with Jude coming in today for his last sitting, that meant Seth only had time for a small one.
Sometimes it makes me feel a little guilty. I know Kit and the rest of them wouldn’t mind loosening all the restrictions, and I know Kit keeps them for me. Because I’m not ready, and he knows that.
“Well, my date went straight to hell last night,” Iggy says. “I’m swearing off boys now. You’re shit. I’m sorry but it’s true,” she adds, looking between me and Seth.
“What happened?” Seth asks around a bite.
“I don’t even want to talk about it. Just know: men are shit.”
Seth and I share a look.
“How’s it going with your stalker, by the way?” Iggy says then, looking at Seth.
“My stalker?” he frowns.
