Page 58 of 10 Things I Hate About Zombies

‘Sorry about that,’ said Joaquin as they changed out the cartridge on the pen. ‘I’m used to moving around the shop, and this set-up is all different. Ready?’

Always.

Nick rolled up his sleeve. ‘Toad me up.’

Zoey frowned. ‘Wait, aren’t you Frog?’

‘Obviously,’ said Nick. ‘But you’re Toad. And I like the idea of having you right here, always.’

Zoey flushed.

Joaquin set to work, the tattoo pen buzzing as they outlined the image of Toad that Nick had pulled up on his phone, then painstakingly coloured it in until Nick’s wrist bore a perfect representation of a reading Toad.

‘I love it,’ said Nick, as Joaquin wiped down his arm, then applied a clear plastic adhesive to protect the freshly inked skin.

‘You know the rules of tattoo care, right?’ Joaquin cast an eye over Nick’s heavily inked arms. ‘Of course you do. Anyone who goes to see my man Remy in San Diego knows to avoid gangrene.’

Nick patted the Lucy tattoo. ‘I waited eighteen months for that appointment, but it was worth it.’

They chitchatted about Nick’s tattoos a little longer, but Nick cut things short when he could see Zoey starting to get antsy.

‘Zoey? You’re up, if you want to be. No pressure.’

Zoey hesitated. Then, to Nick’s surprise, she squared her shoulders.

‘Okay,’ she said, at last.

She took a seat on Joaquin’s table, rubbing at her wrist, where the last remnants of the temporary tattoo darkened her skin.

‘Frog me,’ she said, pointing to the image on Nick’s phone.

Joaquin set up the pen and prepared to start work. But as the buzzing implement neared her skin, Zoey scooted away, just about tumbling off the table in her determination to escape.

‘Sorry.’ She shook her head so frantically that her unruly hair slipped from her ponytail. ‘I can’t. Not now. I … have to get back to the stand.’

I HATE THE WAY THEY INTERRUPT

16

Zoey

‘Well, I for one am impressed,’ Ainsley had said from the depths of the sharehouse couch when Zoey had explained the whole Frog and Toad tattoo situation in the wake of InkWell. ‘Saying yes to a couple’s tattoo and then chickening out after the other person has committed is a serious power move.’

‘Remind me never to fuck with Zoey,’ said Peta idly, as she swung through the kitchen with a box full of googly eyes to go on her Little Free Library. After a few lucrative vintage-tech eBay sales and something dodgy-sounding regarding a LEGO minifigure exchange, construction was back on.

Zoey sipped anxiously from a glass of Ainsley’s latest horrible wine purchase. Disgusting, but perfect for the self-flagellating mood she was presently in. ‘It wasn’t like that. I just … it’s a tattoo! It’ll be on me for life!’

Ainsley shrugged. ‘So? It’s just ink. It’s not like it’s marriage papers. It’s a shared memory. And if it ends horribly, you can get a massive cover-up. Like June’s neck piece.’

Zoey cocked her head. ‘Wait, that’s a cover-up?’

‘Used to say carnivore before the whole vegan thing. You know she’s from Texas, right? From a barbecue-restaurant dynasty. She paid some reputation-preservation company a fortune to wipe all reference of that from the internet. But your girl has her ways.’ Ainsley waggled an eyebrow.

This was excellent future potential blackmail material, Zoey supposed. But her main concern right now was whether Nick had soured on their … whatever it was that was going on between them. He’d been responding to her texts all week in his usual cheerful manner, but Zoey couldn’t help but feel that there was a sort of aura of distance behind them. He’d left one of her messages on read for a solid hour before responding.

Ainsley clapped her hands, snapping Zoey out of her maudlin musings. ‘Zoey, are you looking at read receipts again? He doesn’t hate you. No man who looks at you like that hates you. Besides …’

Zoey snatched up her phone. ‘Tell me you haven’t texted him again. Because I’m on my last wish here.’