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Taking a deep breath, I hop up on the chair, my feet now dangling several inches above the ground. Conrad comes behind me and gathers my hair in his hands, being sure that it is out of my face like Drew instructed. He kisses my shoulder as Drew washes his hands at the counter and gloves up.
“I can feel your pulse on my hands,” Conrad whispers in my ear. His hands remain against my neck as I sit and wait. I’m sure he can feel my rapid pulse because I can sure hear it.
Turning toward him, I whisper, “Maybe I’m a little nervous.”
Drew turns to me with the alcohol wipe in hand. “Ready?”
I nod. He approaches and stands between my legs, the outer part of his thigh touching my inner ones.
“I need to clean the area, then I’ll just poke the hole and put the stud in. No need to worry. It’s a fairly fast process.” As he cleans my left nostril, he moves in close enough that I can feel his body heat.
Conrad’s hands on my shoulders tense, and I know he is having an issue with how close Drew is. “You need to stand that close to her?” he asks through clenched teeth.
Drew continues his task. “I’m happily married, dude. Trust me, I’ve never been inappropriate with a client and don’t plan to. I see enough tits and pussies in this line of business. Your girl’s nose piercing isn’t going to have me break my vows.”
My shoulders shake with a silent laugh. Reaching up, I pat Conrad’s hand. “No need to worry, sweetie,” I comfort him with a soothing voice as if he were a child.
Once Drew is satisfied with his cleaning of my nose, he grabs the needle and clamp. “Okay, I’m going to have you take a deep breath but don’t release it until I say so.” After I nod, he positions the clamp on my nostril. It stings a little from the pressure, but nothing like what I think the needle going through my nose is going to feel like. “All right, inhale.” I do as he says. “Now release it.” As I let go of the breath, he pushes the needle through my cartilage. The motion is fast enough that I barely register what happened.
“Wait, was that it?” I ask as he removes the clamp and picks the small cork up.
Drew nods. “Yeah, but don’t move. You have a needle through your nose and I need to put the jewelry in.” He focuses on his task as I try to remain calm after he tells me there is a needle sticking through my nose.
Once he is finished, Drew hands me a mirror to check it out. I smile when I see the small diamond stud that now resides on my face. While I thought it looked good on the Snapchat filter, that doesn’t do the piercing justice. It’s dainty and feminine, adding a certain shift to my look.
“Fuck, that’s hot, baby,” Conrad lets out from behind me. Tilting my head to the side, I have to agree with him. It is hot.
Turning so we’re face to face, I smile at him. “Do I look badass now?”
Conrad laughs and wraps his arm around my shoulder, kissing the side of my head. “For sure, a badass. Now all we have to do is get you a leather jacket and motorcycle.”
Drew puts together a care package for me with instructions, soap, his business card, and a coupon. After he dismisses us and begins cleaning his station, Conrad stops before crossing the threshold.
“Hey, you have time for another piercing?” he asks Drew. My eyebrows shoot up.
Drew pauses his task and looks at the clock. “Yeah, I can fit you in. What’re you looking to get?”
Conrad thinks for a second. “Just my ears.”
Wrapping my hand around his upper arm, I squeeze. “You’re joking, right? Why would you want your ears pierced?” Never once in the more than seven months I have known him has Conrad said he wanted any kind of piercing. Although I could say the same about me with my new nose stud.
Conrad lifts his shoulders. “Dunno. Now that I’m not under my dad’s control, seems like a good idea to do something rebellious that he would hate.”
My heart clenches thinking about Conrad not being able to live his life as freely as he would want to because of a controlling father who is there to throw in his opinions and rules. “I think you’d look hot with a couple studs in your ears.” Reaching up on my tiptoes, I kiss his stubbled cheek, being sure not to smoosh my nose.
“All right, come have a seat,” Drew instructs, and I position myself behind Conrad the same way he was there for me.
29
CONRAD
My impulse control is nonexistent apparently. Never have I thought about getting a piercing or a tattoo, yet here I am in a tattoo shop, having a man poke a hole into each of my ears. The spontaneous decision could be a result of the news I received this morning about why my Amex card was declined not only at the cafeteria but also at the grocery store last night. My fucking father already removed me as a user.
While I did stress for a moment about the loss of unlimited funds, I remembered that part of my trust fund kicked in when I graduated from high school, so I have enough to remain comfortable at the moment. Howard already paid my school in full, which I am sure he is kicking himself about right now, and my car was a high school graduation present, so the only monthly payment I have to deal with for that is the insurance.
My father may have thought he could control me by taking away his money, but the trust fund my grandfather—his father—set up for each of us grandkids made sure that neither of our parents would ever be able to control it. I haven’t touched a penny of that money and never planned to, so I had put half of it in different stocks to accrue interest. The other half I had planned to invest once I graduated and started making my way into the business world.
Getting a piercing would be a great “fuck you” to Howard Dugray. Potentially getting a tattoo would be an even bigger “fuck you,” which is why I was debating it while looking through Levi’s artist’s portfolio. Camden and I are the only ones of our roommates who don’t have tattoos, and while I haven’t exactly considered getting one, the guy’s work interested me.
