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I show Rose the idea on my phone, my Pinterest board full of designs and know that in her style, she can make it look amazing. She nods, takes the time to sketch out my idea, and then asks where I want it. That is easy, I want it to be the start of a sleeve so she preps my left arm and I put in some headphones while she gets ready.
I know some people like the sound of the tattoo gun, fuck some people even find it relaxing, but I don’t. It is enough to make me feel like my skin was going to fall off or something. So I am grateful I never go to the city without my AirPods and pop them in. I turn up the music all the way and close my eyes. I can still hear some sounds, but I try to tune everything out as best as I can. Rose goes to work, every so often I’ll open my eyes just to watch her work. She is beautiful and you can tell how good she is at her job without having to see the tattoos.
By the time I’ve played through my playlist a few times, she taps on my opposite shoulder and I pause the music. She tells me I’m done and I immediately want to jump up and look, but instead I ask her to grab Dylan first. Since she is paying for it, she should see my face when I see the tattoo.
“What’s up? Rose said you needed me?” Dylan rushes to my side not even looking at the tattoo.
“I wanted you to see the look on my face when I saw it for the first time. It only seems right,” I explain.
“Oh.” Dylan smiles and nods. So I carefully get down from the chair and walk over to the mirror.
“Oh my gosh! It’s perfect,” I exclaim.
“Are those your favorite flowers?” Dylan asks.
“No, they’re the birth flowers for my sister, my brother, my parents, and my niece,” I say proudly. I want to wear my favorite people on me at all times and now, thanks to Dylan, I can.
“Oh wow.” Dylan admires the piece even more.
I don’t know what comes over me next, but I pull Dylan toward me and before I can overthink it, I kiss her. Our lips meshing together like they have a billion times before in public, but this time is different. Because this time it is just for us and we know it. If only we knew what the hell it means for us.
Chapter13
Bella
When Dylan takes me to a work party the next week, I’m feeling a little more anxious than normal. I think because of what happened the last time, it’s put me a bit on edge. Besides the kiss at the tattoo shop that neither of us have brought up. Despite the fact that I moved my stuff into her apartment this week. We’ve both gone radio silent about anything but being fake lovers. The word fake slipping from her lips more than I’ve ever noticed before. We don’t dare kiss again and we definitely don’t bring up how it felt to kiss for real.
But maybe it wasn’t as real to her as it felt to me. Maybe with Rose there, it was just another display kiss and she’s not thinking twice about it like I am. But this is the company’s annual holiday party and I know there is no way I can get out of it. Besides, I want to be there for Dylan in every capacity. We’re doing a lap around the room before she spots Lucy. But when I see Morgan on her arm, my heart stops. Shit, my heart races and I begin to panic. Morgan won’t say anything about what we talked about, will she? I hope she won’t give anything away. We make our way over to them and smile as we make introductions.
“Dylan, this is Morgan. Morgan, this is my friend and co-worker, Dylan,” Lucy introduces us.
“Hey, Bella.” Morgan smiles.
“Hey, I didn’t know you were coming tonight,” I say anxiously.
“It was a last minute surprise, I didn’t want to come alone,” Lucy explains, wrapping her arm around Morgan’s waist.
“Why don’t you introduce me to some people?” Morgan suggests to Lucy who happily smiles.
“We’ll catch up later.” Morgan smiles at Dylan and I.
“Are you okay?” Dylan looks at me, raising an eyebrow.
“I just didn’t realize Morgan was coming tonight is all.” I shrug.
“Is this like what happened with your other friend?”
“No, I ,uh, actually told my friends the truth about us. I hope that was okay.”
“Of course. As long as your friend doesn’t tell Lucy, I think it shouldn’t be a problem. Obviously she’s a very trustworthy friend.” Dylan smiles, and I nod.
“She’s one of my very best friends.”
“Then don’t give it a second thought.” She smiles.
DYLAN
As much as I want to think about the kiss that happened last week, I don’t. I push it as far out of my mind as it can possibly go. Because Isabella hasn’t brought it up once, and I think if either one of us were to bring it up, we’d be unable to continue this. She’d have to go back to Madame Angelica, where she would probably be fired and I wouldn’t be able to hang out with Isabella anymore. At least in the way that we currently are, where I’m her client. So I don’t think about the kiss, even though it was the highlight of my week. I don’t dissect the kiss to figure out what the hell it means and why Isabella kissed me. I don’t. Except the back of my mind is running rampant of all the possibilities. Because one way or another, I think it means that Isabella feels this undeniable chemistry that I’ve been feeling from the start.
