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I swallow hard. I don’t know how much to tell him. “He doesn’t know and neither does she.” I decide to go with a version of the truth.
“You plan on telling either of them?”
“Yes.”
“It’s a slippery slope, brother,” he says, going back to work.
“Fuck, Legend, I know, okay. I know it is, but I fucking love the hell out of her. I can’t not tell her, and I’m scared as fuck we’re both going to lose him over this.”
“You prepared for that?”
“Yes.”
“No hesitation?”
“None. I’m prepared to leave the business if that’s what it comes down to.”
“Whoa.” He stops and looks up at me. “Those are big declarations.”
“Did you miss the part where I admitted I was in love with her?”
He’s still staring at me with his mouth hanging open.
“Years of hard work and sacrifice went into this business. A lifetime of friendship.”
“Fuck me, I know all of that. I know what we went through to get where we are today. I know it’s going to fuck up the dynamics if he wants me out. I hate it, but if I’m put in a position where I have to choose Everlasting Ink or her, I choose her. Every fucking day, all day long, I choose her.”
“This isn’t new, is it?”
I swallow hard. “No.”
“Have you crossed a line with her?”
“Depends on which line you’re talking about.”
“You fucked her?”
“Don’t.” My tone is low and lethal. “Don’t you dare talk about her like she’s some woman we picked up at a bar. She’s fucking everything to me. And if you want all the sordid details, no I didn’t have sex with her, but we’ve… been together intimately.”
Once I start talking, I can’t shut up. I spill it all to him. I tell him how I resisted her, or tried to, and then just couldn’t anymore. I tell him about our plan to wait until she graduated, and I tell him how I fucked it all up because the thought of her losing her brother, of her relationship with me causing her pain, was tearing me up inside.
“I had her. I lost her, and now I need her back. I’ll do anything. I’d give up anything to make things right with her.”
“Damn,” Legend mutters. “Is she not coming home because of all of this?”
“She’s had a class that’s been kicking her ass, so I think it’s a little bit of both.”
“And her blowing Forrest off?”
“I think she’s mad at him, or frustrated because of the speech he gave me, which, in turn, led to us breaking up.”
“But you still talk?”
“Used to be every day, then she set this stupid fucking rule that it had to be at least every other day on the phone. But we text every day, yeah.”
“And now you’re getting ink over your heart that she drew?” It’s more of a question than a statement.
“Yep.”
