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“Everlyyyyyy,” Stanton squealed, “yessssss.” His long fingers clamped down on her shoulder, and he gave her an excited shake.
“That’s killer.” Logan’s voice was soft as it filled her ears from over her shoulder.
Sady waved her hands. “Wait, wait.” She squinted at Logan. “Lean closer to Everly and say that again. Without your camera blocking your face.” Then she turned to Joe. “Make sure to zoom in.”
Everly’s stomach clenched. Was Sady reallystaginga moment between her and Logan? Actually, not even staging,redoing.As if the reality hadn’t been good enough.
She peeked at Logan, wondering if he felt the same. But he was smiling, pride in his eyes. He leaned down, so close she could feel the soft bristles of his beard sweep her cheek. “That’s killer.” The roughness in his voice danced down Everly’s spine. If he wasn’t bothered, then maybe she shouldn’t be either.
Besides, in the grand scheme of things, this was better than Sady making stuff up. God, imagine the scenarios she’d concoct. Everly twisted toward Goro again before she let that thought go further.
He picked up a stylus and traced the lines of her drawing. “I hear this is your first tattoo.”
“It is.”
“Why now?”
Everly fought the urge to shrug. This was another opportunity to show the viewers who she was. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do forever, but I couldn’t figure out exactly what to get. Tattoos tell a story, and I feel like I’m just starting to understand what mine is.” She watched the screen as Goro’s pen flashed across it, faster than should be possible. “Or maybe it’s more that I’m only now figuring out what I want it to be, thanks to this show.” Out of the corner of her eye, Stanton’s smile was brighter than a firework. “It’s been… I don’t know… really freeingto think that I can be whoever I want. That all I have to do is make it happen.”
Goro sat back and stared at the image “Freedom.” He tapped the corner of the screen. “Like this.”
She nodded.
He didn’t blink for a whole minute as he studied the series of thick black lines. “This is a great start. But I feel like you can tell your story even more clearly with a few more details.” Pressing down on his stylus, he erased the open door and drew a new one, closed, at the center of the cage. “What if they’re breaking out of the bars, instead of through the door?” In the gap left behind by the original door, he etched a series of bent, broken bars, curling them away from the last bird, still half in the cage, about to make his escape. Another bird carried a piece of metal in its talon.
Everly’s heart squeezed. There was something beautiful in the violence of it. A reminder that change never came easy, but that it was worth it in the end.
It was exactly the first story she wanted to tell on her skin.
“You should mention to Goro you want to do tattoos, not just get one.”
Logan lowered the laughably large menu in front of him, seeking out Everly’s gaze with his intense blue eyes.
She forced herself to meet them, though his stare always felt like being pinned under a spotlight.
Nowhere to hide. Every part of her on display.
Thankfully, the restaurant’s sound system was booming out classic rock, making it hard to focus on anything other than some guy screaming about pouring sugar on him. Neon lights danced from gaudy signs on the walls, and TVs flashed music videos from decades ago.
It was all, quite frankly, amazing.
When Logan had asked if she wanted to go for lunch before she headed back to Monmouth Cove, she’d been almost embarrassed to request they go to Sparky’s. A chain restaurant where the aesthetic of Planet Hollywood met a menu of Cheesecake Factory proportions, it was not exactly fine dining. But she loved places where, if she wanted, she could order potstickers and lasagna at the same time. There was no pretension.
Still, most people thought Sparky’s was tacky. And Logan’s gruff demeanor didn’t exactly scream “loves restaurants with an overabundance of flair and three pages’ worth of appetizers.”
Hence her shock when he’d agreed. “God, I love that place,” he said. “Where else can you order four different kinds of egg rolls, with fillings from four different cuisines?”
Now they were poring over the menu, trying to determine how many appetizers was too many.
Everly’s eyes dropped to her left forearm. Already, she could imagine her tattoo there, that first bird, in full flight, wrapped partially over the front of her arm. “I know. I meant to tell him my plans today, but then I chickened out.”
“Why?” Logan’s eyes drilled into her. This man should have been a detective or something. He could draw confessions out of people with nothing but a quiet stare.
“Because he’s a fucking master and who am I to tell him I want to do what he does?”
“We all have to start somewhere. I didn’t burst out of my mother’s womb already understanding camera angles and focal lengths.”
Everly waved her hand in front of her, batting the words about. “This is more like me waking up one day and deciding I’m going to write horror stories and then driving to Maine to find Stephen King and ask him to mentor me.”
