A Summer to Remember(66)
“Cool! Come on, let’s go up to my suite where Nil and Loire can get started.”
I loved that about Talia because she could always raise my spirits no matter how dark they ventured and no one would ever be able to take her place.
I had suddenly forgotten I was supposed to be pissed at Paul and all I could think about now centered on a potential tattoo. I was about to get inked for the first time and way too excited about it!
“So, Nil, is it? That short for something else?” I inquired as he began to ink in the outline form of my tattoo.
It would eventually become a black rose in full bloom with a closed rose next to it. It was coming out as beautiful as I thought it would be and was arranged directly above my left pelvic bone.
“Nope. It’s Catalan. At least Seth ended up with a nice American name but I got one from the old country thanks to our mother.” He finally said as he began to ink Paul’s name in cursive; it was intricate work and hurt like a bastard because the needle was placed directly on my pelvic bone but I didn’t care.
Talia breathed in deep before she swallowed another shot of Jack Daniels. Her tattoo—which Loire was doing, consisted of the whole name—Winter’s Regret mid-back with thorns separating the two words. Underneath, her nickname, Tal, would be added in cursive.
“Are you the younger of the two?” I asked just to take my mind off the tremendous amount of pain.
“By thirty-five minutes…we’re fraternal twins. Hence the reason why my eyes are blue and his are that grayish-green color. I inherited my eye color directly from our paternal grandmother while he got our mother’s eye coloring. Our dad’s eyes are brown.”
“Interesting.” I practiced breathing exercises because after three shots of JD, my head was spinning and I didn’t think I needed another. “What made you want to become a tattoo artist?”
“Both Seth and I have always been artistically inclined. I was good with drawing and portraits…he was good with a guitar and had a great set of pipes. In the end everything worked out.”
“I think that is the most I have ever heard you talk to a client, Nil.” Loire looked up from her design at her fellow colleague and I could feel the sparks between them.
She had the most gorgeous yellow-gold eyes I’d ever seen and although she wasn’t inked anywhere I could see, I knew she must have had some. What tattoo artist didn’t?
“Jerrica is easy to talk to, Loire, and beats a lot of our clientele which happens to be made up of vacuous celebrities who always want some intricate tattoo in Chinese or Japanese that means absolute nonsense.”
I laughed out loud. “How do you know?”
“I spent two years in Asia…a long time ago. I was f*cked up most of the time…high on heroin, marijuana, and booze. I spent almost a year in Bangkok but I kept visiting China and Japan too. I learned enough about both languages to know that when the idiots come in and want something exotic, most of what they have brought me is gibberish and I refuse to ruin my reputation over bullshit. I give them a choice: they can allow me to tattoo on the correct phrase or they can find someone else to f*ck up their body because it won’t be me.”
I laughed and for the first time realized I’d been doing a lot of that since I arrived at my best friend’s suite.
“Do you really think it is the smartest idea to get a tattoo the night you have to play a show?” I asked Talia.
“What the hell are you talking about? It’s the best time to get one. I will be in so much pain, I won’t have time to be nervous. Besides, Seth insisted I get mine done before I can do the first gig.”
“Seriously?”
“Well, technically being part of Winter’s Regret is like being in a gang. You’re not ‘officially’ a member until you have your ink.”
I turned toward my best friend and looked at her with exaggerated annoyance. “You are kidding, right?”
Loire laughed out loud. “Does she look like she’s kidding?”
“No, she doesn’t,” I answered back.
“Anyway, I want to do this. No one made me join the band and a couple of the *s, specifically Linx and Niko, would rather not have a woman in the band. They say it messes up the dynamics of the group especially if fans were to find out Seth and I were an item. It’s been tough these last few weeks but I can handle myself and I don’t need Seth to save me. We all grew up in the same tough Boston neighborhood—believe me, I know how to handle myself around them.”