Calmly, Carefully, Completely(102)

“Are all the marines gone?” Paul asks. He looks down at me to check for my reaction, I assume.

“Yeah, only one of them wanted a tat,” she says. She comes around to look at my shoulder. I hear her draw in a breath.

“Shh,” Paul says shushing her.

“What?” I ask.

“Nothing,” she says, but her voice cracks, and she wipes a tear from her eye.

“Did he put some boobs on me or something?” I ask. Now I’m really worried.

“Did you draw that?” she asks Logan. She goes and wraps her arms around his chest. He nods and kisses her forehead. “You did a really good job,” she says.

“Hey, I shaded it,” I say.

“All done,” Paul says. And he turns the gun off and lays it down. He swipes some lotion across the tattoo and washes it, then pulls me up by my elbows and points me toward the mirror. “What do you think?” he asks.

He watches my face closely. Paul does that a lot. You don’t have to speak for him to know how you’re feeling.

I turn my back to the mirror, and I see the work of art he’s created. He drew the daisy, and he’s colored it with my colors. It’s reaching toward a shaft of sunlight from behind bars. That part is exactly what I expected. But at the base of the daisy, Maggie lays with her head balanced on the lower petals, just like she used to balance it on my knee. She’s perfect in all her black-and-white glory, and the eyes sparkle, just like hers did. A sob builds in my throat. “I love it,” I croak out. “It’s perfect.”

Paul reaches for me slowly, careful not to scare with me with his slow movements, and he pulls me to his chest. I wrap my arms around him, and he closes my open shirt behind me with his fingers and draws me close into him. He strokes a hand down the back of my head. “You’re welcome,” he says. I see Logan give him a thumbs-up.

“Thank you, Logan,” I say. I look in the mirror again. It’s truly perfect.

“Next time, we’ll do one without bars,” Paul says as he sets me back and looks into my eyes.

I nod. “Next time,” I say. For the first time since the assault, I feel like my cage is slowly being unlocked.

Paul still has his arms wrapped around me when the curtain opens and Pete sticks his head into the area. He’s grinning until he sees me wrapped up in Paul’s arms. “You guys should put up a sign so I know there’s something intimate going on back here,” he says. He looks at me closely and scowls when he sees me wipe my eyes. “What the f*ck did you do to her?” he asks.

He walks forward, and Paul lets me go. Pete tips my chin up. “Are you all right?” he asks. He’s worried, and I both hate and love that he is.

“I’m fine,” I say. Logan, Emily, and Paul leave the area and close the curtain. I turn my back so Pete can see my new tattoo. “See what I got?” I ask. I pull my ponytail to the side so his view is unobstructed.

“Woah,” he says. “That’s f*cking fantastic,” he says. His fingertips tickle across my skin, very lightly outlining the area where Maggie has been immortalized. “Logan drew her, didn’t he?” he asks.

“Yeah, but I did the shading, and Paul drew the flower and stuff.”

“I can tell his work from a mile away,” Pete says.

Suddenly, there’s a movement down by my belly. I look down. Pete’s lap is moving? “Seriously, Pete,” I say. “This is not the place.” He chuckles and drops onto a sofa. The hand warmer of his hoodie is wiggling, moving up and down.