Nina |18+|

02

THEO

"Why are you nervous?" Brian asked, entering the room with a coffee cup and an unlit cigarette in the same hand.

I stopped bouncing my knee the second he pointed it out, completely unaware that I was doing it in the first place. I didn't bother answering his question—because really, why was I anxious? I had no reason to be.

"Don't smoke that in here," I murmured, adding a few touch-ups on the sketch of Nina's tattoo. "I have a client coming in half an hour."

I stared at the design, tapping the end of my pen against my lips. It looked fine to me, but I had this unnerving hope that Nina would think it was more than just fine.

I took a deep breath in, unable to decide if I should add more shade for extra depth. I changed my mind—it didn't need any. Pausing, I pulled the sketchbook away from me and tried to envision it on her body. On her ribs. How the ink would look on her skin tone.

I licked my lower lip, narrowing my eyes at the paper.

I spoke to her for all of fifteen minutes, and suddenly I cared more about her thoughts than any of my long-term customers.

How?

"You think nothing of me," Brian replied, sitting down next to me. He did his designs on a computer, while I preferred the more traditional way.

I scoffed, setting the book back down. I glanced at the clock, seeing that I truly had thirty minutes before Nina arrived.

"Speaking of clients," Brian started, taking a loud slurp of his coffee. "Is that why you're all tense?"

I looked at him with a bored expression. "No. Go sit somewhere else. You're distracting me."

Brian smirked, not taking my words to heart. "Let me see."

I thought about it for a moment before showing him the sketch.

"Pretty," he commented, nodding his head in approval. "Where's it going?"

"Rib," I replied, and Brian hissed through his teeth while his nose scrunched. I chuckled—that was the exact same mental reaction that I had when Nina told me where she wanted it.

"Does she know you might hit bone?" Brian asked, putting his cigarette between his lips.

With a glare from me, he took it out and set it behind his ear. I didn't need the place smelling like cigarette smoke—especially when it took ages to get rid of it.

"I made her known," I said, giving up and choosing to change anything in the design if Nina wanted me to.

"Have you heard anything from Rory?" I asked, changing the subject because I didn't want to discuss any more of my clients with Brian.

"Who's that?" he asked, and my face dropped.

He raised his hands, laughing slightly. "I'm kidding. He'll have new equipment delivered tomorrow. I made sure of it."

I nodded, not bothering to say anything else. Brian always had a way of making me talk more than I wanted to, but I guess it was inevitable considering that it was usually just the two of us and Alice—body piercer and receptionist. But she'd been on maternity leave for a while and I didn't bother finding a replacement in the meantime.

"Okay, I'm off," Brian said, giving me a tap on my shoulder. He was a tattoo artist by day and a bartender by night. I was a tattoo artist by night, and a student by day.

It was hard, and my schedules always clashed but I managed to make it work. Just about.

"Good luck," he said, smirking as he finished his coffee. I scoffed, leaning back into my seat as I tapped the pen on the paper.