The Artist - 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐨 𝐅𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐓𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐧

𝕿𝖜𝖔

"Maybe I should get a new one that screams 'I'm gay'" Joaquin tells me annoyed after another female costumer left not without leaving her phone number. I walk to him and try to put my arm around his shoulders but he's to tall so I settle for his waist. "But then we wouldn't have so much female costumers anymore." I tell him jokingly. "Oh I think we have enough guys salivating after you in this studio." He tells me and I furrow my brows at his statement. "I dunno the last guy I tattooed asked me if you were my boyfriend." He rolls his eyes at me and sits down letting me sit on one of his leg. "Of course he did because you're a little hottie and he was trying to check if you were in a relationship duh." "Oh." Sudden realization dawns on me. I thought he asked me because he was interested in Joaquin. "We still have his number in the books I could call him up and-" "No! I will not go on a date anymore who's company you chose, we talked about this J." I tell him quickly interrupting his sentence. He hugs me and lays his cheek on my shoulder. "Okay okay but don't you want to go out on the weekends sometime? Liam and I planned to check this club out on Saturday if you want to join us?" His eyes shimmer hopefully at me and the question sounds more like a demand making me chuckle. "I'm fine J, maybe I'll buy the book that girl recommended fill me up a glass with fine wine.." I let the image pop up in my head and sigh how I love the weekends but there are still today and tomorrow left. "This is such a my husband left me, gone girl vibe." He tells me and I hit his shoulder standing up. "I'll get my stuff from the back Khadijha sent me some things I should sketch for her." I tell him grinning and take a run when I see him stand up to chase after me. I quickly lock the door right in his face and giggle. "Don't you think you're going to get away with that hit!" He tells me jokingly. "Keep on dreaming loser!" I yell back and turn around to look for my bag. When I find it under a mountain of shirts from Joaquin I grab the papers out of it and unlock the door. I look down at the sketches which turned out pretty good, she told me she wanted some butterflies on her arm. It would be her first colored tattooo and I want to make it perfectly for her. "Maybe I should tattoo a big dick so everyone knows you li-" "April we have costumers." Joaquin interrupts me and I look up in horror from my sketches. At first I meet Joaquins grinning face at my embarrassing remark. Khadijha starts to laugh loudly while the brunette girl joins her. My eyes wander to the last person standing between the two girls. His hands are buried deep in his pockets as he tries to make his tall frame a bit smaller by stepping behind the girls. His lips are stretched into a small grin making dimples appear in his cheeks. His eyes are trained on the floor making his lashes almost hit his cheekbones while his dark hair is a stark contrast to his pale skin. "You are.." are the first words that stumble out of my mouth while I look at the handsome stranger. He trains his blue eyes on me when he hears my voice. He throws a confused glance at Khadijha a mask of disappointment taking over his face. Why is he disappointed? I clear my throat awkwardly and take a step towards them. "You were not supposed to hear that." I mumble as my cheeks heat up but no one gets the chance to comment on that when Khadijha pulls me in for a bone crushing hug. "I missed you so much March!" She exclaims and I hug her back and roll my eyes at Joaquin who bullies me for her nicknames. She releases me and takes a step back gesturing to her two friends. "This is Inanna." The girl stretches out her hand for me to shake and I give her a smile. "And this is Hero." The tall guy gives me a short nod not making any eye contact. Well, screw you too. Why are the handsome ones always so rude. "Nice meeting you." I tell them both but just look at Inanna. "This is Joaquin, my future husband." She jokes and J puts his arm around her shoulder and lets out a small "You wish." I chuckle at their behavior. She needs to come by more often it's good to see her. Then she gestures to me "And this is April for you, for me she's every month name I feel like." She tells her friends. Inanna chuckles and rolls her eyes at her behavior. "What brought you here into our little studio in LA?" I ask her not knowing why she's even in Cali. "Business we all work together in the Film industry." She says not going into deeper detail because she knows I don't really know anything about these kinda things. "And here I hoped you were in LA just to see me." I tell her sarcastically and she pushes my shoulder rolling her eyes. I smile and change the topic "Should I start on your tattoo my sketches are finished and it's going to take a while this time because it's going to be in color?" I ask her and she nods eagerly excitement showing in her face. "Hero over there needed a bit convincing but he wants one too!" She says excitedly. I nod and give him a short glance, his eyes are trained on me intently. "You already got something on your mind?" I ask him now directly. "Yes it's a word I want to get." He says and my brows shoot up in surprise when I detect his British accent. I nod and look to Joaquin to indicate for him to take over Hero's tattoo but before I can open my mouth he says something. "Why don't you take Hero it's his first tattoo your definitely better in that department Khadijha already got tattoos in my style." He says and Khadijha looks at him confused. He grabs the sketches out of my hands aggressively and gives her a meaningful look. "Yeah right she's great you're going to love her work Hero." She pipes up and Joaquin shoves her quickly towards the next free chair. Innana follows them confused by their weird behavior. I linger for a second but pull myself quickly into my professional mode. "Should we go to my desk to make a few sketches? You can tell me how thick of a line you want, which style the letters should be in and the shading. This kinda stuff." I trail off and he nods. I lead him towards my desk in the corner and he sits down on the chair in front of me. I bend down towards the drawers and grab some templates for tattoos which consist of words or letters. I put the notebook in front of him and let him skip through the motives. "Where do you want the tattoo?" I ask him as I look at him while his eyes are intently focused on the sketches. "I thought about right here." He tells me putting his index finger behind his ear and trailing down his neck. My eyebrows raise and he looks at me brows furrowed. "What?" He snaps a bit and I furrow my brows at his rudeness. "I was just surprised. That's  just an unusual place for the first tattoo." I tell him defensively. "It's going to hurt." I tell him just to warn him. He ignores my comment and shows me the style of letters he wants to have. "These ones, the word is patience and I want it vertical." He tells me and I nod grabbing a piece of paper and a pencil to make a sketch. I ignore his intense stare and do what I can do best. When I'm satisfied with how it looks I'm turning the paper and show it to him. His brows raise and he looks up at me in appreciation. "It's perfect." He tells me I smile and am satisfied that I finally impressed him and got something nice out of him."Perfect than I'm going to print it into the blue motive." I tell him beaming at him still. That's why I do this, I love to see the customers happy with their tattoos because it is a big deal indeed. Even more if it has a meaning and I know that to him it has. I quickly got up and put the paper into the printer while I grab the notebook and put it back into the drawer. "It's just going to take few minutes if you want you can sit down on the lie already." I tell him and he nods standing up and I take a cautious step back. I forgot how tall he was all the while he was sitting down. He makes his way towards the chair and I grab a few glasses filling them with ice and some cola. I go over to Joaquin and inspect how he's doing with my sketches. The buzzing sounds stop when I step to them. "Drinks?" I ask them and all three of them nod thankfully. I hand Inanna and Khadijha a glass and when Joaquin stretches out his hands I glare at him. "You are definitely not getting one you threw me under a blade you traitor." I accuse him. Khadijha cringes beside him "But I helped him too." "Because you had no choice." I tell her my gaze turning soft when I look at her. "Can someone explain to me what's going on? Why is it such a big deal that you're tattooing Hero." Inanna pipes up. "Joaquin has the annoying habit to set me up with every guy around me in a 2 mile radius." I tell her rolling my eyes. "But this time I'm right I saw the sexual tension between you two!" He exclaims and I furrow my brows at him. "You are ridiculous." I tell him and take a sip from his glass teasingly. He gives me an apologetic smile and flutters his eyelashes at me. Urgh, how I hate when he does that. I hold the glass against his lips and he takes a big gulp. "Hey not everything you greedy man!" I tell him and he laughs. I turn from them and see Hero watching us. I make my way over to him and hand him a glass himself. "It's going to help with your circulation." I tell him and he grabs the glass. I jog over to the printer and pick up the finished motive. I grab some gloves, cotton pads and put them down onto my small rolling table where my machine is on. I sit down beside his lie and grab some alcohol to disinfect his skin. I grab the small razor and get rid of that few hairs he has behind his neck. I finish when his skin looks smooth. I put on my gloves and take off the protective film of the motive. "I'm going to place it against the skin you told me to but I'm going to show you in a mirror first if you think it's not looking good we can still remove it and place it a bit higher or lower." I tell him and he mumbles a low okay. His face looks much paler now and I notice his fingers trembling a bit. I give him a soft smile to calm him a bit down. "I'm not going to start until I tell you and if it hurts too much we can stop anytime." His face snaps into my direction to look me in the eyes. His blue eyes stream off his uneasiness and he looks like he didn't want me to know that he's nervous.