Page 10 of Moments in Ink

“I know that. But I stabbed myself in the eye so hard, it ended up pink.”

I snorted at that.

“Really?”

“Really. I am seriously the worst at it. I know you say that anybody can learn, but I don’t think that’s the case. I’m better at one-on-one training.”

I didn’t know if she was hitting on me, but the way she looked at me, her eyes all dark and stormy, the way she licked her lips? I wanted it to be flirting.

Or maybe I saw too much into what wasn’t there.

“You know, you have great cheekbones,” I said suddenly, and she smiled at me.

“That’s good genetics.”

“Perhaps. You can work with those with any look that you want. If, you know…you ever want my help or anything. Not that you need it. But it is sort of my job.”

I was rambling, and I knew it, and from the way that she smiled at me, she knew it, too.

Maybe I’ll take you up on that offer. I’d like to be able to know at least how to do more than I already do. It’d be nice to have a better basic work look. As well as to have something to wear when I go out. Not that I go out all that much, other than with Aaron when he forces me.”

She smiled at that, and I swallowed hard, trying not to imagine her out on the town with me on her arm.

I was seriously losing my mind.

“So, are you Poison Ivy? As a princess?” She looked up at the tiara I had forgotten I’d put in my wig.

“I am. At least, partly. Thanks for getting it right.”

“It was the green. Plus, did you put leaves on your eyelids?”

I fluttered my eyelashes and grinned. “Yep. Took forever, it was probably one of my harder tutorials, but I can’t wait to see what people think of it and do on their own. They tag me in the best Instagram photos.”

I was also tagged in some of the worst, but those were just trolls looking for attention, and I wanted nothing to do with that.

“I’ve always wanted to have fun with my makeup and things, but I’ve never been good at it. And my ex always wanted me to be a girly girl, even when I sometimes didn’t feel like being one. Sometimes I do. But…I don’t know. When I left him, I went full-on opposite. I threw away my dresses, got the undercut, and proclaimed that I would be who I was.”

I froze, feeling as if I didn’t move, she might forget that I was standing there and open herself up again. Not thatIwas any good at opening up.

“You can be whoever you want to be. And I know those words are overused, and sometimes aren’t the truth, but if you can find your way in there, you can be the girly girl you want to be. Or not. Whatever.” I added the last part, completely derailing my conversation, but she smiled at me and stuffed her hands into her suit pockets.

The fact that her pants had actual pockets held me transfixed, and she rocked back on her heels and grinned.

“Yes, these are men’s pants. Women’s don’t usually have pockets. I mean, what the hell, right?”

“I swear, every time I wear a dress with pockets, I twirl and show everyone I can that it does, indeed, have pockets.”

“The best stuff does.”

A silence dropped between us, and I wasn’t sure if it was awkward or not.

“What you said about your ex? I had something similar before. When I left him, back in England… Anyway, I’m still trying to figure out who I am.”

“I didn’t know who I was before. I’m also trying to figure it out,” Meredith said, not looking at me. “I do like the suits, though.”

“Well, you look fucking hot in them.”

Meredith looked at me then, her eyes dark, a smile playing on her lips.