Free Love and Tattoos by Lissa Matthews Page A

did.”
    “ Do you really feel like an idiot?” She hoped not.
    “ No. I’m not sure how I’m feeling about that whole art thing I thought you needed help with, but no. Did you use me for sex?”
    “ No, but if it makes you feel better, I can.”
    “ I’ll keep that in mind. Does what feel weird?” he asked again.
    “ Being with me.” The cookie was good. She hadn’t had one in months. It was their favorite, her and Joe. They’d grown up eating iced oatmeal cookies, three to be exact, with a glass of milk before bed.
    “ No. But if we ever got to this point, I was pretty sure it wouldn’t feel anything other than great. Why? Does it feel weird to you?”
    “ A little. Going from friends to lovers isn’t always a smooth transition and being here, locked away from the world, from people, and in the dead of night… The spell will be easily broken once we venture outside or go home.” She snagged another cookie. “You were that sure of me?”
    “ No. Artists are kind of fickle.” He nudged her with his shoulder, smiling at her when she nudged back. “I was just waiting for you to come home.”
    “ You could’ve come up to me.”
    “ We’ll call that the not so sure of you part. I didn’t know how a visit from me would’ve been received. I know my own corporate experience with how I look, or at least once they saw the tattoos, was not all that bad. I didn’t know how your friends would take to someone covered in them.”
    “ That’s why Joe didn’t come visit me a second time. My closest friend thought he was cute, except for all that unsightly ink. Her words, not mine.”
    “ I know. I wouldn’t have been seen any different. You can’t change your brother. A friend or boyfriend looking the same way would have been worse. A brother you can’t do anything about. But a lover? You can choose him and if it had been me…”
    Annie dropped her head against the wall and groaned. “I don’t know why I was so sure I needed to fit in. I always went my own way, did my own thing before. Why did I need to fit in so much?”
    “ I don’t know. I guess we all want to feel part of something, feel that we connect and fit in the boat rather than do anything to rock it”
    “ I think women are like that more than men.”
    “ It’s possible,” he agreed. “Most of us Neanderthals see a man with six pack abs, good looks, fancy car and we might want that for all of a second. But then we grab another beer, turn on the game, and forget about it. Women? Y’all obsess.”
    Annie laughed. “ We so do. About weight loss, what we drink, how we dress, where we shop. It all matters.”
    “ To some guys maybe, but it’s never mattered to me. Maybe it was just that you were in a new city, far from what you were used to.
    “ Philly was different than western North Carolina It was fast-paced, going all the time. There was always so much to do, so many things to see, places to go. There was light and noise and constant motion.”
    “ And you didn’t want to feel left behind?”
    “ No. I didn’t feel free either. I felt stifled. I didn’t feel creative. It was an ad agency. It was about creation, or supposed to be. I could see you fitting in in a place like that, especially since you’re from California. Looking at you, you and Joe, both should be out of place here, but you’re not.”
    “ I think with the college kids and the artsy area, we have a niche that works. Did you visit any tattoo parlors in Philly?”
    “ No. I visited art galleries instead.”
    “ How do you feel being home? Is it different now than when you were growing up? Is it different being around us all again, being in the shop? Do you prefer the tattoos to the art gallery?”
    “ It’s personal here, much like when I was in college in Savannah. The area is small and intimate and means something to the people that live here. Being with Joe, with you… Being in the shop and seeing people of all ages want ink, want art…” Annie