Page 85 of Tony

CHAPTER TWENTY - BELINDA

I can’t quite decide what I’m feeling as I work the front counter at Sick Boyz.

Is it… the elation of a new relationship? Or the anxiety of a new relationship? Is it hope? Or fear? Or both?

I can’t tell.

Here is what I do know:

Every time Vann comes up front to get a client the first thing he does when he appears from the hallway is smile at me. He’s looking for me before I even come into view. Sometimes that smile comes with a wink. And I find myself straining to hear snippets of his conversations in the back.

I can’t hear much. His studio is too far down the hall and there are three busy, buzzing studios in between us. But every now and then I’ll catch a laugh. Or a few words being said loudly.

When he walks his clients up to the front for payment, he lingers for a few seconds even though the waiting room tonight is packed with hopeful walk-ins. He leans against the glass counter and watches me ring them up. He explains aftercare instructions—not in back, like usual, but at the counter. Like he’s trying to find excuses to spend a few extra moments with me.

And even though I don’t want to feel giddy over this possibility, I feel giddy. My stomach actually has butterflies when I know his session is coming to an end. I anticipate his arrival from the hallway.

Thankfully, I don’t have much of a chance to think about this over the course of the evening because all the boys are booked solid from the walk-in appointments. But eventually two AM rolls around and even though we hardly ever close on time because you can’t really rush a tattoo appointment and the boys don’t like to split walk-ins into two sessions if they can help it, this night is different. I find myself with a long stretch of minutes where there is no one waiting for an appointment and Vann is the only brother left with a client.

Vinn and Vonn leave by the front door, flipping the closed sign over as they go through. And then Vic pokes his head up and says goodbye, leaving through the back.

This is when I start chewing on my nails. I’m not a nail-biter so it’s a true sign of anxiety.

What will happen now?

I mean, Vann pretty much spelled it out before work. He said, “You’re coming home with me.”

But what does that mean?

I literally live on his property. So does it mean he’s giving me a ride home? Does it mean he’s coming up to my place? Does it mean he’s taking me up to his bedroom? What? What does it mean?

“OK, Robbie,” Vann says, coming around the hallway with his last client. “You’re all set, man.”

I glance up and once again find Vann’s eyes locked on mine as these words come out. He gives me the invoice and chats up Robbie about aftercare, and then slaps the counter twice and says, “I’ll be right back, Belinda. Don’t go anywhere,” and leaves to clean up his room and put shit away.

I ring up Robbie, make polite chit-chat until he leaves, and then start totaling up the receipts for the night. There isn’t much cash. Everyone pays digitally these days. So I just put the cash in the safe in the back room and then linger there, listening as Vann wipes down his studio.

He comes out, looks at me. Smiles. Then enters the breakroom with me.

I don’t know what I expect. For him to kiss me? Push me backwards and fuck me on the table? Lean into my ear and whisper dirty things? I don’t know.

But all he does is flip off the music and lock the back door. Then he turns to me. “You ready?”

“For what?” I say.

He laughs. “To go home?”

“Right. Yup. Let’s go home.”

He flips off the lights and for a moment I’m stunned by the near-total darkness all around me. Then suddenly he’s next to me, reaching for my hand and pulling me down the hallway that is only lit up by the pink neon that filters through the blacked-out windows from the sign over the door.

His keys jingle in his hand as he opens the door, pulls me through, and then turns to lock it up. He still has my hand.

This is really happening. Vann Vaughn and I are… in a thing.

At least for tonight.

He turns to me and grins. And wow. I might’ve taken that grin for granted over the past several years. He lights up the night with that smile. “Are you ready?” he asks.