Plus, the shops reminded me of the renovation of the gallery.
My mind threw me back to all those summer weeks when I’d sweated my ass off trying to get that thing up and running. I’d taken a substantial pay cut to fully pay everyone else on the job and had to dip into the company tank funds to get that damn building up to code. I did it without a second thought because I’d believed in the motto for the business and I’d believed in her.
I turned from the window as Drew came into the office building. He went straight to his office, not even bothering to look to see if I was here. He barreled into his office and turned on his computer, but then he sat down and pulled out a book.
A sketchbook, if I wasn’t mistaken.
I took a deep breath and walked over, watching as his arm flew across the page. His eyes were focused with an intensity I’d only ever seen a few times before, and I stood in the frame of his door while I watched. I watched him erase and try to get something just right. I saw him turn the book, so he could draw something from a different angle. I’d only ever seen this kind of remote intensity a few times in my life, and each time was when he was tattooing my body.
“Working on my latest tattoo, I see.”
Drew jumped, the book flying to the floor as he whipped his wild gaze up. I stood there smirking, but I could feel his eyes studying me. He was clocking the same things I’d just witnessed on my face when I was staring out the window. The scruff. The bags. The sunken-in look of my eyes.
But if it bothered him, he didn’t mention it.
“Yeah. We don’t have that meeting until ten, and I finished up all the paperwork last night,” Drew said.
“Then why did I come in to do that paperwork?” I asked.
“Because you don’t like being out on the sites anymore,” he said.
“I enjoy being out on them.”
“Not when they remind you of her,” he said.
I hadn’t told him yet about the encounter, and I honestly wasn’t sure if I needed to. It worked for a few days. I slept for a few nights without her popping up into my head, but then she came back with a vengeance. My mind wouldn’t let go of how she felt that night, how she wailed and moaned with my body buried in hers. My mind wouldn’t let go of the look on her face as I tossed her out onto the porch.
My mind wouldn’t let go how she looked, sitting in her car weeping the way she had been.
“You know, there’s some property across the street for sale,” I said. “Some commercial rentals that might be nice.”
“We still doing that division, dude?” he asked.
“I mean, if you did choose to leave, probably not. I have the option of doing some things that might help you,” I said.
“Like?”
“Well, I could liquidate,” I said.
“You could what?”
“Liquidate. Some of your stake in the company, that is. I could pitch in a little investment. You keep a five percent stock in this company, and I take five percent of the tattoo shop. You could set up a parlor over there and live the life you wanted instead of this life.”
“What’s wrong with this life, man?” he asked.
“I don’t know, really,” I said. “You’re the one drawing tattoos in your office. You tell me.”
I looked at Drew for a long time. I’d known him my entire life. Drew and John and I, we used to run the beaches together when we were teenagers hitting on women and trying to teach John how to surf, swimming from sun up to sun down and coming home with massive sunburns on our backs. We’d driven our parents insane with those summer days, and when we were in school, our teachers had to always arrange our classes so we never ended up in the same ones.
The three of us had been unstoppable, and with that kind of history comes an innate ability to read each other.
“You think this area would be a decent one to set up a shop like that?” he asked. “Because I definitely can’t afford the buildings in the heart of downtown.”
“So, you’ve been pricing out buildings,” I said, grinning.
“Just looking around. You know, in my spare time.”
“Drew, it’s okay. Seriously. Yes, I think this area would be a really good one to set up in. You’re on the dividing line of the opulent part of San Diego and the poor part. You could craft deals and things to support both communities, and you could use your business as a way to minimize the divide between the two.”