Never Enough: A New Adult Romance (3 page)

“Well, no, but he was going to.”

Maggie rolled her eyes to the ceiling before meeting my gaze. “Yeah, but he never said it. You did. What if he was coming to your door to finish what he started?”

My heart leapt at the thought and I immediately dismissed the rising hope. My brother had always told me I was way too whimsical for my own good
, especially when it came to guys and I was slowly starting to learn that he was right.

“No. Not with the way he was looking a
t me. He looked full of regret. I didn’t want to hear him say those words to me, so I beat him to the punch.”

“Well, I get it. I wouldn’t want to hear
that either. That’s why I always leave before that happens, but I wish you would’ve let him say it just so you’d know that’s what he wanted when he came to your door.”

“I know. I just know that’s what he was going to say,” I said before glancing down at my phone. “Look, want to just get out of here and grab lunch somewhere before we head to the tattoo place? I’m kind of hungry and I don’t feel like practicing anymore anyway.”

“Sure. I’m hungry too and I’ll drive since you still haven’t fixed your car, right?”

I nodded.
“I just can’t afford it. My parents have cut me off, so I have to wait until I can get my brother over to change my tire.”

“Make sure I’m there when he does. He’s sexy,” Maggie said with a wink as we pushed our way outside. I was used to these sentiments from Maggie. She had the libido of a twenty-year-old guy instead of a nineteen-year-old girl. Some of the things she had told me she had done ma
de me blush to even think about.

The two of us pushed our way outside, leaving the noise and bustle of the music room behind us. The air was chilly and bit at my exposed skin as we walked toward her
beat up car. It was quite a sight, but she told me she’d had it since high school and I knew she couldn’t afford anything else at the moment. Unlike my parents, hers lived paycheck to paycheck. In fact, Maggie was only able to go to school because of a ton of scholarships she had managed to get for being a badass pianist.

“So when you going to tell your parents you hate your major and want to quit?”

I gulped noisily and shook my head. “Never. I’m too scared.”

“Come on, Tempie. You hate it. You’ve hated it for a year now. It’s time to let it go before you chuck your cello out the window and dance on its broken frame.”

I pulled the passenger side door open and slid inside. “I know, but my parents are already pissed I moved out and if I tell them I’m quitting they’d lose it. I mean, they would probably disown me. I'm the only kid they have left that hasn’t given up on music.”

“You have to live for yourself, Tempie. You can’t live for them. They have what…twenty more years to live? When they’re gone
, you’re going to be stuck with a degree you hate and a skill you can’t stand and for what? So your parents will love you a little more?”

I fiddled with my purse and stared out the window. Maggie and I had this conversation on a weekly basis and I still hadn’t grown the balls to tell my parents I wanted out. I loved the
cello. I loved playing for me, but hated what years of practice had done to something I loved and I no longer wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to live for myself for once instead of for my parents, but I just wasn’t strong enough to tell them yet.

I had made small strides, like moving out, dying my hair and getting my nose pierced. And now I was going to get a tattoo
that I’d wanted since I was sixteen, but those things were easy. Telling my parents I was done with their dream for me, that I was walking away from the thousands of dollars and hours they had invested in me was a whole hell of a lot harder than it seemed.

“I know. I know and I’m working on it. I just don’t know if I can deal with the disappointment they lather on Jed every time he comes home.”

“Yeah well, look how happy Jed is. He’s doing what he loves and you’re still doing what you hate. So maybe instead of seeing how much disappointment your parents shower your brother with, look at how happy he is in spite of all of that.”

I bit my bottom lip as she drove us off campus and across town. She was right. I knew it, but actually doing something about it was a whole different story.

We went to lunch at a small café in Santa Cruz before heading over to the tattoo shop. I had never been in one before. When I'd gotten my nose pierced, I went to a piercing place that didn’t specialize in tattoos. The front of this shop was way more intimidating. It housed a variety of body jewelry and when I peeked inside a photo album lying on the glass counter, I remembered what I had seen the last time I had looked in one of these books. There were just some places a piercing should never be. The walls were decorated with colorful artwork, which looked like a giant tattoo sleeve and a bright red haired girl behind the counter greeted us with a glower.

“Have an appointment?” the girl asked, her pierced lip jutting out in annoyance.

“Yep,” Maggie said with a sneer. “With Gio.”

“Name?” The girl didn’t mince words.
To put it simply she totally intimidated me.

“Temperance Cole,” I replied.

The girl’s black fingernails tapped the keyboard in front of the computer monitor and she glanced up with a nod. “Right. He’s almost done with his client. Should be about twenty more minutes or so.”

The two of us took a seat and my heart thumped wildly in my chest. It was the same nervousness I had experienced when I had been waiting to get my nose pierced. Getting needles shoved into your skin should make any sane person anxious.

I tapped my hands on my legs in a quick rhythm. Down a long hallway were several doors and I could hear the slow hum of the tattoo guns as they sank into clients’ skin. Maggie was texting on her phone when a large guy walked to the front counter, his forearm wrapped in gauze. I watched as he paid for the work done on his body and leave.

A moment later, a bald headed man lumbered down the hallway. He had tattoos that extended up his neck
and a piercing in his lip. For a moment I wondered what I was doing here. Was this even me? Was I going to regret this? But Maggie would have killed me if I backed out now. Getting this tattoo was something I’d wanted to do for a long time and if I chickened out, I knew I’d regret it.

I stood up on shaky legs as
the bald headed man introduced himself to me.

“I’m Gio. You must be Tempie,” he said, his large hand extending toward me.

I nodded and slipped my hand in his when another door opened and a familiar figure made his way toward the front counter. Just seeing him made my heart rate accelerate and my skin tingle.

“Holy shit. Why’
s Damien here?” Maggie whispered as I glanced over to where Damien was standing.

He must have heard his name because he turned to look at me,
a wave of something indefinable spreading across his face. My eyes chanced a glance at his neck and I quickly looked away. There was the mark I had put on him as clear as day. He hadn’t even tried to hide it.

“Hey, Damien,” Maggie said cheerfully as she waved.
Maggie had always liked Damien. I had a feeling that if it weren’t for me, she’d be all over him. He was totally her type: tattooed, brooding, badass.

She
smiled as he approached, her eyes moving over Damien’s neck. Her lips twitched when she saw what I’d done. “Did you give that to him?” she asked me, her voice in an exaggerated whisper.

I blushed ferociously and chanced a glance at Damien. He’d totally heard her, but instead of denying it h
e merely lifted his eyebrows and stared at me. I held his gaze for a moment before my eyes flew to the ground.

“Good job,” Maggie said even though neither of us confirmed it. She turned her smile on Damien and asked,
“Did you just get inked or what?”

Damien’s face remained impassive and he nodded. “Yeah.”

“What of? Can I see?” Maggie asked and I fought the urge to slap my hand over my face. Maggie was way too invasive for a person as closed off as Damien.

“Sometime later,” he replied gruffly before turning
his gaze on me.

“Hey,” I
greeted lamely, thinking I should say something. “You get your truck fixed?”

He nodded, his eyes flicking toward at my mouth. “Yeah, fixed it this morning.”

“Good,” I said, tapping my foot nervously on the floor. What was I supposed to say after what we’d done last night?

I could feel Maggie’s eyes volleying between the two of us, a look of mischievousness plastered all over her features.

“Oh shit,” Maggie interrupted slowly, her blue eyes twinkling as she glanced down at her phone. “Don’t hate me, but I have to go.”

My heart stuttered.
“What? Really? But the appointment…”

Maggie punched something into her phone and turned to glance at Damien. “I’m sure Damien could give you a ride home, right?” Her eyes met mine and I knew exactly what she was doing.
At that moment I wished I had gone to get my tattoo with someone else.

“Maggie. Don’t you dare…”
I warned.

She cut me off with a wave of her hand. “Damien? Could you wait here with her and then give her a ride back to the house?”

I rolled my eyes to the ceiling, embarrassed at my best friend’s antics. I didn’t expect Damien to agree to it. I mean, what guy would want to hang out with the girl they’d rejected the night before? I opened my mouth to demand that Maggie stay when Damien shoved his wallet into his back pocket and turned to face me. “You want me to stay?”

I gulped. Did I? Deep down I did, but I couldn’t admit it.

He seemed to have seen my answer move across my face because folded his arms across his chest and turned to Gio. “How long’s it going to take?”

“Depends on how long she can last. Maybe two,” Gio replied.

“Two hours?” I nearly squeaked.

“You can do it, Tempie. I believe in you,” Maggie said
softly, squeezing my arm.

“Two hours?” Damien asked, his gaze turning toward me. “How big is this thing?”

I shrugged. “Um, it goes down my entire side.”

Damien’s eyes seemed to darken and he rubbed the back of his neck.
“Yeah, sure, I can stay with her.”

Maggie smiled brightly. “Amazing. You’re the best,” she
told him as she pulled me into a hug.

“You are the worst and you owe me,” I said into her ear.
Maggie merely flashed me a smile before she grabbed her purse and sauntered outside. We watched her go before Gio nodded toward the hallway.

“Ready?” he asked.

I gulped nervously and nodded. This was it. As we made our way down the hallway, Gio turned to Damien, “You get work done with Kyle?”

Damien nodded. “Yep.”

“I can tell. He’s a good artist. Young, but talented.”

“Yep. He’s
done all my work,” he told Gio as we entered a room at the end of the hall. The walls were decorated in the same style as the lobby and a large chair was positioned in the middle of the room.

“Take a seat. I’m going to get everything ready,” Gio said before turning away. I lowered myself into the large chair and Damien sat in front of me. I stared into his dark eyes and gulped nervously.

“I’m scared,” I said hoarsely.

“It’s a big tattoo for your first time,” he replied.

“What was your first tattoo?” I asked, hoping to distract myself from the impending pain.

Damien extended his arm and pointed to a small eagle on his forearm.

“What does it mean?” I asked, suddenly curious as to what it meant.

“Nothing. I got it done when I was eighteen.”

“Oh,” I said looking over my shoulder at Gio. He was still readying the equipment so I turned to Damien and asked, “Did it hurt?” I had asked Maggie the same thing, so I knew it did. But I just needed a distraction.

“Yeah, but you get used to it,” he replied.

“So you like getting tattoos…obviously…since you got one today…” Now I was rambling and I just sounded dumb. Thankfully Gio pulled out the sketch he had drawn for me.

“Alright, time to take off your shirt,” Gio said and the butterflies in my stomach took flight. I tugged my shirt over my head and Damien took it with out asking, tucking it into his back pocket.

“Thanks for staying,” I said as Gio began to sketch the drawing onto my skin. “You didn’t have to.”

Damien merely nodded, his eyes on mine. As the cool marker moved over my skin, my gaze drifted to his neck. He seemed to notice my wayward glance because his hand reached up and touched the purple spot.

“Sorry about that,” I said so softly I wasn’t even sure if he heard me.

His eye darkened and his hand dropped to his side. “Don’t worry about it.”

I did worry about it. “I didn’t realize it would be so dark. I’ve never done that before…”

Damien shrugged. And I could have sworn he said something like “could have fooled me”, but before I could contemplate it, the tattoo gun buzzed and Gio told me he was going to start.