Normally so talkative and giggly, she was now quiet. On a typical day she would come in and log right onto her computer. As it loaded, she would start her rounds. I called this her princess tour because it was like she had to“greet the people”before she got any work done.
After chatting Jules up at the front counter, she would go to Ryan, our traditional color guy and ask him if he had made any progress on his never ending searchfor the “best ink in the game.” Then she’d go to Quis, a newer artist and the shop’s biggest flirt and ask him if he’s staying out of trouble. Next she’d find Lana, our manga girl who changed her personality with every new story she dove into, and find a way to be surprised when she realized her hair color changedagain.Gerald was next, an older guy in his fifties who had absolutely perfected the art of traditional Japanese imagery and florals.
And finally she would reach me.
She never shot the shit with me. By the time she got to the back where my station was set up she was all business. Ready to talk numbers and graphics and projects and whatever else she had for me that day.
But today was different. Today, she’d walked right in and huddled up to her board—the one that consisted of Polaroid pictures in the orientation of a social media feed.
She came up with the idea when she was first proposing a social page and I was against it—I didn’t want to keep up with something that would stress me out when I didn’t know what to post. She noticed I liked hard copies of things, judging by the array of sketch sheets I had covering almost every surface of the shop walls, and came in the next day with a costly instant camera and started snapping shots. Minutes later, we had the “Feed Board” and by the end of the day, we had our first post on all the most popular apps.
She was pretty versed with social media which left her time to focus on other, more nuanced parts of the job. Typically spending her time on behind-the-scenes incentives or email automations, she gave us free rein to move the Feed Board photos around as we saw fit. But today she’d been staring at the board since she walked in.
“What’s up with Big Al?” Quis asked from somewhere behind me.
Currently, I was hanging around the receptionist desk, pretending to look at the appointment log. It was Tuesday, and I hada serial appointment rescheduler on the books so I wanted to make sure they were still coming in. That’s when I noticed her over there.
“Gus?”
“Yeah?” I asked, blinking to the man behind me. Tall, dark and handsome—yes I could admit it, was the perfect description for Quis.
“You’re staring, man,” Quis said, his elbow knocking into my own.
Damn.
Looking away from the girl across the room and back down to the appointment book, I tried to focus on what I was doing. My attention was quickly caught by motion in my periphery. Alta had shifted from crossing her arms to biting down on her manicured fingernail.
“I think he’s broken,” Ryan said from his spot on his chair. He was cleaning his station following an appointment, rubbing down the nozzles of his tattoo machine with precision and care. His focus solely on the equipment. That is until Lana appeared beside my elbow, leaning hers down on the front desk. His attention then moved to her ass as she sighed.
“Theybothare. Why don’t you go over there and talk to her, Gus?” she said breathily.
“Me? Why?” I asked while reaching an arm back and knocking Ryan on the head. He could fool around with any ass in town, just keep it out of my shop. I liked my team, and didn’t want random hookups fucking that up. In response, I was met with two blank stares from the lovely ladies at my sides. I grinned. “Ohh!You guys are saying cause I’m so lovable I should?—”
Two smacks to the back ofmyhead shut me up. Lana, tsked. “No, you idiot. You’re just the only one who is used to putting that look on Mother Theresa’s face over there, so we vote you go see what’s up.”
“I’m not going over there,” I said, even while I still eyed herfrom my spot in front of the appointment book. Jules promptly snatched her book back from me and bumped me with her hip. I scowled down at the little blonde, not budging. “No way. I was the one who dragged her murderous ass in here to begin with. You go talk to her.”
“Murderous?” Quis asked. “I thought she was taking photos of the plants.”
I grunted, unwilling to oust Alta for her strange behavior in front of the rest of the guys. Not when I still wasn’t sure what was going on with her.
“Whatever she was doing, she looked pissed when you brought her in here,” Lana said.
“She smiled at you,” I pointed out, looking down at her as she currently sported bright pink braids in the formation of two big buns on the top of her head.
What I didn’t add was that she never smiled at me.
Lana shrugged. “It was a weird smile. And now ever since your big ass barreled out there and killed her thunder, she’s been staring at that dumb board in a daze.”
“I don’t kill anyone’s thunder, I’m a fucking party,” I crossed my arms. “And you know, if you guys are worried about her, you can just say that.”
“Yeah? And what about you?” Jules asked.
“What about me?”
“You’re worried about her,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “Yet I don’t seeyousaying shit. Instead, you're staring at her like a creep while you pretend there’s an appointment you need from my book.”
I pursed my lips. Was I that obvious? I mean, sure, I was worried about her. She was acting weird. I would worry about any one on my team who was acting strangely. I didn’t move though, still not committed to going over there. Going over would be like walking through a minefield naked. Nobody else seemed to see it that way, but I knew better. With me, Alta would be on guard.Ready to strike at any second even if I came in peace. I had to be careful.
