Finding Love in a Tattoo Shop

I walked into the shop and was immediately greeted by who I could tell was Yoji. I smiled at him and greeted him “Hey, I’m Sophia; I’m looking for Chris Nunez”. He smiled back at me “Hiya I’m Yoji, I uh I think he went out back he should be back quite soon. Just take a seat. Do you know Nunez or something?” I nodded and smiled “He’s and old friend.”

There were no clients in the shop so it was just me and the rest of the guys Ami, Garver, Darren and Yoji. At this moment I saw Nunez walk back into the shop so I jumped up from the bench grinned and said “HEY NUNEZ, long time no see”.

He looked up in confusion at to who was talking to him, once he registered who it was his jaw dropped to the floor. “Oh My God, are you freaking serious”.

All the guys in the shop were all staring at us wondering what the hell was happening, but to be honest I don’t really think we noticed.

I grinned at Nunez like a Cheshire cat and he returned it right back. He held him arms open and I ran into him, jumped up and wrapped my legs around him waist and hugged him. As soon as I wrapped my legs and arms around him he was spinning me around. Once we were finished hugging he set me back on the floor. “Soph what the hell are you doing here”.

I grinned at him “I got a new job with Victoria Secret and they needed me to move down here so here I am, I’ve been working non stop for the past two months and I’ve finally got a day off so I thought why not come see you, and I’ve been wanting a new tattoo anyway so why not kill two birds with one stone”.

“Wait hang on a minute you’ve been here for 3 months and this is the first time you’ve come to see me, you horrible bitch, I haven’t seen you in over a year and you make me wait another three months to see you, some best friend you are.”

I smiled innocently. I knew he was just joking when he called me a bitch, he calls me bitch I call him Hoe, we’ve always done so it doesn’t bother either of us.

Once we had finished our hugging and bitching we finally took notice that the guys in the shop were staring at us like we had grown another head. I smiled at them and gave them a small wave as if none of the scene before ever happened “Hey guys, how’s it going?”

They just stared blankly at me and Nunez still not saying anything. “Tough crowd.” I muttered. Nunez was the only one who heard me thank god so he laughed a little.

He dragged me by the hand to where all the guys were standing and introduced me. “So guys this is Sophia Mendez my best friend. Sophia meet the guys, Garver, Darren, Yoji and Ami.” They all waved at me and said nice to meet you. I gave them all hugs instead of shaking their hands I just said “I’m a hugger, sue me.” They all laughed. Was I really that funny?

I noticed for some reason my hug with Ami lasted a little longer than the rest of the guys. I stepped back from him and said “You’re cute.” He winked at me and we stared into each others eyes. God I felt like I would drown in his eyes. While we were both having a moment we didn’t notice the guys behind us exchanging certain looks and raising their eyebrows at us.

I stayed by Ami’s side while Nunez talked to me “So Soph you said you wanted another tattoo done, you got any ideas of what you want.” I looked at him and said “Of course I do, when have I not known what I want.” Ami laughed a little. I smiled at him in return .

Nunez walked to the front of the shop and me and Ami followed. I pulled out the piece of paper with the basic tattoo design on it. It was a white dove in flight with a ribbon in its beak with the words “Love is stronger than the pressure to be perfect.”

Nunez looked at me and raised his eyebrows at me before saying “Is this about.” I just cut him off my saying “Yes it is.” He smiled softly at me and nodded. “Well good for you, just give me 20 minutes to draw this up okay.” I nodded “Yeah okay cool man.”

I wandered over to were Yoji and Garver were sitting and joined their conversation on about why I moved here to Miami, what was Australia like, modelling, normal conversation stuff.

Nunez called me back over to the desk and Ami was standing next to him, so I assumed he had something to do with the tattoo. Nunez showed me the drawing of the tattoo and I fell in love with it immediately. I whispered and looked at Nunez “It’s perfect.”