“So Kales how is the guy’s album coming along? Are you going to be leaving any time soon or was this mad rush of a schedule just a test of yours, and our, endurance?” Ryan asked as he spun in his chair as his client checked out their finally finished leg piece in the big mirror wall.

It had been a little over two weeks since your melt down, a little over two weeks since your special day with Jimmy that let another piece of the Zacky hating puzzle fall into place. And most importantly it had been a little over two weeks since you had first met Katie. She had become a good friend of yours since your first meeting, and you felt that she was going to survive all right on the road with the tour. Not only that but your brother was absolutely smitten with her, and you weren’t sure exactly how much of that she was aware of. You felt like keeping it secret till Matt went and did something, mainly because it was cute as hell to watch the two of them around each other. Even if Matt was trying to play it off like nothing was out of the ordinary. But there was no one in the group who was fooled by that, because Mr. high and mighty lead singer, I’m captain of the bad ass team, gorilla body boy was blushing. None stop. And that just wasn’t in his normal activities. It didn’t fit in with the image he portrayed to the outside world and to the fans. How Katie was oblivious to all of this you had no idea, but didn’t care. It was still cute.

You had managed to stay away from any massive fights with Zacky. But that really didn’t have anything to do with your self control, it mainly had to do with the fact that Zacky had been super busy. The album was coming to a finish and Zacky more and more was left in the studio to finish guitar tracks when everyone else went out for lunch with you. So you hadn’t really the chance to see him. Which you were counting as a blessing above all blessings.

“It’s coming along fairly fantastic actually. Matt sent me a few of the finished tracks to give a preview listen the other day. They’re fairly sick, they’ve upped their game this time around with their CD. Jimmy’s drum set has literally doubled in size and Johnny’s picking has stepped up in speed. Syn of course is still god in my book. And as usual I’ll be getting copies for you guys if you want them,” you said as you filled in the pink shading on your clients oriental flower that was going across her chest.

“I didn’t think The Rev’s drum set could get any bigger, wow. And I’m pretty sure it’s copies all around as usual,” Lexi said from her currently empty area.

“I didn’t either Lex, but it has. It’s monstrous, like something straight out of the 80’s metal scene. Tommy Lee is jealous somewhere where ever he is and he has no idea why,” you said as you wiped off the seeping blood on the girls chest.

“Tommy Lee totally eats The Rev’s dust, hands down,” Greg said from his chair.

“I’d like to eat more than either of their dusts,” Zarin said from the front desk where he was doing a tracing of one client’s design.

“Hey,” Zarin said loudly as he looked up from where he had his head bent down over the light board.

You had tossed a crumpled up, clean, blue paper towel that was used to clean up ink and blood at your stations. The funny thing was that so had the other guys, so poor Zarin had been pelted with four other crumpled missiles besides yours. All of them hitting him as he was painstakingly working over the tracing paper.

At his reaction when all the missiles hit him you all burst out laughing.

Jimmy really had done wonders on you.

“So plans tonight?” Cares asked as she finished the Pamela Anderson-esque barbed wire on this girls ankle.

“Jeph,” you said as you finished shading in another oriental flower in the design, this time white.

You and Jeph had gone back to your normal schedule of seeing each other. You had approached him after your blow out at him and apologized for acting the way you had. He laughed at you and at first you had been offended till he explained that he thought it was funny that you had thought he would ever chase dick. Your make up had been quick and painless, and sex filled. It made you happy to patch things over with him since you had felt awful with the way you had shied away from him and pushed him away. You couldn’t help it totally, you were in the middle of having a massive mental and emotional break down.

You had gone back to having him live on and off with you at your loft. He would come by the shop during your scheduled really late nights there, bearing dinner for you and whomever had stayed late with you. Jeph’s home cooked meals made staying late with you something your coworkers were now fighting over. He really missed his calling, but then again not. Still, you weren’t complaining when he would walk through the back doorway carrying multiple hot dishes covered in lids and foil along with beer or whatever.

And speaking of Jeph, he said he had something special planned for the next day. He said he had somewhere to bring you, and when you had asked what it was and what you should wear he had answered simply. He said wear what you normally wear to work and for an explanation he only said that “it was about time”. You were confused.
-xXx-
“So today is the mystery trip with Jeph right?” Cares asked as she looked up from some of the paper work she was doing.

It was the next day work, and while you weren’t nervous you were still confused as all hell. You had no idea what Jeph had meant by “it was about time,” and it had been bugging you non stop since he had told you. Even more so now that it was the actual day.

You had worn a pair of bright green leggings that went down to your ankles, on top of which you had worn a pair of black ones with little white polka dots on them that went to right below your knee. You had on a frayed destroyed looking jean skirt that went to mid thigh, that Cares had actually bought for you on her trip to NY two years ago. You had on a dark blue Ziggy Stardust t-shirt that fit tight over your bright green tank top underneath it. You had your hair producted into shape and had a bright orange headband with white polka dots on it holding some of your hair back. You had white plastic earrings in that looked like fat doughnuts dangling from your ears and white, orange, purple and green bangles on your arms. Then you had simple darkish yellow ballet slip ons on your feet. You had taken Jeph’s advice and not dressed any different. You were one giant walking clashing mess, just the way everyone loved you.

“Yeah today’s the day. Any moment now he should be coming to whisk me off my feet and away to some mystery place because he said it was about time,” you said jokingly as you made a dramatic swoosh in a circle, tattooing implement in your hand still.

“That would be this moment darling,” Jeph’s voice said from behind you.

Startled you turned to see Jeph standing in the shop, looking like his regular self. What really shocked you, more so than him being there during the day and normal shop hours, was when he came up and kissed you. It wasn’t the kissing in front of your coworkers that shocked you, it was the whole in public thing. It’s why he had never really come and visited you while at work during the day, it’s why the two of you had not done any real public displays of affection. Because you were still keeping your relationship under wraps from the public. And the shock made the kiss while a bit awkward, since you were holding your needle still, it also made it just about the greatest kiss ever.

“Wow,” you said once you had separated your lips from his.

“I think you just made the infamous Kales Mae speechless. Alert the media,” Ryan said from his station, where a once very excited looking girl was now looking rather put out at the just finished kiss.

“It’s exactly what I intend to do,” Jeph said as he continued to stare into your eyes.

You raised your eyebrow at him quizzically, you were even more confused if that was even possible.

“Come on we’ve got to be at the interview pronto,” Jeph said as he pulled you towards the door, bending to pick up your Bert face bag for you from the front desk.

“Interview?” you asked as you picked up speed so as not to be literally dragged along by him.

“You’ll see,” Jeph said as he wrapped an arm around your waist and brought you closer to him.

He was really getting on with the public displays of togetherness during the middle of the day in busy downtown L.A.

Notes

Dun dunn dunnn. . .
What could this be hmmm?