The bad girl and the dork

Gwen

"One more minute." I told Jill. My nervous stomach was twirling around in my body and my hands were a little clammy.

"One more minute? If I stand here any longer I might turn into a statue." Jill argued. She was slowly losing her patience and I didn't blame her. We'd been standing in front of the building for at least ten minutes. Teenage Gwen would've just marched in there like she owned the place but Adult Gwen wasn't feeling it. I didn't know how to adult.

"It's just weird. This is weird. We should leave." I said, nodding my head excessively.

"It's not weird. You're just gonna meet Brad. Don't see it as a job interview." My friend tried to calm me down but you couldn't put flowers in a butthole and call it a vase. This wasn't a nice get together, this was a fucking job interview. I knew it. Brad knew it and I was sure as hell that Jill knew it.

"Why would he even go for someone like me?" I pondered out loud.

"Someone talented? Yeah, no idea." Jill snorted. "Hey, you said I could intervene when you'd start looking for jobs at McDonalds."

"I didn't even apply there!" I knew Jill was trying to distract me from my nerves and in her own weird way she was actually succeeding.

"Just because Burger King has the word king in it doesn't mean it's more prestigious." She said while raking her hands through her hair. It was a hot summer day and we were both melting.

"Whatever." I muttered. It's the prize you paid for doing something artsy. I got full scholarship and ended up doing quite well. I even got an amazing internship during my final year in college and from the beginning they hinted at a job opportunity if they liked my work. Turned out they didn't like my work, they loved it. With a lot of confidence I started my last day of interning only to find out they'd found someone with more experience. Bye Gwen, it was nice knowing you. Stupid assholes.

I came back home after graduation and found no luck in finding a job. I was getting desperate. I was Burger King desperate. Jill had been telling me for weeks that Brad was looking for someone to help him in his tattoo parlor. Technically it was his brother's parlor but he decided to go traveling around the world, leaving Brad to fend for himself.

My experience with tattoos? Those stick on tattoos you got at a gumball machine as a kid. Yeah, I was way in over my head with this one but Jill didn't really give a fuck, that much I knew.

"Oops, I'm opening the door." She said as the pushed the door and went in. I used every curse word I knew against her but followed her inside anyway.

"Love you too, sweetie." Jill laughed.

"Jill, hi! It's been so long." Brad greeted Jill enthusiastically and kissed her cheek. "You must be Gwen." He said after looking at me. I shook his hand and felt uncomfortable because my hands had been sweating profusely. Partly because of the weather, mostly because of the nerves. Brad didn't seem to notice though and if he did, he acted like he hadn't. He had short, blond hair although it was darker than my platinum blonde hair. I noticed his brow piercing before my eyes caught his brown ones. He was wearing a shirt which revealed his tattooed arms. I guess he needed to sell his brand but he suited them really well. He was pretty hot in a rugged kinda way. I'd dated that kinda rugged before and it never ended well. Why was I even thinking about this? Brad could be my potential boss. I swear there was a dog in heat living in my brain.

"Ooh look at all the pretty pictures." Jill said as she looked at all the pictures of tattoos on the wall. I'd been too focused on Brad to notice the interior of the parlor. It was nice, I think. I couldn't really compare it with other tattoo parlors. The walls were filled with pictures and artwork.

"Take your time. There's a book filled with pictures on the table if you're interested." Brad suggested but Jill was too engrossed in the artwork. At least she was pretending to be so she could give me and Brad some alone time.

"So how long have you been doing this?" I asked. I think Brad was around Chase's age so he couldn't be doing this job for that long.

"My brother got me into this so it was some extra cash throughout college and afterwards it became a fulltime gig. It's not like I could find another job, you know how brutal it is out there." Brad explained and gestured for me to sit opposite him.

"It's Burger King brutal." I sighed.

Brad chuckled and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, a former classmate is working at Pizza Hut. He says it's temporary but it's been three years." He told me.

"Why doesn't he come work here? Crap, I'm not really selling myself here, am I?" I mentally reprimanded myself. I swear I wasn't socially inept. I knew I should've taken a few shots of tequila before I came here but Jill wanted to do that afterwards. Stupid Jill.

"He's more into sculpting." Brad elaborated. "Hey, relax Gwen. I've seen your work, it's incredible." He tried to reassure me.

"You've seen my work? How?" I then realised how stupid that question had been. "Jill, obviously. Nevermind." I mumbled.

"A tattoo is not that different from drawing though, it's just a different surface. If you're free tomorrow afternoon, you can do a test run." He suggested.

"Yeah, sure." I agreed to whatever the hell he meant by that.

After some small talk, Jill and I left Brad because a new client of his had just arrived.

"You owe me like fifty shots of tequila." I deadpanned as we walked outside.

"Oh really? Don't you mean the other way around?" Jill said with a sly smile on her face that told me she knew more than she was letting on.

"No..." I answered hesitantly.

"Alright. Let's not drink until we're too sick to even puke since, you know, you have to be here again tomorrow." Jill replied before we both burst out in laughter. We knew that was gonna be hard to do.

-

I woke up to the sound of coughing. "Ugh, get your foot out of my face." Jill groaned. I burst out laughing and pushed my foot against her face.

"You wanted to sleep in this tiny bed together, bear the consequences." I grinned.

"Gross. Have you been making cheese with your toes? It smells worse than Code's weird food experiments." Jill said with an amused look on her face as she got up from the bed.

"Excuse you? My feet smell like a rain forest or something equally as corny." I told Jill.

"You mean equally as cheesy?" She replied and I started laughing like a mime choking on water. I'd always been a sucker for bad puns and stupid humor.

Jill and I had a great time last night, going from party to party like we did when we were teenagers. Now, she gets booze cheaper because she's a student and Chase had already bought me a bottle of tequila when I arrived. I'd felt really welcomed and I was extremely proud that I'd managed to keep a buzz going without getting shitfaced.

"You better wash those feet though since you're meeting Brad. Again." Jill said and ruined my good mood altogether. I'd momentarily forgot about my test run with Brad. I had no idea what to expect and just the prospect of going there alone made me wish I could invent something amazing and live a secluded life with a bunch of dogs. I'd say cats but they make me sneeze.

"Yay." I deadpanned with the biggest fake smile I could muster.

"I don't get it. Why wouldn't you want to work at something as cool as a tattoo parlor? Not to mention with a hottie like Brad. Ugh, he used to have this lip piercing that would distract me so much when he was talking." Jill said while trying to refrain from drooling all over herself.

"Does Chase know this?" I teased.

"Hey, I'm happy with my dork but a girl can look." She answered quickly.

"It's not that I don't wanna work there. I kinda do. I actually really want to it's just I have no experience and I don't wanna mess it up." I confessed.

"Oh, is that it? Then I'm not worried. You'll learn. You can even practice on me. You can start with my butt. It's a nice surface, not that sensitive to pain and most importantly not visible unless your name is Chase or when I'm wearing a skirt and the wind makes me do a Marilyn." Jill rambled.

"You'd sacrifice your butt for me? That's true friendship." I pretended to wipe a tear away. Jill rolled her eyes and pushed me towards the bathroom.

After a quick shower and loads of pancakes as breakfast, well more like lunch but those are details, I was ready to go out and face Brad again. Okay, honestly I wasn't really ready. My body was ready but my mind wasn't. Wait that sounded wrong. Although my body didn't mind seeing Brad again. God dammit, stop it dogbrain!

Without thinking too much, I stepped into the tattoo parlor. Brad was just finishing up with a client who walked out with a big smile on his face.

"He seemed happy." I observed.

"Yeah, people are generally very satisfied with their tattoos. That guy got a tattoo of a swan for his daughter because she has the same name." Brad explained.

"His daughter's name is Swan? That's pretty cool." I said.

"Everyone that comes here has an interesting 온라인카지노게임 to tell. It's one of the best parts of this job." Brad said.

"Sounds pretty amazing." I nodded.

"It is! Come on, I'll show you what the process is." He said and continued to explain everything about tattoos, sketches, needles, colors and shading while demonstrating his equipment. It was a lot to take in but I listened carefully because it was very interesting.

"Ready to practice? I've got some pig skin here." Brad grabbed something that looked way too similar to human skin. Twenty minutes later, I was actually putting the needle against the skin. It seemed so weird but I kinda liked it.

"Whoa there. It's skin, don't be too rough." Brad grabbed the skin from me and I kinda felt bummed because I figured I'd been doing okay.

"Can you do it then? I've never seen it before. Maybe if I have an example I could do better." I suggested.

"Why don't I do you?"

"Me?" I was kinda hoping he meant doing me as in taking me into a seperate room and have his way with me but I figured he was talking about getting inked.

"I'll give you one for free, what do you say?" Brad asked.

"Well, I've always wanted to get a tattoo of a pin up girl or something in that style." I pondered.

"So you've thought about it before?" Brad leaned in, clearly he was interested in what I had to say.

"Obviously I have. It's art." I said and hadn't failed to see the amused spark in Brad's eyes.

"I have an idea. Something that'll suit you. Keep on practicing!" He shouted as he went to another room to sketch.

I did as he said and found myself getting better and better with each try. Brad had been right; it was just like drawing, you just needed to get used to a different surface. Eventually, he came back from his desk and showed me an incredble sketch.

"What do you think?" He asked like an excited puppy. It was breath taking. It was a pin up mermaid. It was sexy, feminine, colorful and something that just screamed my name. Weird how he'd figured out exactly what I wanted.

"Wow." I said in awe.

I opted for my upper arm and Brad approved because that place wasn't as painful. He'd told me it would take quite a while and that he'd do the coloring another time. In the meanwhile we made a lot of small talk and he explained pretty much everything he knew about getting inked. He talked me through all of his tattoos and the stories behind them and he told me about interesting clients he'd had.

I really started liking Brad and the talking was a great distraction even though it didn't hurt that much. It was more of a tingling sensation. It took him three hours to finish the main outline and it already looked amazing. I really fell in love with the tattoo.

"Another happy customer." He said.

"Yes! It's incredible." I said while staring in the mirror.

"You can do me now. I probably still have some room left on my leg." Brad suggested. I wanted to laugh but refrained when I noticed the serious expression on his face.

"Are you crazy? No!" I exclaimed.

"I'd rather you'd do it on me first than an actual customer." He argued and I had to hand it to him, the guy had made a valid point there.

Without any warning he unbuckled his belt and lowered his pants. I stared. I blatantly stared, I couldn't help myself. Blame the horny dog in my brain.

"My calf. That okay with you?" He asked and I spotted the empty space on his leg. The rest of his legs were pretty coated with tattoos and it made me wonder how many he had exactly.

"Shouldn't you be telling me what you want so I can make a sketch first?" I asked while I was still staring at his legs while trying to ignore his navy blue boxers with white stars on them.

"Right. I guess I was too eager to take my pants off." He laughed nervously. It was the first time I'd seen his confident demeanor falter a little and I kinda liked this flustered side of him.

"Chill, you're not the first." I winked, enjoying having the upperhand. "So what do you want? As a tattoo, I mean."

"I don't mind. Just make sure it has some details and colors for you to practice." Brad shrugged.

"You gotte give me something more than that!" I said incredulously.

"I'm giving you every tattoo artists' wet dream. Embrace it." He said while the corner of this mouth twitched.

Definitely wet dream, I just wished he'd pull his pants back up because it was really messing with my head. With a sigh, I went to draw something. I decided to stay with the nautical theme and drew a detailed ship. When I showed Brad, a big grin appeared on his face.

"Better than I'd expected. Let's do this!" He said enthusiastically and so I did. I was a little nervous and for a second I was terrified that I'd start shaking and screw it up but I learned quickly that talking to the clients wasn't only comforting for them but also a great remedy against nerves.

I had to admit I was pretty proud of myself when I was done. I was dying to know what Brad was thinking. He was standing in front of the mirror, looking for mistakes with his technical eye. He didn't really say much for a long time.

"When can you start?" He said eventually. I practically attacked him with a hug and as soon as I realised how inappropriate this was, I wanted to take a step back but Brad prevented me from doing so. When I looked at him, I noticed his face was only a few inches from mine.

"You didn't answer." He said softly.

"Tomorrow?" I breathed. I was still very aware of our proximity. I mean, how could I not? My inner dog was howling by now.

"Good, our professional relationship starts tomorrow then." He said right before smashing his hungry lips against mine. The kiss was heated and our bodies were melted against each other.

Right before all my thoughts were clouded by lust, I remembered thinking how much fun this job was gonna be.

---

Wait, what? Another bonus chapter? Alpacapoo, you're too kind! I know, I know, I'm spoiling you guys way too much. Anyway, I've entered a few stories of mine in the Watty awards including this one. Just so you know ;) (cough, if you wanna vote for my stories, be my guest)

You know the drill, shower me with your awesome comments and leave suggestions for future bonus chapters!