Trash Polka - 6. Chapter 6

Glancing back to the stand next to me, my eyes roamed over the position of the owl’s wing as I slowly etched shading into my customer’s skin. Luckily, they weren’t a big talker. In fact, she was laying on her side, snoozing peacefully as her thigh tat slowly came into being. She was sitting like a rock and I didn’t have to worry about any weird shifting or movement as she tried to speak or something like that. She didn’t even have the mostly involuntary twitches going on that sometimes happened with bigger pieces.

Unfortunately, her being an absolute champion meant my mind was free to bob into dangerous waters. I wiped her skin clean and took a moment to focus on my breathing. I was calm now, but I hadn’t been two nights ago. On Saturday, when I’d received a very unexpected message, I had nearly spiraled. It was strange. It wasn’t the first time someone had flirted with me-obviously-but it’d felt so charged. Something about Kenji mixed me up inside.

When the message had come through, I’d frozen. Everything in my mind paused and then smashed into me violently. What did I say back? What if this was just some random guy who’d creeped on me in real life? There was a possibility it wasn’t Kenji at all. That thought made me pause again. I didn’t like it. I found that I wanted it to be Kenji. I wanted him to reach out to me. I wanted to talk to him more.

[Apolaustictrash: Oh? Did I live up to expectations?]

I was proud of it. It was flirty without giving away the fact that I was falling all over myself to try and act cool. Unlike some phones and messaging apps, this one didn’t give me the little dots that appeared when someone was responding. All I could do was wait. Never in my life had I realized how horrible my patience was. Or how short my attention span could be. Right as I was debating sending another message, a reply popped up.

[user853739: Do you need me to tell you that you’re gorgeous? I think you already know.]

[Apolaustictrash: Ew, don’t be boring.]

[user853739: Your attitude did leave something to be desired. Customer service does not seem to be a part of your repertoire.]

[Apolaustictrash: MY attitude? Bro, you’re the rudest customer I had this week. Which, in all fairness, means my week wasn’t bad.]

[user853739: I did nothing wrong.]

[Apolaustictrash: SO. Not only are you creeping on me, but you refuse to admit you’re a bad customer?! You’re lucky the girl with you was sweet or I would’ve charged you extra.]

[user853739: Do you normally talk to paying customers this way? You could’ve charged whatever you wanted. I wouldn’t have noticed. I was too busy fixating on your behavior.]

To be positive I hadn’t missed it, I checked my feed that alerted me when members bought my stuff. His name wasn’t anywhere on the list and I narrowed my eyes. I stretched my hands in front of me, lacing my fingers together as my wrists cracked. I had a feeling this conversation was going to be entertaining.

[Apolaustictrash: I don’t see where you’re a paying customer today, so right now you’re just rude with good taste. I can act however I want.]

There was a much longer pause this time and I got a little nervous. Maybe I’d gone too far? Pushed the guy too much? I squared my shoulders. If that was the case, it’d be easy to kill my infatuation. Nothing was a buzzkill more than someone who was sensitive and couldn’t keep up with my banter. More time passed. It felt like hours but it was probably five minutes. I hummed softly as I wrapped my arms around myself. It was for the best really. He was hot, but if someone had a dud of a personality, that was it for me. Especially if I was sober.

Then a sound chimed and it took me a second to process what was happening. My customers were allowed to buy the content, but they could also send me any increment of money they desired. I like to think it was their way of thanking my fine self for existing. That was what this noise was and there was a notification bubble with it, but I couldn’t wrap my brain around what it said. It took a few seconds and then I almost fell out of my chair.

{user853739 has sent you $5000.00}

I gripped the arms of my seat as I stared. I continued to do so until the notification faded away. What. The. Fuck. I’d never been sent so much money in my life. Actually, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever received that much money in one go from any source. This guy was freaking wild and my utilities and bills were into it. I was a little into it as well. Weird. Money had never mattered much to me, but this was so confident and casual-like it wasn’t a big deal-that it was doing things for me.

[user853739: There. I’m now a paying customer. Watch your tone.]

I laughed out loud, shocked again into inaction as I looked at my screen. This was getting dangerous. I’d already been oddly fascinated and now, through very limited conversation, I was starting to like the guy. There were alarms going off somewhere. My conscience would’ve been screaming had I not locked it up years ago. This guy was trouble.

[Apolaustictrash: Look at you paying a camboy to be nice to you. As if that works.]

There was another long pause and I was embarrassing myself with how excited I was. I might as well sprawl on my bed and kick my legs in the air like an excited schoolgirl. He was just some guy. Some random who’d paid for my pictures before and recognized me. If anything, it should be weird to me that he’d reached out like this. He was a serial killer or something. That had to be it. I needed a reality check.

[user853739: You really are a little brat.]

That did something to my stomach. I’d never been into the brat thing or kink in general, but that had changed with the one word. I found I liked it, but more importantly, I liked it when I imagined him calling me it. I bit my lip and brushed my hair out of my eyes as I tried to decide what to say.

The world was still going on around us. Other people were private messaging. Some were commenting in the public chat. I got periodic updates for how much of my pictures had been purchased. There were even a few chimes that others had sent (much smaller) amounts of money. None of it mattered because I was so hung up on Kenji.

[Apolaustictrash: Maybe you bring it out in me? That would actually make it your fault. 😉]

[user853739: Hmm.]

This time a good ten minutes passed. He didn’t follow up his message with something better and I didn’t know how the hell I was supposed to respond when he’d given me nothing to go off of. I frowned a little and leaned back in my chair. What a lame way for that to end! I had just started getting into it and I was curious what else he could stir up inside me if given more time.

[user853739: 987-654-3210]

[user853739 has logged off]

“How’s it looking?”

I almost jumped as I slammed back into the present. My thoughts might’ve wandered, but my muscle memory had taken over. I didn’t need much concentration to add shading. Regardless, my customer deserved my full attention and I mentally scolded myself. I needed to stop it or I wasn’t going to feel good about my work.

“Dope, you’re sitting amazing as usual.”

“Awesome, I’m pretty relaxed. It’s the sound of the machine. It gets me every time.” She laughed and I wiped her skin clean. I glanced back at the reference as I smiled. We were a couple hours in on the project now and as I took inventory, my back screamed at me.

“Short break?”

“Is it cool if I run down the street and grab a drink?” She asked as I helped her ease into a sitting position.

“Of course. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Should I grab you something?”

I thought as I stood and began stretching, trying desperately to loosen up my painfully tight back. It was no use and by the end of the day I was going to be hurting. Such was the nature of my job. I sat with the worst posture imaginable for hours every day. It caught up to me every time.

“Frappe, extra shot of espresso. I don’t care what flavor as long as there’s a butt load of sugar in it.” I said, grinning at her.

“Got it!” She laughed and grabbed her bag before opening the door and taking off.

Snatching my water off the counter, I took a few swigs and sighed. I could hear Lukas’ machine buzzing in the distance. I wasn’t sure what he was working on, and I was too lazy to go check. Cameron was giving his normal speech about piercing aftercare. I hadn’t even registered the bell that someone had come in after my customer had arrived. I’d been too far in the zone and then my mind had been out to lunch.

Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I scrolled casually through my social media. I acted like I was paying attention, but really, I was trying to avoid going to my contact list. I’d saved the number from the other night there but I hadn’t done anything with it. For two days, I’d been avoiding it. There’d been some aborted attempts to start a conversation, but I didn’t know what I wanted to say. For the few minutes we’d talked, it seemed like we might have decent conversation in person.

That was if we met in person. There was no way to know if it’d go well. What if it was weird and awkward? Even worse, what if he thought sending me all that money meant I owed him something? That would not go over well. I didn’t care how many bodyguards he had. One person had touched me without my permission in the past and I’d broken his nose. Coincidentally, that’d been the person who tried to hold me hostage and had also seen my pictures. That wasn't something my mind wanted to revisit.

I rolled my neck on my shoulders and dialed a much safer number. It rang for longer than I thought was really necessary, but then Alec answered. He sounded out of breath and I raised an eyebrow as I walked tiny laps in my work room.

“What’s up?”

“Why are you panting? It’s 2pm.”

“I was running. Don’t be a weirdo.” He answered. Still panting.

“Ugh, I need to go to the gym. My body feels like garbage.”

“What’re you doing today? Let’s go.”

“Can’t. Working on a massive thigh piece and then a couple smaller ones afterward.”

“Boo. Make sure to take breaks. You always push your body too far and then ache like an old man.”

“Thank you mother. What do you think I’m doing right now?” I snarked.

Alec laughed, “Fair, but how long did you go before you took a break?”

“None of your business.” I grumbled as I looked at the clock and noticed just how long it’d been. It made me cringe.

Alec laughed again and sighed, “Oh! I forgot! How’d your last release go?”

“Decent. A lot of people bought pictures…”

I trailed off and instantly regretted it. There was no way Alec didn’t catch it and then I’d have to explain what was going on and I really didn’t want to have that conversation. No chance my friend didn’t scold me for conversing with Kenji. That wasn’t even touching on the fact that I was considering bringing the conversation off my website. Alec was going to hate all of it.

“And?” I winced. Called it.

“What do you mean?” I asked innocently, picking imaginary lint off my knee.

“There’s more that you’re leaving out. I know you River. Come on. You made it so obvious.”

“Well, you remember how you thought that guy who recognized me might reach out?”

“No fucking way! He did?” Alec gasped excitedly, “What did he say?”

“We just kind of…flirted. Sort of. I don’t even know if that’s what you’d call it. It wasn’t a long conversation. Though he did send me five thousand dollars.” There was a sharp intake of breath and I tried to hurriedly sneak in the rest, “He also gave me his phone number.”

“Okay, hang on. Let me sit down. This is so much to process. He sent you five grand! Holy shit! You were right in assuming the guy is loaded. Or in crippling debt I suppose.” Alec was babbling and I thought maybe I would get away with it. Then Alec stopped talking abruptly, “Wait, he gave you his phone number?”

No luck. I sighed, “Yes. Also, five thousand dollars though!”

“River. Tell me you just ignored it. You are not talking regularly to this guy? You better not be meeting him!”

I rolled my eyes, “No, we aren’t talking. I haven’t messaged him.”

Perfect. That wasn’t a lie. I had told the truth. Who cared if Alec would argue that I was lying by omission? He wouldn’t know that if I could avoid being an idiot for the rest of our conversation. If I didn’t let it slip that I was seriously considering messaging the guy. Alec would hit the roof. If I stayed calm now, he’d just focus on the crazy amount of money.

“Good. I have a bad feeling about the guy and this whole situation.”

“Fair. Hey, my customer’s back. I have to go,” I said.

We said our goodbyes and I hung up. I felt bad but I wanted to see where this went. I would make my own decisions and suffer the consequences. While I appreciated how my friends worried for me, I needed my autonomy. My mother had taken it away for so long in my school age years. I wasn’t about to give it up again. Was Alec right to be concerned? Probably. Was that enough reason for me to deprive myself of something that could be exciting? Nope.

In my rebellious little mindset, I scrolled quickly through my contacts again and opened a new message. Now the question was what to say? Even though we’d messaged a little, the truth was that I didn’t know anything about this man. I didn’t know who he was or what his schedule was like. Running my thumb over my lower lip, a smile slowly grew on my face.

[R: Giving me your phone number isn’t going to make me nice either.]

“Hey! I didn’t know how big you wanted it, but here you go!” I jumped as my customer, Candace, burst through the door with a huge, sugary looking drink in hand.

I quickly pocketed my phone and grinned at her, “Thanks babes. That’s perfect.”

After taking a few sips of the drink, we got her settled and I changed my gloves. The interruption had been enough to derail my brain from its new hyper fixation and I was able to dive into work. I worked until my back throbbed again and she had an impressive owl covering most of her left thigh. She gave me a hug and chatted after scoping it out in the mirror. While we spoke, I wrapped her up, laughing as she brought up scheduling her next session as soon as possible. Pretty soon the girl was going to be covered in tats and I was here for it. Having someone come to me for all their work was incredibly flattering and our personalities meshing made it even better.

“See you next time Riv!” She threw over her shoulder as I pocketed the cash she’d given me. Cameron wasn’t at the front desk and I assumed he was in the tiny piercing booth on the other side of the building.

I hadn’t lied when I told Alec I had tattoos booked for the whole day and I barely had a half hour before the next one came in. I trudged back to my room, stretching and holding my lower back as I grimaced. I had more than enough time to get cleaned up and sanitized, but not much else. It’d been a few hours since I’d jumped back into Candace’s tattoo and I blinked as I remembered what I’d done during the small break. My hand dove into my pocket and I grabbed my phone, tapping on the screen until it lit up. I rubbed the back of my neck and smiled as I looked at the notifications.

[987-654-3210: I assumed I’d have to work for it. I doubt you’d make it easy on me.]

[987-654-3210: Brat.]

I opened the message thread, quickly changing the contact to be his actual name and rubbed my thumb slowly over my jaw as I typed a reply with one hand.

[R: I may be a brat, but you’re kind of an ass.]

I set my phone on my workstation and quickly remembered I had to get ready. Now that I’d stalled a little, I needed to hurry. Especially since I wanted to print off different sized stencils so the next customer had some to pick from. I glanced back at my phone and then forced myself into motion. The phone would be there later. I was at work and I needed to start acting like the professional that I was. Again, I owed it to my customers and myself.

I’d built a solid reputation and there was no way I was going to let that suffer because of a guy. Even if that guy was smoking hot and had just sent me enough money to cover my bills for a couple months. Decision made, I got to work prepping and managed to keep my mind focused the rest of the day until the last customer left the shop. Lukas and Cameron had taken off about a half hour earlier as the actual business was closed and I’d gone over time a bit, ensuring my customer’s piece was what they wanted after a partial redraw.