Entangled Desires

Chapter 2

Iris

By the time we finished with the tattoo, I was pretty sure I had spilled everything there was to know about me and some, thanks to the one-sentence questions he had thought to ask at intervals while poking my skin with that needle. I think it had been to distract me from the pain, which had kind of worked but didn't work for the full-blown ache I now felt between my thighs and in my belly. I had just kept talking and talking because I was so nervous and in pain.

Now that it was over, I wanted to run to the nearest hole and stay there forever.

"You did good." He said with a smile as he covered the tattoo with some film. "I guess that kind of fits the description right here, uhn..." His hand grazed part of my skin as he covered me up. "Good girl?"

Oh my God, now I want the floor to open up and swallow me.

"Umm... Yeah, I guess. Thanks."

He smiled and stood up to clean the device while I hurried out into the reception room, where Serena already waited. She greeted me with a big smile. "How was it?"

I avoided her gaze and groaned. "Painful."

"Oh, that's all."

"Of course. Are you done? Can we go?"

She nodded and we left but not before saying our goodbyes to Tasha, who waved us bye.

I took the first deep breath I could remember in a while once we stepped outside and tried to forget everything I had felt as we walked the distance back to our Airbnb.

Serena popped in front of me and walked backwards. "So did you get his number or sneak in a quickie with him or..."

"Jesus, Serena!"

"What? Is that such a crazy thing to ask?"

"Yes!"

"No, what would be crazy is you not finding a way to meet him after this. You obviously like him..."

"I-I do not."

"You do, and part of the promises we made to ourselves for this trip was to let go. What better way to let go than to hook up with a really hot guy on a dreamy vacation trip like this?"

I sighed. She was right.

We're on vacation; we'll probably never be able to do this once we get back to New York and start working and he was indeed hot.

"Should we go back?"

"What?! No." I stopped her before she could turn us back to the tattoo shop.

"Maybe another time. Soon. I mean, we still have one full week."

"Right. We could use the excuse of getting another tattoo and it's so close to our Airbnb."

I nodded and watched her run down the not-so-crowded beach next to our Airbnb.

Let go.

****

The rest of our afternoon or should I say early evening, was spent frolicking on the beach and when it was 8, Serena finally decided it was time for us to go to our first club for the night. We had shared our list of responsibilities during the trip; she'll look into clubs and late-night events we could go to for a fun night and I'll look into places we could visit and sightsee during the day. That was more my speciality.

I stepped into her room once I pulled on the really tight leather dress we had shopped for together in New York before coming on and twirled around. She gasped, "Oh my God, girl, you look stunning."

I know right. I felt pretty chill and confident, maybe thanks to that glass of champagne I had taken while on the beach earlier and I sat on her bed.

She was putting on a matching dress similar to mine. Strapless, short, scandalous. It was actually my first time wearing such in years. I think the last time was at a frat party in my freshman year which Serena had convinced me to also let loose at, but after ending up with the worst hangover of the century, I concluded that facing my studies for the next four years was the best option.

I sighed and lay back on the bed, my phone in my hand. "Uh-huh," Serena said almost immediately, as if knowing what I was about to do.

"What are you doing?"

I said nothing and dropped the phone, my hands shying away from the email icon.

"I thought we agreed not to worry about that during the trip?"

I sighed and sat up. "Yes but I can't help but be worried, Serena. It's been almost a week and I haven't gotten any response. If I don't get accepted by any of the companies by the time we're back, I'll be unemployed in New York, homeless, and probably have to go back to Greenville, and I don't want that."

"Nobody is going back to Greenville, okay, because they're going to hire you. As you've said, it's been just a week; we just graduated, and I've heard that companies usually take a lot of time to do this recruitment stuff. There's literally nothing to worry about. You have the best grade and a good teamwork spirit..."

I smiled. "...they'll be stupid not to hire you." I squeezed her hand that had somehow managed to find its way to mine and sighed again but with hope this time. "Thank you."

"Sure, now we have ten minutes to get to the club or we'll have to wait an hour before we can get in."

"What? Where are we going?"

"Pulse 27"

****

We waited for thirty minutes before we could get in, because despite us getting there so early with five minutes to spare out of the ten-minute threshold Serena had given to get in early, the line was still so long and it had taken us a long time to be cleared.

I collected the glass of drink Serena got for us from the bar once we got in and sniffed it. "What is it?"

"Midnight kiss, it tastes good; try it."

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"Come on, let's dance." She dragged me onto the crowded dance floor, where I danced stiffly for a few minutes while sipping my drink and after a while, she suddenly gasped. "Oh my God, am I tripping, or is that the hot tattoo guy from earlier staring at you right there?"

I whipped my head so fast I thought it might break and there he was, in a half-buttoned shirt this time with a gaze so intense I felt its heat crawl up my spine.