Tattooed on my heart

Who’s that girl?

Tommaso’s POV -

While watching the live I’ve realised I needed to go and see her, I needed to speak to her and schedule a tattoo.

Although I hated to admit it, crushing hard was kind of my thing.

I always did it, see an attractive looking girl, usually the kind that commands attention without trying hard, and create a whole imaginary person in my head - and always without fail a few hours into a date I get either annoyed, bored, frustrated or all of the above.

Sometimes I dragged it out, trying to recreate my fantasy which always made it worse.

Since the last one of those ended about a year ago I’ve only really dated some investors daughters, since I wasn’t willing to lose a business opportunity over some dates.

But me and Matteo, my best friend since we were 3 and my business partner had come up with the perfect plan on how to make those girls go away and still leaving us in business with their dads.

It was decided, I’ll finish my workout, get ready and head to the shop.

I quickly grabbed my workout clothes from my office closet and tied my hair up, so many years in professional sports and mostly fighting I couldn’t grow my hair, so for the last 6 years it’s been my pride and joy having it grow long, but working out was my least favourite part of maintaining it long.

45 minutes later I went back down to stretch and get ready, I watched the live stream through all of my workout listening to all information I could obtain, people kept asking Thalia for some personal information, like her accent and playfully teased her mistakes in Italian, to which she always responded with calm and a soft way of telling people to mind their own business, I liked that.

I finished stretching and headed to my office for a shower, I had clothes here and all I needed so that I could go to the shop straight from here and not have to go back home.

I took my phone charger and hooked up my phone in the shower and took out my headphones, then put the live on the Bluetooth speakers in the shower that I usually use to listen to music.

The light sound of the tattoo machine made my skin tingle, I needed to get a tattoo asap.

After I finished my shower I put a towel around my waist and continued to dry my hair, in my reflection in the mirror the pump from my workout was obvious, I wasn’t nearly as toned as some years ago when I was competing in bodybuilding competitions, but it’s not a lifestyle I liked maintaining, after winning all the titles I aimed for I stopped.

I quickly put some product in my hair and dried it, it took a moment since my hair was thick and never easy to dry.

I’ve passed the shaving machine on my face getting rid of the five o’clock shadow I had going on, some creams, some deodorant and perfume I grabbed my phone and charger and headed back to the office with my towel still on.

I looked through my closet and grabbed a pair of boxers and put them on, I headed back to the shower to hang my towel when I heard a knock on the office door, I called out “don’t come in!”, I heard Matteo respond “too late bro, plus you don’t have anything I haven’t seen yet”.

That made me laugh “you’re an i***t, a correct i***t but still”.

Matteo looked at me in my boxers and said jokingly “I feel so over dressed”.

We both laughed at that, he continued “I thought I’d catch you in time for a workout together but seen that you’ve showered I’m guessing I’m too late”.

“Yeah” I said as I went through my closet, pulling out clothes just to fold them back in and pull out another piece of clothing.

Matteo raised an eyebrow at me “that’s a lot of considering what to wear for someone who’s headed home to crash on his sofa” he said in a voice that meant ‘tell me where are you heading’.

“That’s cause I’m not heading home, I need to make a stop first..” I pulled out a pair of classic black pants and put them on “I want to stop at this tattoo shop to make an appointment” I said as a wore a white T-shirt.

Matteo was looking at me strangely “Since when do you make any appointments at the shop? Also since when do you make any appointments??? That’s usually my job, and that’s the first time I hear about a new tattoo idea, what’s really going on? Is it a girl? Is she hot? Do I know her?”

I scratched the back of my head, I couldn’t lie to him, we’ve known each other since we were 3 years old, he would know even if I tried.

“Kind of” I said, to which Matteo responded “kind of a girl? Kind of hot? Or I kind of know her?”

I rolled my eyes at his satisfied face, I answered “It’s kind of about a girl, I don’t really know her so you don’t know her, and do you really need to ask if she’s hot?” I smirked.

Matteo laughed “ahhhhh hopeless romantic Tommaso is back! It’s been over a year now, took you long enough.”.

I grabbed a pastel olive green shirt still on its hanger and hung it from the closet door handle.

“It’s not like that, I’m going to talk to her, see if I can get to know her a bit.. and if! By the first couple of hours I see it’s not a match, I get a tattoo no harm no foul! It’s not even a date, just a business meeting.”

Matteo had an interested look on his face “well that’s a new one for sure, if this somehow does turn into a date or you need me for our regular move, let me know.”

I sighed “for sure bro” I set back down and put on some socks and my Nike airforce one classic shoes, I kept my phone on low volume as me and Matteo kept talking and I kept sneaking looks to the live, I noticed just as they were finishing a 2,5 hours session.

The fresh ink looked beautiful, the colours blended beautifully, the greens around the light peachy and pink flowers have a great contrast and all the live chat was impressed.

Comments about coming to set an appointment and how they would love something similar was repeated in the chat.

Thalia took off her gloves and her big glasses, her hair was in a messy bun and her face glowing from light sweat.

She looked into the phone and talked to the viewers “Thank you all for watching, for the questions and the compliments! We have to go now cause I need to take some pics, clean up and get ready for my next session! I appreciate you all, DM me if you want an appointment! Kisses!” And she blew some at the screen and so did Francesca before signing off.

Shit I thought, she has another appointment who knows how long this one will be.

As I was trying to figure out my next move, another i********: notification popped on the screen, she published a story - it was a picture of the tattoo she had just finished, the text on it said “thanks to everyone watching the live today! I’m so sorry I can’t respond to all your DMs but I should finish my next session in a couple of hours (small tattoo) and I’ll do my best to replay as soon as possible!”

Great, I had a couple of hours to burn, Matteo went upstairs to workout and I decided to reply to some more emails I got in the last couple of hours, and then went over some fitness plans I had for the very few people I still took on as a personal trainer, all of them very wealthy people who offered hefty sums to be trained by me, a few were investors that I took on as part of the deals and let’s just say it took very little time and effort for the cash they paid.

When I looked at my Apple Watch an hour and a half had already passed, I got up and put on the buttoned up shirt I chose before, fixed my man bun and sprayed on some more perfume, I felt nervous, it was unexpected to me, I’ve never had this feeling before.

I grabbed the car keys put my wallet and phone in my pockets and headed out.

The drive to the shop took about 10 minutes or so, I parked across the street and checked my reflection in the rear view mirror before heading over to the shop.