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.That s something the oldBrian would have done, the one he kept insisting didn t exist anymore.Hell, the old Brian wouldn t havegotten off the couch tonight in the first place.He d have wallowed in his misery, or drowned it in booze.Now he would drown it in work.He needed to put the mindfuck Candace had run on him out of hishead.Of all frigging ways for it to end.If only he d cut out as soon as he d been dressed and ready, like heusually did in those situations, he might still be willing to stick it out and see what the future held.It wasprobably for the best it had happened the way it had, before he let himself get too involved. I ll be with you guys in a minute, he told the waiting group as he strode through toward the back.He thought he sensed a collective sigh of relief from his artists.It only took him a few seconds to grab hiscap and his gum damn, but he needed a smoke and head back out to the chaos.His first client of the evening wanted her navel pierced.She thought.She was petite and really pretty,and looked young enough that he made her flash her ID.Nothing irked him more than sixteen-year-oldscoming in here trying to pass themselves off as eighteen well, nothing except thirteen- or fourteen-year-olds who actually had permission from their parents but his girl checked out.She d only ever had her ears pierced, and had about five bazillion questions.As he began to settle intothe routine, explaining aftercare, helping her pick out the jewelry she wanted, he started to feel a bit better.But his girl was so hung up on whether or not it was going to be unbearably painful that he was finallyforced to give his usual spiel about the pain factor, only it came out all wrong.And ended with, So, hey,it s all gonna hurt, there s no way around it.If you re deciding on where to get pierced based on where it sgoing to hurt the least, then it s not for you. Rock MeShe looked at him in surprise.Great.He was supposed to put them at ease, not chase them away.Butjust then he realized where his statement had come from& it rang true with relationships too.They weren tfor him.Too much pain involved.Physical pain he could take.It came, did its damage, and was gone.He didn t know what to do aboutthe ache that gnawed at his gut after everything crashed down around him.There d only been a handful oftimes he d experienced it, and today was definitely one of them.After one night with the girl? No way.It couldn t be just about her.The way she d treated him was shitty, that was all, and he d be pissed atany girl who screwed him over.God knew he didn t mind using someone, and he didn t mind being used.But that shit was supposed to be understood from the start.There were ethics involved.Two people gettingeach other off was one thing.But she couldn t ask him to be her first, she couldn t look at him as if shewanted to crawl inside him, she couldn t cry on his shoulder for ten minutes in the shower only to turnaround and treat him like dog crap afterward.But she wouldn t know a damn thing about how any of this works, dumbass.Remember?That was the exact reason he was better off without the hassle.His girl finally stopped fretting and went ahead with the piercing.The clamps seemed to freak her outmore than the needle.She did better than he expected, but then, he knew he was good.Most of his clientssaid they felt a pinch and that was it, but he had the occasional one get light-headed.It always made himfeel like an ass, and he ended up buying them a drink from the machine and talking them through it until hewas sure they were okay to leave.That was actually how he d met Michelle at his old workplace, the one and only client he d ever lethimself get involved with.As soon as she jumped off the table after getting her navel pierced, she d gonedead white and swayed.He d taken her arm and steered her to a chair before she could hit the floor.It hadbeen such a slow weeknight, he d ended up sitting with her and talking until closing time.Her friend hadfinally grown exasperated and taken off.They d continued the conversation over beers and tequila shots at a bar up the street, and then at herplace, where they d had marathon sex until well after the sun came up.It wasn t his normal MO at all, butthat night, he d figured what the hell.She was hot and funny and she d been all over him as soon as they dreached his truck at the bar.Fond memories.Too bad those from last night and this morning were tainted from Candace s subsequent freak out.Hecould ve still been drifting on the euphoria of it all.Even now, he could still smell the scent of her skin, stilltaste her on the back of his tongue.Still feel her wrapped tight and wet around his fingers.He d beenwalking around all day at half- mast from that memory alone, and it was beginning to wear him down.When he went back up front, someone had turned up the tunes, but the sounds of Static-X were doingnothing to soothe his savage beast.He got the next person in line who wanted a tat, thankfully, because itwww.samhainpublishing
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