Chapter 11

Em

“Umm Em… I don’t have any space left in my ears for more piercings…. And quite frankly …. Neither do you.” Sylvia said when she saw where they were.

“No piercings today Syl.” Em told her.

Asher was looking at her but she couldn’t decipher what it meant. She thought he was probably questioning her sanity.

Em was scouring her phone for a picture… then she showed the tattoo artist a few different things, and he took the picture and added what she was explaining.. he then drew it out for her and showed it to her. She absolutely loved it.

Aspen was looking over her shoulder at what they’d come up with.

She touched Em’s arm and said “I love it.”

“Yeah?” Em asked her.

“Fuck yeah” Aspen said and they grinned at each other.

Sylvia and Mickey were waiting up front in the waiting room. Every time Mickey got around needles or pretty much anything similar she just about passed out. So the twins sat with her while she was getting her new tattoo.

“So… I’m gonna assume something else happened?” Aspen asked her easily.

Em hated that they all felt like she would break at any moment. But the truth was she felt very very breakable.

Em told Aspen and Asher about Quinn wanting to know which bedroom he could have , that’s why he called and asked to talk….and then about him calling Finley his family…. Then she finished it off telling them about the phone call and the girls picture.

“What the fuck??” Aspen said.

“My thoughts exactly” Em replied.

She looked at Asher to see his reaction but he was frowning and looking away from her. He then jumped up… and marched out of the room… he kept going once he got back into the waiting room.. he pushed the door open so hard the back of it hit the building.

Em looked at Aspen questionably. But Aspen seemed just as confused as she was.

Asher didn’t come back in until Em was finishing up.. She looked at her new tattoo.. the one that covered up her ‘Q’ she’d gotten for Quinn. She immediately loved it. Had she made this decision on a whim? Absolutely. But she also knew she wouldn’t regret it.

She’d gotten a long tree branch, starting on her middle finger it went over the back of her hand, one part ran up her thumb as the rest went down the side of her arm and around it. Several mini branches poked out here and there.. and it was littered with maple leaves, successfully covering up her other tattoo.

She thought it was beautiful. And the way it sort of wrapped around her like it was holding on to her had so much meaning. Just like everything that had happened to her… things always seem to take hold and try to bring her down.. especially the most beautiful ones. She loved the symbolism of it all.

Aspen had already told her how much she loved it. And when the girls came to look there were a lot of ooohhs and aahhhs. So that just left Asher. He took her hand, turning her arm over to see where it wrapped around the back of it. He was looking at it so intently… she didn’t know what to think.

Apparently no one did, as everyone stayed silent and watched as he inspected it closely.

“It’s perfect.” He finally said.

Asher… being completely serious was a bit of a mind fuck for everybody. On a normal day he would’ve said something ridiculous and then turned it into a sexual comment…. all the while smirking. But not now. She looked up at him but he was still inspecting her hand and arm.

“Okayyy then …” Mickey said. “Are we ready to go guys? The food isn’t gonna cook itself!”

Emerson paid the the tattoo artist after he had taken some pictures of it for his portfolio.. and then Em and the girls took some quick pics of it too.

Asher finally looked up then and nodded once. Em was seriously starting to get concerned with his behavior. This was out of character for him for sure. He hadn’t cracked one joke … he hadn’t flirted with her this whole time…. And he hadn’t made one sexual comment…

And why did he storm out earlier? Where did he even go? Why was she so hung up on this? Em didn’t have the answers to any of her questions.

As they were walking out of the store she whispered to Aspen: “what’s going on with him?” And Aspen said she wasn’t sure exactly.

But then she said: “whatever it is I’m thinking it’s something to do with you though.”