Eden gathered up all the artwork and lit it on fire.
Aunt Leslie had a fit and told Eden to move out. It was a silly fight. Aunt Leslie had too much wine that night, but Eden left anyway. She didn’t want to be part of any family if it wasn’t her real one. Her quest to find her real parents took her to Los Angeles. Her drawings took her to the beach which didn’t provide a damn thing financially. Then she met Dimitrio. He was tall, covered in ink, and gave her a hundred bucks to tattoo his left calf. When she said she’d never tattooed anyone before, he said he didn’t give a shit. When she asked what he wanted, he said anything. Eden did her first tattoo in Dimitrio’s shop, after closing, doing it freehand, drawing a skull with a snake slithering through the mouth and left eye socket. She completed the designed with red and black roses. When she finished, she wept and Dimitrio handed her a thousand dollars in cash.
“What’s this for?” she asked him.
“First week’s pay. You’ll get paid every Friday, plus whatever tips customers throw at you. Be here Monday. I’ll have all the equipment and supplies you’ll need.”
That was the beginning of Eden’s new life and career.
She still checked in with Aunt Leslie once in a while, but not too often.
Well, she hadn’t talked to Aunt Leslie in almost a year. Not since the lawyer contacted her and gave her The Letter.
In her mind, Eden called it The Letter because it was the most powerful thing she’d ever received in her life. It was a letter from her birth father, along with pictures to prove his existence, her birth mother’s existence, and what to do when she received the letter.
Eden took the needle from the man’s shoulder and wiped the ink away. A tiger stared back at her, good enough to be alive. This guy came with no story though. He just liked tigers.
After a few more minutes of shading, she was done.
“How’s that look?” Eden asked.
“Ah, damn,” the guy said. “That’s perfect. It’s looks fucking real.” He looked at Eden. “Sorry for the language.”
“I work in a tattoo shop, man,” Eden said. “You can’t imagine the shit I hear.”
“Thanks for this. It’s amazing. Really. You’re really good. And you have no ink?”
“Not that you can see,” Eden said with a sly grin.
The guy’s eyes lit up.
She stood and took her gloves off, throwing them out.
“I’m only kidding,” Eden said. “I have no ink. No desire.”
“That’s crazy. And you do work like this? You’re the best.”
“If I’m the best then anyone who touches me wouldn’t be the best.”
The guy nodded. “Yeah, right.”
He took out some my money and handed Eden a generous tip. She thanked him, explained the instructions for care - not that he needed it as his other arm was half a full sleeve of tattoos - and sent him to the counter.
That was the last one for the day.
The shop closed up twenty minutes later and Eden sat in her chair and opened her top drawer. That’s where she kept The Letter. Reading it so many times had it tattooed in her mind. It was so dumb to wait this long, right? He had sent The Letter, but he also made it very clear that Eden had no obligation to contact him. Her father just wanted her to know he knew who she was.
“Hey,” a voice said from behind her.
Eden turned and saw Dimitrio standing there. He was a beautiful man but they were far too close as friends to let anything get in the way of that.
“Hey,” I said.
“Working OT?”
“Just sitting and thinking.”
“You could do that at home. I need to make a drop at the bank in the morning. Are you okay opening?”
“Sure thing,” Eden said.
“You sure you’re okay?”
“You don’t know a lot about me,” Eden said. “Do you?”
“What I know I like.”
“I was adopted, Dimitrio.”
“Oh, shit,” he said. “I didn’t know that.”
“And my adoptive parents were killed in a car accident. I never really had anything go my way.”
“Don’t say that, Eden. You’re good at what you do. Everything bad that happens comes with good. It balances the universe out.”
“You really believe in that kind of stuff?”
“I do,” Dimitrio said. “It’s how I survive. Rain sucks, but it makes flowers grow. Right?”
“Sure,” Eden said and grinned. “This is going to sound crazy. I got a letter from my birth father.”
“Whoa,” he said, eyes wide. “That’s deep.”
“Yeah. He sent it like almost a year ago,” Eden said. “I got it just as I was starting to settle in here. It was the first time I felt comfortable and I just didn’t know what to do with it. I mean, he laid it out pretty clear there was nothing good waiting for me with him. It wasn’t like my father was someone famous and rich.”
Dimitrio nodded. “So what’s holding you back?”
“Now? It’s the time. It’s been too long.”