She says hi back. She wants to know if you have any old tattoo magazines she could borrow. She wants to get her first tattoo.
For sure! I’ll bring some tonight. She should come see Emilio.
That’s what I told her.
I’ll see you at six?
Can’t wait.
I sighed happily and pocketed my phone, then I noticed that Emilio and even his client were now watching me. “What?”
Emilio nodded slowly. “Oh yeah, you have it bad, my friend.”
Just then, Lola pushed her way backwards through the front door, her arms full of boxes. I was quick to grab some before she dropped them. “They’re picking on me,” I told her.
She straightened up and composed herself to her usual glamorous self. “How so?”
Emilio laughed, still inking the guy in the chair. “He’s got it bad for Andrew. He was just smiling at his phone like he’d just found out his favourite porn site had waivered his subscription fees.”
“See?” I told Lola. “They’re taking the piss.”
“But honey, it’s not taking the piss if it’s true.”
They all laughed, and I sighed in defeat. “And I suppose you want me to help you with all these?” I held up the boxes I’d taken from her.
“Of course.” She smiled beautifully. Her soft lipstick matched the colour of her hair. “So tell me, what’s the latest with Andrew?”
“He’s got a hot date tonight,” Daniela called out from the back cubicle. “He’s taking him to stalk a psycho in a bookstore, then to a jazz club.”
Lola looked at me with one perfectly shaped eyebrow raised. “Stalking psychos? I haven’t seen you for one morning, Spence. One morning. What the hell did I miss?”
After I’d explained everything and helped her sort colour palates of eyeshadows, blushes, and lipsticks, I explained how I had hoped to find Yanni at Pol’s acting studio as a last ditch effort.
“I can drive you tomorrow,” she said.
“It’s in the afternoon. I checked the website and classes on Thursdays are later than other days.”
“Perfect. Suits me better, actually. And then you can help me on Friday. I’ve got a job in Pasadena. Should only be a few hours. That okay?”
“Perfect.”
It was ridiculous how excited I was about tonight. It was just a trip to a bookstore and then to a jazz bar, but it was our first official date out together. It was going to be a perfect night. Apart from stalking the psycho, that I didn’t know whether he was an actual psycho, and I didn’t know if he was even going to show up. I hoped all kinds of hope that he wouldn’t show, because that would mean he wasn’t the psycho I got the feeling he was, and because then I could make the whole night about Andrew.
I was dressed and ready to go, looking as good as I got, just after five. “Looking at your watch every thirty seconds won’t make the time pass any quicker,” Lola said. She was almost done for the day, and I was getting antsy, apparently.
“It’s ridiculous, isn’t it?” I asked. “I’m being ridiculous, aren’t I?
She grinned at me and grabbed her handbag. “Not at all. Come on, I’ll drive you.”
“He probably won’t be home yet anyway, and his neighbour already thinks I’m some wacko. I’m pretty sure she was gonna mace me.”
“Well, good for her. If you were some wacko, she should mace you.”
“That’s what I told Andrew.”
Lola laughed at that. “You’re adorable.”
We got into Cindy Crawford, and this time when I buckled my seatbelt, I tried to be inconspicuous when I did a small sign of the cross on my forehead, but Lola saw me do it. “Did you just say a prayer?”
“Maybe.”
She gasped. “Because of my driving?”
“Possibly.”
“Do you do that every time you get in my car?”
“Um…”
She put Cindy in reverse and grinded the gears before pulling out of her parking spot. “Spencer Cohen, I’m deeply offended.”
“I think of it more as a sign of faith,” I explained as she turned out of the lot into traffic at warp speed. “That you scare the shit out of me, yet I still willingly get in this car.”
“I’m not a bad driver,” she declared.
“No, you’re a very good driver,” I agreed. “Considering the speed you drive and the total lack of consideration for other drivers or physics in general.”
She glared at me.
“Please look at the road,” I told her. “I don’t feel like dying today. Or being seriously injured.”
“Oh,” she sang sarcastically. “It’s all about personal safety now that you’ve got a boyfriend.”
I laughed at her. “Yes, that’s totally the reason I don’t want to die today.”
She sighed dramatically. “I see how it is.”
“You know I love you.”
She swerved lanes like a race car driver and stopped at a red light. “Well, I just don’t know…” She sniffed.
“Did I tell you you look particularly gorgeous today?”
She couldn’t hold it in any longer. She laughed. “You’re a shit.”
“I know.”
We pulled into Andrew’s street and his car was out front of his house. “Oh, he’s home already.”