Eros was bored, and wanted to poke at the relationships around him. He knew it probably wasn’t the best idea, however. Still….he could chat up some of those ends, couldn’t he? He decided that he could, and decided to start with Charles, and followed his connected thread to a tattoo shop. He stood outside for a moment, deciding on how to proceed before stepping inside. There was a man present, tall, with a bushy beard, but he was heading off with a customer. That left the one he was looking for. He smiled as she approached, seeing the thread a bit thicker on her end then it had been previous. That meant a strong anchor. He would have to double check Charles later.
“Can I help you?”
“Yes, I’d like a tattoo.”
“Did you need to look at designs, or did you have one in mind.”
“I have one in mind. Three stars in the background, and a dove in the foreground, on my left shoulder. Please.” she gave him a slight look, wondering about the significance, but said nothing, and led him to an emtpy room. The stars were symbols of his wife, Psyche, and represented body, life and soul. The dove was his own symbol (and that of his mother), representing lifelong wedding and happy hearts.
“Get comfortable, I’ll sketch up a design and see if it’s to your liking.”
He nodded and got comfortable in the chair, watching her as she drew. After several minutes she turned around the sketchpad, and he nodded his approval. She then set about prepping everything, then finally pulled on a pair of latex gloves.
“Shirt off, please.” He complied, taking his shirt off, and watched as she moved around to his side and began working. Things went in silence for a while before she spoke.
“If you don’t mind me asking, this seems like an unusual design for a guy. What’s the significance?”
“It represents my wife.” he said with a smile as he thought of Psyche.
“Oh yeah? How long have you been married?”
“Feels like forever.” he said, grinning a bit at the joke. “What about you? You have anyone special?”
She paused for a moment, thinking of her answer. For whatever reason, she wanted to be open and honest with her client, he seemed easy to talk to. Besides, what could be the harm in it?
“Sort of? I don’t know…I have more of a friends with benefits situation going on. Not sure how he feels on his end.”
“Sounds like you care about him.”
“Yeah.”
“But you don’t know how he feels about you?”
“Yeah.”
Things were silent for a while before Eros spoke again. “What would you say to him, if you had the courage?”
“I’d tell him to man up and tell me how he really fucking felt. I thought I could handle just a benefits situation, but it’s turning out to not be that way. If he doesn’t feel the same, I need to break things off, you know?”
“I do.”
“How would you know? You’re happily married.”
“True. But I counsel couples.”
She snorted. “Another counselor. Great.”
Eros wisely said nothing, he simply continued to study her as she worked in silence for the remainder of the time. When she was finished, she gave him a spiel about how to take care of the tattoo. It was then he spoke again.
“Don’t lose hope just yet. You should talk to him.”
“I can’t. I can’t ever figure out how to bring things up.”
“I’d be happy to intervene on your behalf. I’d just need to know who he was,”
She thought long and hard about it while he paid.
“His name is Charles. He’s the director for the outreach center on Carter Road.”
“Alright. I’ll go see him on your behalf then. Oh…your name?”
“Mercy.”
“Thank you Mercy. I hope you get the results you deserve.”