18. Chapter 18

Apart of me regretted even telling Bradley about the invite to renew his fight with Oleksandr Bartosh. I knew what it would cause in him, and that his distance from me would increase every passing day — and it had. Then again, there was no way I could keep it a secret from him.

That didn't make the weeks any easier. We were still sleeping in the same bed, twined around one another every night like lovers should. In a way, it had made us stronger, the half-reversion to the relationship we had always had. Assistant and boss. Though made easier by the fact we could communicate physically and not just verbally now.

It was Jase who'd suggested I do something for myself, in amongst everything else I'd added to my plate. "Just take one day off," he had said. "Just one day to yourself."

There had maybe been a little more finagling and arguing afterward, but eventually he had gone behind my back and told Bradley that Sophia had invited me back to the tattoo studio to talk art.

So there I was, stood outside the tattoo parlour and wondering if I should just turn round, head home, and eat ice cream in my pyjamas for the day, when Sophia opened the door and beckoned me in. "I was wondering when you'd turn up!"

The tattoo parlour was as immaculate as always, but unusually the front room was occupied. There was a new pleather bed laid out in the room, and a young man was laying on it, a huge network of purple lines criss-crossing his back where the woman who was tattooing him had transferred her template.

"Arthur, meet Cindy. She's my newest junior artist. Well, my only junior artist for now," said Sophia. Cindy looked up and waved as we passed her. I got a closer look at the man's back. Cindy was tattooing a huge tree, the branches of which reached past his shoulder-blades whilst the trunk stretched all the way down to the small of his back.

"Come on, I'll show you what I'm working on in the back room," said Sophia. "I've asked if I can bring you in to observe, and he's allowed it. As long as you're discreet. I told my client that you're very used to working with celebrities."

I nodded, wondering who was behind the door. Sophia was known for her discretion and skill, and many celebrities had crossed through her door and into the back room. Some of the rich and famous wanted new tattoos, some wanted a discrete cover up of ones they regretted. And some…

"Theo?!" I screeched as I finally focused on the man who was laying on the tattoo bed in front of me. "No. Fucking. Way."

Theo Tyler, Bradley's sports-car racing cousin, looked at me like a deer in the headlights. He was laying bare-chested, and my eyes were immediately drawn to the only tattoo on his body. In cursive black lettering just below well-defined pecs, were the words Slower than Sebastian García. Theo was blonde, and didn't have much body hair anyway, which meant that the tattoo was stark against his skin.

Theo's eyes widened to a comically large size when mine met his again. "P-please don't tell anyone. It's just a stupid, just a…"

"Chill, I won't tell Bradley," I said. "I can keep secrets."

Sophia's head whipped between us like she was watching a tennis match. "Bradley…Theo…Oh. Tyler I get it now," she said. "Well, this can be classed as a major fuck up. An astronomical one, if you really think about it."

I laughed. "How can you not know that Tyler and Bradley are related, tattoo artist to the stars?"

"That's why I'm such a tattoo artist to the stars, because I don't give a shit," said Sophia. "If I cared about celebrity, then I'd have less celebrity business. Get it?"

Theo still looked vaguely horrified, so I approached him with hands held in front of me like I was tending to a wounded animal. "Don't worry, Theodore. Seriously. I keep Bradley's secrets all the time. I wouldn't have a job if I didn't."

"And now you're shacking up with him," said Theo quietly. His face was pale, but there was a hint of a smirk on his lips now.

"That is true. And now I have even more secrets of his to keep. Though he's shirtless all the time in the ring, so he couldn't exactly get…that." I jabbed at the tattoo.

Sophia seemed to find her voice again and walked over to where we were stood. "So, Arthur. What would you do?" she asked. She sounded like a surgeon asking for the best way to save a patient's life rather than a tattoo artist asking what colour might be best for a cover up.

I thought about the tan skin in front of me like a canvas. How would I cover up an errant pencil stroke or accidental dark splurge of paint?

"So you want something dark that covers this area here," I said, drawing my finger in the air over the tattoo. "But it's so big that I can't imagine any tattoo having a big splurge of black in the middle that doesn't look bloody awful."

"Exactly," said Sophia. "Theo could get laser tattoo removal, at least a few sessions would lighten up the ink enough to put something slightly less intensive over it. But laser is painful, and Theo here doesn't like pain."

"So you got a tattoo across your ribs?" I asked incredulously.

Theo shook his head, and wouldn't meet my eyes. "I had a bet with García at the Monaco Grand Prix last year, this was my punishment. But I'm tired of going on holiday and wearing t-shirts, even on the beaches of Andalusía."

A little fact itched at the back of my brain. "Isn't Sebastian like, your biggest rival? You're enemies on and off the track, always trash-talking the other…"

Theo grunted as Sophia took out a disposable razor and started to pull it gently over his chest, removing the layer of dark blond hair as she spoke; "Anyway. Tattooing is less painful than getting a tattoo removed, though the size of your cover up is going to mean that hardly matters. Instead of one big block of black as you suggested, Arthur…" Sophia turned around and grabbed a piece of transfer paper, on which was emblazoned a pair of wings. They swooped up dramatically from a close centre, the feathers starting small in the middle and growing as they reached an apex.

"This is the design Theo and I have agreed upon," said Sophia. "Grab the bowl and sponge, would you dear?"

I fetched it as asked, and watched as Sophia carefully lined up the transfer paper so the wings met at the centre of Theo's chest. She took the sponge from me, dipped it in and then gently pushed at the transfer paper over Theo's chest so that it lay damp on him for a second, and then pulled it up. A purple outline of what she intended to permanently ink into his skin remained.

I leaned in, amazed at what she had done. The feathers weren't quite perfect, not quite symmetrical. But the darkness of the many feathers at the centre, as well as careful placement further out, would completely shield the letters from view when the tattoo was inked in black.

"You're a genius," said Theo to Sophia.

"I know," she replied. "Now. I don't advise numbing cream as it can impact the quality of the tattoo, but that means it's going to hurt a little more. Is that OK?"

Theo grimaced. "It's going to have to be."

"Do you need a hand to hold?" I offered.

Theo rolled his eyes at me. "I'll be fine. I'm a big boy." But his eyes tracked the needle warily as Sophia turned on the tattoo gun to test it.

"Why did you ask me here today?" I asked Sophia. "Surely not just to impinge on some poor bugger's privacy."

"Oh no," said Sophia. "I went through the pictures you drew, and I was wondering if you might want to help me come up with some ideas for another cover up. Apparently, Mr Tyler here isn't the only one who didn't realise just how impactful and harmful a silly tattoo can be." She gestured to the iPad in the corner. "Go check out the pictures on there. I assume I don't have to have you sign an NDA? I wouldn't even show Cindy the files that are on there, or who's coming in for their tattoo."

I crossed over to the iPad, flicked upward on the screen, and choked on my own spit. "What the fuck?" I muttered. On the screen was a photo of another man's chest, close up. There was no face in the picture, but there were a couple of identifying features. The chest was dark, tanned and quite hairy. The man had two tattoos. One, peeking into the picture from above, was of a black cross dangling from rosary beads. I presumed the rosary beads were tattooed all the way round his throat like a necklace. But that wasn't the thing that drew my eye the most.

The tattoo that ran across the middle of his chest, higher than Theo's, almost obscured by the dark chest hair, was even more damning and obscene than the one on the young man's chest in the room with me. In the same cursive writing was Theodore Tyler has a bigger dick than me.

"Christ, Theo." I turned to face them both. Sophia was popping a new needle into the tattoo gun, having pulled on a pair of latex gloves. Theo looked like he was about to faint. "Why did Sebastian García get this if you lost a bet?"

"I didn't lose a bet, I drew a bet," said Theo. "And how do you know it's García?"

I ignored his question. I didn't need him to know that I followed a couple of racing drivers on Instagram for eye-candy reasons. "So rather than call it off, you decided you would both take the consequences," I said instead.

"Something like that, yeah. I don't remember it too well, we'd both had a bit to drink…"

"Christ almighty, Theo."

Sophia interrupted us by pulling on the latex glove and then letting it go so it smacked against her wrist. "Right, you two. I want to get to work. Arthur, if you can take what I've shown you here and create something for Sebastian. I'm not saying I'll use it, but I think you have the talent to create something beautiful. And Theodore is going to lay very still as I tattoo. You're welcome to observe as you draw.

"Thank you," I said. I lowered the opacity of the photo on the iPad and created a drawing layer over Sebastian's chest. Right away I could tell that his dark hair would cover more sins than Theo's sparse spattering of pale body hair, but equally the new tattoo could look a bit of a mess if it just sat under the covering of hair.

"What's the nickname they give him on the grid? The Lion?"

"The Mountain Lion," Theo corrected, wincing as Sophia traced dark lines of ink into his skin. Already, Sebastian's name was almost unrecognisable underneath the beginnings of the tattoo. I was fascinated by her precision and care as she drew. It was almost indistinguishable from how I would draw, as she increased pressure to thicken lines and eased up to taper off. Theo winced, but to be fair to him, he stayed mostly silent.

"When do you next race?" I asked him.

"There's a one month break between races, I'm going on holiday next week to try and get some much-needed rest in," said Theo. I nodded at his words as I grabbed a picture of a mountain lion from Google and added it as a reference to my drawing, starting its torso on Sebastian's shoulder and having it seem to leap across its chest. Before my eyes, I was creating a piece of art in a way I never had before - trying to match it to the counters of a body, not have it be too difficult or ostentatious.

"Are you taking Mr García with you?" I teased.

"Ha, very funny. I would rather poke my eye out with a rusty nail than go on holiday with that man," said Cory.

I smirked. "But you got matching tattoos? One about the size of your penis?"

"It's not like that!" Theoprotested.

"Don't move," warned Sophia, one hand gently on his shoulder.

"It's not like that," Theo said again, quieter. "He and I…I don't like him, OK? Not at all. He's spoilt, and stupid, and he makes me do stupid things…"

I just let him witter on about his hatred for Sebastian García as I drew a tattoo on the chest of the man he hated. I was curious, but if I knew the Tylers, it would all come out in the end with minimal pushing from me or anyone else. Bradley quite literally wore his heart on his sleeve, as I'd discovered.

The outline took a good hour and a half of work from Sophia, and when she was done she leaned back with satisfaction. She took off her gloves, disposed of the needle from the gun, and smiled at her handiwork before passing Theo a mirror. "What do you think?" she asked.

"It's beautiful," he said breathlessly. "It didn't hurt as much as I thought.

"Talking dulls the pain, and you certainly know how to do that," muttered Sophia. "Anyway, it's not done yet. But I wouldn't be willing to work on it any more in one session. This is just the outline, and it covers up most of your issues. But you can come back in a month for the shading."

I listened as she wrapped up the tattoo in a special breathable plastic, passed him a tub of moisturiser and explained the proper care. And then she turned to me. "What have you done in the time I've given you, then?"

I suddenly felt very shy. What if what I'd drawn was absolute crap? I wasn't expecting Sophia to use it, but I was certainly hoping she would like it. "I don't know if it's too ostentatious," I stammered, "but…I thought I'd draw something that represents Sebastian. From what I've seen of him."

I turned the iPad around so that they could both see my work. The mountain lion seemed to leap from Sebastian's shoulder onto his chest, and around it I'd drawn in leaves that alternated between dark and light to add some depth and dimension, as well as to hide the words written across his chest. I wanted to make sure that even after the body hair grew back, it would be visible, and not too out of place or tacky.

"Wow," said Theo. "That is exactly as ostentatious as the man himself."

"How much?" asked Sophia a little abruptly.

"What?" I replied.

"How much do you want for the design? Anything I draw now is just going to rip that off, so I may as well ask you if you're willing for me to use it," said Sophia.

I passed the iPad over. "Have it. It's nothing."

Sophia looked torn. "It's certainly not nothing, Arthur. It's beautiful. And I think my client might just take it. And if he's seen with this on his chest in paparazzi photos for years to come, you might just make my business boom."

"Well, I'm grateful for the opportunity you've given me," I said. "But I can't take money for it. It's just a drawing."

Sophia took in a breath. "Just a drawing? Arthur, this is beautiful. I cannot believe you've allowed yourself to devalue your art so much."

I felt a blush creep through my cheeks. "Seriously, Sophia. Have it."

Sophia gave me a weak smile. "In that case…" She walked over to a cupboard and rummaged through it, and then pulled a book from a drawer. When she returned, she was holding a small cardboard box as well as the book. "This," she said, "is a book on Health and Safety in the tattoo parlour. And this box here has one of my old tattoo guns, some fresh needles and a pot of black ink. I want you to practice on an organ, or a grapefruit. It's no real substitute for skin, but it'll do the trick until you're willing to give it a go."

"You want me…to tattoo?" I asked.

"Only if you want to. You draw beautifully, Arthur. And you understand the human body well, I can see that from your drawings. So if you're willing, I'd like to see you give it a try. Even if it's just as a hobby, I'd love to mentor you.

I felt a smile coming. I was certain of one thing in life, and that was Bradley. But now I had something outside of that working and personal relationship to look forward to. I had a goal.