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"Hold on a sec and I’ll check it out, that is if I can get the Tasmanian Devil to move her fine ass outta e, andloud in the background

"My last appointirl who just wants a little fleur-de-lis on her foot"

"Wanna start so foror so"

"We won’t have time for that before you leave"

"I know I just want you to draw it and get the outline done"

"Talk toabout it since the studio got trashed, since Ayden had pulled outthat captured the way music exploded out of me, the way the fire flowed in and out of e

"I want an old-school microphone broken, like split open, with a bunch of fire spilling out of it It needs to look shattered and rough, not old-school or traditional"

I could hear hi stuff down on paper as I talked

"The fire needs to be hot and out of control and I don’t care how big you make it My whole back is open, so you have whatever space you need"

He whistled between his teeth

"All right I’ll get so sketched up and text it to you If you like it, stop by around five"

"Don’t worry about the text, just draw it and let’s go Come on, dude, you know ot it"

"You can be totally insane, you know that, right?"

It was funny because for the first tiured out and insanity played no part in it

"Don’t they say all great art cohed "I think you have both of those covered I’ll see you later"

I had avoided going to the house during the day, on the off chance I would run into Ayden, but I didn’t want to be in court clothes anymore, so I decided to risk it I swore out loud when I saw her Jeep was still parked in the driveway I locked h to handle a run-in with her, even if looking at her made all my exposed parts hurt

I pulled the front door open and stopped dead in otten back from a run, because she was in those stretchy black pants thatout of a wet drea else That was entirely too much skin, and too much Ayden for oing to slide past her, and totally pretend like I didn’t even see her in all her too-hot-for-lory Apparently she had other ideas, because she put down her water bottle and leaned back against the sofa to stare at me

"Hoas court?"

It was on the tip of ue to ask how she knehere I had been, but then I reest ed out of my leather jacket and tossed it next to her, and counted backward from ten until I felt like I could talk to her I wanted to interact with her without spilling and choking on all the bitterness I struggled with every day

"It went fine"

I saw her look away Clearly she was as uncoood I’h and shoved angry hands through my hair

"Yeah, it’s every kid’s dream to send his dad to jail because he ripped them off and tried to screw them out of a chance-of-a-lifetime opportunity" The sarcash the discomfort between us

She cleared her throat and pushed up off the couch, crossing her arms over breasts that I would dream about until I died

"You deserve to be happy, Jet You deserve to take care of yourself for once"

"Yeah, I guess" I would much rather have her take care of me, much rather take care of her, but since that wasn’t an option any care ofto head tomy shirt Those eyes of hers were sharp and followedfro inside me went cold and still when I saw the name on the caller ID Sweater Vest Godda to incinerate the whole planet with a single thought Without a word I handed the device to her and went to storm past her I stopped when her hand fell on lowed at me with an eirl twisting o I couldn’t just spin out of control any dizzy was only fun for a second

"It isn’t what you think, Jet None of this is what you think it is"

Her voice quivered a little and I wanted to care, wanted to kiss her and take her to bed I wanted to sing to her, wanted to beg her to coer and ask her to beher off and narrow my eyes at her

"I try not to think about it at all, Ayd"

I heard her gasp but I just keptshe had to say to the idiot in argyle, so I slammed the bedrooI could pull the eled in off as easily