"I don't have any customers for the next hour so I'm gonna grab a coffee you want anything?" I grab my purse from the drawer at my desk and ask Joaquin. "I'm fine thanks."He answers briefly concentrating on the customer who he's currently tattooing. I shrug my shoulders leave the studio closing the door behind me. Down the street is a small coffee shop I have to say it doesn't taste quite good but it does the job. I managed to get a few customer ready for the day but I feel like I'm still asleep. I couldn't sleep that well this night because Khadijah's words made me think about Hero all again. I would like to see him again but I don't know how to contact him and I'm not going to ask Khadijha she's never going to let me hear the end of it. Maybe I could ask Joaquin subtly to ask her for his number. The coffee shop comes into view and I step inside greeting the cashier. "April didn't see you for a long time here!" Madison says while she cleans up some cups. I walk over to where she's standing behind the counter and give her a quick hug. Madison is a girl my age I met in the shop the first time. "I know I had a lot on my plate but here I am." I tell her smiling. "Tell me how's it going?" She asks while she prepares my usual order. "The studio is better then it could ever be, Joaquin and I are a great team. Oh if you don't know Khadijha is in town she visited a few times we should've stopped by I totally forgot." I say putting my hand flat against my forehead. I was so excited that she came to town that I totally forgot that these two are friends as well. "No need to feel bad I'm just going to ring her up the next days." I nod. "And you? How are you doing how's your future career going?" Madison works hard to get into the same world Khadijha is, her big dream is to be a known actress. Until now she played some little roles in movies but she hopes that she's going to get a big role sometime. Her eyes lit up at my question and she gives me a goofy grin. "It looks like I'm going to get one of the main characters in a series but I can't tell you which one because it's not completely confirmed."
" Oh my god I'm so happy for you! You finally got a bigger role like you wanted." I beam up at her and she tells me to be a bit more quiet. I giggle slightly and look around but no ones paying attention. "Sorry." I whisper and she laughs. She places the cup of coffee to go in front of me and I hand her the money. I grab the cup and wave her goodbye. "Text me if you know anything about that secret thing." I yell while I make my way to the door and she laughs and shakes her head at me. Some customers give me weird looks. Oops I guess now I got their attention. I open the door with my back as I wave at Madison one last time. I turn around and am met with a crowd of people holding their cameras at me, clicking sounds and flashlights blinding my eyes. Some of them hold their microphones to me and everyone is asking me questions that I can't really make out. "April over here!"
"April what do you say about Hero confronting a hater and saying that you're beautiful."
"How long is this affair of you two going?" "Are you a part of the new After cast?"
My breathing gets quicker while my eyes wander quickly from one person to the next. Someone grabs my hand and yanks me around the next corner making me drop my coffee and scream in surprise. I get pressed against the walls a big hand clamped shut on my mouth. I quickly look up and my breathing starts to slow down when I recognize the tall figure. He removes his hands his eyes wandering frantically around the street. "Hero?" I whisper yell earning his attention when he looks down at me. He takes a step back his cheeks flaming up in a cute red. "I'm sorry I just wanted to get you out of there but they're not going to leave until we come out."
"Why are they even here. No wait- how are you here?" He scratches his neck looking at the ground embarrassed. "I was actually at your studio debating if I should come in and say hi for 20 minutes. But I chickened out and made my way back." He mumbles and my brows shoot up in surprise. Now I can feel my cheeks burn up at his proposition. Why am I embarrassed now? "That's too bad because I wanted to see you again." I mumble back and close my eyes for a moment this is so uncomfortable. His face snaps up to me in surprise. "You did?" I nod and try to change the topic quickly. "How is your tattoo doing?" He wants to answer my question but cringes when his phone dings. He checks it quickly and gives me a sorrow look. "I have to be somewhere else right now originally." He says and I can hear the sadness in his voice. I try to mask my own disappointment by smiling at him. "It's no big deal I'm going to be fine." He shakes his head at my answer. "No I at least have to get you out of this mess and buy you a new coffee it's my fault it fell down." With Hero being here I completely forgot the mob around the corner waiting for us to come out again. "Why are they even here? And know my name?" He cringes again putting his hands in his jean pockets. "They're thinking we're dating in some kinda way just because you did my tattoo." I expected a lot of crazy shit to come out of his mouth but this tops it all. Why the hell are they thinking we're dating? We just met once! "I'm so confused right now." I say honestly and he nods his head. "I'm sorry that I got you in this whole mess. This happens every time I let somebody in my life." He says desperately raising his face to the sky. I lightly place my hand on his arm. "It's okay it's not your fault you know that? I am friends with Khadijha too and I knew that there would be a risk that I'd get involved."
"But you didn't, you didn't until you met me and that's why I hate all of this." He says pinching his nose with his index and thumb. I can't stand the desperation on his face and I feel responsible for it. "What about that coffee you still wanna make that up?" He looks down at me confusion written all over his face. I slide my hand into his intertwining our fingers.
"You ready?"
"Ready for what?"
"Run!" I say and tug him with me as I run around the corner. Hero quickly gets my idea and runs with me past the paparazzi who instantly start to click away when they get a glimpse of us. They try to run after us but the crowd is so big that they stumble all over each other. Hero and I laugh while we look back and see them all desperately trying to hold up. We turn around the next corner and stop for a second. I slip my hand out of his and bend over the pain in my sides making me groan. "God I need to exercise more." I breathe out. Hero puts one hand on my back. "You okay there darling?" I quickly stand up straight again and look at him. My stomach makes a flip at hearing him say darling. I never thought that an accent could be this beguiling. "I'm..I'm okay." I stutter and meet his eyes. My cheeks heat up again and I look around for an escape. I see that we just need to turn around the corner to get to the studio. "You want to come to the studio for the rest of my break, I can't offer you coffee but we have Coca Cola?" I ask him and smile making him chuckle. "I'd love to." He answers me and we walk around the corner and step into the studio. "Took you long enough what did you do fell into-" Joaquins voice stops when he turns around from his sketches and sees Hero standing beside me awkwardly.
"I see you picked someone up. Hey Hero." Joaquins lips form a grin and I want to slap him immediately. He gets the message by my glares and holds his hands up in surrender turning his back to us. "Let's get to the back I'm going to grab some glasses." I tell Hero quietly. We walk past Joaquin into my corner of working space where he can't see us. Hero sits down on the chair in front of my desk and I get our drinks sitting in front of him. "Now you can answer my question how is your neck holding up?" I ask pointing at my own neck where his tattoo is placed. "It's great the first few days I got a bit dizzy while I put some cream on it but after a while I got used to it." He takes a sip and I nod crossing my legs on the chair. "Are you working on some new sketches?" He asks me pointing to the papers flying around my desk. I nod sheepishly embarrassed by my mess. "Yeah but these are actually not work related I want to get one for myself this time. You want to see it?" I ask him excited and he looks up nodding eagerly. I grab the latest sketch of mine and put the dragon motive in front of him.
"I want it on the side of my calve but it's going to be a lot smaller. I just like that dragons are always the bad ones in the story but truly they're standing for wisdom and intelligence." I look up from the sketch at Hero and notice that his eyes are already trained on me. "This looks amazing. You're such a good artist in general. You have this power of convincing someone to like every design and tattoo you create it's magical." I lay my eyes on the dragon shyly. "Thank you." I mumble. Joaquin told me the same thing once. People are eating out of your hands when you talk about your art April, it's amazing. "I guess you kinda get the feeling to just do what you love. You're an artist too you know that?" He shakes his head at my words. "I'm just reading lines and doing role plays." He plays it down and I furrow my brows at him. "Yes you're reading lines but you have to memorize them, you have to make the scene you're recording look real, convince the watcher that it's really happening and you're feeling some kind of emotion you're not feeling. I watched Khadijha on set one day and it was amazing how actors can switch into different roles all the times I never could do that." I tell him and he looks at me but his eyes seem far away. "I never thought about it that way." He says looking down at the table. "Yeah because true artists don't know how good they truly are." I say and he looks up at me. "Yeah they definitely don't." His eyes look meaningful at me and raises one brow. He makes this cute smile again and his dimples appear. God I'm a sucker for those dimples. The bell above the door rings as a costumer steps in. "Oh shit I have an appointment now." I say my eyes wandering to the clock. The costumer is already 20 minutes late I didn't know Hero and I were talking that long. He stands up quickly making his way to the door and I follow him. "I won't hold you up any longer." He tells me stopping at the door. I put my hands in my pockets "Thank you it was cool that you stopped by even though you chickened out at first." I tease him and chuckle when his cheeks get a rosy tint. Coleen my costumer is sitting in the waiting area and gives me a wink when she sees me talking to Hero. I turn back to him and open the door for him. He steps out and tells me goodbye. Are you really going to let him leave again? Seemingly I have some impulse left and jog out the studio onto the street. "Hero!"I yell and he turns around a hopeful smile on his face. I jog up to him. "Maybe you could give me your number? We could meet up sometime again." My heart beat rings in my ears while I anticipate his answer. "Sure that would be great." He says giving me his dimpled smile. He tips his number into my phone and we say goodbye for good. I step back into the studio a big grin on my lips. "That was a lovely man you talked to out there is that your boyfriend?" Coleen asks me. "No that's just my f-" "uture husband." Joaquin pipes up. "Shut up you ass." I glare at him but I'm too happy right now to stay mad so a smile takes over my lips quickly. "Let's get you prepped Coleen." I tell the woman and we move into my corner but I still hear Joaquin laughing and chanting quietly. "Hero and April sitting on a tree K-I-S-S.." I shake my head at him and switch into my work mode ignoring Coleens grin on her lips.