Serious Ink Read Online Free Page B

gluten-free menu. “Mmm.”
    “What about your work?” Noah asked after cutting a bite of his steak.
    Heat crept into Zoe’s cheeks, and it had nothing to do with her dinner’s spiciness. “At Hot Ink, you mean?” She considered her position as receptionist at the tattoo studio to be her “real” job. Moonlighting at Sugar Panda – well, that was just something she had to do, not something she loved.
    He nodded.
    “I’ve been working there for a few years. I love it. The staff is great, and so is the owner, Jed – you met him. It’s a good place to work; there’s a real sense of camaraderie.”
    “So the yogurt place – that’s just something you do on the side?”
    “Hey, I thought you said we could pretend you never saw me there?”
    He winced. “Sorry. Forgot.”
    “I guess I can forgive you, since you turned down the dinner rolls.” She scooped up a bite of rice pilaf. “And yeah, it’s just a part-time job. I work 35 hours a week at Hot Ink, but lately it just hasn’t been enough to make ends meet. Not that the pay isn’t fair – it is. But I had to do something, and when I saw Sugar Panda was hiring…” She shrugged. “Well, now I’m a ‘yogurt artist’. I haven’t been there long, but it looks like they’re going to give me about twenty hours a week.”
    Her encounter with Dennis sprang to the forefront of her mind. “That was the plan, anyway – I guess I need to brush up on my shamelessness if I expect them to keep me around.”
    “Listen, I’m sorry about that – showing up, I mean. I didn’t realize—”
    “Don’t worry about it.” Rehashing it was almost as embarrassing as the original incident had been. It was bad enough that she wore fake ears for a living – knowing that he felt sorry for her was too much. “Really. I’d rather not talk about it, if it’s all the same to you. I don’t want you staring across the table and picturing me in my panda ears.”
    One side of his mouth quirked in a smile. “For the record, I thought the ears were cute.”
    She died a little inside. “You’re just saying that. Anyway, they give me a headache every time I put them on. I loathe them.”
    “Call me crazy, but maybe you should call it quits at Sugar Panda.” He donned a more serious expression. “Costumes and singing aside, your boss seems like a real jerk. If the job is making you miserable, maybe you should keep looking.”
    She shook her head as all the reasons why she didn’t dare do exactly that raced through her mind. When she really thought about the obligations that had driven her to don a pair of panda ears in the first place, it was almost overwhelming. “What you’re saying makes sense, but I just can’t.” A little heat crept up her neck. Bringing up money on a date – talk about tacky. “I really need the income those extra work hours provide.”
    Even if she quit Sugar Panda, it might take her weeks or even months to find another part-time position, and the bills stacked on the kitchen table at home put that out of the question. She was already playing catch-up as it was. “I’d hoped for something a little more professional than dishing out yogurt toppings, but I really shouldn’t complain. There are people out there looking for jobs who can’t find them. I’m sorry I’ve been such a whiner. Let’s talk about something else.”
    “Professional like how?”
    She shrugged. “Well, I’ve got years of experience as a receptionist. I wouldn’t have minded finding another position like that. I’m pretty organized and I’m sure Jed would give me a good reference.”
    Noah sat back in his chair, but his eyes never left hers. For a few seconds, she let herself get lost in all that green, and then her gaze drifted south, to his mouth and below… She still didn’t know what kind of tattoos he already had, or what he’d seen Jed for. Resigned to pure conjecture, she let herself fantasize about what might be hidden beneath his shirt buttons.