Genevieve was just hanging up the phone when Kirsten, one of her closest friends and the head of public donations, leaned on the edge of her desk and sighed. "Gosh this place is getting busy. It seems like the work never ends these days."

Genevieve frowned, "You look tired, bub."

Kirsten gave a half-hearted smile. "You would be too if you had to do the job of two people" she nudged her jokingly in the shoulder. "Honestly though, how are you doing back here? Ready to kill the boss-lady yet?"

Genevieve groaned, dropped her head to desk and brought her arms around to shield her face. This week was going from bad to worse.

"I have to go scouting out restaurants for a place to hold a dinner 'for the kids'," she grumbled through her arms. "Even though I know she has her daughter's birthday still not booked for next week"

"Excuse me ladies, is there a Miss Genevieve around here?"

She looked up, about to stare down the person disturbing her pity party, when she stopped. She stared at the young man in uniform, carrying the biggest bunch of flowers she had ever seen - tulips in ever colour she could think of. Not usually a fan of flowers, even she couldn't deny this was a gorgeous sentiment. 

She paused, and then sighed again. "That's me. I'm Amanda's... Assistant. I'll sign for them."

The young man frowned, and checked the card again. "I'm sorry ma'am, but they're addressed to Genevieve, not Amanda."

She stared at the man, utterly confused. Looking between the flowers and Genevieve, Kirsten leaned forward and signed the man's receipt, and accepted the bouquet.

Leaning in to smell the arrangement, Kirsten beamed. "Oh my gosh, Gen. These are stunning! Look at the size of them! This must have cost a fortune!"

Genevieve had to shake herself out of it, before she could ask, "Who on earth are they from?"

Kirsten dug through the plethora of bulbs, before she pulled out a small white card, rapidly turning it over and over. "It doesn't say... It doesn't say!" She paused and looked up, showing her what was written on the card.

Two words. 'I'm Sorry.'

Her stomach dropped. How was this possible?

She pushed out from desk before Kirsten could say anything else, called out to Amanda that she was going on the afternoon coffee run for her, and stormed out the door. As she pushed open the office doors, she began rapidly scrolling through the search engine on her phone's browser. She didn't know if she was surprised, furious or gratuitous, but she knew she felt an enormous charge of some emotion running through her as she dialed.

"Good Afternoon. Thank you for calling Ink. This is Karen speaking," the voice on the other end echoed.

"Hi Karen," she asked politely. "Is Matthew in? This is important. My uh, tattoo is infected."

"Ooohhh nasty! Let me go grab him," she heard, flinching at the sound the phone made being thrown against a bench of some sorts.

A moment later, he answered the phone, voice full of concern. "This is Matt. Who is this?"

"How on earth did you know where I worked?" She asked, fuming. She decided she was mad.

There was nothing for a moment. "Genevieve? Is that you? They found you then?"

She rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't be calling if they didn't! How did you find me? Did you follow me or something?"

She heard him chuckle, "Calm down. You said you work with kids, and I know there is an orphanage a few blocks over, so I took a lucky guess. I'm glad I found you. I was hoping you'd call."

"Well you shouldn't have. I mean it. I have nothing to say to you," she fumed, the same hurt she had felt last night coursing through her.

There was silence again. "Well I do. I had a terrible day, and I didn't mean to take it out on you. And I'm sorry. All I wanted I do was talk to you, and I was totally out of line. I feel terrible."

She was speechless for a moment. She hadn't been expecting this at all. "Well it's fine. Thank you," she said coldly.

"Could you meet me at the shop when you finish work?" He asked.

"No." She said stiffly. She was not falling for that again.

"Please? I've been kicking myself for being such a jerk the other night. I'm not going to stop otherwise. I feel bad." He said, with a slight pleading undertone.

She sighed, torn. As much as she didn't want to see him again, she did. "Can't I just accept your apology, and we leave it like that. We can just go on as if I never stepped foot into Ink."

"Mmm I don't think I'd like that very much. And I can tell you won't let this go. Will I see you after work?" He asked, ignoring her previous attempt at taking a stand.

She hung up without answering, and rubbed the bridge of her nose. She did not want to go through that again.

----

It was close to 6 when Genevieve had finally left work; Amanda had actually had work for her to do today, and she'd been so in-the-zone that she hadn't realized the building had darkened. She loved feeling like she was doing something worthwhile.

She was on her way home, and having an internal argument with herself. She assumed that Ink. would be closed and he would have given up by now. She had a nagging feeling that she should drop by, just to satisfy the curiosity growing inside of her at what he would say.

As she rounded the corner, she saw the Ink. desk lit up, with a heavily made up girl laughing into the phone, and a light illuminating the back. She took a deep breath, and pushed open the door.

The blonde woman with a vivid purple hue staining her lips spoke into the phone, "Hold on honey." She gave Genevieve an apologetic smile, "Sorry love, we're closed."

Genevieve returned her smile, somewhat stiffly. "No, uh, I'm here to see Matthew?"

"Oh, it's you!" She exclaimed. "He kept the shop open a little longer today hoping you'd pop by. That man works too hard." She paused, giving a forced smile, "He's out back honey. I hope your..." The woman looked her up and down, taking in her plain business attire, and said "...little problem clears up."

Genevieve forced a smile at the girl, who she had begun to like less and less, and walked out the back. She followed the light to the open door, and found Matt lazily drawing on a notebook, his dark hair gelled back today, curling around his ears.

His sleeveless shirt revealed one of the tattoos she had seen the other day - a full black and white sleeve, depicting an extremely detailed man of war with large masts blowing strong in storm clouds. The ship was sailing rough seas, and reaching up from the deep, connecting to the wrist she had seen the other day, was a giant octopus. It was amazing.

She gently knocked at the door, staying in the frame. He looked up and dropped his pencil, jumping up when he saw her.

"Hey! I was hoping you'd come."

She cautiously nodded, "It was on my way home." She paused, "Sorry I'm so late. I got caught up at work. I hope you weren't waiting for me," She added.

He shrugged, picking up his jacket. "Nahh, I'm swamped here," clearly exaggerating, with the nearly spotless workspace. "I was just on my way out, can I walk with you?"

She hesitated for a moment, then nodded and stepped aside for him to lead the way. He switched off his light, and she followed him to the door. 

"Night Karen," he called out before holding open the door for her. "Lock up before you leave, please."

"Night Matt," she smiled sweetly, before giving a curt nod to Genevieve and turned away.

As the door closed behind them, she looked behind her then back ahead, and let out a chuckle. "Jeesh. Someone has a bit of thing for you."

Matt groaned, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Please don't remind me. I am not looking for anything like that. Especially with her." He waved his hands back in the direction of her in the shop trying to emphasis his point.

She nodded with a smile, before pausing for a moment. "The owner doesn't mind you staying back late to work?"

He grinned at her, "I am the owner."

She stared at him in surprise, "No way!"

He grinned again, "Way."

She laughed at his mocking response, and looked back in awe at the shop in the distance. "That place is amazing!" She stopped for a moment in thought. "I mean, it's not like I've been in many places like that, or any other tattoo parlors at all actually, but it's got such a great vibe. Not at all dingy, and disease ridden like you'd imagine."

At this, he threw back his had in a hearty laugh. "I'm certainly glad for that!" He exclaimed, leading them to both burst out in laughter.

As it died off, he slid her a look and said in a lighter tone. "I really am glad you come tonight. I felt like crap after last night." He gave her an apologetic smile. "I'm really sorry for being such an ass."

She shrugged and gave him a halfhearted smile. "It's ok. I get it. We all have bad day."

As he was about to protest, she continued. "Honestly. I wouldn't be here if I was still mad. You would never have seen me again if I was."

She grinned up at him as she continued, "I'm not going to say it didn't suck, because it did. But in your defense, you were trying to deal with an emotional basket case."

At this, they both laughed again, and she smiled, looking straight ahead. "Probably not going to forget it, but at least we can part in peace now."

She realized they had reached her building, and they stopped in front of the stairs to the doorway.

He raised an eyebrow, "We're parting now?"

She grinned as she took one of the stairs, reaching his eye level. "Yeah, well no offense, I don't think I'm getting a tattoo anytime soon."

He gave her that lopsided smile again, and she looked down at the stairs, before looking up. "Thanks for walking me home. I hope it wasn't too far out of your way."

He shook his head. "Nahh, I actually live in the apartment above the shop, so it's just 10 minutes that way," he said, pointing his thumb in the direction they had just come from.

She shook her head. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize you'd have to come. We could have stayed there."

He shook his head and cocked an eyebrow. "Would you say we're friends now?"

She raised an eyebrow cautiously in his direction. "I guess so? I'm not exactly sure why though."

He rolled his eyes, "It doesn't matter why. Would you say we are?"

She shrugged, hiding her confusion. "Then, yeah?"

"Then you've got to stop bloody apologizing!" He exclaimed, exasperated.

She laughed, "I'm sorry." She paused as he dropped his head in his hands, feigning surrender. She smiled again, and took a step up. "Well have a good night. I guess I'll see you around."

He nodded and took a step away, before turning back to her. "Hey, what are you doing tomorrow?"

She turned to face him, look of surprise on her face. "I'm working again, but it's my early day. I should be getting off around 3, I think? Why?"

"Why don't you stop by? I'll introduce you to Mark and show you around. Maybe I can convince you to join the dark side," he said with a grin.

She hesitated, looking around. He rolled his eyes again, a smile slowly forming. "Come on, what's the worst that could happen?"

Genevieve felt herself filling with fear, but slowly returned his smile. "Yeah, maybe."

"I'll see you tomorrow, friend," he gave her a brilliant smile as he annunciated the word 'friend.' In what way, she wasn't sure. It could have been mocking or condescending tone, but she couldn't decide as she watched him walk off, running his hand through his hair again.

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So it's been a week since I've joined, and I've put 3 posts up - 3 posts that I'm incredibly proud of! I'm really happy with how I've written so far, and liking the direction in which this headed! It's going to get so much better from here. And I apologise the chapters have been so long. I just feel that separating them into parts would leave one part a little less exciting, which is never that fun to read!

I really appreciate everyone who's taken time to read this and comment on it. I really appreciate your support, and any feedback or comments on it super appreciated and helpful!

Thanks for reading,

G xx