One More Day (14 page)

"I think you have me confused with someone else."

He shook his head.  "No.  Mack, you're a brilliant artist, but that's not all there is.  You're pretty, but not in a slutty way like Hailey.  You're honestly pretty.  You're the kind of pretty that doesn't need makeup or big hair, or those fucking padded bras to make men look.  But you're so much more than just that.  I don't know who told you that you're not the most fucking amazing thing in the world but," he paused, realizing what he was saying.  "Shit," he breathed, closing his eyes and wincing away from the words. 

"What?"

He stood up, and closed the office door, then came back.  With a sigh, he sat down, clenching his hands together in his lap, refusing to look at her.

"I tried to talk to you every day for a year, Mack," he whispered.  "First I told myself that you had to be dating someone, so it wasn't worth trying.  Then I talked myself out of it because girls like you don't talk to guys like me.  I didn't get my high school diploma, and you're going to college.  I'm fucking covered in ink, and you always looked like you belong in a corner office.  I took too long," he said softly.

"What?" she asked again.

He nodded.  "Look, I offered you the job because you're good.  Shit, I think you're better than me."  He rubbed at his face, and swallowed a few times.  "But I also wanted to have you around.  I mean, you keep saying guys like me.  Shit."

He laughed softly, and glanced over at her.  Mack lay with her head against the arm of the couch, pale, but watching him.  She was trying to follow his every word, but not keeping up.

"Mack, if I thought I had half a chance of anything between us, I'd jump on it.  I don't care if you're sick.  I love it that you don't look like some cheap whore.  Hell, sweetie, every morning that I get to be your boyfriend for a few hours, I'm loving it.  I hate the why, but I love being able to just hold your hand, and wake you up with a kiss."

"You want to be some cancer patient's boyfriend?"  Those had to be some amazing drugs they'd given her.

He shook his head.  "No.  I want to be yours.  Cancer, no cancer.  Job, no job."  He chuckled.  "Yeah, the job thing makes it kinda weird, but it's none of that.  It's that you get lost in a drawing, and taunt Colby."  He smiled at her a bit.

"Me?"

Ryan nodded.  "Yeah.  You.  The most beautiful girl I've seen."

"But I can't, Ryan."  She pressed her hands to her face.  "I mean, no sex, not happening.  Not for a long time."

"So?"

"Are you fucking serious?" she asked, daring to hope.

He stood.  "This is awkward.  Look.  I'm not pressuring you.  This just came up because of Hailey.  Forget I said anything.  I mean, you're going to be crashing at my place for the next two months.  I don't want to make you feel put out, or whatever.  I'm still fucking taking care of you though, Mack."

Chapter 14

"Ryan?" she asked, stopping him before he could leave.

"Yeah?"  He refused to turn.

"Did you slip something in my meds?"

"No?" He finally looked at her - like she'd truly lost her mind.  "Why?"

"You want to date me?  Not just," she gestured at the building, "this."

"You're not going to let this go, are you?"

She shook her head.  "No.  I'm trying to figure out if you're serious or just trying to make me feel better."

"I was serious," he said.  "I can keep my hands to myself, Mack.  Don't worry about it.  We'll get you through this then move you up to the third floor."

She waved that away.  "You're fucking serious.  You?  And me?  And you'd introduce me as your designer, still?"

"No.  Look, Mack, I thought things were going pretty well last night.  I managed to steal a kiss and sleep with my arms around you."

"Yeah, me, too," she said, softly.  "But this is going to suck.  I can't date, I can't have sex.  I can basically puke, sleep, and talk."

He nodded.  "I know.  Thing is, this is the chance I got with you.  Yeah, I wish like hell you didn't have cancer, but that's for you, not me."

"Colby talked to me earlier, too.  He showed me the sketches."

Ryan sighed, but nodded, moving to sit in the chair behind his desk.  "Sorry."

"Ryan, two weeks ago, I was the fat chick who could barely pay her bills.  Now I'm the cancer chick living with my super hot boss who wants to date me."

"You gonna tell me to fuck off, yet?"

Mack just shook her head.  "Nah.  I can't wrap my mind around it, but if you want to call me your girlfriend, I sure as hell am not going to stop you.  I'll have trouble believing it, but fuck."  She laughed.  "Maybe cancer was the best thing to ever happen to me."

He looked up at her, his expression shocked.  "No, it's not, but what?"

"I said yes, Ryan."

"Yeah," he breathed, standing.  "That's what I thought I heard."  He was smiling as he made his way to sit beside her again.  "This mean I can stop hiding it when I'm checking you out?"

"The chick with the flat top?" she teased.

He nodded.  "The hot babe with the soon to be purple flat top."

Mack couldn't help it, she was blushing.  "Quit."  She shoved her hands over her pink face, giggling.

Ryan reached up and grabbed her hands and pulled them lower, then kissed her gently.  His lips just brushed hers, then he caught her eyes and smiled.  "I like that look," he said.

"The Super Hot Guy likes me," she said, half to herself, half to him.  "This has to be a dream."

"My dream, sweetie," he told her.  "So does this mean I can stop wondering if I should sleep on the sofa?"

"Yeah," she agreed.  "For at least one more day."

"Deal.  Your meds kicking in, yet?"

She nodded, all too aware that he was still holding her hands and looking at her like she was honestly beautiful.  "Yeah, and if those girls are gone, I probably won't even puke for an hour or so."

"You eat?"

"No, and water tastes like dog butt."

He nodded.  "Hence the cherry kool-aid.  Let me go grab some and bring it down."

"Thanks, Ryan," she said.  "I mean it."

He leaned over and kissed her head.  "Gotta take care of my girlfriend.  Think about food.  I'll be back in a second."

He stood, collecting the bottles of her pills from his desk, and left, leaving the door open behind him.  She honestly did feel better, so convinced her weary body to leave the couch.  She still had a design in the break room that she was working on, and if Colby hadn't left, yet, she was supposed to pick out a few paintings.  Problem was, she couldn't manage to convince the silly smile to leave her face.  She was dating the sexiest - and nicest - man she'd ever met.  Ok, not dating, since, well, she was a vegetable, but still!  Her, Mackenzie Lawrence, with a hottie!  She staggered into the break room to two faces grinning at her.

"So," Colby said, chewing at the corner of his lip.  "Ryan said something about bringing down kool-aid for his girlfriend."

Tony chuckled.  "Sounded like a kid getting his first BB gun about it, too."

"So it's official?" Colby asked.

Mack tried to hide it, but she giggled a bit as she sank into her chair.  "Yeah.  No idea what he sees in me, but I'm sick, not stupid."

"Guess this means I can call you a sick fuck now," Colby teased.

Mack shrugged.  "Something like that.  Where'd you put my design?"

"Just moved it off the table," Tony said, pointing to the counter.  "Who's getting that?"

"Me, maybe."

"Nice!" Colby said.  "Gonna scale it down?"

Mack shook her head.  "I was thinking ribs to thigh."

"What?" Ryan asked, walking in.  "Who's getting a side piece?"

"Me, eventually," Mack said.

"Paper on the counter."  Tony pointed at it.

Ryan set a glass in front of her and poured red kool-aid from a jug, filling it half full.  He put the container in the fridge before grabbing the design.  He looked over it for a long moment, then glanced at her.

"Can I make a suggestion?" he asked.

"Sure.  It's not done."

He nodded.  "I can see that.  But make it wider across the hip and under the arm pit.  Taper it at the waist, and blunt the end more at the thigh by curling it back on itself.  You planning to do these colors?"

Mack nodded.  "Yeah.  Too much?"

Ryan just shook his head.  "Nah, sweetie.  But if it's this vivid, then it's mine, not Colby's."

"Yours anyway," Colby said.  "You can do the darks, too, man.  I'm not inking your girl."

"You are if you're the better artist for the piece," Ryan said.  "Thing is, Mack, you can't do this, yet.  Gonna be a bit before we don't have to worry about an infection."

She sighed and sipped at her kool-aid, hiding her disappointment.  "Yeah.  Not even a little at a time?"

Ryan shook his head.  "Not till your white count is back up.  Compromise?"

"Ok?" she asked.

"We'll do a temporary.  Anything you want, as crazy as you want."

"I know," Colby said, reaching over to touch her arm.  "That phoenix.  Fuck, Ryan can probably free hand that.  It looks like his style as is."

"First, though," Tony said, sliding a small container over to her.  "Smell that."

"What is it?" she asked.

"Purple hair dye.  It's just temporary, but should last longer than your hair."  He smiled as he watched her carefully open the container.  "So, my ex-wife is a beautician.  Told her about your thing with the hair, and she said that should work, and not be too bad."

"No," Mack said, surprised.  "It doesn't smell bad, at all."

"No puking?" Ryan asked.

She shook her head.  "Maybe it's the meds, but not yet, at least."

"Food?" he reminded her.

Mack shook her head.  "Kool-aid, but that's enough."

"For now," he agreed, then turned to Colby.  "You know that chair that has the hydraulics?  Think we can move it into the supply room?"

Colby thought about it, then tapped Tony's arm.  "C'mon, man.  More heavy shit to lift."

"I'm dying your hair for all this," Tony said as he walked out, patting her shoulder.

When the two men were gone, Ryan grabbed a chair and pulled it closer.  "Purple hair, then food.  Otherwise no body paint," he warned her.

"Yeah," she agreed.  "Thing is, why bother if it's just going to come up again?"

"Because it makes me feel better.  Mack, I don't care what sounds good.  You want it, we'll fucking make it happen, ok?"

"Nothing does, though," she grumbled.  "I'm not being fickle.  I'm serious, Ryan.  I can barely walk across the shop, and eating does not sound like a good idea, at all."

"I know.  Sometimes it will be like that.  You'll probably also start eating like a five year old - nuggets and French fries - but it's ok."

"I'm gonna get as fat as a whale," she moaned.

"Not really.  Probably the opposite.  I think you're already lighter."

"That means you're picking me up too much."

He smiled and leaned over to kiss her again.  "Nope.  And next time, I get to convince you that you don't need a towel in the shower."

She looked up at him.  "I am not sexy like this, Ryan."

He shrugged, a devilish smile on his lips.  "You're always sexy, Mack.  Fucking get used to it."  He stood, then leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Wet boxers are a bad way to hide a hard-on.  Don't tell me about sexy."

Before she could say anything, he stepped away, daring her to mention it loud enough that the men walking up the hall could hear.  Mack gaped at him, and he shrugged, the corner of his lip twitching up just a bit.

"So which paintings do you want upstairs, and which in the lobby?" he asked, looking through the stack of canvases against the wall.  He paused, and pulled one out.  "This goes down here."

It was a smaller piece, and one she'd done as a study in pigments.  The left side was dark and harsh, moving to pastels at the right.  The art was nothing but shapes and colors, but it was striking.

"You see the tattooed angels yet?" she asked.

"No?" He set the one he liked aside and kept looking. 

Mack knew which it was just from the size of the canvas.  When his hands moved that piece, he paused.  "Dear god," he whispered.  "Mack, that's amazing."

Colby and Tony were coming back in as he pulled the canvas out.  It was four feet tall and over six feet wide.  A beam of light surrounded an angel girl with dark feathered wings and blue-black hair, crumpled and chained to the floor.  Standing over her, protectively, was a more traditional angel, his wings spread to shield her from the light.  Both were covered from head to toe with runes that glowed from some internal light, his gold, hers a cold blue.

"That's one of my favorites," Tony said.

Ryan knelt before the canvas, looking at every detail.  "This one's new, isn't it?"

"I did it last spring."

He chuckled.  "Gotcha.  That one goes upstairs."

"What?" Colby gasped.  "Uh uh.  That goes over the front door, man."

Ryan looked across the room at Mack.  She refused to acknowledge what he saw in the painting.  The golden angel wore his face.  "Fine," he said, giving in.  Facing the chairs, so we get to enjoy it more than the clients."

"Deal," Colby said.  "I'll start hanging them tomorrow."

"Leave them there," Mack said.  "They're as safe here as anywhere.  Let Colby choose the ones he likes."

Ryan nodded but kept flipping through them.  Colby and Tony moved beside her, both grinning like they had a plan.  With a nod, they grabbed the chair, and began rolling it into the hall.

"Come on, Ryan," Tony called, "or you're going to miss out on helping to dye your girlfriend's hair."

They laughed and pushed her all the way through the lobby, to a small room at the back.  It was filled with nothing but boxes of needles, gloves, and pigments, but a barber style chair had been moved in front of the sink.

"We made the walk shorter," Colby said.  "Into the chair you go, baldy."

She moved over, and they jacked the chair higher, making it easy for her to lean her head back over the sink.  Colby grabbed a couple of towels, wrapping one around her shoulders while Tony pulled on a pair of purple gloves, remarking on the good color choice.  It didn't take long before Ryan was leaning against the door frame, watching Tony slather her short stubble in nearly black gel.

"Eyebrows too," Tony said before wiping a line across each one.

"Maybe we should stain all the hair on her body" Colby teased.  "Ryan, I think anything below the belt is yours."

He laughed.  "Need hair to dye."

"Oh!" Colby laughed.  "Things have been interesting upstairs, I see."

"Ryan," Mack hissed.

"Very," Tony agreed, gesturing between Mack and Ryan.

"That's the rumor, at least," Ryan said, but he couldn't stop laughing.

"I am going to kill you!" Mack threatened.

Ryan just shrugged.  "It's all gonna fall out anyway.  Smooth as a baby's bottom."

The three men started laughing even harder, making Mack blush.  "Why the hell do I like you people?" she asked.

They continued to pick on her for over an hour.  During that time one guy came in to get a price on a tattoo, but that was it.  Eventually, they washed the dye from her hair, Colby carefully wiping it from her eyebrows.  Done, they lowered the chair enough for her to rub the towel across her short hair and stand, making her way to the full length mirror in the main room.

Looking back at her, in a pair of Yoga pants and a long sleeve T-shirt, was a rather cute, punkish looking girl.  Mack couldn't help it, she smiled.  Sure there were some serious circles under her eyes, and maybe her skin was a bit pallid, but she didn't look like someone to feel sorry for.  She looked like she could kick the shit out of that dumb blonde bitch that used to sleep with Ryan.