I laugh. “None taken.”
She shakes her head as if she’s trying to make sense of it all. “I just don’t get it. You literally just met Ozzie. You don’t even know him.” She lowers her voice to a whisper even though our customers are way on the other end. “He was in prison, Ginger.”
I lift my shoulders in a shrug and inhale deeply at the same time. “I can’t explain it. As soon as I saw him, I knew...”
She stops working and stares at me straight into the face. “Knew what?”
How do you tell your sister that the first time you laid eyes on the person you knew he was going to be the one you’re going to marry? My spine trembles just thinking about it. But I know I can’t say it out loud. Plus, it’s not like she’d believe me anyway. Honey and the rest of my family think I’m just a big flirt. They don’t know that I do it to cover up my immense insecurity. I’ve always been the bigger sister. Rounder, louder, talk too much. Honey’s the dependable and smart one. It’s like I took what everyone thought of me and just made it bigger. But darn, just thinking of Ozzie makes me want to be myself. “I knew that I wanted to get to know him better.”
I grab the empty bins and start walking toward where the register is. Honey is trailing behind me, and I know I probably shouldn’t—I know I should wait for Ozzie to tell me—but I can’t resist asking. “Has David mentioned what Ozzie was in prison for?”
Honey blushes guiltily. “I asked him last night, actually. He said it wasn’t his story to tell. I actually got a little mad at him and told him this was my sister I was talking about and that I was worried. He told me I didn’t have anything to worry about.” She juts her chin out at me. “I wanted to push him more, but then I thought about it. David and Ozzie are good friends and have been for a long time. I don’t think David would be friends with someone that was a bad person. Did you ask Ozzie about it?”
I shake my head side to side. “No, well, he’s the one that brought it up. I had no idea until he told me, and I think the only reason he did was to try and run me off. Like that was going to scare me away... but when it didn’t, he didn’t want to talk about it anymore.”
Honey reaches out to me and grips my wrist. “Just be careful, sis.”
I smile at her. She is definitely the more levelheaded of the two of us, and she seems to worry about everything. “Don’t worry about me. What you need to be worrying about is your man.”
She blushes all the way from her chest to the top of her forehead. “What do you mean? Why should I worry about David?”
“Uh, he’s been acting weird lately. I bet he’s going to pop the question.”
She draws back with shock on her face. “No way.”
I nod my head. “Yes way. It’s coming, I can tell. But the question is, what are you going to say?”
She clasps her hands in front of her. “Yes. God, sis, you know I’d say yes.”
I pull her in for a hug, and it seems for the rest of the morning, Honey is daydreaming. I’m so happy she met David. He’s been really good for her.
Since she’s been lost in thought, I’ve been able to think about what my next move is, and I decide the best course of action is to go see him again. See if the spark I felt last night is still there. See how he reacts to seeing me again. After another customer checks out, I ask Honey, “You care if I skip out for a few hours?”
I already know what her answer is going to be. I’ve covered a lot for her since she’s been seeing David and haven’t complained once about it.
“Sure. I got this. Take as long as you need.” I wait for her to ask me where I’m going, but the way she’s smirking at me, I assume she already knows.
I finish a few things and wave bye to her as she’s helping another customer. I park in front of the tattoo parlor and stare out my front window at the shop. I thought on the way here I would have my plan firmly in place on what I was going to say, but now that I’m here, I’m completely drawing a blank.
Deciding not to put it off any further, I stride to the front door of the shop and open it like a woman on a mission. There’s a man standing at the front that I’ve never seen before. “Hey, is Ozzie busy?”
He looks down at the books and back up at me. “Do you have an appointment?”
No, I’m his stalker, I think. I almost slap my forehead with my hand. Maybe I should have made an appointment. “Uh, no. I was his appointment last night.” I hold up my hand pointing to my finger.
He nods his head. “Oh, okay, uh let me get him.”
I wait for him to go back to his booth to get him, but instead he picks up his phone and calls someone. “Hey, you got a woman here to see you.”
He nods his head. “Okay.” He hangs up the phone and says, “He’ll be right down. You can wait in his booth.”
I stride across the room into the back, ignoring the curious look I’m getting from the man.
I sit down in the same chair I was in last night, and it isn’t long before Ozzie walks in and instantly stops, obviously surprised to
