Welcome back, after a break, to my February love stories series! This month I've been sharing love stories inspired by these prompts from Jericho Writers: https://jerichowriters.com/69-romance-writing-prompts.
Today's story was inspired by this prompt:
You’re a tattoo artist and they visit your parlor twice – once to get their partner’s name tattooed on them, and then a month later to have it covered up. You ask if they want to talk about it.
Please enjoy today's story; please tell the people in your life that you love them; please, while we're at it, protect trans lives.
It was Valentine's Day, and Jenny was getting into work early so she could leave early. She and her wife Steph had big plans: tea with the kids, bathtime, storytime, and then, once the kids had been put to bed, there would be Netflix. If they were very lucky, there might even be chill.
When she got to the tattoo parlour she checked the calendar. Not too many clients today, but around lunchtime she had an appointment that was expected to take a little longer. 'Coverup', it said on the calendar, 'Katie Parish'.
Katie Parish? The name rang a bell. Curious, as she waited for her coffee to cool down enough to drink Jenny clicked and scrolled until she could confirm what she'd first thought: Katie had been here before.
Just a month before, as it happened. That's right: Jenny remembered her now. A woman in her mid-20s, maybe early 30s. It was her first tattoo, and she'd come in on her own and very nervous - in fact, nervous was an understatement: poor thing had nearly blacked out. Jenny had brought her chocolate and full-fat Coke and got her to sit with her head between her knees, and she'd mentally written off the whole thing. It happened, you couldn't give people a hard time about it, if it was your first time you didn't know how you were going to react until you were there among the beds and the needles and the antiseptic smell. But to her mild surprise, Katie had insisted on going through with it, because -
Jenny had found the photo on the computer. It was a simple enough tattoo: a line of script across Katie's forearm. 'Amy Fiorella Marston', it said. That was why Katie had insisted on going through with the tattoo. It was her girlfriend's name, she'd said.
And now it was barely a month later, and it was Valentine's Day, and she was getting it covered up.
Jenny sighed, swallowed the rest of her coffee, pushed back her chair and got up. As she went about setting up for the day she found herself thinking about all the times she'd covered up a tattoo of a partner's name.
"It turns out he was cheating on me."
"He found out I was cheating on him."
"He went back to his wife."
"She said that's not how you spell it."
"They said we weren't even going out."
"He said it was embarrassing."
"Found out she votes Tory."
"Realised I could do better."
All good answers to a question Jenny never actually asked. As long as she did a good job, she reasoned, it was none of her business why they wanted it doing, was it?
***
"It's been a month!" Jenny found herself saying, as soon as Katie sat down in front of her. "What happened?"
Katie raised her eyebrows.
"Obviously you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," Jenny added, limply. “Oh, and - there’s some chocolate there if you’re feeling lightheaded. I went out and bought that specially for you this morning, you know, when I realised it was you coming in again. On Valentine's Day! Wa'n't cheap."
Katie popped a chocolate into her mouth and Jenny did the same, mostly to shut herself up. Once she'd finished, Katie said:
"It's never easy for anyone, I suppose, when they start transitioning.”
“Oh. Oh, I see.”
“Amy was handling it brilliantly. And just about everyone in our lives was being supportive. Our families, and her boss, and everything. You know, for the most part. But it was still hard. It still is hard. Watching the news. Opening social media. Being friends with people. Walking down the street. Things that shouldn't be difficult. You know."
Jenny did know.
"So one night she was asleep, and I was lying next to her, just listening to her breathing and thinking about how amazing she is, and how completely, insanely in love with her I am, and how...you know when you love someone more than you're ever going to be capable of showing them? So you start coming up with fantasies like...if she needed me to kill someone for her, I'd do it. Or if the world was ending, I could rescue her. If she wanted us to have a baby, I’d have a baby. If she was under a curse, I'd break it. But instead we're just here, and it's now, and I can’t really protect her from anything. The only thing, the one thing I can do is make sure she knows that I love her so much it makes my heart hurt.
"I couldn't sleep, so I got up and started wandering around, and I caught sight of myself in the bathroom mirror - my arms, that's what I remember, all ghostly pale like this - and it came to me. You know, I can't face a dragon for her but maybe I could face my fear of needles.
"So that's what I did - you remember? I got her name tattooed on me - her new name. Well, it wasn't that new, but you know what I mean. The name she'd chosen herself." Katie looked down at it again. "Amy Fiorella Marston."
"It's a beautiful name," Jenny ventured.
"It is, isn't it? Fiorella is just pretty, and Amy means 'loved', you know, so it's perfect." Katie ran a finger over the name on her arm, seeming lost in thought for a moment, and then looked up.
"Anyway. So after I left here - after you finally let me leave, once you were sure I wasn't going to pass out again - I went home, and Amy was already there, and I was so excited to show her. I came flying through the door, started pulling the clingfilm off before it was ready."
Jenny winced. "And?"
"I go into the spare room, 'cos she uses it as her office, and she swings round in her chair and I show her. And she goes quiet."
"Oh God," said Jenny, quietly, feeling her stomach drop.
"And she's got this weird look on her face, and I can't tell what it means, but finally she says she was going to show me something too, and she shoves this bit of paper at me and it's a deed poll."
Jenny frowned. "So -"
"So she's changed her name. She's not Amy Fiorella Marston any more. She's Amy Fiorella Parish." Katie waited for this one to land. "That's my surname," she prompted.
"Oh my god!"
"It turns out she'd been looking for a way to tell me she loved me, too, and this was it. She's mine, that's what it means. We're each other's. She's my family."
Jenny had to take a few deep breaths, and then she pulled herself together.
"So the coverup," she said. "What is it we're doing today?" She pulled the design towards her again. "We've got flowers and - what's this?" In among the floral design there were six digits - a date, just over a year into the future.
"That's our wedding day," said Katie.
Jenny nodded. "Katie, can I just check - does she know that? You've checked with her, this time?"
Katie grinned, hugely. "I have. She said yes."
"Great stuff. Let's crack on, then."