“I’m going to need you to be completely still. This should only take about twenty minutes,” Raven tells us.
“What am I getting, anyway?” I ask Reid.
“You mean what are we getting. And it’s a surprise,” he says.
Raven makes sure the area is clean before she begins. At first, it feels like something is scratching me. Not really painful, just irritating. But she was right, it only takes about twenty minutes. Then she wipes me down with something and begins working on Reid. When she’s finished with him, I start to move my arms from around his neck, but he shakes his head.
“Not yet. I want you to see it first.” His voice is full of excitement.
Raven smiles from ear to ear as she turns us to face the mirrored wall behind me. “Ah, to be young and in love,” she sighs.
With our arms wrapped around each other’s necks, body to body, chest to chest, we look at our reflection. Below my bra, just at the base of my ribs, in big black, bold ink, are the letters “L” and “O.”
On Reid’s skin, in the exact spot our bodies meet, are the letters “V” and “E.”
The letters are placed so that the only way they make sense is when we’re together.
It’s perfect.
“You see? Without you, love wouldn’t be the same. Without you, I wouldn’t be the same.” He moves his hands to my face, his fingertips in my hair. “I love you, Makenna Taylor.”
This is the first time Reid has ever told me he loves me. Of course, I told him months ago. His response has always been “Me too” like he’s allergic to the word or something. But now, here he is, with half of it tattooed on his body.
And I cry. Here, in possibly one of the least romantic places you could imagine, I cry because my boyfriend has just made me the happiest girl on earth.