2007-08-26: Inked!

Starring:

Sal_icon.gif Elena_icon.gif Nadia_icon.gif

Summary: Nadia drags Elena after classes to get a tattoo, and visits a certain someone to get her bellybutton pierced. Elena is introduced to Sal. Embarassment and hilarity ensue.

Date It Happened: August 26th, 2007

Inked!


Ink By Numbers, New York

Long overdue, this girl bonding session is.. "So.. you gotta see this guy, he's awesome, good hands, funny and profession.. oh did I mention that he's /hawt/? I swear if I still wasn't banging Leo behind my dad's back, I'd go for this guy." That would be from Nadia, prattling on as she's got an arm looped through Elena's and in her free hand, a rubbermaid dish containing some homemade Italian pastries. "I am so getting him to pierce my bellybutton.. You shoulda seen the look on Leo's face by the way when he saw my new tattoo. It was /great/. I still gotta show it you, shit."

"Oh god, Nadia," Elena groans. Much like her testimonial on Nadia says, she's lost count as to how many times she's uttered the phrase with her Italian friend. But she does follow her to the tattoo parlor. "How did you talk me into this again? Was it the cannoli? It was the cannoli, wasn't it? The homemade cannoli with the dark chocolate chips and the sweet ricotta cheese. I hate you, you KNOW I'm helpless when you bribe me with treats." Oh god. Oh god. What was she doing? Granted she always wanted a tattoo, but Nadia SOMEHOW CONVINCED HER to get it in a place that she….normally wouldn't even THINK OF. Why. WHY? "…so who is this guy anyway?" she asks the other girl curiously. "And…..you sure it won't hurt?" She's SURE it won't hurt, in her case, but gotta play up appearances, right?

"It always hurts the first time," is Sal's reply, from where he's standing nearby the door, just as the two ladies walk in. A stapler in one hand, and a few photos in the other, he's pinning up new tattoo and piercing images for display, one of which is an old school boxer with 'FREE BOXING LESSONS' written underneath, because it's a small world after all. He glances towards potential customers, then smiles when he recognises Nadia. "Hey," he greets brightly, setting things aside and onto the counter. "What brings you back?" All leather pants and ripped sleeve band T-shirt, exposing the numerous tattoos covering his hands and arms, he fits into his surroundings rather well.

Nadia ushers her friend on into the parlor, "Oh you know you loooove me.. and his name's Sal. Don't worry, he won't grope you or stare too long. Professional. It doesn't hurt /hurt/. Gosh, you baby. What he said." She flashes a blinding beam of a smile at Sal as Elena's herded on up. "She wants her cherry popped too!" Oh wait, was that a bad choice of words? "And I wanted to get my bellybutton pierced.. and to bribe you with homemade goodies." Hence the dish in hand.

"Only because you feed me," Elena grumps at Nadia as she's ushered into the tattoo parlor. Her position is rather comedic, considering by 'ushering', Nadia actually MEANS that she's pushing her friend ahead of her with both hands on her shoulders, all cartoon-like and her eyes wide as she stares at Sal. "…..I'll….keep that in mind," she says sheepishly, her hand up and fingers wiggling a little bit in a slight, sheepish wave, the double entendre flying over her head. Nadia drives it home, and she sputters. "Wh…wh…WHAAT? She didn't mean that!" she tells Sal nervously. "I don't have a cherry to pop!" Pause. "I mean she needs her cherry po— " Wait. A little too late for that. "I mean, no pop— OH FORGET IT. I'm'a go this way." She grumps, and marches off to peer at the designs on the walls, so she can hide her CHERRY RED FACE. THANKS NADIA.

Sal tips his head back to LAUGH, just a little, but then perks. Food? For him? One long-fingered hand reaches out to take the dish for inspection, spiderweb pattern and Roman numerous along with chipped black nail polish colouring otherwise very clean hands. "A piercing, huh?" he says, with a slight eye narrow, because it's not his favourite thing in the world to do. "Well fuck, how'm I meant to say no to a pretty girl with food to offer?" He watches as Elena flees to go "look" at tattoos, and gives Nadia a wry smile that clearly says 'and jailbait friends!' He clears his throat to address Elena. "You got a tat in mind?"

"SURE I meant it!" Nadia looks all too pleased with herself, really. Heading right on over to Sal, she presents him with the dish. Lots of nummy homemade canoli. "Oh you're so cute when you're all embarrassed. Leo popped my.. nevermind that. She wants her first tattoo, and you're the lucky guy to give it to her!" It's like a badge of honor.. treading where others DREAM of treading. Depending of course upon where Elena wants this inking. "Aw, you're just a sweetheart Sal. This is why I brought Elena here to you!"

"Um…yeah," Elena says, to Sal, with an embarassed tinge on her cheeks. She slides her hands in the pockets of her jeans, and rocks back a bit on her heels. "I was thinking of something small. I…don't really want it anywhere visible on me." She turns a little redder on that. "In case I need to go to formals and stuff, so…um…" She looks at the designs on the wall. "…..maybe something like that." She points at a small, thorny rose, etched in green and red. "Only paired with some abstract design, maybe?" She points to a tribal-styled slash. "I…don't want a 'tramp stamp' either, so….uh…yeah!"

Peeling back the covering of the tray, Sal grins brighter at the contents, happily surprised. "Thanks, sugar," he says, darting in to kiss Nadia's cheek before sauntering around to observe the pictures that Elena's pointing to, tray still in hand. He takes down the two images casually, turning the tribal design. "I gotta friend who calls them target practice," he says casually, on the subject of tramp stamps. "So we can avoid that, no problemo. C'mon, this way." He tilts his head towards the backroom and heads on over, holding back the curtain for the two. "And you can tell me where abouts you want it instead." And the smile he gives Elena isn't even sleazy! Because he's a gentleman.

"You can always get it down here," Nadia says, helpfully pointing at nether regions in the process. "Like me! That guy you're crushing on will thank you for it later!" She flushes with pleasure at the kiss on the cheek from Sal. Despite the fact that Carmine would KILL if he knew about this. "See, told ya he was a sweetie," she says over her shoulder, as Sal holds back the curtain. She's all too happy to sway her little hips on to the back.

"I'm not crushing on anybody," Elena grumbles under her breath, a little petulantly. "I just wanted to get one for a while is all." But when Nadia gestures to where -hers- is, she can't help but choke. "…why do I hang out with you again?" But she does smile at her friend winningly afterwards, despite the red tinge on her cheeks. "And -no-. I'm not getting it there." She ponders. "…maybe…I don't know. The hip or something." She gestures to where. "Or maybe….I don't know. I'll leave it to the expert." She follows Sal, a little hesitantly - but in a way she's excited too. Her first tattoo. It might be the only one, but it's a milestone! Of a sort. Right? She already has a belly piercing.

"Take a seat, ladies." Tray set aside, Sal moves to start cleaning off the tattoo tools needed, movements practiced and efficient. "The hip is a cute one," he puts in over his shoulder. "That way you can show it off a little or hide it as the situation dictates. The thigh, too, or somewhere on your back - choice is yours, these things are kinda permanent, you know?" He picks up a sketchpad, finding his own place to sit as he starts making up the design. To Nadia, he says, "Jessie's out on her break, so you can either wait for her to come back or I'm happy to do the piercing myself."

"Suuuuuure you aren't," Nadia says teasingly. "You hang out with me cause you liiiiiike me.. in a totally hetero way of course." She slips her arm around Elena's waist for a hug before they approach.. the chair. DUN DUN DUN. "Oh I wouldn't miss this for the world." In fact, she settles on a nearby seat and fishes out her cellphone.. with camera.

"I'm -not-," Elena says defensively, though she still looks a little pouty. "I'm just concentrating on my Academics now, is all." Because men were way too much trouble than they're worth. Sorry, Sal - but he does seem really nice though, and she's warming up to the tattoo artist slowly. She takes a seat on the chair, after hugging Nadia back of course. "You're so bad for me," she teases her friend, but she does link her hands together, and looks around the room curiously. She doesn't seem to be too nervous, just curious. Give it time though. "So…how long have you been doing this?" she asks Sal curiously, inclining her head a little bit.

Tucking a few longer locks of black behind his ear, Sal balances the notepad on his knee as he draws, not looking up at Elena but still responding with a smile. "Ever since I dropped outta highschool," he says with a chuckle. "Which is good news for you, that's over a decade of practice under my belt." He glances up at the phone Nadia's holding, which prompts him to reeeach over to grab a waiver form and hand it to Elena to look over. "Now that's not going to be drawing any daddies with shotguns to my door, right?" he asks, clearly joking. Except maybe not. That could be experience talking.

"Uuuh huuuuh… and I'm working on getting my ass to look better in those dance shorts I'm gonna be wearing." Nadia's all grins at Elena, teasing her s'more. It's just too much fun. "I know I'm bad for you honey, but it's oh so good." Now.. she just outright LAUGHS before snapping a photo of Elena. "Nah, her daddy's liable to run you over with his van, mine's liable to either hit you.. or.. use a drill." She's just a grinning as wide as possible about the last comment.
Flash!

When Nadia looks at Elena's digital picture, she's holding the waiver form with a startled look on her face, wide eyed and LOST looking.

When Sal teases her about his experience, Elena grins sheepishly. "I was being that transparent, huh?" she admits. "I'm sorry, but I was honestly curious. You draw really well." She scerutinizes the waiver form, and she grins. "Nah, I don't think you have to worry about Papa. His mindset's kinda changed the last few months anyway, he's letting go slowly." She laughs. "….I don't think the same holds true for Nadia's dad, though. For some reason she -really- likes bringing up the drill. I hope she's just kidding." OH IF ELENA ONLY KNEW. She seems rather oblivious about Nadia's mafioso background. She lifts up her jPhone to snap a picture of Nadia.

"It's cool, hermana," Sal chuckles, still drawing. "Everyone wants to know that they're not getting inked by a monkey with a needle." He pauses, though, to squint at Nadia. Father. Drill. And the name Francesca. But that would be too coincidental for words so he doesn't pursue this, just shows Elena the outline of the tattoo concept as he speaks to Nadia. "I wake up with van tracks and a hospital bill, no amount of homemade treats is gonna repair this," he says, gesturing between them and clearly joking.

What a priceless photo of Elena. When Elena snaps one in return, Nadia's grinning like a loon on the red carpet. "Oh as far as you'll know.. I am kidding!" Settling back in her seat, the phone's put back into her purse and legs are crossed primly. "I still need to have you over to my house for dinner. Ma'll love to meet you." She turns her beaming face back over to Sal, and giggles. "I'll sit on your bed and draw on your cast while feeding you homemade lasagna? I won't tell my man either."

"…hermana?" Elena inclines her head at Sal. "Tu habla espanol?" She can't help it, she catches on. And she can't help but smile a little wider. But when Nadia flirts with Sal, she can't help but shake her head and watch the byplay in amusement. A hand reaches up to take the sketch, and looks at it….she nods in approval. "It's really good. So…how do I do this, do I just…?" She looks a little pink, but she does make a vague gesture of….well. Taking the jeans off. If she was going to get it at the hip it's not like he could ink her THROUGH the clothes. But if he can that would automatically make him the most incredible tattoo artist alive.

"Aw, ain't you two cute?" Nadia beams, then plucks her little butt up. "I'm gonna go look at the body jewelry, see what I want in my belly button!" She then practically skips back out to the front to go pick out something appropriately flashy and cute.

"Si," Sal says with a quick smile. "But not a hell of a lot. Born in Mexico but I didn't grow up there. L.A. all the way." He tosses a wink to Nadia. "In that case I'd have to forgive you," he says as she flounces out of the room, moving now to drag the wheeled, compact table over, the tattoo machine tucked neatly in as he pulls up to sit by Elena. Unfortunately, inking through the clothes just is out of the question. Or fortunately, depending on your point of view. "Yeah I'll kind of need access," he says. "First I'm gonna trace on the pattern, then we can get to the actual needling. After that I'll give you a flier that'll tell you how to take care of it over the next week or so." Because maybe factual details will help distract the nervous client.

"Oh." Elena glances down, turning redder by the second. "Okay." She slides out from the chair, and she gives Sal a warm, but somewhat shy smile. "I was born here," she says. She kicks off her shoes, and gets rid of her sucks before unbuttoning her jeans and unzipping the fly before sliding out of them, draping the denim at the back of the chair. Her underwear is modest at least but she's still blushing as red as a tomato. Go figure the first person who'd see her in her skivvies would be a total stranger but WHILE NADIA IS OUT CHECKING OUT PIERCINGS she doesn't run the risk of pictures getting taken at least. "So was Papa. But abuela was straight from Mexico. She used to be a revolutionary back when she was young. I think it's pretty cool you know some though."

"Well it definitely works on the ladies," Sal says, getting the tracing paper and gesture for her to relax back into the chair. Some of the fabric of her underwear is shifted aside, but minimally so, laying down the tracing paper and getting to work quickly and efficiently. "Speaking Spanish, that is. My whole family is Mexican, but we moved to the states when I was young. Picked up way more Spanish from friends, actually, than my parents. Go figure." Tracey trace tracey. "So. Marvin the Martian, huh?"

She blushes even further at what he says. "Well, it's not like….nevermind." Elena laughs, and rubs her cheek, before turning around, and indeed, Sal will see that Marvin the Martian has nestled himself comfortably on the side of her rear end. Clambering on the chair, she relaxes, even when he pushes down the fabric just enough so she could salvage SOME of her modesty. No big deal. This is -fine-. She's worn a bikini before! ….it's just that no one's -touched her- in said bikini so this was rather foreign to her. "Yeah? That's cool - means you still got it though. That's what happens when parents speak foreign languages around children, they might not be able to speak it when they grow up but they understand it. The brain's still developing so hearing it just gets incorporated easily in the part of the brain that controls memory and speech…" she babbles on. "So it's easy to pick it back up again when it's…" And when he teases her about the character, she grins. "Ah heh heh…yeah. I…I don't know. I just end up buying stuff with little cartoon things on them. I don't really know why. It just happens."

Babbling. Definitely not an unusual response to a nervous situation, and Sal just smirks to himself, nodding in the appropriate moments even if most of this goes over his head. On occasion, he lifts the tracing paper to make sure the lines are clear, and despite the fact that this is a guy willing to wear leather pants on a relatively warm day, he doesn't appear to be checking her out. The work is just slightly more important than seeing the bikini places of incredibly hot women. It can be a memory to savor but FOR NOW he has a slightly nervous Latina to mark permanently. "I think it's cute," he finally says, once there's a pause to speak edgewise, and picks up the needle. "Now we can take a break at any point, if it's getting too much, but for real it doesn't hurt that bad. I'm not exactly a man with nerves of steel and I can't get enough, so." He waits for the go ahead, though, before applying needle to skin. He adds, with a smirk, "And we can get your hetero partner in crime to hold your hand or something."

It doesn't take Nadia long to return.. and she's carrying two different bellyrings. "I just cannot make up my mind.. so I'll go with the hearts for now, and switch out with this one here later. I think i'm going to have to have a separate jewelry box for my bellyrings, keep 'em separate from my earrings!" Then she's pouting at Elena, "YOU. Are such a nerd." She heard the girl geeking. We really have to fix that y'know? The Italian girl reclaims her seat to sit and watch this. "Relax a little Elena, you look all tense. It'll be fine. Sal's a perfect gentleman! Just look at his cute face as a focus point." Aw.

Once he gets into it, Elena relaxes further - then again a blast of her own abilities helps with that. She does become slowly well at ease with Sal doing his work, now that she knows he's not a perv. Hey give her a break, she's never done this before! "….you do?" she asks, though instead of blushing, she just smiles at him all cheerfully. "Thanks, I think I can handle the pain though. Trust me, I'm tougher than I loo — " And then she sputters when Nadia comes breezing in with the two items she holds. Her attention snapped up effectively by Nadia (since she tends to do that), she blinks at the items. "Oh they're really cute," she says sincerely, but when she's chastized for being a nerd, she almost flails helplessly. "I can't help it!" she cries. And she probably can't. "Maybe I'll focus on -your- cute face as a focus point," she says, waggling her eyebrows at Nadia playfully.

"You're just making me blush now," Sal says to Nadia, although in all likelihood, the whole blushing trait probably skipped Sal. "Ready when you are," he tells Elena, and soon, the buzzing of the needle fills the room, booted foot pressing the paddle lightly. Latex gloved hands keep the skin stretched as he starts the outline of the small tattoo.

"Hey now, you gotta be still for the Magic Hands," Nadia teases, then turns her head to the side in a more flattering profile, "I know. I'm just so cute. Stop it though, or Sal might get jealous.. and word might get back to my father who'll dance with joy at thinking I've gone lesbo. Oh man, I can see his face now." The thought makes her giggle. "So. I was thinking.. Soonish. Dinner. Ma's house.. I'd take you to dad's, but his wife's a total bitch and it won't be any fun. Unless she's not there. Besides, you already kinda sorta met papa. He's just a big ol' bear." Useless chatter? Yeah. But she's trying to take Elena's mind off the needle here. "Oh c'mon Sal.. I don't think you've blushed a day in your life."

"Magic hands is doing just fine," Elena remarks cheerfully as all of her nervousness bleeds away for Sal to work. She even looks down at what he's doing, marveling at how speedily he was doing the outline. "Really?" she asks with a laugh. "You know, Papa used to work with a classmate of mine? He was his boss for a couple of months, and when he started asking about me, Papa blatantly told him I was a lesbian. It was such a long time ago, but….god. Your Papa and mine are so similar, I can't believe it." But when Nadia continues on, she nods. "Yeah? That sounds great! Am I gonna get to meet Leo too? You said your Mama lets him in her house at least, yeah?"

So he's tattooing near a pretty girl's vagina while they talk about not quite being lesbians, and he's gonna get paid for it. Best job ever, holla. Anyway. "Dude, like," Sal puts in, mostly quiet and letting the girls talk as he works and not looking up, save to dab away excess ink, but he has to say, "if you guys wanna be lesbians that's super fine by me. I won't even judge you or anything."

Nadia throws back her head and laughs at Sal, "I'm totally hetero. I love my man toooooo much to get bi-curious." She laughs even harder at Elena's words. "No shit huh? That's just funny. I wanna meet your dad, he sounds like a riot. Damn straight, I'm so introducing you to him. Get your crush together, we'll do a double date. No problemo. Papa hates Leo, so of /course/ ma's letting him in the house. He's suddenly the nicest boy she's ever met."

"I have no crush," Elena says with a grumble, leaning back and looking up at the ceiling. "Told you, I'm focusing on classes now." She had just told the first crush that she was trying to get over the guy who threw her out of his apartment who stole her affections while he was away, and said guy who threw her out decided to tell her in six messages while she was away in a different country that he was sorry while deciding to go to the future to do some detective work. What sucks about it was that she can't even tell Nadia, who's the closest thing she has to a normal friend (THAT SHE KNOWS OF - because obviously the entire mafia thing has gone completely under the radar). But at Sal's remark, she actually laughs a little bit. "I can't, I'm Catholic. The new Pope'll excommunicate me," she quips. "But yeah definitely, Papa thinks I don't bring enough friends home these days anyway. Leo sounds really cool, though, from what you've described. You said he was into driving and stuff too? So's my brother."

Whir whir whir goes the machine, and Sal is a little surprised when Elena doesn't tag out for a break. It's not a big tattoo, but still, it's a first timer, and usually the prissy ones make him stop after a while. (Somehow, Nadia doesn't qualify as prissy.) "You good?" he does have to ask, though not pausing, filling in the thicker lines of the tribal aspect of the design. "And as for no crush, what's that gay-sounding Shakespearian line about protesting too much? That." Sal comes in with the assist for Nadia, because obviously he has no idea about any of this.

"Mmmhmmm," Nadia still does not believe Elena. At. All. "Lapsed Catholic, c'mon, when was the last time you went to church or confession?" Tease, tease. "Oh nice. I won't introduce them then. I'll never see my man again!" Her cellphone is whipped out, to check messages, but she holds it up, teasing to take another photo. "Oh yeah, I know that line! There's this guy she's /always/ on about. Could be innocent like she says, but it's too much fun to mess with her! I totally love that about my BFF."

" 'The lady doth protest too much, methinks'," Elena says, latching onto something in hopes of distracting them to talking about another topic. "Usually misquoted as 'Methinks the lady doth protest too much.' Queen Gertrude says it in Hamlet…Act 3, I think." Because all the good lines tend to happen in Act 3 out of 5 in most Shakespearean tragedies. If they give her a look she'll duck her head sheepishly. "I'm taking an advanced Shakespeare class this semester," she explains. She did take the basic course in her Freshman year. But when Nadia says what she does, she sputters. "I wasn't! He's my best friend, of course I talk about him a lot - because I help him out with stuff and his sister-in-law's a good friend of mine, too. I just…it happens!" And then she gets snapped with a photo again. This time, it's Elena, wide-eyed, with Sal bent over her hip and her arm stretched out as if trying to stop Nadia from taking the picture. "Oh god! That better not come out in the dance corps' Myspace page!"

Sal glances up when a picture is taken, and grins. "If not, I can put it up on the wall of fame out the front," he says, now swapping needles for colouring purposes. First, he nods down at the black inked pattern. "This good by you?" he asks Elena, once ink and tinier traces of blood are dabbed away. "I can lay the colours down all in one go, or you can come back later this week if you want the skin to settle down more."

"Oh yeah! That's the quote! I think I flaked out on reading Hamlet, or whatever Shakespeare I had to read." Nadia's smart, just not, about long dead authors and boring plays! "Again, you're a nerd!" she calls out cheerfully. Mock-pouting at Elena, she tucks the camera away. "You're on to me!" *pause* "They'll just go on LJ instead!" Giggling, she continues, "Stop, you're acting ashamed to have a hot guy touching all over you." Beaming, she gathers up the belly rings, "I'mm go get your partner to pierce me, 'kay hot stuff?" She's then skipping off to get pierced!

"LJ? Livejournal?" Elena says, paling a little bit. "Wait! Nadia, you better not! Nadia!" she calls out, when Nadia skips out of the room. And then she groans, sinking back further into the chair. "Why, God?" she groans against her palm. But when Sal looks up to check on her, she shakes her head. "All in one go," she says. "Like I said, I'm tougher than I look." She gives him a smile - indeed she won't feel any pain. Besides, it's good practice. She'll probably be sore come morning though. But when Sal threatens to frame the picture, she gasps. "You wouldn't!" She glances down, to try and peek at the work in progress. "Hey, you're pretty fast."

"Been doing this for a while," Sal says, with a modest shrug. He rolls his shoulders, shakes out his hands from the tension that tattooing can bring, the begins again with the colour. The needle goes deeper, in circular motions, making quick work of it as well, red filling between the dark, black lines. The highlighting will be a more delicate process. "And anyways, you may be a nerd, but she's going to NYU if memory serves me correct," he says absently.

"We both do. I just….Nadia can turn it off. She's actually really smart," Elena says. "I can't. I guess it's the main difference between us. She can just let things be, you know? S'why I like her so much. I'm pre-med, so I'm surrounded by science types all the time. With the hours, same study groups, people talk about the same thing every day. Nadia's on a different track, so she puts a different spin on things. To be honest, she's like a breath of fresh air to me." She watches the red color seep into the design, nervousness all but gone. "So how long have you been living in New York? You said you grew up in LA, yeah?"

"I CAN HEAAAR YOU!" Nadia calls out from the other room.

"No, she seems sharp," Sal agrees, then fairly cackles Nadia's voice comes drifting through. "We're talking nothing but good things, lady!" he calls back, before resuming his task. "Man, um." He squints in thought. "Gotta be moving on to four years, maybe three and a half. I like it here, I gotta say." He's not exactly about to get into the why's behind his move, and why he likes it here, so leaves it vague. "You guys been friends a long time?"

She can't help but grin in that direction, but Elena turns her attention back to Sal afterwards. "A bit, yeah, we met a few months ago, but we clicked pretty well. We have a lot in common. Big families. Scary dads. Similar….problems." Especially with menfolk. "Things like that. She's teaching me Italian, I'm teaching her Spanish. And we both cook, so we have a lot in common. She's….actually one of the only actual girl friends I have. The science majors are typically full of guys, so. It's refreshing. Plus, you know. If I get in trouble - Nadia's gonna be a lawyer. At least the last time we talked about it anyway." She grins. "I've lived in New York all my life. Never left it until recently. Some of my friends and I went to Spain. It was cool, you should go sometime."

Nadia sashays her little self back into the room after the piercing. Gleefully, she's got her shirt rolled up still, showing off her tummy and pretty little dangling hearts from her navel. "This is just too damned cute. I need to prance around in shorter shirts and lower waistlines!" Oh dude, they switched to Spanish. Well.. shit. "Bueno! Dos tacos, por favor! And that's about all I can remember right now!" She settles back down onto her vacated seat, twisting around slightly, peering down past her chest at the new piercing.

Sal glances Nadia's way, and nods once in approval. "It suits you," he says, back to work. "I'll tell Jessie she can take the fee out of what I'm getting for this, the dessert's more than enough by me. We like to treat our regulars well." Brief glance up for a wink and head back down again. "Especially when shorter shirts and lower waistlines are involved." Ink By Numbers, making the world a prettier place one chick at a time.

Nadia was all too happy to pose while Elena goes snappity snap with the camera! She waves a hand airily, "Spanish.. Italian.. we're practically cousins. The languages have a lot of similarities. Pronounciation's no biggie!" A lengthy giggle escapes as she beams at Sal. "See? Told you he was a total sweetheart." She doesn't tell him that she already tipped Jessie. "Hey, sports bras are in, doubling as tops these days right?" Then she's pulling off her shirt as it was a rhetorical question. "I'm showing this baby off!"

"….really? Are you sure? I don't mind paying for the both of us…" Elena says, glancing at Nadia, and then back at Sal, a little flabbergasted at the sudden show of generosity. It isn't like she can't afford it, with her salary at Evosoft and the allowance her father feels like he ought to give her thanks to his new position as Evosoft's Chairman of the Board. "I….thank you. I— Nadia, what are you doing?" She gapes at Nadia as she tosses her shirt aside, and she can't help but laugh, lifting her jPhone again to take a picture. "Man. You gotta show the girls that next practice." And then, she glances down to see if the tattoo's done yet.

Tattoo artists aren't exactly renowned for being generous to people who aren't really friends, it's true, but then again, neither girl knows about his other more lucrative business. He can afford to be the nice guy when it comes to the job he loves more. Sal is momentarily distracted when Nadia tosses her shirt aside, but then he simply smiles and flashes her the thumbs up. Sal approves, yes he does. "Okay girls," he says, after he applies the bandages to the tattoo, once he's let Elena have a look at it. "I think that's a wrap. Swing back any time, I could use more homemade cooking in my life."

Nadia folds up her shirt and tucks it into her purse, grinning widely. "You've got it hotstuff. I've been practicing more with ma. Cooking's not so bad. It's more fun than I thought it'd be!" She hops up from her seat, shouldering her purse. "Ohmigosh, that's just too damn cute. I may have to get one too! We can have matching tats!" Then it's covered. Aw. "C'mon, let's go show your not-crush!"

"We…could…? Thanks, Sal." Elena puts on her pants, and her shoes, and she has no time to zip up practically when Nadia tells her that they should go off gallavanting back into the city for their next adventure. "I— WHAT? Are you crazy?! I can't anyway, he's out of town! And we had a falling ou— oh nevermind! Nadia!" She follows after the girl quickly. "Gracias, Sal! I'll stop by again, I'm sure!" She waves over her shoulder, but she runs off after her friend. She's so…hard to keep up with!

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