Page 12 of I Did Before I Do

“I’m sure if Benny was going to close the shop, he would have let us know.” But I couldn’t look away from the door.

I’d given up a lot to work here. I couldn’t lose this, too.

Logan frowned. He was the last one still in his booth, organizing some of his inks. He stood and came to join me and Zoe, his brows furrowed. “What’s up? They never close the door like that.”

He was right. Most of the business talk happened in front of us. We were all part of the team, after all.

“I dunno.” I shrugged. “This lawyer chick brought Benny a stack of paperwork, and now they’re back there with it.”

Logan blinked in surprise. He looked back toward the door, then turned to us again. “It can’t be bad, though. They looked pretty chill walking back there. Not like shit was bad.”

Maybe.

But we were all pretty good at keeping things close to the chest.

Logan shrugged. “Let’s not get worked up over it yet. They’ll tell us when they need to. And, I mean, Benny and Bradley are good guys. If the shop is closing or, you know, needs to let somebody go, they won’t just throw us out with nothing.”

That was true. I nodded. “They’d help us find a new shop. Severance packages. All that good shit.”

“Yeah, but I like it here.” Zoe frowned at the office door. “I don’t really want to work with a different group. You guys are animals, but you’re cool.”

“Aw, you think we’re cool?” I grinned. “Is that all you think of us?”

“Still a lesbian, Ryker. Shove it.”

“Can’t blame a man for trying.”

“I can when he won’t take ‘no, I’m gay as hell’ for an answer.”

I shrugged. “Okay, okay. I got it. For now. I’ll check in at a later date.”

Zoe rolled her eyes, but she was grinning. “Whatever. The answer won’t change.”

Logan and I laughed. It felt good to joke with something so uncertain hanging over us.

We fell into easy conversation. The shop was technically closed by now, but none of us wanted to leave before Benny and Bradley surfaced. We chatted a little, mostly about clients we’d had through the day. Logan had done some work on this older guy we all liked, doing more of the color work on his back piece. The old guy had told some story about taking a trip to Thailand and making friend with a pack of drag queens. The way Logan told it had Zoe and me cackling with laughter, both of us leaning on the front counter.

But all the conversation stopped when we heard the office door open.

Benny and Bradley emerged. They both paused at the stairs, looking at the three of us in confusion, then came the rest of the way down.

“You didn’t have to stay.” Bradley frowned. “What’s up?”

“We wanted to know what’s going on.” Logan turned toward them. “It’s not normal for you two to go close the office door like that.”

“It’s just business talk. Nothing serious.” Benny smiled. He looked at the envelope in his hands, humming. “C’mon, everybody out. I’ll be a little late in the morning. I have to run this by Hills & Bridges.”

They’d gone through it that quickly? It looked pretty hefty, whatever it was.

But hey, if they needed to take it back to Sydney…

“You want me to? I pass it on the way in every morning.” I held my hand out for the envelope.

Benny looked at me, one eyebrow raised, then glanced at Bradley, who shrugged.

“Sure.” Benny put the envelope in my hand. “You’re gonna talk to Sydney?”

“Why not? She’s cute.” I smiled.

---