Work Text:
As an artist, Joe was lucky to have a great eye for beauty and a talent for drawing it just so that no one would dispute him. At this particular moment though, it felt a lot more like a curse. He was supposed to be working on an addition to the sleeve of one of his regulars, something monochrome and geometric, but across the road a flower shop had opened up and amidst the colours and greenery stood a blatantly gorgeous man. He was wearing a tan sweater and a green apron, but when Joe saw how easy he moved around the big buckets of flowers he could easily picture those off. When he squatted down to pick up a crate, Joe truly thought he was about to faint.
But it was his face that really drew Joe in and made him want to draw and paint and sculpt and rhyme and many other things he had never even wanted to try before. It was like the face of a Greek renaissance sculpture, except this one was alive and moving and so much better for it. Joe was already halfway through composing a sonnet when his colleague came in from the side room and just started laughing at him.
“Something funny, Book?”
“I’m surprised you can still form a sentence, with the way your brain seemed to have melted there.”
Joe sighed dramatically. “Not my brain, my dear friend, but my heart!”
“Get it tattooed buddy. What are you two talking about?” Andy came in and stood next to Joe by the counter, first looking down at the empty page in his drawing pad and then following the guy’s stares to the opposite side of the street. A smirk formed on her face.
“I always thought flower shops came with a sweet old lady. Hey Joe, maybe you can go over and ask him for some cake.” Joe didn’t even have to look away from Work-Of-Art-Man to elbow Andy in the gut, but it did get him thinking.
“Do we have a thing we do to welcome him in the neighborhood? Something friendly and conversation starting?”
He could sense Booker and Andy were having way too much fun with this, but he was really rather hopeless about the situation. “You could offer him a free tattoo, that comes with a good chance of partial nudity and getting nice and close to him.” This time it was Bookers turn receiving his elbow. Joe seriously doubted if he could keep a steady hand and be so close to Flower-Man at the same time.
Andy grabbed his shoulder to make him tear his eyes away from The David and look at her. “Surely the great, the charismatic Joseph Jones can handle introducing himself to our new neighbor?” As Joe looked back at her with doubt, she and Booker started pushing him towards the front door.
Joe tried to fight back, tried to convince them this could only go wrong, but he could only managed to get out a “Well, yes! but I feel like I should have a plan before I-“ before being rudely pushed out of his own door and hearing it be locked behind him. He turned around and glared at his colleagues through the glass, but they only grinned, waved, and pointed at the other side of the street. Great.
This was a bad idea, but really, Joe didn’t have anything better. He had been tattooing people for over 5 years now and with every tattoo a certain level of risk was involved. If the next ten minutes were to be something he was going to wear on his skin for the rest of his life, would he advise someone else against it? Joe sighed, he was going to have to go through with this.
He took a deep breath and crossed the street.
Greek-God-Man was standing up from his crouch next to a nice bouquet when Joe approached and he had to swallow his heartbeat before he plastered on his best charismatic with a touch of flirty smile.
“Hi! How are you? I’m Joe, I work at the tattoo parlour on the other side!” He just remembered to stick out his hand in greeting before having his mind wiped by two piercing blue eyes. The seconds he got when the man first wiped his hand on the apron before taking Joe’s were preciously needed for the recovery of his nervous system.
“Nice to meet you, my name is Nicky.” As he shook his hand, Beautiful Nicky looked across the street, where Andy and Booker immediately sprung away from the window and pretended to have some sort of casual discussion that did not involve looking at the flower shop. Joe could see him lift one side of his mouth in amusement which only increased the flow of blood to his face.
Joe was usually a smooth talker, but he really couldn’t help the stutter as he grasped for words. “Actually I eh, I’m working on a new design! And I was wondering if I could maybe come inside and look at some of the flowers?”
“Sure, after you.”
As Joe walked inside, he realized there was something about Nicky’s English, something he couldn’t quite put a finger on. He pretended to casually browse and not stare too much as Nicky moved behind the counter and moved a few things about. He seemed comfortable with the silence but Joe felt like he was starting to sweat.
“Are you from around here?” A polite, sensible inquiry, but when Joe met Nicky’s eyes it felt like the other man saw right through his pretend courtesies.
“If you’re asking about the accent, I grew up in Italy and moved to this country about 10 years ago. But I’m also new in this town. Do you know it well?”
“You could say that, I was born and raised on the west side of town.” Joe was scouring his brain but those eyes made it really hard. Joe was just planning a graceful exit when Nicky gave him a full smile, a bit mischievous, like Joe was missing something, and completely stunning.
“Great! I am looking for someone to show me around town, surely you know someone? I would repay them with dinner, of course.”
“I could do it!” Joe had to reign himself in for a moment, this was going much better than expected. “I mean, I’m sure I could tell you all you need to know.” Nicky’s grin only widened, but Joe probably looked no different.
“So if you just give me your number and we’ll text the time and place?” Somehow he was already pushing a notepad and a pen over the counter towards Joe. He had been right about not keeping a steady hand, but the numbers were still legible.
They said their goodbyes and Nicky promised to text him soon. When Joe had made his way back to the shop, the door was unlocked again and he could immediately walk to the side room, out of sight from the street with Andy and Booker on his tail. There, he turned around and tried not to jump up and down too much.
“Oh my GOD I have a DATE and he’s ITALIAN!”