'So it's a Friday night and you're sat here with me, what's up with that? No out partying with your girl tonight?' she asked, sipping a glass of the whisky she'd ran out on her break to go and buy, knowing she'd need one after her date with the needle.

'She's out with her girly friends, I only end up getting in the way' he said with a little half smile. 'How about you then? Not out with your husband?' he then asked.

'He's working late, seems to be the only thing he does these days so I'm used to it. Fridays are usually my Ben and Alice days anyway, except for tonight since he's being tortured into decorating his new apartment with his woman' she said, remembering the pain in Ben's voice as he'd told her over the phone 'I can't come out to play tonight, she's got me painting the damn hallway'.

'So who are Ben and Alice?' he asked. 'They must be pretty damn special, I think I can just about make out there names somewhere in there, awwww and the big dude's too' he then said, leaning forward to look at her arm where there was a scroll with 'Ben, Alice, Kerry' tattooed onto it. 'I had no idea you and Kerry were that close' he added, then shut up realizing he wasn't leaving her any room to answer.

'Ben and Alice are two of my three best friends. And yeah I'm close with the number one asshole, about as close as I can be given his and Mike's feelings towards each other' she said, raising her eyebrows.

'Not good I take it then?' he asked, noting the way her face had changed.

'Mike's easily intimidated, and let's just say that my friendship with Kerry has always made him feel uneasy. Knowing he'd snap his neck in a heartbeat if he ever did me wrong is the thing that annoys him the most though. Oh and he's paranoid that I'm gunna run off with him, so for the last couple of years I haven't been able to spend as much time as I'd wanna with him' Chloe replied, taking another sip of her drink.

'So I bet he's pleased as punch you're working with him every day now huh?' said Shannon sarcastically.

'He was less than thrilled with the idea' she replied. 'I'm going out for a smoke, back in a flash' she followed with, picking up her cigarettes.

'Nah fuck it smoke in here, we're closed so it's cool' he said, throwing over a lid off a large tin containing piercing jewellery to use as an ashtray.

'Sure?' she asked, and then smiled when she watched him steal one for himself.

'Positive' he replied, lighting up and handing her lighter back to her. She lit up and topped up both glasses of Jim Beam, and just spent a few moments looking at him silently while she pretended to read something on the side of the whisky bottle.

'I didn't know manufacturers notes where so fascinating' he said, watching her reading the label and then laughing a little when she jumped at the sound of his voice, cutting through the usual thoughts of him that had begun to rattle through her head once more. She didn't really know how to answer that, there was definite amusement in his voice, was he just being sarcastic again or had he noticed her looking at him?

'And now she's on mute' he said, eyes fixing on hers and pulling a funny face to make her laugh. Still she didn't say anything.

'TAXI FOR SHANNON MOORE!' he shouted, holding his hand in the air and making her really laugh hard.

'You're funny' she said eventually.

'So are people who read the information on whisky bottles' he said, rolling his eyes playfully.

'So then boss man, are you happy with my first three weeks here?' she decided to ask.

'Absolutely, you're a damn good artist. It's why I hired you in the first place' he said, taking a drag on his cigarette and still managing to look impossibly sexy as he did it. 'Although with what you just told me about your old man I'm kinda worried I might end up losing you if he can't deal with the fact Kerry is around you most days' he then added.

'It isn't Kerry he has to worry about' she thought, rolling her tongue around in her mouth while her mind formulated the words she would say out loud instead. 'You have nothing to worry about, he knows he can't tell me where I can and cannot work' she finally said.

'You're forceful, I like that' he said, flicking his ash into the makeshift ashtray.

'Sometimes' she said, wishing she could be forceful enough to somehow overpower her husband into having a decent sex life right at that moment in their marriage. Three weeks was way too long for a married couple to go without conjugal rights in her opinion. Not really wanting to talk about Mike anymore she swiftly changed the subject, asking him about the shop and how he coped with it as well as travelling to pursue his number one career of choice; professional wrestling.

She didn't know much about it, or pretend to other than what they did in the ring got them hurt, but it wasn't real. And by the time he'd finished answering questions about his wrestling Chloe felt like she knew as much as she could ever absorb, before the subject changed once again and got back onto their shared passion, tattoos.

'So c'mon then, explain some of these to me' he said, leaning forward and pressing his finger into the side of her neck where the ornately tattooed words 'I've seen my fate' were. The contact made her skin tingle, a pleasant feeling run down her neck into her chest.

'That one is a reminder to me every day that I have to keep on going, keep doing what I love and getting better at it because it's my fate to be a tattoo artist. Okay onto another, Elizabeth was my grandmother and she always called me baby doll, she died four years ago so I did those myself on the day we buried her. Okay moving on, I have Succeed on my stomach for obvious reasons, I wanna succeed in life. And then down my spine I have the seven deadly sins, because I'm guilty of just about all of them!' she said, standing up and pulling her vest up to show him her back.

'Man that's some detailed shit. Pardon me for sounding so fucking rude but take your top off, I wanna look at the rest' he said. Chloe blushed for a moment and slid her grey vest up over her shoulders and head, leaving it resting on her arms as he began to study her back, which was totally covered.

'Shiiiiiiiiiiiiit the Ouija board is sick as fuck girl! Wow!' he said, looking at the impossibly lifelike looking tattoo that stretched across her shoulders. 'I'm surprised Kerry goes anywhere near you with that tattooed all over you' he continued.

'Kat did that one for me, it's one of my favourites' she said, looking over her shoulder and down to where his eyes were travelling her flesh.

'And if it was mine to say, I wouldn't say it. And if it was mine to say, I wouldn't speak' he said, reading the text going across the bottom of her back underneath a collection of roses, shooting stars, two crossed pistols and a hell of a lot of shading.

'Lyrics to 'Rickets' by Deftones. It reminds me that sometimes I should just shut the fuck up, that sometimes not saying something is the better option than letting my mouth run away with me!' she laughed, a laugh that was cut short as she felt his fingertips on her side, making her breath catch in her throat.

'I think Jeff's wife should consider that as her next one!' he laughed, pulling away from looking at the amazing work on her back and letting her adjust her top before she sat down again, playfully slapping his arm when he stole one of her cigarettes again.

'Why? Is she about as opinionated as me?' asked Chloe, taking a sip of her drink.

'Ooooooh yeah, if she's got something on her mind she just goes right ahead and says it. Claire don't give a shit if you don't like what she's got to hear, she's the most straight up person I've ever met. She certainly keeps old Nero on his toes!' said Shannon, laughing as he thought of who he lovingly referred to as 'that crazy Londoner'.

'She sounds like the kinda girl I'd get on with' she replied, deciding to have a cigarette herself and noticing she only had five left.

'Well, from what I know of you, and that ain't much yet, I'd say yeah. You both have about three tons of excess attitude and seem to let your husbands' know who wears the trousers, even if Jeff is too pussy to admit she scares the shit outta him!' he laughed, thanking her when she re filed his drink.

'I don't have excess attitude!' she said in her defence.

'It's a good thing! I can't stand women who just sink into the background and don't say shit, don't have an opinion, annoys me. And makes me wonder what I'm doing with Lauren sometimes' he said, not really meaning the last part to come out loud. As usual, alcohol had begun to loosen his words slightly.

'I refer back to my trouble in paradise comment a few days ago here' she said, raising her eyebrows and giving him a kind smile.

'I refer back to my original answer' he said simply.

'What? That it wasn't paradise to begin with or that you don't wanna talk about it?' she asked.

'You got a damn good memory girl. And as for not wanting to talk about it, well.................................It isn't the kind of thing a boss should have to bother his employee about' he said, looking a little pained.

'I'd like to think I might be your friend as well as just someone who works for you' she answered, another pretty smile across her face. It was all he could do at that moment not to reach out and stroke her cheek. It had been a while since a woman had smiled at him like that, and he missed it.

'So you'd be cool to hear about the fact that I'm going crazy because she only let's me have sex with her twice a week, three times if I'm lucky? That ain't too much?' he asked.

'Nope, I'd wanna know what the fuck her problem is though' she said. It was then her turn to internally whack her hand straight to her head for saying something out loud she perhaps shouldn't have. Shannon just laughed modestly, scratching the back of his neck and looking a little uncomfortable for a few moments.

'She thinks I'm the one with a problem, says I want sex too much. Damn, is it really my fault that I happen to find her attractive and wanna show her that on a daily basis?' he exclaimed, raising his hands and then dropping them into his lap with a thump. 'I mean what would you do if you were in that situation with Mike?' he then asked.

'Truth?' she asked.

'Shoot' he replied, sinking the rest of his drink and helping himself to another, noticing they were just over half way down the bottle. No wonder his tongue had loosened.

'I am' she replied, blowing a cloud of smoke down through her nose.

'Seriously? Now that is hard to believe' he said, rubbing a hand across his chin.

'Sad but true. Doesn't do your hormones any good does it?' she then said.

'Hell fucking no! I had to wait a week until two days ago, a fucking week! Damn I could have died!' he exclaimed.

'Try three' she shot back.

'THREE FUCKING WEEKS! DUDE!' He shouted, really hardly able to believe her husband could sleep in the same bed as her and not completely devour her body every single night. He sure as hell would have if she was his, and then came the thoughts about doing just that, thoughts he knew he shouldn't be having.

'Yeah I know, but what do you do? He doesn't give me any explanations other than he's tired, or the classic of he finds me less attractive now I have more tattoos, which kills me since I was covered in them when I married him!' she replied, running a hand through her tri-coloured hair.

'He said that? Is the moron fucking blind or something? Sorry, that didn't mean to come out as nastily as it sounded. I shouldn't judge your guy without even meeting him, but hell, what the fuck is his problem?' he said, shaking his head.

'Judge all you like, whatever you might say would probably be a fair assumption' she confessed.

'Okay the dudes crazy, blind and, crazy! There's no other explanation for it! Has it always been like that?' he said, holding her gaze.

'Not always, just since we got married and I got more tattoos it would seem. How about Lauren?' she asked, having to look away. Sometimes she just couldn't look him in the eye for too long, it made things seem dangerous with everything she had going on in her head.

'Oh she couldn't get enough of me for about eight weeks, and then it just kinda stopped. I ain't even gunna embarrass myself by telling you the last time she gave me head' he said, laughing through his nose.

'I could embarrass myself so much more here. Mike refuses to go down on me, he hates it' replied Chloe, watching Shannon nearly choke on his drink.

'HE WHAT? HE...........................WHAT?' he roared, eyebrows rising so high they virtually threatened to jump off the top of his head. 'He don't go down on you? What the fuck? Now that, THAT I do not get at fucking all! Damn girl if you were my wife I'd be down there so much you'd fucking forget what I looked like!' he said, then once again mentally slapped himself.

'Oh really?' she said, leaning forward in her chair closer to him, pulling a comical face and feeling the alcohol getting the better of her

'Really' he said, completely seriously as he also leaned close to her. And right there and then the energy between them seemed to crackle so fiercely she was sure she could actually hear the sparks of high voltage firing off the air between them. And if she didn't pull away quickly, she was going to be dragged under. She knew the look he was giving her, it was saying 'I'll fucking do it to you, and you know how much I wanna' so loud and clear she could feel herself blush, and realized she'd stopped breathing. But trying to back away from him, from the intense stare he held her in, the smell of him intoxicating her senses to the point of being blind to anything but him, she just couldn't do it. Until her phone began to ring and snapped them both out of it and firmly back to reality.

'Speak of the devil' she said quietly before answering her phone to Mike. Shannon just nodded while he tried to take stock of what had just happened there, that he'd been a nanosecond from literally launching himself at her and pulling her to the floor to show her what she'd been missing for the last three years of her marriage.

'Okay, yeah yeah just working late is all...........................umhm yeah okay hon meet me out front in about twenty minutes.................love you too bye' she said, hanging up her phone and stashing it away in her bag again.

'Mike, he's coming to get me in....' was all Chloe could manage before she was cut up.

'Yeah twenty minutes, I heard. I'll wait with you until he gets here' he said, pulling his cell from his pocket to retrieve the text message he'd just got.

'Do you wanna ride home?' she asked, standing on slightly shaky whisky legs and throwing her bag over her shoulder.

'Nah, seems someone wants me in the way after all. Lauren just text me, I've been summoned' he said, raising his eyebrows and flipping his phone shut again. And so they locked up and stood outside waiting for Mike to fetch Chloe, the atmosphere definitely different between them after what had happened back in the shop. And it would continue to grow as the two contemplated that moment between them, no matter how brief it was. Something was there.