Eric is punctual, back to pick her up in a little less than one hour, and Tris feels good about her own casual look when he shows up wearing cargo shorts, a white tshirt and flip-flops. Tris makes sure her phone tracking is on, and she and Eric head out of the hotel holding hands to explore the city.
"This is...wow." Tris says as they make it to the strip.
Even in the middle of the day, there are lights everywhere, and the displays are over the top. There are roller coasters, zip lines, hotels that look like large cities, a sphinx, and all kinds of different people.
"It's insane. Wait until we really take the time to see it at night, from what Zeke tells me it's literally impossible to tell it's nighttime because it's so bright."
"You've never been here?" She asks and he shakes his head.
"Nope. I work a lot, and this is legit my first trip out of Detroit." He admits.
"You've always lived there?" She asks and he nods.
"Born and raised. I grew up in the tattoo shop and I've just never left." He smiles briefly, but she can see a sadness in his eyes.
"Have you wanted to?" She asks.
"Maybe one day." He shrugged, "My Pops owned the shop, and when he passed it was up to me to keep it up."
Tris is shocked at his admission, but she simply slows their pace and leads him over to a bench, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up a painful subject."
"It's okay. It's part of getting to know someone. My dad overdosed when I was eighteen. My mom's been in and out of jail for various drug charges my whole life. It's not a perfect family." He shrugs, "What about yours? White picket fence? Two point five kids?" He asks, trying to lighten the subject.
"We had a pretty awesome family." Tris replies and Eric squeezes her hand.
"Had?"
She looks down at her feet, "They died in a car accident when I was seventeen. My brother too." She admits quietly.
"Fuck. I'm so sorry. Shit I didn't mean to do that."
"It's part of getting to know each other, like you said." She replies, smiling briefly at him but feeling tears burning her eyes, "I was working at the shop, we were meeting for dinner at one of the restaurants downtown that I could just walk to. I was running late, so I tried calling and no one picked up. I just thought they were probably annoyed at me for being late, and that they were at the restaurant already, but when I arrived, I was the first one there. I got the table they reserved, ordered an appetizer, and waited. They didn't answer calls or texts, and finally after being there for almost half an hour I get a call from my dad's phone. It was the police."
She feels him wipe a tear from her cheek, "That's awful, I'm so sorry Tris." Eric says.
"I'm sorry that I'm crying on our date." She says, trying to laugh and he smiles at her before pressing his lips to hers.
"It's okay, I say we get all the bad shit out today, so our next date is nothing but good shit." He says and she finally smiles at him.
"Okay."
He goes on to tell her how his shop was his haven. Even though his father was a drug addict, he functioned for the most part. When Eric was a young kid his dad had hit rock bottom and his uncle on his mom's side tried to get custody Eric. When his father realized what was happening, he straightened up, and did what he had to do to win a nasty custody case. He stayed sober for a while, and taught Eric everything he knew about the business. When he died, the business was left to Eric, and he was devastated. His best friends Zeke and Uriah were willing to work for him for free until he could get on his feet. They all lived in his family home, also left to him when his father passed since he and Eric's mother were long divorced. Eventually Eric offered his friends a stake in the business that they'd put their own blood, sweat and tears into, and when things started booming after word-of-mouth business poured in, they'd finally started turning a profit.
"It took us ten years to be able to take this trip, but here we are, Uriah and I are twenty eight and Zeke is thirty and we're all successful business owners." He smiles.
"You have a lot to be proud of." Tris says.
"So do you, I mean look at your work," He gestures towards her tattoo adorned arms and legs, "If it's not yours, it's Christina or Tori, and the three of you are damn good."
"Thanks." She says with a blush, "My tattoo story is kind of like yours. The three of us worked for Harrison, the former owner, since we were kids. We cleaned, we ran errands, everything we could learn before turning eighteen. When I lost my family, Tori, Christina, and Harrison were there for me. Harry even let me live with him until I turned eighteen so I wouldn't become a ward of the state. He taught me how to tattoo, and that was my lifeline during the dark times. He's who gave me this one," She gestures towards the three ravens in flight he'd noticed on her collarbone, "One for each of my family I lost."
"They're beautiful." Eric says as he runs his fingers lightly over them.
"Harry wanted to retire, so he offered us a payment plan for the shop. I had the inheritance, so I bought it outright when I was twenty, and as soon as Christina and Tori could afford it, they each bought an equal share. I also live in my family home, with the girls. Chris and I are twenty-seven and Tori's twenty-nine. Successful business owners in our twenties."
"It's crazy how similar our lives have been." He remarks and she nods.
"It really is." She agrees.
They talk about their former relationships, also finding the similarities with heartbreak and infidelity from their most recent former partners.
"My last ex literally slept with every single one of our female employees." Tris says, laughing for the first time at the irony, "Tori was the only straight woman in the shop who didn't go there. They all tried to warn me too, and of course I had to find out for myself. Mixing business and pleasure was a mistake, so I dumped his cheating ass and fired him on the spot."
"He worked with you and had the balls to sleep with your other employees?" Eric asks.
"Yup."
"Wow. What a fucking fool." He shakes his head, "How long were you two together?"
"I've known him for years. We were friends as kids, he was my next-door neighbor. We lost touch when he went to college but when he came home, we picked up the friendship again and I hired him to manage the business. We started dating and were together for around six or seven months when I found out he was cheating." She replied.
"Damn." He shook his head, "Dude is seriously stupid."
"What about you?" Tris asks.
"My last ex is a woman who's ten years older. Zeke and Uriah both told me she was a gold-digger, but I thought there was no way. She's older, successful, and she seemed crazy about me. I mean Jeanine was the top realtor in our city, until I found out it was all a front. I'd heard her company was having some issues, and she covered it. She told me that she had to cut ties with her former business partner who'd been up to some shady business. That's when she latched on to me, I was the dumb younger kid who was just getting his bearings in his own business. She almost got me, I really thought she loved me and I thought I was about to have this hot shot investor in my company, this person who knew how to build businesses from the bottom up, and she's my woman to boot. It was all lies."
"How'd you find out?" Tris asked quietly.
"She was pressing me to marry her. I mean, at the time we'd been together a year or so, and I was twenty-six and ready to settle down, at least I thought I was. I even went out to look at rings, and damn if I didn't see her out with her alleged former business partner Max, sitting near a fucking window at this fancy restaurant downtown. They're at this romantic dinner, cuddling together, kissing. I walk into the restaurant and tell her it's over." Eric replies.
"My gosh." She trails off.
"Max was in it with her. They were going to save their own business with my money, had it worked." He shrugged, "I've been single ever since. I don't have the energy to figure out who has sincere intentions and who doesn't."
"Same, except I've only been single for a couple of months now. Thankfully I never fell for Tobias, but I could have had we continued. He was charming, but I now realize it was all just a practiced act. I mean you and I have had a more substantial conversation in less than twenty-four hours than he and I had in years of knowing each other."
"I'm feeling the same as you." He replies and she pulls his face to hers and kisses him. He threads his fingers in her hair and cups the back of her head as they kiss. He's not sure why things with her feel so natural, but he plans on exploring this as long as they're here together.
"You said you almost married her, was it hard to walk away with all of those feelings involved?" She asks.
He nods, "Yeah, I would say it was. I've had some dates here and there, but I've been single since her. Uri has called it my cleanse; he was giving me shit but I feel like it's kind of true. I haven't found anything meaningful since then, I guess."
"My first boyfriend and I went through the same." Tris admits and he pushes a lock of hair behind her ear as she continues, "We started dating when we were seventeen, our relationship made it through our senior year of high school, him going away to college and us doing the long-distance thing, and even continued when he came home from college. He proposed, and after over six years together it seemed like the next logical step, but I couldn't say yes. I loved him so much, but I was twenty-three, and I felt like we were too young. We'd never even lived under the same roof," She shrugs, "When I said no, he said he understood, but three days later he broke up with me. It was a clean break, he said we wanted different things, and he cut me off. I acted out, did some stupid shit to try to get him to talk to me, just dumb immature shit. We never got back together, and we never even talked it through. He moved on with someone else, they're engaged now and happy."
"Wow." He breathes out and he leans back a bit, "Did you ever get over him?"
"I had no choice but to move on and pick myself up and figure out life. I wanted closure, but I had to find a way to be okay without it. Sorry, it feels like I'm talking about a long-lost love. It's not that, but it just felt right to share."
"I'm glad you did. I don't usually talk about Jeanine, but there's some sort of truth serum in your kisses." He grins at her before leaning in and capturing her lips in his again.
"Is that what's making me bare my soul to you?" She grins at him when they break apart.
"It must be, because you've got me open like a book." He replies.
"So, does this serum also control your mind?" She beams at him.
"I don't know, maybe you should try it."
She leans back in, resting her forehead against his before capturing his lips in hers. When they break apart, she whispers, "I'm hungry, feed me."
"Must feed the beautiful woman next to me." He says in a robotic voice and she kisses his nose.
"It worked." She smirks at him.
He laughs at her before kissing her again, and then he threads their hands together and leads her into the nearest deli. They share a sandwich for lunch, and when Tori and Christina text her to check in she tells them she's still with Eric. They tell her they're going to the pool with Zeke and Uriah, and Tris is surprised.
"They're idiots, but they're fun." Eric smirked at her.
"Would you want to hang out with them at the pool for a bit?"
"Oh yeah, I just need to change, walk back with me?" He asks and she nods.
"Of course." She replies.