The Revelation (11 page)

“I take it you’ve got a tattoo that says ‘Welcome to
the Gun Show’?” Will asks, incredulous.

Josh nods.

“On your arms, presumably?”

Josh nods again.

“Oh shit.
Horrible
. That’s gotta be on Kat’s
list, too, right? Please tell me it is. That’s gotta be double
points.”

Josh shakes his head. “Surprisingly, not on the
list. Too horrible to even mention, I suppose. Right, Kat? Some
tattoos are too stupid to make the list?”

My face is hot. “Please make it stop,” I say.

Josh squeezes my hand and kisses the side of my
head. “All in good fun, baby,” he whispers to me. “This is how we
show we like you.” He squeezes my hand again.

“Well, dude, aren’t you gonna show me?” Will
says.

“Show him,” Reed says.

Josh shrugs, unbuttons his shirt, and pulls it down
off his shoulders, revealing his muscled, tattooed chest and the
tops of his gorgeous arms—and the sight of him makes my crotch
instantly start filling with blood.

Josh bends his arms behind his head and flexes and
everyone at the table bursts into laughter at the sight of the
tattoos on the undersides of his biceps.

“Welcome to... the Gun Show,” Reed says, pointing
out Josh’s tattoos like he’s Vanna White on
Wheel of
Fortune
. “That was the night I learned Josh Faraday will do
literally
anything
to get a laugh.”

I’ve gone back into hiding behind my hands, partly
because the sight of Josh baring his body in this restaurant is
making me want to jump his bones and partly because I feel like I’m
gonna barf.

“Hell yeah, I will. Life’s too short. Hey, Kat. Are
you gonna come out from hiding any time soon?” Josh asks. “Come on,
babe, join the party. We’re all friends here. Nobody’s mad at you.
It’s all in good fun. It’s just what friends
do
with
friends—they torture them.”

I slowly come out from under my arms like a turtle.
“You guys, when I said all that stuff about prohibited tattoos and
social suicide, I was just being a total and complete smart-ass. I
just pulled that stuff out of thin air. I take it all back.”

“Ha! Don’t backtrack now, PG. Go big or go home,
babe.”

“No, I was totally wrong. Please, God, just let me
reverse time and take it all back.” I take a huge gulp of my
martini.

“Come on, Stubborn Kat,” Reed says. “Don’t let Josh
bully you into backing down from your closely held beliefs. Stay
true to yourself.”

I shake my head. “He’s not bullying me. I don’t
believe any of what I said.” I move my arm like I’m blessing them
all. “You’re all supremely cool. Forget I ever said any of it.”

“How the hell did you survive with four brothers,
Kat?” Josh says, spearing a vegetable on his plate. “A little bit
of teasing and you back down? I expected so much more from Stubborn
Kat.”

“You have
four
brothers?” Will asks.

“And no sisters,” Josh adds.

“Wow. That must have been fun growing up,” Will
says.

I nod. “Fun and hell, simultaneously—kind of like
right now. Two older, two younger. They taught me to have a thick
skin, for sure.”

“The girl might as well have grown up in a frat
house,” Josh says. “She’s an honorary dude. Well, usually. She’s
definitely acting like a girl right now.” He takes a huge bite of
food and grins.

I smile thinly at him.

Josh grabs my hand and kisses it again. “Well, young
lady, let this be a lesson to you. I’m not only wise and powerful,
I’m super cool, too—right down to my stupid tattoos.” He addresses
the group. “See, the thing Kat doesn’t realize, is that it’s the
‘stupid’ tattoos that are the best ones. Because mistakes, big and
small, are what teach us to learn and grow
.
”

“
Exactly
,” Will says emphatically. “Even the
stupid tattoos wind up being profound if you think about them like
that.”

“I was just being a smart-ass, Will. Please don’t be
offended,” I offer.

“I’m not offended at all,” Will says gently. “My
dragon tattoo
is
kinda stupid—but the cool thing is that
it’s camouflage for a huge mistake.” He smiles broadly at me.
“That’s why I love it. Every time I look at the damned thing, I’m
reminded I got my heart broken into a million pieces and came out
the other side a dragon.” He takes a bite of his food.

Josh throws up his hands, totally enthralled. “Now
see, that’s what I’m talking about, bro. Every tattoo, even if it’s
a mistake, is a reminder of who you
were
versus who you are
now. A map of your evolution as a man.” He swigs his drink.

“Amen,” Will says. “The body is a living canvas.
It’s all there: victory, failure, mistakes, lessons learned—all
there for the world to see.”

“You know what we should do?” Josh says to Will,
slamming down his fork with sudden excitement. “We should both
complete our lame-ass trifectas tonight. Together.”

“Fuck yeah. Barbed wire, it is, baby,” Will says.
They clink drinks.

“Oh God, no, Will,” Carmen says, putting her hand on
Will’s forearm. “Honey, no. Please
.
”

Will laughs and takes another bite of his food.
“Don’t worry, Car. I’ll just get it on my ass, like my boy here. A
little barbed wire on my ass for you and no one else.” He
laughs.

“There you go,” Josh says, laughing. “Genius. It’s
just skin, right?” He takes a bite of his steak.

“Fuck yeah,” Will agrees. “I’m totally gonna do it.
We’re all a pile of skin and bones sooner or later. That’s what
gets me going every fucking day, knowing I’m running out of
time.”

“Amen,” Josh says. “Hey, maybe I’ll join you—add a
little barbed wire to my dragon’s neck, maybe?”

“Hey, great idea,” Will says. “I’ll totally add
barbed wire to my dragon.”

“Jesus Christ,” Reed says. “Will, stop listening to
Josh Faraday of all people about tattoos. Listen to him about
everything else, because the guy’s a fucking genius, just not about
tattoos.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Josh says. “I’m wise and
powerful about
all
things, including tattoos.”

“Don’t do it,” Reed says to Will.

“Dude, Reed’s using reverse psychology on you,” Henn
warns Will. “He’s being the puppet master.”

“No, I’m not. I’m sincerely telling
Will
not
to do it,” Reed says. “Although
you
should absolutely do it,
Faraday. Add yet another stupid tattoo to your stupid
collection.”

“My collection isn’t stupid,” Josh says. “Didn’t you
hear a damned thing Will and I were just saying? Even the stupid
ones are
profound,
man. We’re
living
canvases,
Reed
.
Duh. We’re
artists
and
art,
all at the
same time.”

“Yeah, Reed. We’re
living canvases,
” Will
agrees with solemnity. “We’re artists and art, all at the same
time. We’re living performance art and our tattoos are our way of
flipping the bird to
mortality
.”

“That’s right,” Josh says emphatically. “Getting
barbed wire would be like saying, ‘Mortality, fuck you. You might
be gunning for me, but you’ll have to get through my barbed wire to
get
me
, motherfucker. Raaaaah.’”

Reed rolls his eyes.

“So lemme get this straight, boss,” Henn says,
pursing his lips like he’s considering something very serious. “You
got YOLO stamped on your
ass
because you were flipping the
bird to
mortality
?”

Josh laughs. “Absolutely. Now, when the Grim Reaper
comes for my ass, maybe he’ll see it and stop and say, ‘Never
mind.’”

Everyone laughs.

Carmen leans into me. “Josh is hilarious,” she
whispers.

I nod and bite my lip. “He sure is.”

Josh swigs his drink happily. Man, he’s having fun
tonight.

“Okay, okay, I cannot tell a lie,” Josh is saying.
“I must admit, I wasn’t thinking deep and profound thoughts about
my mortality when I got YOLO stamped on my ass. I wasn’t thinking
much of anything, actually. I was just a twenty-year-old asswipe
who thought he knew everything.”

“Aw, don’t be too hard on yourself,” Reed says. “All
twenty-year-old dudes are asswipes who think they know everything.
I know I was.”

“How old are you, Will?” I ask.

“Twenty-three,” he replies. “And I don’t think I
know everything.”

“Well, I thought I knew everything when I was
twenty-three,” Reed says, shaking his head. “Turns out I sure had a
whole lot to learn between twenty and thirty.”

“Ditto,” Henn agrees. “Jesus, has it really been ten
years since Josh got his stupid YOLO tat? Oh my shit, we’re getting
old.”

“Remember when thirty sounded so old?” Reed says,
looking wistful.

Josh nods. “I never thought I’d make it to
thirty.”

“Really?” I ask, the hair on my arms standing up.
“Doesn’t everyone think they’re gonna live to a hundred and
three?”

Josh shrugs and takes a bite of his food but doesn’t
reply.

I look at Josh for a long beat. When I opened my
door to him last night and wordlessly took him into my arms, the
look on his face was so vulnerable, it took my breath away—and,
just now, that exact same expression flashed across his handsome
face.

“Jeez, before we know it,” Henn says. “We’ll be
forty
and in the middle of our mandatory midlife
crisis.”

“Jesus. Who knows what fucked up shit Faraday will
do then?” Reed says. “He’ll probably get himself a midlife-crisis
car like a fucking Lamborghini or some shit like that. Oh, whoops.
Already did that.”

“He’s got a
Lamborghini
?” Carmen whispers to
me, her eyes wide.

I nod and she mouths, “Wow.”

“Hey, might as well have the douche-car to match the
douche-tattoos,” Josh says, clearly not the least bit offended by
Reed’s jab. “Like I always say, ‘Go big or go home.’ Right,
Kat?”

I lean into Josh and put my head on his shoulder.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I feel like an idiot.”

He kisses the top of my head. “We’re just teasing
you, babe,” he whispers back. “It’s what we do if we like you. No
worries—never worry in this crowd. We’re just playing.”

“So how about forty, big guy?” Henn asks Josh. “Can
you imagine that?”

Josh shrugs but doesn’t reply. He takes a bite of
his food.

“Well, I can picture all of us at forty,” Henn says.
“We’re all exactly the same as we are now—strikingly handsome,
fucking geniuses—only difference is we’re married and driving
minivans full of screaming kids.”

Reed makes a scoffing noise. “I think your crystal
ball’s got a loose wire, bro—at least relating to me.” He swigs his
drink.

“No ‘married with children’ for you?” I ask Reed.
But, really, I’m indirectly asking Josh—hoping maybe he’ll join in
the conversation. Why has he gone suddenly mute?

Reed shakes his head emphatically. “No, thanks. I’m
gonna be like George Clooney. That dude’s got the right idea.”

“Oh, I bet even George Clooney will get married one
day,” Carmen says. “When he meets the right woman.”

“I think so, too,” I agree.

“No way,” Reed says. “Not George. He’ll be the last
man standing.”

“I’m with the girls on that one,” Henn says. “When
George finds the right woman, he won’t wanna let her go. I’d bet
anything on it.”

“Oh, you’d bet
anything
on it?” Reed asks
slowly, rubbing his hands together.

“Just a figure of speech,” Henn says. “Don’t even
try your Jedi mind tricks on me.”

Josh laughs.

“Hey, Carmen. Why do you say that about George?”
Reed asks. “What do you see that I don’t?”

Carmen shrugs. “Oh, I dunno. I don’t know the guy.
He just seems like a passionate person. And passionate people are
always the ones who fall the hardest.” She looks at Will
lovingly.

Will’s face is absolutely adorable right now. He
leans in and kisses Carmen on the cheek.

“I agree with Carmen,” Henn says. “When a man finds
the right woman, it’s a game-changer.” He shrugs. “So I hear.”

“Aw, it sounds like you’re a diehard romantic,
Henn,” Carmen says.

“Maybe I am. All I know is I’d love to be married
one day to the right girl and maybe even have a little baby. A
little daughter maybe. I think that’d be really nice.”

“Really?” I say. “That’s so sweet, Henny.” I feel
myself blushing. I sneak a peek at Josh—he’s sipping his drink, not
saying a word—and my cheeks blaze even hotter.

“What about you two?” Henn asks, and my stomach
seizes—but when I glance at Henn, ready to deflect his question,
he’s looking straight at Will and Carmen, not at Josh and me.

Will and Carmen look at each other for a beat. “Um,”
Carmen finally says. “Well, I’d love a family one day. But I think
that’s a loooooong way off.”

Will laughs. “Good answer.” He wipes his brow
comically. “Phew.”

I can’t bring myself to look at Josh right now and
I’m not sure why. My skin feels electrified. “So what about you,
Will? What does your future hold, ya think?” I ask, trying to
deflect attention from my hot cheeks.

“Oh, I can answer that,” Reed says. “Will’s gonna be
a mega-superstar.” He holds up his drink and everyone follows suit.
“A toast. To 2Real—the next big superstar.”

“Hear, hear,” everyone says, clinking glasses.

Carmen leans over and kisses Will on his cheek and
he smiles.

“My boy 2Real’s gonna be a household name, mark my
words,” Reed continues.

“Thanks, Reed.”

“No need to thank me, man. I’m just telling it like
it is. You’re a fucking genius.” Reed addresses the group. “After
my party the other night, Will and Dean sat down with an acoustic
guitar and started messing around, and within an hour, they’d
written the bones for the most badass song you’ve ever heard in
your life. The thing’s gonna be a smash hit.” He snaps his fingers.
“And they wrote it just like that.”