Escaping Eden by Yolanda Olson

I always used to think about what my mother would say to my father when my father found out I started to get ink on my body. “The worst thing she’s ever done is gotten tattoos; you can’t get mad at her for that too.” My mother always knew just what to say to make me feel better and calm my father down.
    Of course I wish it stayed that way; tattoos being the “worst” of my mistakes, but I never really knew how to cope with certain things so I became kind of a recluse. I kept a small circle of friends from high school and a few from my first couple of jobs. You know, the ones that never judged you and loved you no matter what your mistakes were.
    Now here I was after three miserably failed relationships and a full time job at a video game store, trying to get my life in order at twenty three.
    “Hey Eden!”
    The voice that entered the store took me out of my thoughts and I smiled. My best friend since I was thirteen years old, Liora, walked in and came over to the counter I was standing behind.
    “Hey, Li,” I replied.
    “I’m on my break from work so I thought I’d come in and hang out for a while,” she said, leaning against the counter.
    I went into the back room of the store and found a folding chair. I came back out and set it next to the counter by me so she could sit down. Being that I had recently made assistant manager, I knew I couldn’t get in trouble for it. I handed her the newest gaming magazine and turned my attention to the customer that was waiting patiently to be rung up. After I bagged up the guy’s game and handed it to him, I glanced over at Liora who was flipping through the magazine with a small smile on her face.
    “Find something cool?” I asked, leaning over to see what she was looking at.
    “Well,” she started. “There’s this new guy at my job and—”
    “No. Absolutely not,” I replied, cutting her off and crossing my hands over my chest.
    “Oh come on! You didn’t even let me finish!” she said with a laugh.
    “Li, you’ve tried to get me together with almost everything that has a penis at your office. I’m just not interested. I don’t want to feel like a failure again so soon,” I replied, shaking my head.
    She sighed and snapped the magazine closed. I knew she was just trying to help me build my self-confidence again and I knew she had only the best intentions but after my last relationship, I was done. I accepted that I would probably be alone forever and I didn’t really mind it.
    “Then I guess I should tell him not to meet me here,” she said, as she dug around in her purse for her phone.
    I stared at her, my mouth hanging open. Li knew how painfully shy I was and to have this guy just show up to meet her at my job was completely unlike her.
    “Liora!”
    I turned my back to the voice that walked into the store. It was male, slightly accented, (though I wasn’t quite sure from where yet) and cheerful.
    Maybe he’s one of those ‘straights’ that doesn’t like tattoos. Good thing I wore my halter-top today so he can get an eyeful of the work. Oh God, I’m going to kill Li for this one.
    I looked up into the security mirror and caught his reflection. Dark messy hair and a pair of glasses was all I could make out. I grabbed a box that was sitting unopened, behind the counter and looked around for a box cutter. I reasoned that now would be a good a time as any to start putting away some gift cards.
    The phone rang and I said a silent Hail Mary as I answered it. The more I had to do, the longer I could avoid the inevitably awkward first introductions.
    “Game Cave! This is Eden, how can I help you?” I asked cheerfully into the phone.
    I put the customer on hold and went into the backroom to find the game they were calling about. I spent about ten minutes looking for it, then grabbed the phone from my belt loop and let the customer know that we did have it in stock. As soon as I hung up the phone, I noticed that Dark Messy Hair was sitting in