The next day Zac and I went out in the morning. The concert he had to go to was this evening and he had extra tickets so the four of us were going as a sort of pseudo-birthday present for me. It was the first night Ginger was going to leave Jenny with a babysitter and she was freaking out just over the idea of it so Zac and I got out of there as soon as we could.
"So where are we going?" Zac asked. I was driving Kris's car, which Zac found slightly amusing. When I explained I had to sell my car for money he quieted immediately.
"Well�I wasn't going to do this today, but you're here and I value your opinion. We're going to a jeweler."
"Why? Are we getting your watch fixed and you need me to pick out the battery?" Zac asked, very confused.
"No!" I said. "We're getting Kris an engagement ring."
"Whoa!" Zac said, his face lighting up in a smile. "You're going to propose to Kris?" He looked more excited than I was, and I was incredibly excited. Proposing to Kris was a big thing, obviously. I knew the moment I saw her in the airport last May that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. Now I'm actually going about that.
"Well, yeah, of course," I said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. I had to remember, though, that Zac hadn't been around my relationship with Kris. The last time I saw him I'd been dating Kris for a month, I'd only seen her once before, and we hadn't even slept together yet. "I've always known that I was going to marry Kris."
"Wow," Zac said. "I had no idea it was this serious."
"Well if you were around you would know," I said without thinking. He quieted. "I mean, yeah, it's pretty damn serious."
"So when are you going to do it?"
"On our anniversary," I said. "It's not until May but I don't expect to find the ring today, so, you know, I need time to look for it."
"You do realize you're coming with me to New York," Zac said.
"Yeah, I know," I said. "If I don't find one here I'll go to New York."
"So where are we going?" Zac asked.
"Tiffany's."
"I thought you had to sell your car for money," Zac pointed out. "How are you purchasing a Tiffany's engagement ring?"
"Oh, yeah," I said, lowering my eyes. "Um�when I released our last album, I had the paycheck go right to my account, considering at the time Isaac wanted nothing to do with the album and you and I weren't talking. I did everything myself�all the retouching and final editing, distribution and whatnot. The album went platinum about ten times and I'm a multi-millionaire. I-I never need to work again. Is that a Chihuahua?" I pointed out the window.
"Oh my God!" Zac said. "How come you never told me the album did that well?"
"I told Mom to tell you! Maybe she didn't�"
"No she didn't!" He sat back, astonished. "How long has the album been out?"
"About three months."
"And it's already sold that many?"
"If it helps any, it's really not selling anymore. Everybody that bought it bought it right away."
"That's insane! That's, like, our best selling album ever! Did you release a single?" I shook my head. "Did you promote it?" I shook my head. "Did you do anything?"
"No. But apparently everybody knew it was out because they bought it."
"Jesus," Zac whispered. "You know, a third of that is my money."
"I know," I said. "And a third of it is Ike's. If you want we can go to the bank later and take care of it."
"You know what?" Zac said, shaking his head. "You keep it. I'm making my own money now."
"No, Zac, you're a third of the band and you deserve a third of the money we earned off of it."
"Just don't worry about it, all right?" Zac asked. "Did you call the store?"
"Yeah. They know we're coming."
"Good." We arrived at the mall and I parked the closest I could to the mall entrance by Tiffany's. I was fine going places by myself, or with Kris, but when it came to both me and Zac the chance of someone recognizing us doubled and frankly I didn't want anybody to see me going into Tiffany's to buy an engagement ring.
Luckily we arrived in the store without a problem and when we got there, there was nobody else in there. An associate behind one of the counters recognized us immediately. "Ah, Mr. Hanson," she said, walking up to me, "Come right in." She led me to a display case. She took out a few displays for me to look at. "These," she said, putting a display on the counter with about eight rings on it, "are the different sizes, varying from a quarter carat up to four carats." She put another display case. "These are the different settings. The most popular is, of course, the Tiffany setting. We also have the Etoile and Lucinda settings here, which are two other favorites, along with various other settings. You have a choice of gold, platinum, or silver for the ring." I looked over the rings. "Of course, if you don't find anything you like we can custom design a ring for you."
"Hey, Zac, what do you think of this?" I asked, picking up the platinum Tiffany setting ring.
"The stone is too small."
"You think?" I asked.
"Oh yeah! You can go at least 4 or 5 carats, Taylor."
"That is true�" I looked at the display. The biggest one on the display was the four-carat diamond.
"That is the only four-carat we have set at the moment and it is the largest we have currently in stock." I looked at Zac for his advice. I didn't want to go any bigger. It would big to the point of gaudy and that was the last thing I wanted.
"I would go with the four-carat," Zac said.
"All right," I said. "So it'll be the Tiffany setting platinum ring with the four carat diamond?"
"We can do that for you, sir, however we don't have that ring currently available, so it'll take a few days to set it."
"Well we're going to New York City tomorrow."
"I could send your request into a New York store," she said. "They might already have a set ring for you."
"Thank you, I'd appreciate that," I said.
"I'll be right back." She went across the room to the telephone and picked it up. I turned to Zac.
"Well, it looks like I have a ring already. I didn't expect to get it so fast." Zac shrugged. The woman put the phone down and returned.
"They don't have the ring yet but they'll set it for you. To make sure, it's the Tiffany setting platinum ring with the four carat diamond?" I nodded. "What size?"
"Five."
"All right. Is there a number in New York where they can reach you when the ring is ready?"
"Oh, geez, Zac can I use you?" I asked. He nodded. I gave her Zac's number. She wrote it down with the other information before she walked back to the phone. "I just don't want to risk Kris picking up the phone and finding out."
"That's fine," Zac said. A moment later the woman came back.
"All right. He'll call when the ring is ready. Congratulations and have a safe trip to New York," she said.
"Thank you," I told her. Zac and I left. "So, where are we going now?"
"Somewhere I want to go," Zac said. "I'm driving." I shrugged. That was just fine with me. I dug in my pocket and handed him the keys. "Anyway�do you have any idea how much that ring is going to cost?"
"No," I said. "It'll be up there, though."
"Kris is going to love it." I smiled.
"I know." We left the mall and went back to Kris's car. Zac got behind the wheel. "Do you know where you're going?" I asked. I honestly don't think Zac has ever been to Tampa before, well, minus that one time when we stopped here on tour in 2000, so he could very well get lost. Luckily I knew where I was going.
"Sort of," he said. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a small piece of paper with an address written on it and handed it to me. "I'm pretty sure I know where I'm going. This'll take me to Dale Mabry, right?" I nodded.
"Yeah. It's not far. If you turn right when you get there it'll be maybe a mile south, if that."
"Great," he said. "You know I can't tell you how happy I am that you're going to ask Kris to marry you."
"Really?" I asked. He nodded.
"Yeah! Kris has always been like a sister to me, ever since I met Ginger. Me and her just kind of connected that way, you know? It's nice to know that she's actually going to be my sister." I smiled.
"Zac? Can I ask you something?" He nodded "Are you and Ginger back together?" I asked. He smiled.
"Well I certainly hope so, because if not then last night was really out of line." I shook my head. That Zac was such a kidder. "Yeah, yeah we are."
"That's good."
"But honestly I didn't expect it to happen like it did," he said. "I mean I saw her there at Target and it was like these past months didn't even happen. I saw her and I was like 'Oh my God I still love her.' I saw Jenny and I knew right away she was mine, but I didn't want to talk about it there so I took her back to the hotel. The second we got there I kissed her. It was like we'd never broken up but living proof of that was in her arms."
"Do you wish you two never broke up?" I asked.
"I'm�I'm still kind of torn about that," Zac admitted. "I want more than anything to have been there when Jenny was born. I wanted to be there with Ginger when she went into labor and everything�"
"It took ten minutes," I said. "You really didn't miss anything."
"You were there?" he asked. I paused, realizing I probably shouldn't have said that, but then I nodded. "Well, anyway, everything would be different if we'd never broken up and I don't know what it would be like now. I do know that being away from her made me appreciate her more."
"I'm just glad things are getting back to normal now," I said.
"Me too."
Not much later Zac pulled into a parking space in front of Atomic Tattoos. "Atomic Tattoos? You're getting another tattoo?"
"Not another one," Zac said. "Just a sort of add on to the one I already have."
"What are you getting?"
"Jenny's name."
"Oh, okay." I got out of the car. He did the same.
"You're okay with this?" he asked.
"It's not like you're getting Ginger's name on your arm. I'm completely against that. I won't even get Kris's name on me and I'm sure I'm going to spend the rest of my life with her."
"Why are you so against that?" Zac asked.
"Think about it, Zac. There is no guarantee it's going to last forever. You don't know what the future holds. If I got Kris's name on my ass or something, say ten years from now I fuck up or she fucks up and it's over. I'm stuck with her name on my ass forever and if I ever try to get with someone else they'll see that."
"So why aren't you opposed to my daughter's name?"
"Because it's your daughter. That's forever. Even if, God forbid knock on wood, she were to die she's still your daughter. Nothing's ever going to change that. But if you're going to put one kid's name on your body, you better put all of them on there."
"Whatever, Taylor." Zac opened the door. "After you." I gave him a look and went inside first. It was surprisingly clean. I've never actually been in a tattoo parlor before but I always expect it to be a dumpy dirty place with sleazy, fat bald guys with dark goatees and a grimace that could send you running back outside, with people screaming and nasty needles digging all over the place. The only thing I saw that I expected was that most of the people there were covered with tattoos.
"Hi," the woman behind the counter with a clipboard said. "Welcome to Atomic Tattoos."
"Hi," Zac said. "I've got an appointment with David for eleven-thirty." I looked at the clock on the wall. It was 11:25. The woman looked at her clipboard.
"Zac Hanson?"
"Yeah." She looked up, looked at me, and bit her lip. She recognized us.
"Follow me," she said, barely audible. Zac and I followed her to the counter. She began to explain the consent papers to Zac. I looked around at the art on the walls. Some of these were terrible, not because they were drawn terribly (no, they were actually exceptional art works) but because I couldn't believe someone would want a tattoo that huge on their body. Zac and Ginger's tattoos were tasteful but some of these could easily take up my entire arm and that was repulsive.
A person I guess was David came out of one of the rooms. "Hey, you must be Zac," he said, walking up to us. "I'm David. What were you planning for today?"
"Nothing big," Zac explained. "I was just going to add a name to this." He lifted up his sleeve and showed David his cross. David nodded.
"All right. I can do that. Come with me."
"Taylor, you coming?" Zac asked. I shrugged.
"Sure." I followed Zac and David into the room. Zac sat down in the chair and David sat on a stool next to him. I took the seat by the door. Zac's sleeve was folded up neatly so his tattoo was exposed.
"I want Jennifer here and Kristina on the other side here," Zac was explaining. David nodded. "Nothing massively fancy, just in calligraphy."
"All right." David wrote the name on the piece of paper the same way he would be putting it on Zac's skin. "Like that?"
"Yeah, exactly like that," Zac said. "Taylor?" David held up the piece of paper. It was the most beautiful way I've ever seen Jenny's name written.
"Kristina is spelled with a K-R, not a C-H." David nodded and fixed it.
"Are you serious?" Zac asked. I nodded. "I did not know that."
"How about this?" David said. He showed Zac and Zac nodded then he showed me. "Is it spelled right?"
"Yes."
"Great. You ready? Everything's set?" David asked.
"Yep," Zac said, nodding.
"All right." David got everything ready. I was pleased to see him take a fresh needle out of a sealed box and he wore latex gloves. "So who is this Jennifer? Is she your girlfriend?" Zac smiled.
"No. She's my daughter."
"Really? How old is she?"
"Three months." I watched, slightly amazed, as David began to write Jenny's name on Zac and Zac took the pain without a flinch.
"Cool. So, Taylor, are we going to do you next?" David asked, glancing briefly at me. I shook my head.
"No thank you."
"You sure? I can't interest you in anything? Get something under two square inches I'll do it for free."
"Hey, you can't beat that," Zac said. I shook my head.
"No�I wouldn't even know what to get anyway."
"There's an entire book of designs in front of you. You could just look through it, think about it," David said. Well, there's no harm in just looking�I picked up the book and started looking through it. About an hour later I walked out of the tattoo parlor with a two-inch treble clef on my left shoulder.