He’s asking about the cover-up tattoo on my other calf. I inked over the names of all the clients I’ve had. Xander’s included. “I finished it the other day,” I tell him. It’d been a geometric mess. Didn’t have time until recently to fix it. I managed to reconfigure the lines into an otherworldly planet. Bluish and purple, how I imagine Thebula looks from the stars.

