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I touch the outside of my upper arm, then toward my shoulder. “Here, probably. Big enough to have some detail without taking the whole arm.”

She nods and makes a note. “Color?”

“Probably black and gray.”

“Style?”

“I was hoping that was the part you’d figure out.”

“It can be, but I need more than ‘Europe and music.’ Otherwise, I’m designing a travel poster on your arm.”

I laugh. “You always this blunt with clients?”

“Only when someone wants something permanent and gives me nothing useful to work with.”

She turns the tablet toward herself again. “Six months is a long time. What do you remember?”

“That’s a broad question.”

“It’s supposed to be.”

I look toward the front windows.

I could give her the easy version. Paris at night. Rome. Amsterdam canals. Berlin clubs. The ridiculous number of train stations and airports we passed through, even though most of the time we were moving by bus.

Ruby waits without filling the silence for me.

I look back at her. “The crowds.”

“What about them?”

“They got bigger.”

“That sounds useful for a touring band.”

I smile. “See, this is why people pay you.”

She doesn’t smile back. “You’re doing it again.”

“Doing what?”

“You’ve made a joke every time I ask you to tell me what any of this actually means to you.”

I stare at her, and she raises one eyebrow as if she’s waiting for me to deny it.

I’m starting to understand why tattoo artists get people to tell them things. They’ve already got you sitting down, and eventually they figure out exactly where to poke.

“I remember the first time people knew the words,” I say.

Ruby’s expression changes, not softer exactly, but more attentive. “Where?”

“Amsterdam.”

She makes another note. “Tell me about it.”

I exhale and look down at my hands. “We’d been on the tour a few weeks. We were still getting used to playing venues that size, but we knew what our job was. Get out there, get the crowd loud, and make sure they were already fired up by the time Macklin Row took the stage. Most of them had bought tickets to see Macklin Row, not us. We were there to make them glad they’d shown up early.”

“But that night was different?”