Date Turned Tattoo Branded and owned

You thought this was just a date. You got dressed up, and sat across from me thinking you had a chance. Cute. Really.
It started small. The way I looked at you. not like you were someone I was interested in, but like you were something I was deciding what to do with. You noticed. You shifted in your seat. You laughed a little too loud at your own joke trying to fill the silence I left on purpose. I just smiled and let you keep going.
I had you. You were already trying to impress me, already leaning in, already doing everything I hadn't asked you to do yet. I hadn't even started.
That's when I told you. Not asked. Told you. That this wasn't a date. That you'd misunderstood what tonight was from the beginning. That the moment you walked through that door and saw me sitting there, something shifted, you just didn't have the language for it yet. I do. I always do.
I watched your face change. Confusion first. Then something else. Recognition, maybe. Like a part of you already knew. Like you'd been waiting for someone to say it out loud.
I slid my phone across the bar and showed you the design. Clean lines. Simple. "Stephhism" — right where everyone would see it. Permanent. Mine.
You should have said no. We both know that. Instead you picked up the phone and zoomed in on it. Your hands were shaking a little. I noticed. I notice everything.
I told you what it meant. That it wasn't just ink. That it was a declaration — to yourself, to anyone who ever got close enough to read it — that you belong to a specific kind of woman, that you operate under a specific kind of rule, and that rule has a name. My name. Wrapped up in something bigger than both of us.
You asked if I was serious.
I didn't answer. I just looked at you.
You put the phone down. You took a long sip of your beverage. And then you said the only thing left to say.
"Where do we go to get it done?"

When it was done you looked down at it for a long time.
I tilted your chin up, the same way I always do when I want someone's full attention, and I said… welcome. You're mine now. You have been since you walked through that door. Now everyone else will know it too.
You didn't say anything.
You didn't need to.