Page 102 of Painting Celia

The group near the blue painting was moving away, but two more couples were approaching. León watched wistfully. What were they saying about it?

“Go look,” Celia said to him quietly. “I’ll catch up.”

“Really?”

Her faint, fond smile said yes. Resisting the urge to sprint, he left her in Andrew’s hands.

•••

With that eager gleam in his eyes, there was no way León would have lasted long. Celia regretted each step he took, but wouldn’t cling. Andrew squeezed her hand, frowning fretfully as she turned back to him.

“I’m so ashamed, Celia.”

“I shouldn’t have run off,” she demurred, disquiet filtering through her. She and Andrew had always been at ease together, but he looked agitated.

“No, this one is on me,” he said with a decisive shake of his head. “I was teasing León, egging him on. I’m so sorry.” His shoulders were actually slumping.

León had explained. “I know it’s an old joke you had.” She looked across the room but couldn’t spot him through the crowd.

Andrew’s mouth twisted, and he let go of her hand. “A sexist joke. You’re not just a model.”

“I’m no artist,” she said.

“You are,” he protested. “Your art is seeing what people need and making it happen, so naturally that we don’t even notice.”

She felt her cheeks heating. “That’s not art!” Good lord, did she have to go through this with everyone?

“It’s a talent,” he insisted, leaning in. His eyes on hers were different, direct and keen, almost like León’s. “I had time to think about this. We talk about our work all the time, and I realized how it must feel for you not to be a part of it. My joking excluded you.”

She stared. Being seen by Andrew was unexpected.

“I forgot how being excluded felt,” he continued. “I was always too bi for my gay friends, too black for my white friends, I didn’t quite qualify for any one group. I decided a long time ago to stop honoring the rules. Everyone is in my group, just as they are.” His pained frown deepened. “I messed that up, Celia.”

It was too strange, seeing him so earnest. What was the antidote to Andrew’s concern? “You’re good at spotting when someone needs to step up,” she said. “Yourself included.”

He looked more relieved than she’d expected. “You don’t have to flatter me while I apologize.”

Andrew, rejecting flattery? This was serious.

“I’m sorry,” he said, sighing as he wrapped her in a firm hug. Wow. She made a change and everyone else had to change too?

As he let her go, she saw him gazing past her shoulder and turned to see Kelsey waiting patiently.

“My turn,” she said.

Celia paused. “Wait,” she said. Oh, hell. “Do you take turns hanging out with me in public? Because of my anxiety?”

Andrew’s face went blank. “Um.”

“Did you never notice that?” Kelsey asked.

Celia shook her head, unsure if she should be annoyed or touched.

“Trevor’s here, by his pictures,” Kelsey said. “Come look, say hi.”

Celia cast another searching glance to León’s corner, still not seeing his dark head. He would want her there. But Kelsey took her elbow, and so she went along. Trevor first, quickly.

The vast front room had open archways along the back wall, inviting lights burning within each. Trevor awaited in the nearest antechamber, his photographs mounted on a softly-lit plaster wall. He sat, sipping a glass of red wine, on one of the little plinths that doubled as stools. He brightened as the women approached.

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