“Hello, you.”
My hand stops. My neck suddenly feels prickly at the sound of her voice.
“What are you painting?”
No. I’m just going to ignore her.
“Are you ignoring me, angel?”
I’m going to ignore the hell out of her. She left me to die in that nasty bathroom stall!
“Is this because I left you the last time we saw each other?”
I curse under my breath. Great, not only is this woman crazy, but she can read minds now.
“You hurt my feelings by calling me the M-word,” I swear I could hear the pout in her words.
“Don’t touch me again; I won’t call you anything anymore.”
“But why?”
I refuse to answer her.
“Does my touch make your dick twitch?”
Jesus.
She continues, “To be fair, I didn’t leave you. I called Oscar and told him you passed out drunk.”
“I wasn’t drunk,” I don’t know why I felt the need to defend myself. I just did.
“I know.”
I don’t say anything else.
“Aren’t you going to look at me while I’m talking to you, angel?”
A brush stroke here.
“I love talking to the back of your beautiful head.”
A brush stroke there.
“Gripping conversation we’re having, the Back of Rurik’s Head. Fucking electrifying.”
I inhale deeply, rolling my shoulders to shift the tension off me as I exhale slowly.
The silence between us is deafening as I focus on my painting. I tear my gaze away from the canvas to switch brushes. I dip the new one in green and remove excess paint before bringing it to the canvas.
Suddenly, a splash of yellow paint decorates all over the canvas.
I stop and blink, staring at the random yellow splatter that appears out of nowhere. For a second, I think I am the one going crazy. I have to look at the paintbrush in my hand to ensure the color is green and not yellow.
Another sprinkle of yellow appears across the painting, covering a bit of the bridge.
What the fuck?
I whirl around to see Briar looking at the painting sheepishly. She holds a paintbrush in her hand, clearly dipped in yellow paint.