Page 102 of Casanova LLC

She sipped.

So I sipped.

She was such an interesting contradiction. I could feel her rigidity, propriety, and could hear it in her low, cool tone. But just beneath the surface, there was a yearning. Like if I tripped a wire inside her she could laugh or cry or shout or come or maybe all at once.

Richard wanted me to bed her.

I wanted to trip that wire.

“Thank you,” I said again. “That moves me. What else could an artist want, but to move someone?” I was trying to get her to look at me again. To further a connection.

But when she did look at me again, it was only to say, “There is one element I was curious about. It’s minor.”

“Sorry?”

She immediately looked away. “No, I’m sorry, never mind.”

“No, no, please.” I turned fully to her. “It’s one of my early pieces. You may have noticed the one thing I wanted to improve, but couldn’t figure out how to, at the time.”

“It’s such incredible work?—”

“On the count of three, we’ll both say it. Okay?”

Her lips curled in on themselves, keeping a smile at bay. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely. Let’s do it.”

“Okay, it’s your ego.”

“It can take it. Ready? One. Two. Three.”

And we both said: “Proportion.”

“I knew it!” She laughed as I spun around and started pacing, a show of frustration. “The boat?—”

“With the church behind it.”

“Duomo.”

“Right, the duomo.”

“It’s too big. Goddamn it.”

“It’s such a small thing. Hardly noticeable.”

“You noticed it!”

She smiled meekly and turned back to the SUV of a painting parked in front of us. It was just so…red.

I let our exchange linger in the air, like a scented candle that had yet to be lit. That I was determined to light.

She broke the silence. “As if being all red wasn’t bad enough, it also manages to be a nothing shade of red. Your colors are extraordinary.”

“Now you’re just trying to make me feel better.”

“Is it working?” With that impish smile, she went back to the painting. “Seriously, they’re so full of intention. They’re like people. You make me want to know more about them. Seek them out. Live wherever they are.”

Now that moved me. “No one’s…ever said that to me before. Not that way.”

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