Page 36 of Taming His Rockstar

Chapter 17

“What are we doing here?” Jane asks when I pull her into the art gallery.

“I’m thinking of buying a few paintings for the house.” I turn around, deciding that the gallery looks nice enough. Nice location, nice lighting, and the pieces on display look nice enough. There are a few people admiring the paintings on the walls, and I move to the nearest one, trying to read the small signature scribbled at the bottom of it.

Jane rolls her eyes at me. “If you want paintings, call Franco and have him buy it for you. Or you want to admit you’re here to buy Jake’s paintings?”

“And what if I am?” I ask, moving to the next painting. “I know you wouldn’t have agreed to come if I told you.”

“Yes, I wouldn’t have agreed to come. This is not proper fling behavior.”

I turn to her. “What do you mean?”

“I mean do you know if he would like you buying one of his paintings, or if he is one of those guy who thinks you’re showing off because you’ve got more money than him? You know how guys can get. Also, you’re supposed to be having an affair. That means you make plans to meet, fuck each other’s brains out, and then say bye until the next time. This” — she waves at the gallery — “is not proper fling behavior. Except you’re looking for more than a fling.”

“I’m not,” I quickly state.

“Why not?”

Now I’m confused. “Are you for or against this? I swear I can’t tell. One minute you’re biting my head off for trying to be friends with the guy, the next minute you’re asking why I don’t want to be friends. What side are you on?”

“Yours,” Jane replies immediately. She sighs and moves closer to me. “Sorry. It’s just you don’t seem to know what you want, and I don’t want you to keep lying to yourself and then get hurt when things go south.”

“You mean you don’t want me to fall in love with him, so I don’t get heartbroken when this . . . fling ends.” I smile at her. “Don’t worry, I won’t.”

I recognize it the moment I see it. Not, it’s them. Three paintings, tucked at the other end of the gallery. I grab Jane’s hand and pull her toward them. And sure enough, right at the bottom, I saw the same signature scrawled across the painting in Jake’s apartment.

“What do you think?” I ask.

“I don’t know. It looks nice.”

“Are you kidding?” I ask as I stare at the painting. It’s a landscape painting of what looks like a desert. “It looks absolutely stunning.”

“Oh God, it’s too late now.” Jane groans.

I don’t know what she means. I look around to get the attention of any of the salespeople in the gallery. I finally get one, and he walks toward me.

“Good afternoon, ma’am. My name is Richard, and . . .” He does a double take when he recognizes me. “I know you. My daughters used to have pictures of you hanging on their walls. I got them tickets for your show two years ago.”

“Hope they enjoyed the show?” I ask with a smile.

“I figured they did since they didn’t stop talking about it for two weeks.” He laughs. “Now, how can I help you ladies?” he asks, nodding to Jane who just stands behind me.

“I’d like to buy these paintings.” I point at the three paintings. “Can you wrap them up for me?”

He looks a little surprised but nods and waves over an assistant.

“I take it you know the artist?”

I nod. “A little. I saw one of his works in a friend of mine’s place and liked it.”

“Yeah, Jake is one of our popular artists. I don’t know, maybe this will finally push him to take this art thing seriously.”

“What?”

Richard turns around from helping the assistant wrap the paintings. “Well, he brings in one or two paintings every few months even though I told him I can take more. I remember when we had his show. We sold almost every painting of his, and I talked to him about building on that initial buzz. You know, with the social media and all this other stuff these new artists use to get their work out there. Jake refused. He likes to play the role of the tortured artist all too well.”

Imagining Jake playing a tortured artist sounds funny to me. So funny I chortle and have to use a hand to cover my mouth.

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