Page 84 of Taylor

Then she was suddenly panic stricken. This was the first of many surprises, and she hadn’t planned anything yet. Why was this always like her? Why didn’t she put any thought into this? She had said it was important to her, yet she still did nothing to prepare...

“Stop,” she said. “He didn’t do this because he expected anything from me.”

After another deep breath, she had an idea.

She went into her mudroom off her garage, which she never used as a mudroom. The wall of south-facing windows offered amazing light, so that is where she’d set up a little painting studio.

Pulling up her phone, she printed a copy of the picture of her and Taylor in her bathroom mirror, one she gazed at when he was away. It was from the night they had reconciled and had covered each other in kind words. From the colorful writing and art covering both of them to the look on their faces as they looked at each other, it was perfect.

She pinned the photo on the corkboard next to her easel, opened the closet, and chose the canvas, making sure she had all the colors she needed. It would be good to do this without a trip to the art store.

Just like that, she was all set up with all the paints she needed. The reference photo was right in front of her. On the table next to her was the vase with her beautiful flowers, her latte, and a donut resting on a paper towel. Her hair was pulled up, and she had her painting overalls on. She was ready.

As she worked the preliminary sketch, the snow softly fell outside her window. While she wished Taylor was here to make this a special day, this was good. She hadn’t felt this in the zone for a long time. She sat on her stool and began painting. Everything else in the world fell away as she worked.

After a while, she was pulled from her work by the ring of her phone. She put down her paintbrush and wiped her hand on her pants before picking up the FaceTime call.

“Sasha, hi,” she said.

“Hey, Alice, I just wanted to check in with you. You weren’t on the morning call.”

“Oh, shoot. I’m so sorry! I just got busy and lost track of time. I?—”

“It’s fine. I’m not too worried about it,” Sasha said. “I just wanted to make sure the posts for today and the Valentine’s Day posts were scheduled and good to go and that you’ll be able to post tonight.”

“Yep, they go live soon. I’ll be ready for tonight. I’ll set a reminder as soon as we’re done here.”

“What are you up to?” she asked. “You look busy.”

Alice could see some paint smudges on her face, and her hair was tied up. She clearly looked like she’d been doing something.

“I’m painting.”

“Like a room in your house?”

“No, I’m painting a portrait of Taylor and me. I’m going to give it to him when he gets home.”

Those words were out of her mouth before she knew what she said.

“I was wondering if there was something going on between you two,” Sasha said as a grin grew wide across her face.

The horror on her face must have been obvious.

“Don’t worry,” Sasha said. “I won’t tell anyone. Are you two together?”

Alice just nodded, unable to find any words.

“He mentioned you’d been sketching some pictures of the players and Mr. Wizard,” Sasha said.

“Did he?” Alice asked.

Sasha nodded.

“Yeah, I’ve done a couple. I’ve been doing them during the downtime in the games.”

“I would love to take a look at them. Did you do one of Conner?”

“Of course I did,” Alice said with a smile. “If you really want to look at them, I’ll send them over to you today.”

---