Page 23 of Levee

“Wow,” she said, shaking her head.

“He also has contacts all over the world. You might be a very busy artist once he has some canvases of yours.”

“I’ll just be happy to make a few sales from him personally,” she said.

The humbleness seemed to be innate in her. She always seemed to be wanting to do good, to offer of herself to others. Without seeming to ask for anything in return.

As much as I’d gone years liking the club girls who were just a little more vapid and seeking their own interests, I found Jade refreshing.

“So what are you doing after you’re done here?” I asked as she hauled the boxes out from under the table to organize her prints.

“Uhm, coming to see what the inside of a party bus looks like, obviously,” she said, shooting me a playful smile. “Though, I have some plans later. So I can only hang for a few hours.”

As much as I’d prefer to spend a few hours alone with her instead of with the guys and whatever girls they’d rounded up, if I was going to get a few hours with her at all, I was sure as hell going to take them.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Jade

He saved me.

That was dramatic.

But it had been a long, hot, boring day that felt mostly not worth my time.

Sure, I’d had lots of conversations with lovely fellow vendors who tried to assure me that things would pick up, that it took them weeks to really start to make a solid income. But when it came to the public, I had a lot of people stopping for a quick look, but very few who even moved in the booth to check things out. Fewer still who actually bought anything.

More so than that, though, Levee saved me from my own thoughts. Which had, admittedly, taken a really dark turn ever since the sounds in the apartment above mine got my imagination going in endless circles.

They all inevitably ended with me trying to convince myself that I was being crazy.

But the feelings kept coming back regardless.

Especially when I didn’t see that neighbor the next day. The thing was, though, that I didn’t see all of my neighbors every single day. We all had different lives and schedules. When I satto think about it, I wasn’t sure I’d ever actually noticed that particular neighbor before.

Still, there was no reasoning with my fears. And with nothing to do but sit around all day, they’d been growing stronger and stronger.

So, yeah, Levee’s timing was pretty awesome in that respect.

He saved me from my own mind.

And, honestly, I was actually pretty excited about the party bus.

Since moving to the area, I’d been doing lots of exploring. The beaches. Local coffee places. Pet stores. Little independent restaurants.

But, well, I didn’t exactly have any friends to go out at night with. Sure, I had friendly relationships with other tenants in my building, but we were strictly ‘in and around the building’ friends. Which was fine. Good, even. I really believed in community like that.

Still, I had to admit that it felt like a little something was missing. No one to go out to the bars or clubs with, to dinner, to a movie, poetry reading, play. Stuff I was used to doing in my old town. With other people.

So, yeah, this was going to be good for me. Bonus points for getting to spend some time with Levee.

“Do you have to worry about these in your car?” Levee asked, grabbing the tote for me. “I’m sure the bus has storage.

“They’ll be fine,” I told him as we walked past all the other booths wrapping up for the day and back to the lot to store my tote in the trunk. While I was busy with that, Levee went over to the parking machine, putting enough money on my spot to last the whole night.

“Alright,” he said when I joined him. “Allow me to apologize in advance for how insane this could potentially get,” he told meas we closed in on the bus, the bass of the music thumping even from the outside.

I thought he was being a little dramatic. Then, of course, we walked into the bus. Where two of the girls that the other men had rounded up were grinding against each other to the music as some of the men looked on. Others were occupied with making out with other girls.

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