Page 51 of Incurably Cupid

“Yeah, I’ll be quick.”

His fork stilled. “Indie.”

I stilled, too. “Yes?”

His gray eyes met mine, steady, unwavering. “Please let me come with you.”

Something in his tone softened my resistance. I sighed, slumping back. “Fine. I’ll wait.”

He chuckled, wiped his mouth, and stood, helping me up before settling back into Lance’s seat.

After gettingour delicious chocolate and wandering toward the river running through town, we tried to decide what to do with the time before the singles event.

Both of us were carefully avoiding talking about it.

“We could take a boat ride across the lake?”

He pursed his lips. “It sounds good, but I wanted to conserve my energy for tonight and for traveling to Devotion tomorrow.”

I took a bite of my chocolate, already addicted to them. This one had a sweet and tangy lemon center that made my mouth zing.

“Okay," I said, licking a bit of chocolate from my thumb. "Want to do some painting?”

He raised an eyebrow. “That sounds... fun?”

I laughed and led him down the street to a place I’d scoped out on my first day—Budding Artist Ceramics.

I opened the door so Lance and Mesmer could roll in. The scent of paint and wet clay was very strong, but not unbearably so. Mesmer found a quiet corner to stow Lance and then settled at an empty table that had all kinds of paint supplies on it. When the owner came over, Mesmer handed her his credit card before I’d even had a chance to grab for my wallet.

She smiled and took it. “You’ll need to grab something you want to paint first, then I’ll ring you up.”

Mesmer creaked to his feet, and we wandered the room, perusing our pottery choices. There were all kinds of things:mugs, animals, trademarked items, mythical creatures... There were so many that it was hard to choose, but eventually, Mesmer chose a mug, and I chose a dragon that was probably well beyond my painting skill level.

As he paid, I hesitated, eyeing the dragon in my hands. Maybe I should swap it for something easier. I didn’t want it to turn out looking awful.

Mesmer sat again after retrieving his card. “Rethinking your choice?” he murmured.

I bit my lip, then shook my head. “No, I’ll just give it my best.”

He nodded and started to choose colors for his palette, while I did the same.

I ended up going with a metallic dark purple and a metallic emerald green. I had a plan for what I wanted him to look like, and I would just do my best to make it happen.

Mesmer was choosing happy colors: pink, soft blues, lilac purple, and a very soft orange that looked like something you’d see on a sunset.

I eyed them curiously. “What are you making?” His mug was undecorated, so he was completely choosing his own design.

He shrugged, looking a little embarrassed. “I wanted to paint Devotion’s skies.”

I froze, my brush hovering midair.

“Really?”

His dark lashes lifted as he met my gaze. “Really.”

Oh.

My brush wobbled as I dipped it into the paint. “That’s... going to look really nice.” I cleared my throat. “A nice memento for you.”

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