Page 33 of How to Get Even

‘Look around you. Rack after rack after rack. Each containing any number of three to thirty paintings, depending on size. How many artists do you think have work here? And how many do you think get to be the chosen few to be seen? Of those paintings, which will make enough money for the gallery to justify wall space?’ he asked, his voice heated enough to betray the passion he felt about this. About marketeers and money makers deciding what was art and what wasn’t. What would sell tickets and what wouldn’t. What would make patrons and board members big fat bonuses, and what would cast an artist into the invisible pages of history.

‘Who are these people to control who gets to see these paintings? Why is it up to an art critic or a professor to decide what is art, what is beautiful? Why aren’t these paintings as accessible to everyone, from a child to a grandparent? Why aren’t these incredible pieces of work as accessible to a mechanic and a school teacher as they are to?—’

He bit his teeth together but it was too late.

‘Me and my family,’ Bella finished, unable to hide the hurt in her gaze.

He turned away guiltily. He’d taken his frustration out on her and Bella deserved better than that.

‘You want to show what other people don’t,’ she said, circling back to the conversation they’d had in his office, her voice soft from behind him. ‘In Nayak, you want to show the kinds of art that other galleries won’t.’

He nodded, once. Definitively.

‘You want to give the artists who don’t get wall space a chance.’

‘Yes,’ Chase confessed, pleased that she understood. ‘Not solely. I know Nayak has to garner enough financial and professional attention to make it work as a business, I’m not a complete novice. But I want people to experience what you did when you first came in here. The feeling that you were seeing something that not everyone else gets to see.’

‘Exclusivity,’ she tried.

‘No, not quite that,’ he said, struggling to define what it was he wanted the gallery to be. ‘Somethingintimate,’ he tried. ‘Something gratifying, something near sexual, something individual,’ he said, trying to put into words what he’d seen across her face as she’d delved deeper into the warehouse.

He looked to her to see if she understood what he was getting at. There she was, staring up at him with those big grey eyes, a tendril of hair having escaped somewhere along the way, her eyes flicking back and forth between his. He wondered if she knew they did that, eyes moving back and forth as if wanting to capture everything all at once.

His phone beeped, breaking the moment.

While he checked the message from Maurice, he saw her check her watch.

‘Well, I have a better understanding of what you want for Nayak now, so thank you for that,’ she said with a brightness that seemed more determined than real. ‘I should probably get home.’

Chase winced and rubbed the corner of his eyebrow with his thumb.

‘About that,’ he said, somewhat regretfully because he actuallydidwant her to go home in that moment.

7

Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.

THEART OF WAR, SUN TZU

‘I don’t see why you couldn’t have just told me,’ Bella groused, trying to keep up with the furious pace Chase had set.

‘I thought you might try and back out of it,’ Chase replied, his gaze on the street ahead of him as, once again, the pedestrians parted for him as if he were Moses.

‘I wouldn’t dream of such a thing. Team bonding is an integral part of best working practices,’ Bella said hotly, even though she reallydidwant to back out of it.

Chase pulled to a sudden and rather dramatic stop, flustering the flow of pedestrians around him, while she yanked herself back to stop herself from ploughing into him.

‘It was Ali’s turn to pick the location,’ he said with a sigh.

‘Why? Where is it?’

Chase pulled a pained face, making her laugh. Not because Chase was in actual pain, but hewasclearly uncomfortable and thatwasamusing to her.

He looked boyish and rueful.

And then she stopped laughing.

‘No, seriously. Where is it?’

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