Page 12 of Curvy Crush
I make the walk back to the studio. When I walk in, Lola is set up in the back and she’s taking pictures of a canvas. I don’t say anything or disturb her. I just put my earbuds in and get right back to work. I study the canvas and decide on what piece I’m doing next. The outline is there; now it’s time to fill it in with color and definition. I decide on making it a bright and sunny day, so I start painting the sun, clouds, and the blue sky. I spread a little gray into the clouds to make them appear three dimensional, and I even paint in a couple of birds.
By the time I have the sky portion of the painting half-way done, my hand and wrist are hurting from holding it a certain way, so I decide on a break. I set my brush down and pull my earbuds from my ears. I glance over the painting and I’m happy with what I see. Then I turn around to find Lola, but she’s gone.
I wonder why she didn’t say goodbye, but then figure it’s because she didn’t want to disturb me. Or maybe she did try to tell me goodbye, and I just couldn’t hear her due to having my earbuds in. She probably thinks I hate her and was just ignoring her. I hope that isn’t the case, but it’s probably for the best if it is. I didn’t hire her to make a friend and I’m not really looking to make friends anyway. I like to keep people at arm’s length, and I know that’s a wise choice when it comes to her just because of how beautiful she is. If I let myself slip, it would be easy to take things too far with her and I’m nowhere near ready for that.
All I have to do is keep my distance, do my work, and let her do hers. Everything will be fine. In two weeks she’ll be gone, and I won’t have to worry about it anymore.
Chapter Eleven
LOLA
I’ve been putting in a couple hours a day at Evan’s studio and he’s barely said two words to me since I arrived. The first day, he was welcoming even though I could tell I disturbed him by letting the door slam. He took a deep breath and put his annoyance on hold while he helped me carry my equipment in. Then he left to get some breakfast and when he came back, he was dead set on pretending I didn’t even exist. I didn’t try talking to him while we were working. When it came time to leave, I tried to tell him goodbye and let him know when I’d be back, but he wouldn’t even turn around.
For the rest of the week, I’ve been going in and doing an hour from noon to one, when I know he’s on lunch, and then I go back and put in another hour after six when he’s gone. I figure if he never sees me, I can’t disturb him. Not seeing him at all is better than knowing that I’m the reason behind his annoyance. I just figure that Evan is a loner and prefers to work alone. Even when I’m quietly working with him there, he seems off, like my presence alone is enough to bother him.
Today is Friday, and I don’t have any appointments, so I figure I’ll go in, bear his bad mood in order to get some extra time in, and maybe cut this job in half. I pack up my gear and make the drive over to the studio. When I arrive, it’s going on nine, and I know he’s not expecting me, so I walk in as quietly as possible and make sure the big metal door doesn’t slam behind me. I walk across the floor and I’m surprised to see the work he’s managed to complete on the canvas, but he’s not standing in front of it. As I’m walking by his office, I spy him through the glass window, sitting behind his desk. I offer a smile and a wave as I pass. He responds with a half-smile and a nod. He doesn’t say anything and neither do I. He just lets me pass, and I go straight to work.
I have the canvases set up into two sections: one section is already photographed, and the second is the pile that still needs attention. I have an easel set up in front of my all-black backdrop, and I have a ring light on my tripod that holds the camera. I grab a canvas carefully and set it on the easel before moving back behind the camera and turning on the light. I get the frame in focus and snap a picture. I take multiple pictures of each canvas. I zoom in and get a close up of the textures in the paint. When I feel like I have good enough shots, I remove the canvas, put it in thedonesection, and set up the next one. It doesn’t take much time to take the photos I need of each canvas, but it’s a lot of mind-numbing work. My hands stay busy while my mind has plenty of room to wonder.
And today, it just so happens to wander to Evan. I wish I knew more about him. I wonder where he’s from and how he got into art. I wonder what inspires him, what drives him. I wonder how he lives outside of the studio. Does he have a special someone who he spends his time with, or is he always alone? I wonder what it will take to drag these answers out of him, how I can get him to open up. It would be nice to at least be friends though. I feel like if I bump into him now at the market, neither one of us would even say hello. It would be nice to be able to feel comfortable enough to have a polite conversation if we run into one another.
I force my attention back to the canvases and the task at hand. I work my way through about twenty of them before I feel like my eyes are starting to cross. I step away from the camera and rub my eyes while taking a deep breath.
“Your eyes hurt?” I hear him ask, and it startles me because it’s been so quiet in here.
I jump as I turn to look at him and my hand covers my heart. “You scared me.”
Evan smirks. “I’m sorry. I was just wondering how things were going, and figured I’d check in. I haven’t seen you around much this week.”
I nod. “I didn’t want to disturb you, so I’ve been coming on your lunch break and then again in the evenings after you’ve gone home. I didn’t have any appointments today, so I figured I’d knock out a couple hours of work.”
He slips his hands into his jeans pockets and nods as he leans against a beam that runs from the ceiling to the floor. “I didn’t mean to make you feel unwelcome. I’ve just got a one-track mind when it comes to working.”
“I understand. There’s nothing to be sorry for.” I turn to get back to work, but he stops me.
“What do you think of the work?”
I look from him to the canvas on the easel and back. “It’s beautiful… all of it. I wish I had just a fraction of your talent.”
“You’re talented… in your own way.”
I snort. “Yeah. I’m stuck taking pictures of people who have real talent. It doesn’t take much to push a button.”
“It takes talent to know how to capture the beauty of something before pushing that button. Don’t sell yourself short.”
I offer a tight smile, not knowing how to take his complement. “Thanks. That means a lot coming from you.”
“Hey, do you want to go get some lunch?”
I think my mouth drops open and it feels like time stop. “Um, yeah. Sure,” I finally agree,
He nods and stand up right. “Great, the bakery okay? It’s my usual stop because it’s the closest.”
My eyes are wide and I’m speechless, but I nod in agreement, basically ready to agree to anything at this point. I’m pretty sure I somehow crossed into a new dimension, or maybe this is a case of the body snatchers and Evan’s been taken and swapped out with an alien or something.
“Just… let me grab my things.” I shut everything down and grab my purse before following him to the door. He opens it, and I step out, waiting as he locks it behind us. The sun is high in the sky and a warm breeze blows, cooling my nervous, overheated skin. Slowly, the two of us head toward the bakery, neither of us having a whole lot to say.
Out of nowhere, he says, “So, you think you’ll be able to finish on time?”
