Page 113 of Their Courtesan
Chapter 27
SETH
“Thought I might find you here.”
Zack sat beside Seth on the bench, facing a Rembrandt. The city’s art gallery was not the biggest in the country, but it always valued quality over quantity. The paintings and other works of art that came through on a rotational basis both inspired and quieted Seth’s artistic side. He hadn’t been there lately. Too consumed with thoughts of his blessed muse and the way she was destroying his life.
His friend, on the other hand, didn’t care for galleries much. He liked installations, and galleries didn’t foster a lot of those. Or at least not the galleries in that area. “You look like some asshole broke your heart.”
Seth snuffed his laughter. Legs crossed, hands buckled around knees, he considered the Rembrandt in front of him – had even put on his wire-framed glasses to get a better look at it.I’ve always admired his darker colors and the use of shadow.Using light and shadow was lost on a lot of today’s artists. Seth wouldn’t say he was the best at it either, preferring to light up the world with golden, bright colors, but he appreciated the complexions of the models and the stout demeanors they possessed. His favorite painting, Danaë, was hung up as well. A pre-vandalism print, to be sure, but it was so close to the original that Seth had to seriously cross his eyes to see the issue.
“You know,” he said, gesturing to Danaë. “I was able to see that before it was vandalized. I was a little kid, but my parents decided to do the trans-Siberian railroad one summer and took me along with them.”
“I vaguely remember you telling me about that before.”
Seth nodded.Great test in a child’s patience.“We stopped in St. Petersburg for a while. It was one of my first real exposures to art. I remember my parents arguing whether or not it was appropriate for me to see nude models, even in paintings. My mother wanted me to be so sheltered, but my father said it was good to be exposed to bodies in their natural forms. Don’t you think that woman looks pretty natural?”
Zack squinted. “She is definitely naked.”
“They say that was Rembrandt’s wife. Or at least the body is. The face is his mistress’s. That pissed my mother off when she found out.”I’ll hear her ranting about it for the rest of my life.“When I was a kid, I thought she looked funny. I had never seen a naked woman that wasn’t on TV before. My mother was always cautious about me seeing her naked. I never saw my nanny naked, and I didn’t have sisters. First time I saw a woman naked in real life was when we went to a hot spring in Japan and my dad and I took a wrong turn.”
“Anyway…”
“Anyway, I’m glad my father wanted me to see this nudity. Do you see her folds? So many women have bodies that look like this, but they think they’re freaks. I saw it all the time in my practice. Women who struggled for years to have the ‘perfect’ body, and boom, they’re pregnant. How could they have a pregnancy that didn’t give them stretch marks from here to Timbuktu? How long would it take for them to deflate? Could I refer them to a plastic surgeon to ‘fix’ them? It was one of the saddest things. Some of them even outright resented the babies I had delivered for making them look like this. Instead of referring them to surgeons, I wanted to refer them to therapists.”
“That’s rough, man.”
“You may not believe it, but I’ve seen my fair share of naked women. That woman there is the beautiful average.”
“I believe you.”
I know. I’m running my mouth.Seth wanted to talk about anything but what Zack had on his mind. Ever since he left the Château the day before, Seth had searched for something to preoccupy his mind with. He didn’t want to finish his painting. Usually he rushed right home to start applying the colors that were still fresh in his mind. Yesterday, however, he put the canvas in his studio, covered it up with a sheet, and went to drink brandy while watchingThe Good Wifereruns on TV.
“So we’re not going to talk about how the point of that painting is that Zeus is about to golden shower himself a baby in her? What kind of sicko was that Rembrandt guy, anyway?”
Seth had to think about that before bursting out in laughter. One of the gallery security guards gave him a stink eye, stifling the laughter. It made him think of how Judith had laughed the day before.“Only a doctor would say semen!”His two sides continued to wage war.
“Is your showing still going on?” Zack asked.
Seth stared at the print a little while longer before acknowledging his friend’s words. “It’s still going. Fourth of July weekend in New York. You gonna be there?”
“I’ll be there. I’m going to tell everyone that you’re the biggest shit since big shits were invented.”
“Thanks. I think.”
Zack looked away. “Is your model going to be there?”
Seth bristled, and not because the answer was no… but because he didn’t want to be reminded of the conversation he had with Monica the day before. He had caught her as she arrived at the Château to start her work week.The first thing I noticed was that she looked two months overdue. Instead, she’s one month away. Absurd.Seth was glad she wasn’t Mrs. Warren’s doctor. He would be beside himself with worry.
“She will be there.” Seth had confirmed that the day before. Monica was more than willing to let Judith go on a holiday weekend trip to New York if it meant advertising the Château in the process. No, what had depressed Seth was what happened when he asked to take Judith as his date to Ethan Cole’s wedding in two weeks. Everyone had been given a +1, and so far Seth was still without his +1.
Monica had brusquely informed him that would be pushing things unless he was her patron by then. She then heavily implied that Judith had already been promised as Miguel Bolivar’s date for the event, to make up for Seth absconding with her to New York the following weekend.That. Sucks.It almost made him not want to go to the wedding, since there was a chance of seeing those two together. What man wanted to see the woman he loved on the arm of another?
Seth told his friend as much… or as much as he dared in a public, quiet place like a museum. There weren’t many other people wandering the hallowed halls, but that almost made it more important to be quiet.
“That’s rough.” Zack sniffed. “I don’t have a date either. I say we both go stag. Pick up some desperate bridesmaids. You ever see that movieWedding Crashers?That could be us.”
“I might be game for that.” Seth had a second thought. “The going stag part, that is. You need to get me good and drunk in case I see Judith and Miguel together.”
