Page 140 of Love Is an Art
He pauses, glancing at me.Is he suspicious?
“It’s okay,” he says. “I’m calling him via WhatsApp.”
He picks up his phone, clicks on an app, and holds his phone to his ear.
“Hello,” Jurgen speaks in very slow English. “The check is for four thousand. We agreed on two thousand. Why more?”
He repeats his sentence again as he looks at me, shrugging.
He’s a really good actor.
“Oh. For shipping? And me? My commission?” Jurgen says. “You were supposed to send separately. Separate checks.”
He shakes his head and says to me, “He doesn’t understand. I told him to send separate checks.”
He listens intently to the caller again.
“Okay,” Jurgen says. “She can deposit and pay me back. Okay.”
I shake my head.
“Do you want to talk to him?” Jurgen hands me the phone.
A stream of what sounds like Latvian comes out of the phone. Jurgen definitely sets up his scam well. I’ll give him that as one subterfuge master to another.
The guy on the other end says, “I want painting.” Some more words I don’t understand. “For wife.” More unknown words. “Sent one check for all.” And a fervent string of something that could be Latvian.
I have no idea what he’s saying, but he sounds absolutely desperate for my painting.
I hand the phone back to Jurgen. “Okay.”
“You’ll pay me the difference?” Jurgen asks.
I nod.
He says “thank you” into the phone and then hangs up. “He wants a photo of the proof of shipping before we deposit the check. Do you have cash?”
“I have only one thousand,” I say. “I can Venmo or PayPal you. Or pay you by check.”
“I don’t have either. Should we go to a bank? A check will take too long if he wants me to ship it today. The shipping is fifteen hundred dollars. If you give me that in cash, then I’ll ship it, take a picture, send that to both of you, and you can pay me my commission later after you deposit the check.”
“Okay.” I place the check in my pocket and zipper it closed.I have the check.“I’m not sure where the nearest Citibank is.”
“It’s only a few blocks away.” Jurgen hefts my painting up. “The Misty Morano show might be back in play.”
“Really?” My brow creases in a frown. That’s new. I follow him out the door. He turns left.
“They wanted to know how you would describe your brushwork.”
Be more ecstatic about the Misty Morano show.I’m slow today.
“My brushwork?” I ask. “That’s so great about the show. They got funding?”
Jurgen faces me. “Yes. How would you describe your brushwork?”
Um.If only I had paid attention to that lecture.
“Definitely not a cross-hatching technique,” I say. Wasn’t that guy fixated on that one afterward?
