Page 49 of Paint Me Love
He nudges my shoulder with his and starts rearranging the easels. “Look who’s talking.”
“Are you going to paint it?”
He pauses as he takes the art supplies from the drawers. “I think so. I want to. I’ll show it to you when it’s ready.”
“I’m looking forward to that!”
The bell hanging above his studio’s door rings, announcing the first students have started arriving. Today we are holding a beginner class, and I will be helping teach.
“Nervous?” Jesse asks, waving the three teenagers to come over. His ginger curls bob from the motion.
“A bit.”
He squeezes my arm. “You’ll do great.”
“It’s one thing to practice with no audience, and a whole different beast to actually pull it off!” I argue, crossing my arms and pursing my lips as I place blank canvases on each easel. We have seven people coming today, which is seven times more than the students I had to instruct during my practice run.
“You’ll be fine. Believe in yourself. If I didn’t think you could do this, I’d have never offered.”
His encouragement lessens my anxiety a notch. We’ve become fast friends, but that doesn’t mean he has the money to take on a charity case. Meaning he does believe I can be decent at this.
The idea came to me a while ago. One night, Molly was nagging me to cut down on my work hours so I can focus on my passion, but I kept coming up short with a justification. After all, I manage just fine for the most part. In the midst of it, Jesse texted that there was some issue with his website and he got overbooked for the art class. He asked me to help set up the studio, and keep an eye out for any students that might need help during the class. I had a blast. After we closed up for the day, he casually tossed that maybe we could partner up and expand his lessons’ business.
It seemed like the best idea ever at the time. But look at me now—I’m a nervous mess.
“You got this,” Jesse says again, handing me the remote for the interactive whiteboard. The two of us prepared some theory to kick off the lesson before we jumped into the fun part. It’s nothing too dry, just enough to provide some structure and guidance to our aspiring artists.
I take a deep breath, nod at Jesse and aim a big smile at the arriving students. “Hi, welcome. Please, find a spot. We’ll be starting the class soon.”
Despite my initial reservations, I have so much fun I can’t wait for the next class. Jesse and I grab some burgers afterwards, going over our impressions of the students. They were all very eager to learn.
“You know, I had a lot more interest in the class, but the studio just doesn’t have the space…” Jesse tells me, slurping hismilkshake. His is chocolate, and while I like my strawberry one, maybe I should’ve also gotten a chocolate. “Want a sip?”
I grin. He must’ve caught me staring. “Yes, please!”
The gooey goodness even has bits of chocolate chips and biscuits inside. It’s god-tier. “This is so good. I’m definitely getting it next time!” Another sip and I return his shake to him, offering him to try mine. He does. “And as for the interest… maybe we can have an online version? Or you’d need a bigger studio.”
I didn’t realize it until today, but Jesse isn’t exactly a nobody. He’s especially popular with teenagers, and we even had some coming from out of town.
“I’ve thought about it, but I just can’t justify a higher rent when it’s no guarantee my classes will take off. So I guess that leaves doing some of them online.” He puts his empty milkshake glass on the table and scoops the last of the ketchup with the remaining fries. “Would you be interested? I don’t think I’ll have the time or resources to do it on my own.”
My heart skips a beat. This sounds a bit scary but like a lot of fun. “I’m in!”
He ruffles my hair. “Great. Then from tomorrow on, we need to start putting together a curriculum, exercises, what format might work well online…”
Ideas flood my head, making me buzz. “Leave that to me. I’ll put something together, and we can go over it. But you focus on the marketing. I suck at that.”
He laughs. “I should probably deny this, but you really do suck. I’m so glad that Cassandra took you under her wing. And I can’t wait for your exhibition.”
We chat for a bit more, mostly trying to agree on the order of concepts for our online classes. I spend the rest of the evening scribbling down an example curriculum on a piece of paper. My art corner currently sits mostly empty as I’ve been painting inJesse’s studio, so I take the opportunity to clean it up. By the time I am done, it’s passing midnight, so I take a quick shower and go to bed.
I try to fall asleep, but it’s a difficult task when my body decides to pick this moment to miss Derek’s touch. We haven’t seen each other in a week, and while we do sort of text, our busy schedules have kept that to a minimum.
Agitated, I slip my hand under the covers and grasp my dick. It’s already half-hard, but even as I start stroking it, something is missing.
“C’mon, Daniel. You gotta get up early tomorrow.”
I roll sideways and reach for the bottle of lube I keep in my nightstand. With a stifled moan, I rub some of it around my hole, then push two fingers inside. My eyes flutter closed, but even though this finally gets my cock fully erect, it’s still not quite as good as it could be.
