12
O lani was running late. She’d left her house with plenty of time to get to the exhibit to meet Elion, but there was a wreck backing up traffic.
She’d texted him, letting him know she may be a little late and the reason why she’d been stuck in the same spot for almost ten minutes.
When she finally made it past the wreck and the cleanup that would need to happen, it was already fifteen minutes after seven.
She pulled into the parking lot, finding a space at almost seven-thirty.
Half an hour after, she was supposed to meet Elion.
As she got out of her vehicle and made her way toward the entrance, she saw him coming toward her, and Olani immediately apologized.
She hated being late for anything. Especially something that was her idea to begin with.
He cut her apology off, placing his lips to hers, and she melted into him, following his lead in the slow kiss.
“You don’t need to apologize,” he informed her when they pulled apart.
Olani nodded as he took her hand, and the two of them headed into the building. The parking lot had a decent number of cars, but it wasn’t overly crowded inside. She chalked it up to it being the third weekend of the exhibit and most people who wanted to see it may have already done so.
This was her first time at a human art exhibit, and while Olani didn’t know what she was expecting, it definitely was not the realistic peacock piece that greeted them upon entry. Her eyes widened as she got closer.
Olani could tell that it was a man, painted as a peacock if for no other reason than the thin beard he had.
The rest of him was covered in paint. She was no artist, but she could tell there were different brush strokes used to give the illusion of feathers.
There were a few feathers that stuck out of the back of his head, and he held some in his hands as well, which were painted to look like peacock feet in gray and black.
The white painted on his face resembled the shape of a heart with more of the blues and greens painted through the eye area. It was exquisite, to say the least, and Olani had to keep her hands to herself since there was a sign asking that the models not be touched.
She circled the first piece, Elion coming along with her since her hand was still in his. Whoever painted that model was talented, and she hoped they would bump into them while they were there. When she’d chosen this for their date, she’d read that there were several artists who were taking part.
“This is amazing. It’s so realistic,” she spoke as she turned to Elion.
“The artist who did this is definitely talented.”
“Let’s go see the rest.”
Olani led Elion around the right side of the wall that separated the entry from the rest of the building.
There, she found even more beautiful pieces.
Each one was a unique bird, and all were just as detailed as the one in the entry.
They saw a bird of paradise, a canary, a flamingo, a hummingbird, and two lovebirds which she expressed where her favorite of the birds.
As they rounded the back wall, they were met with another piece.
A snow leopard. Just like the bird pieces, it looked lifelike.
Olani wasn’t sure how the artist could get the whiskers to look real with just paint, and the eyes were so big and blue.
She leaned in a bit to get a better look at them when the model opened their eyes and the ones painted on her lids disappeared.
Olani jumped slightly, having not expected that, her hand going to her chest. The model smiled at her in apology, and Elion chuckled lightly. She swatted him playfully with her free hand but laughed along with him.
They observed the snow leopard for another couple of minutes before they continued on. Around the other side of the wall, they encountered more predators. That side of the exhibit comprised a panther, tiger, lion, leopard, cheetah, and lynx. The lynx and panther were tied as her favorites.
She could only assume that each of these pieces had taken the artist hours to complete if not half of a day.
Each piece was detailed and beautifully painted, and while Olani was very much aware that there were people under the paint, behind the character, it all felt so real.
As if she was standing face to face with these animals.
When they returned to the front of the building, she hadn’t realized that almost an hour and a half had gone by.
They’d taken their time looking at each piece and being lost in their own world together.
So much so that she hadn’t noticed the other people in attendance once she’d spotted the peacock at the entrance.
“I have to remember to find another exhibit like this. It was fun,” Olani stated once they were outside. “I wonder how many artists took part.”
“Five,” Elion responded.
Olani stopped walking and looked at him. “You can tell that from just looking at them?”
He nodded. “Most artists have a signature style or way they do certain things. There were five distinct brush stroke styles.”
She smiled at him. “Okay, then I have a question because it’s been bugging me. Did the same person paint the panther and the lovebirds?”
Elion nodded as they began to walk again. “And the cheetah.” Olani hadn’t noticed they were walking to his car until they were standing in front of it. “The night’s still young. What would you say to getting some ice cream?”
“I’d love to. I need to go grab my purse from my car.”
Elion shook his head, opening the passenger side door for her. “You won’t need it.”
She thought about protesting but figured it was just ice cream, so it wouldn’t hurt to let him pay for it. She slid into the car, putting on her seatbelt as he closed the door. When he was behind the wheel, they pulled out of the parking space, heading to a nearby ice cream parlor.
E lion sat across from Olani, sipping his milkshake while she ate her sundae. There were only a few other people in the parlor, and as they sat in a booth in the back corner, it felt like no one else was there.
When he’d said the night was still young, he knew that it technically wasn’t since she had to go to work the next morning, but he’d wanted to spend more time with her. So, asking her out for some dessert would allow him to do that and not keep her out as late as getting dinner would have.
“Have you decided where you want to go next weekend?” Olani questioned after a few minutes.
“I’m fine with wherever you want to go,” he responded. They’d gotten three options sent to them a few days ago, and Elion didn’t have a problem with any of them, so he was fine with allowing her to choose for them.
“No, I want to know that you’re going to have fun when we go, so I want you to tell me which one you’d prefer to go to.”
“I’ll have fun wherever we go. Whatever you choose is fine.”
“Elion,” she whined slightly, and he thought it was cute.
“Seriously, baby. I want you to choose for us.”
Olani said nothing for a moment as she stared at him before she nodded. It took him a few seconds to realize it was because he’d never called her baby before. Typically, his go-to endearment was sweetheart, which he also used interchangeably for her name.
“Fine, but if you don’t have any fun, you only have yourself to blame,” she informed him before taking another bite of her sundae.
Elion chuckled. “I will take full responsibility for my lack of fun if that happens, but I know it won’t.” He leaned back on his side of the booth. “Tell me something I don’t know about you.”
He watched her think for a moment. “I have a scar from a piece of glass that sits extremely high on the back of my right thigh.”
He tilted his head to the side. “How high are we talking?”
Olani smiled at him, tipping her head from side to side. “High.”
He suspected what she meant when she first said it, but he wanted to make sure it was what she meant and his mind just hadn’t ventured into the gutter. He knew now that it hadn’t.
“How did that happen?”
She chuckled as she told him the story. She was about eight and was jumping on the bed in her bedroom at her grandmother’s house.
She’d been told several times to stop, but it’d been raining all day and she was bored with everything else around the house.
So, whenever she thought her grandmother wasn’t nearby or would hear her, she’d continue to jump on the bed.
Elion furrowed his brow as he listened. Not at all understanding how a story about jumping on the bed would end with her having a scar in that particular place.
“That last jump must have been my ancestors telling me to listen to my elders because my foot slipped off the side of the bed, and I fell backward through the window,” Olani stated, and Elion’s eyes widened.
“A shard of glass punctured through my shorts and skin, and I landed on it. The doctor said had it not been for the denim, it would have been much deeper, but it was enough to leave me a nice scar.”
“Wow,” he stated, for lack of anything better for a moment. “I’m going to bet you never jumped on another bed.”
Olani chuckled. “I did not, but that was also the day I decided I was going to listen the first time and left all other shenanigans to Xola.”
“You and Xola are close,” he commented. He’d noticed that any stories she told about her childhood included the other woman, or she’d come up in other conversations.
“We are. We’re both only children, and our mothers are twins. So, they are extremely close, having the twin bond and all that. Xola and I grew up close, like siblings. We even lived on the same street growing up, two houses down from one another.”
“I can see that happening, being the children of twins. I’ve read that they tend to have an unbreakable bond.”
Olani took a bite of her sundae. “Tell me about it. After Xola’s dad passed a few years ago, my aunt moved in with my parents to be closer to family and have her sister’s support.
My mom was all for it. Keep in mind, they still only lived two houses down from each other.
” Olani finished with a playful eye roll.
Elion chuckled because he’d been wondering if they still lived in the homes Olani had just told him about. He couldn’t see himself or his sister wanting to move in with one another, and they lived on the same street. Hell, they’d both moved to different states after high school.
“I’m surprised that as close as you and Xola are you don’t live together.”
She immediately shook her head. “Oh no. I like my space, and I know she does too. We shared almost everything as kids because we were always together. Even when we went off to college, we shared a living space, since financially it was easier on our parents. Now, we like our own space. Not that we still don’t sleep over now and then. ”
Elion nodded in understanding. He and his sister hadn’t done everything together growing up, but he’d still been ready to get out on his own, spread his wings, and live by his own rules.
“Your turn,” Olani stated. “Tell me something I don’t know about you.”
“I wasn’t always this upstanding sculptor.” When Olani raised a brow at him in confusion, he continued. “I used to be a pretty big tagger as a teenager. I was infamous in my city.”
“So, how did you go from tagging to sculpting?”
“Believe it or not, it was sort of an accident that I became a sculptor instead of a painter.”
Elion told her the story of how he started tagging to express himself and share it secretly with the world because he hadn’t been ready to let anyone see his paintings, but he’d taken a few sculpting classes as a kid and did small sculptures.
He liked the feel of it but it wasn’t the expression he’d been looking for.
One night, instead of tagging an old building as he’d planned, he’d decided to make a sculpture out of some things lying around and something clicked.
The reception for it was positive, and then, as a young adult growing out of that infamous phase, he’d made it his career.
“That’s insane, but you give me bad boy artist vibes at times.”
“Only at times?” he questioned teasingly.
The two finished their desserts and returned to his vehicle.
Elion drove her back to her car and before allowing her out, he leaned over the console and captured her lips in a kiss.
When they pulled apart, he walked her the few steps to her car door since he’d parked beside her, telling her he’d see her on Saturday.
He watched her drive off before getting back into his own vehicle and heading home.
It was a little after ten o’clock and he was sure by the time he got home the house would be quiet.
Clara’s studying had been causing her to go to bed much earlier than she normally did.
So, he didn’t bother to call and ask if she wanted him to bring her anything.
As he headed home, he thought about the fact that in a little over a week, he and Olani would be off somewhere under the same roof for forty-eight hours.