Nathaniel #2
Instead of pressing I held out my hand and waited patiently for her to put the notebook in it.
We had a silent standoff with me looking at my open palm waiting for it to be covered with the professional style book she tried to play off as nothing.
When it finally landed in my hand, I knew from the first page that it wasn’t a game.
Charisma’s notebook was filled with some of the most beautiful sketches I’d seen.
Faces of people, drawing of plants, and shading that made you forget you were looking at a 2D image and not the face of an actual person or object.
I thought she was an amazing woman but with this type of talent it put her in an entirely different category of genius.
“I hate to break it to you but that shit ain’t doodling, Charmy.” I took a seat next to her not leaving any room between us.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” The change in her features and the tone of her voice had me hurrying to clear up the confusion my words had caused.
“Because I doodle. Little stick figure shits that don’t look like anything.
But what I got a glimpse of? That wasn’t a doodle.
Those are ridiculously beautiful pieces that shouldn’t be bound in leather but framed behind glass.
So I’m not sure who else doesn’t believe in your talent but if this is a glimpse of what you can do then I’m sold. ”
“Sold?” Her confusion was cute. Big eyes getting slightly smaller as she struggled to find deception in my words instead of the acceptance she should’ve known was there.
“Yeah. You are sitting here going through that warehouse of art when I need to be commissioning you for some.” My brain was already churning with how I could help her get her name out there.
No one with talent like this wanted to be on the sidelines.
And dealing with me she would be in the spotlight.
Even if we ended up just friends, I still wanted to see her win.
“Nate—”
“Don’t do that, Charisma. I can hear the self-deprecation in the way you said my name and I ain’t with that.
You have talent. I can see it with my own two eyes so if you’re trying to convince me you don’t, stop.
I like what I see and I don’t think it would be too much of a hardship for you to be paid for what you’re doing.
” My stare was intense as I waited for her to accept the praise she deserved.
“These are just sketches.” She waved off her notebook like it was nothing big.
“And they look like they should be framed and put on a wall somewhere. Do you have anything else back home?”
Her hesitation showed that she wanted to lie. Didn’t want to let me into something she clearly held sacred. When her shoulders relaxed I knew she was going to relent. “Yeah, I have a lot stored at my parent’s house.”
I stood and handed her journal back to her. “Ship it here.”
“What?”
“Ship it here.” I dusted off my jeans and watched her run through the dozen questions she had for me.
She stood up and waited as though she thought I would change my mind about what I said. “For what?”
“Because you can’t sell what people can’t see, Charmy.”
“You keep calling me that.”
I toyed with one of her braids but made sure to keep my hands by her face. “It seems more than appropriate, love.”
Charisma’s head dipped again as she battled her smile before she eyed me bashfully. “I don’t know about selling anything—”
“You have a passion for this. I don’t get why you aren’t using it to earn a living. Or is that why you came to Texas?”
“I came for a fresh start.”
“Even from ya nigga?” I was poking because I wasn’t a man who was above throwing another nigga under the bus. Sampson was that noble but I wasn’t.
She sighed and I knew that something was up with that nigga. If I found out he’d been putting his hands on her, he’d end up in a ditch or a three-foot hole.
“That’s… a whole other thing. But mainly the area that I was in was the problem. I’ve had a lot of baggage with certain things. Sometimes I couldn’t tell if people were being supportive because they felt I had genuine talent or because of who I was.”
“Everybody loves you?”
“Yeah. They kinda see me as a redemption story.”
“Redemption?”
When Charmy looked at me and I saw the tears in her eyes I felt like shit asking her these questions. I wanted to wrap her up in my arms and ask for the names of whoever had her so upset. “I had rumors spread about me when I was in college. And because I’ve always been quirky…”
I could already tell where she was going. Coming from a small town I knew how the politics in a small area could follow you forever. “Some small-minded fuckheads believed it.”
“Yeah. They thought I’d just gotten led astray when I went to school. Frankly, I think I’ve been depressed for the last ten years and it wasn’t until I moved that I broke out of it.”
“Not to keep beating a dead horse but—”
Charmy cut her eyes at me and I shut up immediately. “You’re about to ask me about Trent, aren’t you?”
I frowned down at her almost annoyed that she was speaking on that nigga in front of me. “What kinda light-skinned ass name is Trent?”
She tried to fight it but she couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “That was random as fuck, Nate.”
“His name is stupid, but that says more about his mama and daddy than it does him. But him not supporting you and your art is totally on him.” Her face went blank and I knew she’d put her mask back up and tried to tuck that part of herself away again.
“And what makes you think that he doesn’t support me?” The lack of hostility today told me that I was right but I would give her more than that.
“Because he didn’t do what needed to be done in order for you to get out of your depression.”
Charmy rolled those beautiful, big, brown eyes and I thought it was adorable how she defended him. It made me want to shoot that nigga in his foot but it showed how loyal Charisma was. “Depression doesn’t work that way, Nate. It’s a lot of different things all combined in one.”
“I know that. I fell into a depression having to sit on the sidelines last year and rehab instead of being able to ride.”
Her face softened and I appreciated her not looking at me like I was less than simply because I’d shared something so personal. Charisma looked at me like I was a hero and I never wanted her to change her opinion of me. I should’ve known that it wouldn’t because Charmy was a gentle soul.
“And did a magical person get you out of it?”
“No, a purpose did.” I motioned to the land and she looked with me before I finished talking.
“This place needed me and it reminded me that even if I couldn’t ride I had other gifts that I could share with the world.
Even if you couldn’t do your art, you could’ve done something on the side with the right encouragement.
I had that. My folks, my brother, Yzzy and even her people kept speaking life into me.
Reecie had her dude break into my damn house when I wouldn’t answer the phone for her for a few days. ”
That’s why I still found it so funny that Reece didn’t claim that nigga the way she should have.
He was truly doing everything to prove himself to her and my sister was out here telling this man they were friends with benefits.
Didn’t stop her from rocking his jersey or from traveling back to meet his family formally during Christmas last year.
And we rarely got the calls about her needing something in the middle of the night so it was clear she was turning to him.
Charmy threw her head back and laughed, and even I had to smile at the memory.
That nigga strolled his big ass into my house and opened the fridge like he lived there.
Runt kept it cool not applying too much pressure to me.
Instead, we shot the shit and talked about the new property.
That conversation was enough for me to get a move on making shit happen.
“And you didn’t shoot him?”
“Nah, his ass is like six eight and three hundred sumn’ pounds. Besides, the O-Line needs him to protect Grant so I ain’t about to fuck up our season messing with him.”
“I keep forgetting that you know so many famous people.”
We’d talked briefly about the people who would come in and out of the restaurant and of course those we could invite for our open house. She recognized some of the names and she was shocked that so many people would be willing to come.
“I know people who happen to be famous. By your definition my ass is famous too, the fuck?”
She laughed again and I swore that sound did something to me. “Did I strike a nerve?”
“Nah, cause I do this for the love of the game not anything else. It helps to have money to fall back on.”
She huffed like yeah nigga you’re right. “That always helps.”
“It does. So you coming here shows me that you didn’t have the type of support that you needed from anyone in your life. Including him.”
She was still smiling and I was happy Charmy wasn’t trying to cuss me out for being honest. “You’re just gliding over the parent part.”
“Parents are tricky. I can tell by the way you don’t tense up when you speak about them that they aren’t bad people. You probably got a lot of protection from them but they might not understand the eclectic nature you have.”
Her face held a look that let me know she was well-loved and probably a little spoiled. The only daughter and then the youngest meant they probably held on to her a little too tight.
“They don’t.”
“A lot of parents don’t. I’m lucky because Noah and Maureen don’t care what we do as long as we’re happy. The idea that they would limit us is something unfathomable to them. I’m sure the love is there for your people but separating people from their expectations is hard.”