Chapter 9 #2
Kat set down her mug and opened her laptop for a search of the museum in Denver where she’d spent a couple of summers working as an intern.
She zoomed in on photos of the outside area where she could see the current banner.
Ah, yes, snow-topped mountains. She checked the time.
Still early enough to call. No way could she spend time on this at work tomorrow. She sent a quick text.
—Hey, Jim. Can you talk now?—
Her phone rang a moment later.
“Kat, how the heck are you? How’s the city treating you?”
“Hi, Jim. Doing great. How ’bout you?”
“The usual. So, you got my message. What do you think?”
“Yeah. I’m curious…how did this come up?” Now that she thought about it, she wondered if Nana had a hand in it. Her grandmother had been a museum benefactor for decades. “My grandmother didn’t hint or anything, right?”
Jim laughed. “Not at all. A gal from marketing was in my office a few days ago, saw the painting, and mentioned it’d make a great banner. And I agree. What do you think?”
“Aren’t the banners usually something from the museum collection?”
“Sometimes. But some are done by local artists. And you still count. We usually run a contest for the summer one. The rest of the year, it’s easier to just pick something.”
“Right. Okay, well, I think that would be fine. It’s big enough to hold up at that size?”
“Oh, sure. We’ll have a high-res copy made. How’s she doing by the way, your grandmother? Haven’t seen her in a while.”
“She’s doing well, thanks.”
“Glad to hear it. All right, if you’re good with this, I’ll send you an email so we have it in writing.”
“Sure.”
“And I’ll send you a sample this summer once they’re printed.”
“Sounds good. Um, one quick question. Does this fall under the prize of exposure or is there any money involved?”
“I could shake a couple hundred bucks out of the money tree, but yeah, the rest is exposure. Everybody could use more of that, right?”
But exposure didn’t pay the rent. Still, a small check was better than none, and she didn’t mind giving back a little something to the place that had inspired her so much. “Of course,” she told Jim.
“You can put your address and all the deets in the email.”
“Sounds good. Thanks.”
“We’ll be in touch.”
“Okay, bye.”
Hmm. Kat couldn’t help feeling that a strange twist of fate was at play. So many Colorado connections these days.
She toyed with the phone, considering a call to Nick, but would he ask about Pete’s rejects again? Now she knew which ones those were. And if she gave Nick the date for the opening party, would he feel pressured to be there?
By then, he’d be done with her mother’s project, so it wouldn’t matter if her mother was embarrassed to be seen with one of her workers.
Nana would love to meet Nick. But there was no point introducing them unless…
Kat let her head drop to her hands. What would her relationship status with Nick Summers be in April?
* * *
On Tuesday, Kat managed to squeeze in a call to Matt Jones, Pete’s assistant at the gallery.
“If you can be here by six, go ahead and come by,” he told her.
Six would be pushing it, but Cassie would just have to understand. This task had to get done, and the sooner the better. Kat wasn’t taking any chances. “I’ll be there,” she said. “Thank you so much, Matt.”
At five forty-five, she breezed through the Loft doors with her empty portfolio in hand.
Matt looked up from a counter to the side and waved. “Got all your stuff right here.” He turned to a large cabinet of flat file drawers and began pulling out her artwork. He lumped two piles on the counter then handed her a piece of paper. “The contract for your autograph, too.”
“Oh, sure.” She reached into her purse and retrieved a pen and a flash drive. “And here’s my bio and the photo I’d like to use.”
“Awesome.”
She wished Pete had given her the contract last night, so she’d have had more time to read through it. With Matt waiting on her, she quickly scanned the document. Nothing stood out as a red flag, though it mostly seemed to protect the gallery. No surprise in that.
Hands trembling, she signed her name and gave the document back to Matt. “You have time to talk about framing?” she asked.
“Sure. We use Ace framing over on fifty-fourth Street.” He pulled out a notebook and some frame samples.
Together they looked at her pieces and the frame selections and decided that half of the paintings would get a modern, black wooden frame, and the other half would get maple. Both styles complemented her artwork perfectly. Kat couldn’t be more pleased.
“I’ll need a down payment,” Matt told her. “Half now and the rest on delivery.”
She nodded and pulled her wallet out of her purse.
Framing all twelve would run more than three thousand dollars.
That would make the next few months a little tight, but the cost was worth it.
With a gulp, she handed her credit card to Matt.
“Okay, let me know when they’re ready, and I’ll come down and pay the rest.
“Sounds good.”
Kat gathered up her purse and the leftover pieces and headed for the door.
Adrenaline rushed through her veins, but she forced herself to play it cool and walk calmly out of the gallery though she was giddy inside.
Whew. She never imagined having so many projects at the same time.
All these moving pieces, plus a possible love life?
Let the juggling begin.