Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
Luke had just started carving a small flamingo when the front door opened.
He looked up hoping to see Flick but his heart dropped when Natalia walked in.
Luke debated whether he still had time to run out of the studio and hide but decided that was probably too rude.
Besides, as Flick suggested, maybe it was time he dug deep and found some of that courage that Aragorn was so famous for.
He hadn’t had too many conversations with Natalia and had successfully managed to avoid her for the last few months.
But every conversation he’d had, no matter how brief he’d managed to keep it, always revolved around sex.
The first time they’d met in a pub, she introduced herself, told him to buy her a drink which he had, not because he was attracted to her but because he always had a hard time saying no.
Then without any preamble or small talk, she pulled her phone out of her pocket, showed him a photo of an eight-thousand- pound ruby necklace and told him if he bought that for her, she would have sex with him wearing it.
He’d made his excuses and got out of there as fast as he could.
But she hadn’t given up. Every time she saw him she’d offer him an amazing night of sex, in return for something flashy and expensive she wanted him to buy her.
At least her terms and conditions were clear.
And she was consistent, he’d give her that.
He wasn’t expecting this conversation to be any different.
‘I saw you with your little girlfriend earlier. I can’t help thinking you were doing that to make me jealous,’ Natalia said, walking towards him.
Her ego was clearly so big, nothing could dent it.
‘Why would I try to make you jealous?’
‘Because you’re playing hard to get.’
‘Is that what you think I’m doing?’
‘Well of course. I can get any man I want. These breasts are real, you know.’
He felt his eyes widen in shock. He stopped himself from saying that he didn’t care.
‘You can check for yourself.’ She moved within touching distance and he took a large step back.
‘No, I absolutely do not want to touch your breasts.’
‘Of course you do. Every man wants to touch my breasts. Men have had whole conversations with my breasts instead of looking me in the eye.’
There was something really sad about that.
‘No man has ever turned me down before. You have no idea what you’re missing, I’d be the best sex you’ll ever have. ’
Luke tried not to pull a face but this whole conversation was making him cringe.
‘Is that what this is about? There was me thinking it was just about my money, but it’s your pride, isn’t it? You can’t believe I said no.’
She scowled at him. ‘No, it’s definitely about your money. Let’s face it, you don’t have anything else going for you.’
‘Oh, so now you think being rude to me will seal the deal.’
She sighed, clearly seeing the emerald necklace or diamond earrings she so desperately wanted slipping between her fingers. ‘What has she got that I don’t have? From what I could see, she wasn’t even very pretty.’
He smiled. ‘She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve met, inside and out. She’s kind, generous, funny and she likes me for me, not my money.’
‘Oh, don’t talk crap. Of course she’s with you for your money.’
‘She has no idea I have any.’
She gave a spiteful little smile. ‘But that’s not true.
I heard her in town the other day talking to someone.
She said she had you exactly where she wanted you.
She’d fooled you into believing she didn’t know you were rich, got you to fall in love with her and now she was going to take you for every penny you had. That’s why I came up here to warn you.’
He stared at her, not believing a word of it.
Not least because their love story was a sham so Flick would hardly be boasting that she’d got him to fall in love with her, but mainly because she was the most genuine person he’d ever met.
There was nothing fake or deceitful about her. He trusted her completely.
‘When was this?’
‘I don’t know. Friday.’
‘She didn’t arrive until Saturday night.’
‘And you two are kissing already, doesn’t that show you what a gold digger she is?’
He raised his hand to stop her talking. ‘Natalia, she makes me happy, very happy. And I’ve not had that for a very long time. This, between me and you, it’s never going to happen, even if Flick hadn’t come into my life like a… firework of joy, it still was never going to happen. Let it go.’
She huffed and then stormed out.
He watched her get back in her car and drive off and he felt inordinately proud of himself.
Flick followed the beach round to the far side where there were steps up to the village green and where the outdoor craft market was.
She bought a little pot of ice-cold mango sorbet on the way in and then started wandering round the stalls.
A lot of them had pirate-themed items they were selling ahead of the pirate festival this Saturday but there was certainly an eclectic mix of different crafts available.
There were chocolates, candles, soaps and perfumes.
There was jewellery, paintings, clay, fused glass, stained glass, pictures made from twigs and leaves, animals made from needlefelt, crocheted animals, knitted animals, even animals or monsters made from forks and spoons.
She wanted an artist who offered something unique, not only unique to the studios but unique within their own field or medium.
She didn’t want another painter, for example, unless it was completely different to what Rose offered.
She stopped at one stall that had tiny little sculptures made from the pages of books.
They were so beautiful and intricate, little houses with their washing hanging on a line, a village pond with tiny paper ducks, a fairytale castle, a lighthouse, a forest scene, trees, flowers, various animals. They were stunning.
The woman carefully making a paper flower looked up at Flick and smiled.
‘Hello, these are beautiful,’ Flick said.
‘Thank you.’
‘I’m Felicity Hunter. Everyone calls me Flick.’
‘Hi Flick, I’m Alex.’
‘I’m from Waterfall House.’ But when Alex looked at her blankly, Flick gestured to the house on the hill which seemed to preside over the whole town.
‘The House with the Wonky Tree. We have several artists up there right now who make and sell their works of arts in their own studio space, but we also have quite a bit of unused space and we’re looking for new artists to fill them. ’
‘Oh, you mean full time?’
‘Yes.’
‘Oh. I have a daughter. I have to take her and pick her up from school, I’m not sure I’d have time to run my own studio.’
‘You can fit it in around school hours and you can always bring your daughter back to the studios after school. But at least you’d have somewhere more permanent to make and sell your stuff. Somewhere that’s just yours.’
Alex bit her lip. ‘How much is the rent?’
‘No rent, no bills, but we take twenty-five percent of all your profits.’
‘That’s quite a lot.’
‘I’ve done craft markets myself and I know how much you probably paid for this table today. Some days I barely sold enough to break even.’
‘Yeah, I’ve had days like that,’ Alex agreed.
‘This way the risk is all ours. On slow days when you don’t get a sale, at least you haven’t forked out for the cost of a table.
And when you do get a sale, twenty-five percent will go towards the cost of our overheads.
We’re really not looking to make a profit from you, we just want to have enough to keep the studios from falling into debt. ’
Alex nodded. ‘I’ll have to think about it.’
‘Of course. Why don’t you come up to the studios today, once you’ve finished here, and we can show you around?’
‘OK, I will.’
‘We have some provisos. Although it’s great to have things like this on display in the showroom,’ Flick gestured to a fairytale castle under a large glass dome that was at least two-foot high and a foot wide.
‘We’d be looking for at least half your stock to be under thirty pounds.
So smallish items that will appeal to the average person. ’
‘That’s not a problem, most of these are between ten and twenty pounds,’ Alex pointed to the smaller ones in jars at the front of her table. ‘The castle is purely there to encourage commissions. Are there any other provisos?’
‘Yes, sort of. We want to offer art workshops as that was the reason why the studios were opened in the first place. Originally the workshops were available to people who have suffered brain injuries, either from strokes or some other kind of trauma like a car accident, and we want to honour that legacy by doing the same. Eventually, we’ll probably extend that to encompass workshops for everyone.
Is that something you’d be willing to offer? ’
‘Yes absolutely. I’d be happy to help if you think this kind of thing is suitable.’
‘Yes, I presume so. I’ll be speaking to some of the brain injury charities to get advice on starting this thing, but what I gather from when my grandad did it, it’s really no different to running any kind of art workshop.
It’s just about giving those with brain injuries the opportunity to do it with like-minded people and to make it as accessible as possible. ’
‘Sounds great. Even if I don’t go ahead with moving into the studios, I’d still be happy to help with the workshops.
My sister had brain trauma when she was thrown off her horse.
On the surface she was absolutely fine, a few bruises and cuts, but it was simple things like buttoning up her shirt that she’d forgotten how to do or how to tie up her shoelaces.
It took a while for her to learn how to do these things again. ’