32. Epilogue
Sawyer
A seagull perched on the edge of the roof, watching me as I sketched on the last part of the mural’s outline overtop the projector’s image. Echoing dog barks could be heard from the first floor, but they’d stopped bothering me at some point.
I took a big swig of water before shooing off the seagull and shutting off the projector.
The now-risen sun beat down on me, the reason I worked at this god-awful early hour of the morning.
I had already hauled all the paints and tarps up here. I glanced at them now, but it was already too hot for me to start. I wasn’t worried about my sketch; California summers being what they were, the next rainstorm wasn’t forecast to happen for another month.
“Coffee delivery!” Neil yelled from below.
“Be right down,” I called back. I peeked over the edge to wave at Neil. Bubblegum was digging in the bushes near the bottom of the ladder, her little tail wagging. Neil wore a pink floral Hawaiian shirt that matched the pink bow around his dog’s neck.
I packed up my projector and stowed it into my backpack before crawling down the ladder. Neil had backed up far enough that Bubblegum, yapping at me from the end of her leash, was still a few feet away when I stepped off the ladder. I still hadn’t worked up to petting her, but I could ignore her when motivated.
Neil held his hands wide, a hot cup from the local coffee shop in each, as I stepped close to give him a kiss.
Bubblegum yapped and bounced around my feet, giving me only a small twinge of worry.
“Hey, handsome,” I said, taking the cup with my name from his hand.
Neil turned an adorable shade of pink, shielding his eyes with his now free hand, and stepped back to peer up at the mural wall.
“You won’t be able to see anything from down here yet. It’s just pencil lines so far,” I told him, taking a big gulp of the coffee. Oh yeah, that was the good stuff.
“Good thing I know the artist. I can get an exclusive preview,” Neil said, turning to me with a wink and grabbing for my backpack.
I laughed and danced out of his reach, careful not to spill my drink. “You know, just because you’re dating the artist doesn’t mean you get a peek behind the curtain.”
I’d drawn a little surprise for Neil into the final artwork and wanted to keep it secret from him a bit longer. Sure, donors had paid for their pets to be put into the best and biggest spots, but that still gave me a lot of leeway.
Neil made a face. “Fine, I’ll just get up super early tomorrow and spy on you when you set the projector up tomorrow.”
“Oooh, too late for that champ. I’m done with the projector.” I took a smug drink of coffee.
Neil stuck his tongue out at me, but his look of mock anger was quickly gone, replaced with a sunny smile. “Fine, be that way. But before you go, we got a big donation online yesterday evening. Want to come in and do the honors?”
I didn’t really care about tracking the donations; that was more Neil’s thing. But his excitement about it made me smile. That and the fact that he could have changed it yesterday before leaving work meant he’d specifically waited for me to be here this morning. Still, I couldn’t resist teasing him. “I see how it is, leaving all the manual labor for us volunteers to do.”
I affected a put-upon expression and pretended to swoon, putting an arm over my eyes.
Neil huffed out a breath of laughter. “Sawyer…”
Laughing, I bounded up the steps and held the door open for him and Bubblegum to troop through before following them inside.
Neil had tacked a long piece of butcher paper to the wall and drawn a bulb with marks at major milestones to track the donations. My initial proposed mural sketch and print-outs of some of my animal artwork dotted the edges of the bulb, and beside it, Neil had a big poster advertising the mural, along with a scannable QR code that led to the website and donation portal.
He had started with a goal of a hundred thousand, which I thought was ludicrous, but a month later, he’d already gathered enough donations to be close to the halfway mark. A mini stepladder was already set up next to the paper, with a red marker helpfully left sitting on the top step.
“Where to?” I asked, setting down my coffee and grabbing the marker.
“The sixty line,” Neil said, and I whistled in surprise. That meant at least a $10,000 donation.
Neil cheered while I climbed the stepladder.
“If only my art school instructors could see me now,” I said while scribbling in a broad swatch of red. You could see the difference between my section and the ones Neil had been doing. Neil’s lines barely overlapped and were all close to perpendicular. Fussy and neat, just like him.
“They’d say he can’t even draw straight,” Neil hooted, then burst out laughing at his own joke.
“That’s what rulers are for.” I laughed with him, then put an extra wave on the top just to mess with him. It looked so much like water that I added a little stick figure surfboarder into the wave’s barrel.
I stepped back down the ladder, trying to cap the marker at the same time. I fumbled the cap, which hit the marble floor and bounced between my feet. Bubblegum thought this was a grand game and went skidding after it, little ears flattened in concentration, yanking the leash from Neil’s hand. Her claws slid on the slick floor, and she crashed into my ankle with a yelp.
Without thinking, I reached over and scooped her up like I would have if she were my cat. They looked so much alike and were almost the same size that what I’d done didn’t hit me until I cradled her to my chest and looked down to find Bubblegum’s golden eyes instead of Fluffybutt’s blues.
Bubblegum panted up at me, little tail wagging furiously. I stared at her, eyes wide, frozen with indecision, like the slightest movement could set off the bomb in my hands.
Neil made a little aborted squeal and twisted his hands together. I could tell he was bursting to say something but clenched his lips as he moved over to stand in front of me.
I gave him a squinted side-eye, then raised the hand not holding Bubblegum, which shook as I set it on her head between her little triangle ears. She whined and rubbed her head against my hand, wiggling her butt the entire time.
A little thrill went through me. I was nervous but not terrified.
“That’s all I can handle,” I whispered.
Neil took her with a grin. Bubblegum wiggled against his chest until he put her down, this time firmly wrapping her leash around his hand.
“Don’t say it,” I said at the same time as Neil said, “I’m so proud!”
Neil laughed, his eyes crinkling. “We should celebrate!”
A slow smile parted my lips. “There is something I’ve been wanting to do…”
“Surfing!” Neil said, eyes bright.
“That too, but I was also thinking of spending the night at your house.” My voice dropped, and I snagged Neil by the globes of his ass, dragging him closer. “Giving us time for you to use your harness on me.”
***