Chapter 28
“How many pieces were you thinking?”
Holding in my excitement. I smile, laughing as Jacinda’ Cinda’ leans in, her leg on the rung of the stool.
One of three pieces of furniture in my place.
She sips her beer and raises a turquoise colored eyebrow.
It matches her double French braided hair.
The teal blue color looks so fucking gorgeous against her mocha colored skin.
Everything about her is interesting. From her colorful makeup to her cool, futuristic-style clothing.
Her twin brother Julian is also an artist, and I’m hoping I can convince him to put on a show with his sister. My first art exhibition as a studio owner.
It was Kamilah, Jacqueline’s cousin, who introduced her to me.
They are in the same kickboxing class. From what Kamilah showed me on Cinda’s social media, she is incredibly talented.
Her installation sculptures are unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
Using repurposed wood and other organic materials to create huge pieces.
I’m itching to showcase some of it. Besides craving her artistic talents and wanting to showcase her incredible work, she and Julian have also become friends.
Not friends like Dru, Meela, Lara, Eleanor, and Sophia, but friends that I gravitated towards because they felt like kindred spirits.
Their mother is not very supportive of their art either, wanting them to follow in her footsteps and do something financially stable.
I could write a book on those feelings of disappointing your family, but wanting to do something for yourself. Something you loved.
“How many can you make?” I ask suddenly, wanting to solidify her commitment.
Jacinda smiles at flipping one long braid over her shoulder. “I have 10 pieces ready to go, but I guess by the end of the year I could do another five.”
Laughing, I climb off my own stool and hug her. “Are you really saying yes!?”
“Fuck yeah, I’m saying yes. The big art galleries won’t take a chance on me and while this place is fucking dump, I can see the potential.”
Laughing harder at her honesty, I think about my downstairs gallery.
Yeah. It’s a dump right now, but I like that I’m starting from scratch.
Do I have the money to make it fancy as shit?
Yeah, but I don’t want that. I don’t want soulless and expensive.
I don’t want boring white walls. I want something interesting and gritty.
My work is wild and unhinged, too, and I want to celebrate real people, real artists who are doing incredible things, but because they don’t have connections, their work isn’t being highlighted.
Jacinda and her twin brother are two artists just like that.
Incredibly talented, but without the exposure they need to really have their art recognized.
Tonight I invited her and Julian over after we ended up in the same free art class.
They are my first official guests. We sat on drop cloths and talked about art and our dreams for our own artistic endeavors.
We laughed at some of the more ridiculous art installations we’d seen in some of the more trendy galleries.
Then we headed upstairs to my apartment, where we ordered wine and pizza and sat in the middle of my empty living room, surrounded by half-painted walls.
We didn’t use fancy table manners. Dinner etiquette was out the window as we ate from the box, used paper towels as napkins, and shared the wine and backwash to go with it.
I thought Jace was the only black sheep of the family, but it seems like my father’s whole flock is rebelling, and it feels good.
A lot feels great. My niece is on her way with Sophia, due to arrive any day now.
Dru is home with baby Bruce. Meela is enjoying being engaged to Tate.
Lara is away on her internship. King’s business is going well.
I’m happy for them all. I do a little jig, happier than I have been in a long time.
I may not be using my hands to draw blood and perform complicated surgeries like my father wanted, but I am using them to heal, healing me.
All the years of loneliness and isolation from my family, all the times I was in boarding school with only Kingsley as a friend, all the targeted harassment of being called Icepick Park because I hid my feelings and never let the world see me sweat.
Perfect hair, perfect shoes, perfect reactions to the shit going on around me feel far away.
Now, I dress how I want. I’m living a messy, chaotic life.
It feels good to step outside the rules and restrictions I’ve always lived by.
“Why is there a bearded dragon in your bathroom?”
Turning at the deep voice, I smile, watching Julian walk my way.
Damn, he’s gorgeous. His thin whipcord body is graceful and sexy.
Both of his arms have a tattoo. His hair is braided back, and the denim shorts he’s wearing cut off mid-shin, leaving strings hanging down.
I like the dark surfer energy mixed with the broody artist thing he has going on.
His dark-framed glasses are a nice touch.
I could reciprocate the flirty energy he’s been giving me all night, but my mind can’t help but conjure up another broody artist.
“That’s Jagger. He’s my new pet. I let him crawl around and he seems to like the heater in the bathroom the best.”
“Scared the shit out of me when I was pissing and saw a pair of beady eyes staring up at me. He was watching my dick like it was his next meal.”
The bark of laughter that explodes from Cinda’s mouth startles me. “That doesn’t sound complimentary to your manhood. Their food is minuscule, right? Like small meal worms.”
Julian doesn’t take offense and flips her his middle finger. “Shut up.”
Grinning, I love how they feed off each other. I giggle when Jacinda sticks out her tongue. “Sorry about that.”
“No worries. So you’re beardie mama, huh?
MILF and all that.” His smile is perfect, braces or good genes, I don’t know, but I do feel a slight tingle at his hot stare.
Not the inferno I feel around Stone, but it’s still nice.
It’s not the first time he’s been flirty since I’ve met him.
But I’m not sure if I can’t get more into him because I’m caught up in a tizzy by the asshole sharing my wall.
Julian is funny and doesn’t give me monosyllabic answers like another man I know.
I bet he wouldn’t tell me to go find someone else to fuck if I flirted back with him.
Not that I even remember how. I haven’t gone on a date, not to mention had sex in over nine months, so I’m definitely out of practice.
“Stop flirting, Julian, she’s not interested,” Cinda mocks, and then blinks. “Wait, are you interested?”
I swallow, unsure how to answer her. I laugh her off, deflecting and ignoring her question. “I was thinking of opening in July. Your show would be opening night.”
“That gives me enough time.” Cinda nods, pulling out a notebook and scribbling inside it. “I gotta go. I need to stop by the pharmacy. My Uber should be here any minute.”
“You okay?” Julian perks up, frowning. From the very beginning of our friendship, Jacinda told me about her diabetes. “Do you want me to drive you home?”
Jacinda shakes her head. “No, I got it.” She wraps him in a one-arm hug.
“My blood sugar is good. I just need some stuff from the pharmacy. I’ll catch you later, bro.
” When she turns to me, I smile. “I’ll call you this week,” she says to me.
“Email you some of my pieces and we can make a plan about which ones you think would be a good fit.”
“Perfect.” I clap, and Jacinda approaches me, offering me a tight hug. I feel light as air. Tonight was good.
Jacinda leaves through my front door, her braids swinging. Julian stares after her, a frown still marring his handsome face.
“What?”
He glances my way. “Nothing. I just worry about her. The last time her blood sugar went low, she was driving. She crashed.”
My eyes widen at the news. “Was she okay?”
Julian nods. “She had a concussion, but it scared her enough that she doesn’t drive anymore, but I’ll stop by her apartment later. She’ll probably be up late creating now that you’re giving her an art show.” He smiles and walks closer to me. “Thanks for this by the way. She’s excited.”
“She’s amazing. You are as well.”
He grins. “You like me.”
Laughing, I shake my head and sit back down on the ground where our leftover pizza sits in the box. Picking up a cold slice, I take a huge bite, mumbling around the cold cheese and spicy pepperoni. “I like your art.”
He sits next to me, stretching out his legs. “Aww, that hurts. You like my creations more than me.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Well since you love my art, I better get started if you’re going to give me an art show too.”
I jerk and widen my eyes. “You’re agreeing too?” Excitement barrels through me. Julian’s art is very different from his sisters, but no less impressive. Each piece is made purely of colored glass. The sculptures I’ve seen of his are ghastly beautiful. Morbid, mythical creatures. Pure dark fantasy.
“Why not? You won’t go out with me, so I need to have an excuse to see you.”
He winks again, and I wonder why I can’t like him more. His charm is off the charts. I smirk and shake my head.
“You never answered Cinda’s question.”
The coward in me wants to pretend like I don’t know what he’s talking about.
“We could grab coffee, just us.”
He stares at me, and I hesitate before giving him an answer, wishing it were another man asking me out. “Maybe.” I stand, and he joins me, picking up his skateboard.
“That’s not a no. I’ll take it. Thanks for dinner.”
“Sure. It was nothing.”
“It was great pizza and even better company. And when are you going to show us some of your work?” He shoulder bumps me, another easy grin on his face.