3. Elias
Elias gulped his beer and wished it was something stronger. He was nervous. He was always nervous on the opening night of an exhibition. He doubted it would ever get easier. If anything, with each exhibition, the nerves became worse. There was a greater expectation now. The successes of the past demanded he get better and better and better… or at least the critics expected it.
‘Why are you hiding back here?’ Justin, the gallery owner, asked.
‘I’m just… watching.’
Justin grinned kindly. ‘Everyone loves it. I’ve been wandering around listening to the comments. Florence is an absolute sensation.’
Florence was what he’d named the angel. Florence, as in Florence Nightingale. The sapphire eyes had given the piece exactly what it needed, and he hoped it wouldn’t sell. Where he would keep it, he didn’t know. He just knew he didn’t want to part with it.
‘Come on out and say hello. People are waiting for you.’
Elias nodded, and Justin gave him one last look before he walked back into the gallery with a shake of his head. Elias tipped the beer up and downed another mouthful. He hated this bit. He didn’t know how to receive compliments. His parents hadn’t believed in compliments. Or at least when it came to him, they didn’t. Or Levi. Now, when someone told him they liked his work, he felt awkward. Saying thanks seemed arrogant. Explaining that there were obvious flaws in his work was counterproductive to his career as an artist. He usually ended up just nodding and smiling like a moron, making everyone uncomfortable in the process.
‘Here you are,’ Alexis said, walking toward him with Levi in tow.
‘Hey,’ he greeted them. Seeing his brother and his fiancée helped to calm the nerves.
‘This is incredible, Elias,’ Alexis said, pulling him into a tight hug.
‘Thanks,’ he said, feeling his cheeks flush with embarrassment.
Levi slapped him on the back. ‘You did good, kid.’
‘Kid?’ Elias scoffed. ‘You’re only six years older than me.
‘And you’re still in your twenties, so… kid.’
Elias pretended to glare at his brother, but in reality, he was grateful for Levi’s mocking. It helped to disperse the anxiety.
Most people thought Elias was an arrogant bastard—a charming one, but arrogant none-the-less. It was all a fa?ade. It was a defence mechanism honed after years of living in a family where weakness was weaponised.
‘I’m twenty-eight. That’s practically thirty.’
Levi laughed, and Elias grinned.
‘All right. Let’s go,’ he said, putting down the beer and wiping his hands on his jeans.
Elias didn’t wear suits, not even to the opening of his own exhibition. His jeans were new, but they were the type that looked like he’d been wearing them for years, complete with a few strategic holes. On his feet were his favourite motorcycle boots, and over a plain white tee was his well-worn vintage leather jacket. He’d washed his hair but hadn’t bothered getting it cut. The dark-blond locks reached his shoulders, and the waves were a little out of control. He had trimmed his beard, though. It wasn’t quite the metro-sexual manicured scruff that the young professionals wore, but it wasn’t the unruly sea-captain beard either.
He stepped into the gallery and took it all in. The large white space had become maze-like, with petitions to guide the patrons through the story. When they got to the centre, they would see her. Florence. His masterpiece. They had mounted the large sculpture on a fountain base to emulate the old masters’ marble statues. He’d even thrown a few coins into the water. The effect was that of fallen feathers from her wings.
‘Oh. There’s Theo and Sarah,’ Alexis said, waving to the other couple.
Elias grimaced. He’d become good friends with Theo over the last couple of years, and he liked Sarah. But he’d grimaced because he would again be the fifth wheel… at his own exhibition, no less.
Elias greeted them with a smile and then made his excuses. He couldn’t hide behind Levi all night. He was the star of this show, and he needed to be seen. It was all about networking.
Taking a breath and metaphorically pulling up his big-boy jocks, he headed into the fray. He wound his way through the maze, greeting people and stopping to talk for a few minutes, but always moving on so he didn’t get stuck with any one person in particular. He was on a mission. He wanted to see her. He didn’t know how many times he’d come to see her since she’d been installed. Too many to be reasonably acceptable. But he couldn’t help it. He was drawn to her, and the sight of her calmed him. She had been frustrating him for months, refusing to take shape, but now, now that he had wrestled with both the materials and with himself, the result was perfect.
He stopped before stepping into the centre space. There was a woman standing there, gazing up at Florence. Elias couldn’t see her face, but the way she looked at his work set something off inside him. Her short, blonde-streaked hair brushed her shoulders in soft waves. Huh. From the back, they had the same haircut. He smiled to himself. If she turned around and had a beard, then he would know they were meant for each other. He snorted softly, but it must have been loud enough to catch her attention, and she turned to face him.
Elias’ heart stopped. Like stopped. Dead. Time slowed, and for a long moment, he thought he was in a movie. Everything was happening in slow motion. He couldn’t move, only watch as the woman turned to face him. Recognition sparked in her blue eyes—the same blue as the sapphires in his sculpture—and a small smile pulled at the corner of her lips.
‘Elias?’
Time snapped back, and he nearly recoiled from the force of it.
‘Dr Kate,’ he said, finally ungluing his feet from the floor and stepping forward.
‘I didn’t expect to see you here,’ she said.
Elias’ eyebrows pulled together. Didn’t she know he was the artist? Was that a good thing or a bad thing for him? This woman knew his family history. He was a little surprised that she remembered him at all. He might not have been able to forget her, but he was sure she would have forgotten him. How many patients came through the emergency department each year?
He looked up at Florence. ‘I came to see her.’
She followed his gaze, and her smile widened. Did she recognise herself in the piece?
Elias didn’t know what to think. His brain was kind of in meltdown. When he was creating the piece he never, in his wildest imaginations, thought she would see it.
‘She’s beautiful,’ Kate said, and then pulled her mouth to the side and hummed, tapping her chin. ‘She looks familiar, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.’
Relief swept through Elias. It would be embarrassing to have her recognise herself in the sculpture. It would make him look like a stalker. Probably best she didn’t know he was the artist.
‘She is,’ he agreed, but he wasn’t looking at Florence. Why look at a cheap imitation when the real thing was right in front of him?
She turned back to him. ‘I wouldn’t have picked you for an art connoisseur.’
‘Is that your way of asking if I come here often?’ Elias asked, pulling out all the charm he possessed. He hadn’t managed to charm her when he’d been lying in a hospital bed with a busted nose, but now that he was in fighting health, maybe she would be susceptible to it.
She laughed, and he swore he heard angels sing. He rolled his eyes internally. Get over yourself, Elias.
‘As pickup lines go, it’s not bad. A little condescending, though. I give it a solid seven.’
‘Only a seven?’ she asked, raising her eyebrows at him.
‘You lost points for the condescending part.’
‘I thought those backhanded compliments were all the rage these days.’
‘Ugh, Doc, do you know you sound like a Boomer right now?’
‘Oh God, anything but that.’ She beamed a smile at him, and he knew that his sketchbook would be filled with images of her from this day forward.
‘Kate?’
Elias turned and cursed the interruption.
‘Levi?’
They embraced, and Elias wanted to drag his brother away from her and punch him. He didn’t. He wanted to, but he didn’t. Instead, he clenched his fists at his sides and ground his molars together.
‘What are you doing here?’ Levi asked after introducing Kate to Alexis.
‘I’m officially on holiday, and I was looking for something to do. I came across an ad for this on social media, so here I am,’ she replied. ‘What about you?’
Levi slapped Elias on the shoulder, and before he could stop his brother, Levi outed him. ‘This is Elias’ exhibition. He’s the artist.’
Kate slowly turned her head toward Elias. Her cheeks pinked, and she bit the corner of her lip. ‘You’re the artist?’
He nodded.
‘Oh God. I’m so embarrassed.’ She buried her face in her hands.
Levi looked at Elias for an explanation. He smiled and shrugged. ‘The doc here didn’t think I was into this sort of thing.’
‘See? This is why they don’t let me out of the hospital to mix with the real people,’ she said.
Elias smiled at her to let her know he wasn’t offended. ‘It could happen to anyone. I know I don’t exactly look the part.’
‘How do you two know each other?’ Alexis asked, wagging her finger between the two of them.
‘Oh, um, this was the doctor who patched me up a couple of years back.’
‘And he is the patient who had all the emergency department staff bending over backwards to satisfy his every whim.’
Alexis nodded slowly at Elias before looking at Kate and then up at Florence. Did she see the resemblance? She couldn’t, right?
‘Oh, I know exactly just how distracting Elias’ flirting can be,’ Alexis said, smiling knowingly.
Levi put his arm around Alexis and drew her close, narrowing his gaze at Elias.
‘Back off, Levi,’ Elias said with a cluck of his tongue. ‘Alexis knows it was all just a bit of fun.’
Levi changed the topic. ‘So, Kate. What do you have planned for your holidays?’
‘Nothing much. Just some me-time.’
As Elias listened to Levi and Kate talk, he wished he could somehow get them to move on. He wanted to spend some more time with Kate, talking to her, getting to know her, maybe asking her out on a date…
‘Levi, stop monopolising all of Kate’s time,’ Alexis chided gently. Did she see the yearning in Elias’ eyes? Could she read his mind?
Levi smiled down at Alexis and then apologised to Kate. ‘We should catch up sometime.’
‘Sure,’ Kate said.
Alexis moved them on, leaving Elias and Kate alone once more. It wouldn’t be for long. This was the centrepiece of his exhibition. People would want to see it.
‘Can I get you a drink?’ Elias asked.
Kate hesitated for a moment before nodding. ‘I’d like that.’