Page 43 of The Art of Loving Ellie
Hailing a taxi, I give the cabby the address and hang up with Alex. I run my fingers through my wild hair and reach in my bag for some makeup—thanking any, and every God that it’s still in there. As Aunt Jane likes to say, there’s nothing a little mascara and lipstick can’t fix.
When I arrive, I rush up the steps, and through the halls looking for the room that Alex texted me they would be in. I reach room 224 and look down at my phone to see that I’m well over twenty minutes past the time I initially thought it would take to get here.
I open the door and step into the room to find both Mr. Tebbetts and Alex deep in conversation. The art director is a slender man, with thick-framed glasses, and short salt and pepper hair. He’s wearing a cream button-down shirt with brown suspenders that match his brown slacks, and I try not to laugh at the thought that he looks like a coffee with cream.
“Ah, is this your… assistant?” He glances at me, puzzled, and his gaze travels down my ensemble.
Alex’s eyes are glued to my feet, practically bugging out of his perfect face as a horrified expression overtakes him. Confused, I peek down at what they are staring at, only to see that I’m wearing bright pink sloth slippers that match the cartoon pajama bottoms that I have at home. ‘Hang in there!’ they happily say to me as I stare down at my feet, mortified.
No.I must not have realized that I slipped them on in all of the panic!
Ignoring their stares, I throw my shoulders back in an attempt to command the room. Although, all I’m truly commanding is the crazy train derailing in my head.Toot-toot.
My brain is scrambled all over the place, and I can’t come up with one single good explanation as to why I look the way I do, so I do the one thing I know how to do best—be awkward as hell.
“I’m wearing sloth slippers,” I say aloud, laughing nervously, as if stating the fact that I’m wearing children’s shoes is going to somehow make this situation any easier on us.
My ruffled long sleeve blouse and purple yoga tights combo is thoroughly expressing how much of a clown I currently feel like. Alex glares at me as if I’ve completely fallen off the wagon, and I’m not so sure he’s wrong. Walking further into the space, I try not to laugh at the way they are both openly staring at me.
“Where were we?” I sit on top of one of the student’s desks and cross my legs, causing one of my sloth slippers to come in closer contact with Mr. Tebbetts’ arm. He blinks at it, pushing his thick glasses up onto the bridge of his nose.
“Uh, yes, we were just about to go over which paintings you both wanted to be shown in your Christmas Gala.”
I look to Alex, who throws his arms up behind Mr. Tebbetts, questioning my sanity, and I shrug back at him innocently as we move closer to the director to get a better look at his student’s works.
“This piece is from one of my finest pupils, named ‘New York, New Death’.” I scan my eyes over the painted canvas. The background is decoupage newspaper clippings, and in the center, an abstract outline of the Statue of Liberty is made to be the focal point. The creator has taken red ink and desecrated her image with large streaks and splatters tossed about—representing what I interpret as blood, that’s scattered about dramatically.Jeez.
We make our way over to a smaller canvas, where intricately painted oil roses cover up every inch of blank space and a gold filigree frame compliments the painting nicely. He continues to show us row after row of various works, and after twenty minutes, I’m mentally spent. My mind helplessly keeps drifting back to my father, and I can’t stop wondering what I will do if something happens to him before I can get down there.
“Ellie.”Alex and Mr. Tebbetts stare at me, wanting a response to a question I didn’t hear.
“I’m sorry, can you repeat the question?” I give my head a slight shake, trying to get rid of the thoughts that are fogging my brain.
“Which pieces do you think will work?” The director looks at me expectantly, and Alex peruses a few close by him with a hand slightly covering his mouth, seeming to be deep in thought.
One by one, Mr. Tebbetts starts to fire questions at me. “Is there a specific theme, because if not, I think the greenery series over here would complement Mr. Bernard’s, ‘The Red Woman’ collection? Oh, maybe we should just focus on portraits—will there be portraits on display as well? Maybe abstracts can make a comeback—” Pulling at the neck of my blouse, I attempt to fan myself. I feel like my head is going to explode off of my overheating body.
As politely as I can, I try to escape the situation before I become overwhelmed. “Will you excuse me for a moment?” Avoiding eye contact with either one of them, I make a mad dash for the door and find an exit to the outside of the building. The door I’ve gone through leads me to a small courtyard and I practically run to the large concrete fountain in the center of it.
I lean over to see my reflection in the pool and groan at my wild hair and the crazy look in my eye. Closing my eyes, I let out a breath berating myself, “Well, you’ve certainly looked better, Ellie.”
“I’ll say.” His clipped tone makes me squint my eyes shut as hard as I can, and I wish I wasn’t such a screwup.
Turning around to face him, I see he has a kaleidoscope of feelings mixed in his eyes. “Alex, I’m so—”
“Sorry?” He finishes my sentence for me. I turn back around so I don’t have to face this conversation head-on.
“Ellie, tell me what is going on. I am worried sick about you.” He steps around to face me, gently placing his perfectly manicured hands on my shoulders. “You’re completely shirking your responsibilities. You’re showing up late, and you’re just not yourself. If you were any one of my other employees, I would have fired your ass weeks ago!” I can see the struggle in his baby blues. He wants to be there for me but he’s right, I haven’t been present in my job lately, and if I’m being honest, I’m not even sure that I’m sorry about it.
“I don’t want to pull the boss card, but you’re forcing my hand. I understand that having a new boyfriend is fun and exciting, Lord knows I like a good tramp, but I think you owe me an explanation for what’s been going on.” His cheeks are heated pink with anger when he finishes speaking, and I immediately become defensive.
“This isn’t about Tyler, Alex.” I lift my arms, shrugging out of his hold. “My dad has been contacting me for weeks now, asking to speak with me. And at first, I was ignoring him, but then—something changed and I decided to give him a chance.” I look down hoping to hold back any tears that may try to escape. “He told me that he’s dying.” There’s a long pause between us, and when I look up to see his beautiful face void of emotion, I add, “The doctor isn’t giving him much longer to live.”
He looks so perfectly calm, as if this news has no effect on him whatsoever. He scoffs, “Well good riddance then, I say.”
My eyebrows shoot up at his careless response, and I can only whisper in disbelief, “Excuse me?” The blood in my ears begins to pound and my stomach cramps with adrenaline.
“Come on, Ellie, you can’t be serious. The entire time you’ve been here, you’ve said that you hated your parents. You told me he was a good for nothing loser, who couldn’t keep a job. I guess I don’t follow why you’re so upset?”
