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My hands acted by themselves and pulled her around to face me. “How have you been?”
“Fine,” she said but I didn’t have to be a psychic to know she was lying.
All the anger I had felt towards her seemed to evaporate in the summer sun.
“I miss you,” I said and looked deeply into her eyes. It was the truth.
A ghost of pain flashed over her face before she tensed up and looked to my right. I turned my face to see what she saw and found Caroline and Violet watching us.
“Are you ready to go, G?” Caroline asked.
Violet gave me a grim stare but said nothing.
I whipped my head around to explain to Cia that Caroline and I weren’t a thing but her face had turned into a hard façade again.
“Can we talk?” I asked.
“What do you want to talk about?” she said and turned to a Chinese couple who were looking at her portraits. “Would you like to have a portrait done? It’s fifty for one person and eighty for a couple.”
The couple exchanged a few words before they nodded and pointed to both of them.
“Just take a seat over here.” Cia pointed to two chairs and moved to pick up her pencil.
“Hey, I wanted a portrait painted – you said you were taking a break,” I complained.
“G, are you coming or not?” Caroline asked behind me and in that moment Cia looked up at me.
“I think your girlfriend is getting impatient.”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” I protested.
“I’m not his girlfriend… it’s just a casual thing,” Caroline said in what I assumed was intended as a helpful comment.
Cia looked at me and then back at Caroline. “That’s a shame, because you look just like histype.”
I huffed out air with annoyance, wishing I could have just ten minutes alone with her.
“Can I have your number at least?” I asked in a last attempt, but she pretended not to hear me.
“Cia, can’t you at least look at me?”
She turned her head and raw emotions shone from her eyes. “Please just leave me alone,” she said in a brittle voice that hit me hard.
I backed away, not wanting to cause her more harm.
Needless to say, I didn’t have dinner with Caroline. Instead I apologized to her and explained the situation. I had to try and make Cia talk to me and get some closure. Caroline took it well and gave me a hug before she walked away.
I went back to the marketplace and saw that Cia was still working on her portrait of the Chinese couple. Violet, however, was in between clients.
“Can I talk to you?” I asked her.
She pointed to the chair. “It’s thirty dollars for a ten-minute reading.”
“I don’t want a reading, but I’ll give you a hundred dollars if you give me Cia’s phone number.”
“Tsk.” She smacked her tongue.
“Okay, two hundred dollars if you help me get ten minutes alone with her.”
