Page 118 of Eye of the Hurricane
“I’ve never seen any of his work but Kat says it’s great. I thought maybe she was just dickmatized until I found out he was going to be in this art show,” Luna says. Ravyn and Audra burst out laughing.
“Dickmatized? That’s great! I’m stealing that,” Audra says through laughter.
“You’re laughing a lot for someone who was lying to her best friends for the dick,” Ravyn says, howling a laugh. Audra’s laughter tapers off for a brief second before she bursts out laughing harder than before.
“What can I say? It’s good dick,” she blushes slightly at her own statement.
“Must run in the family,” I joke. Although I’m not sure how much of a joke it is. Their heads snap in my direction before the entire car comes to one consensus.
“Yuck!” they all exclaim.
“Oh, I see, no one wants me to have good sex.”
“Of course we want you to get your lights fucked out. We just don’t want to hear about it,” Ravyn counters and they all laugh harder.
“We’re kidding by the way. You can tell us anything. We’re not exactly the most private group of people,” Audra explains.
“I’ve noticed.”
“She was a virgin before she met Ares!” Luna blurts.
“That was unnecessary,” I scold, pointing at her.
“No way. Were you waiting for marriage?” Audra asks.
“Oh, no. I was just really focused on career stuff for so long that I didn’t really have a desire to try it.”
“Until you met Ares?”
“Yeah, until I met Ares.”
Finally, we pull into the packed parking lot of the art show. We all put on our best shows of being quiet and professional. It comes pretty natural to me, this is the kind of environment I grew up in.
Everyone is talking no louder than a whisper. Every person is dressed to the nines. There’s a comforting familiarity of being in a room where I’m not overdressed.
I fit in more here than I do in any of my usual spaces. This feels like home, but not in a way that feels like four walls I want to crawl to at the end of a bad day. In the way that this feels like the place I’m running from.
If it weren’t for the importance to Ares, I might turn on my heels and walk right back out the doors. It is important to him though, so I scan the building for his face.
It takes quite a bit of walking around until I find him. And when I do, I’m so proud that tears prick my eyes. I can’t get to him because his booth is so crowded. I can’t even see the art from where I’m standing.
Too many people are interested in him and his art. What a great problem to have.
So I stand with my arm interlocked with Luna’s and wait patiently for my turn to see him. The man of the hour it seems.
By the time I get up close enough to see him, nearly every piece has a sold sticker next to it. But that isn’t the thing that catches my attention most.
What catches my attention most is that his section is a flood of warmth, sunshine, and me. Everything is so warm and inviting but at the center of it all, is me. Nearly everypiece includes me and the ones that don’t, are callbacks to days we spent together.
My jaw hangs open and when I peek over to see Luna, hers might as well be on the floor.
“This is the most romantic thing I’ve ever seen, did you know?” she whispers into my ear.
“I had no idea,” I tell her honestly.
“You go ahead, I’ll hang back. Have your moment.” Luckily I have a little time to let it soak in before I have to find words to say to him. Slowly but surely I inch toward him and when I’m finally in front of him, I’m speechless.
“This is me,” I say, pointing to the painting he did of me when we were camping. He’s gone back through and added detail now though. It’s beautiful. I look beautiful, it casts me in a light I’ve never been able to see myself in.
