Page 54 of Built to Last
“Later,” I promise, daring to reach out and squeeze her hand, just for a moment. Cheeks flushed pink, Rose nods.
“Later,” she agrees, that one word heavy with so much meaning. Breathing out a sigh of relief that we seem to be on the same page, I turn my attention back to my nephew.
“Alright bud, homework first then we can get baking.” I steer Toby over to the kitchen counter where he clambers up onto one of the tall stools, setting his bookbag on the one next to him. “What have we got today?” I ask from the other side of the counter, my head buried in the fridge as I pull out the ingredients for dinner. I decided to go with pasta since it will be quick to put together once the muffins go in the oven, especially if I make the sauce now.
“Spelling,” Toby answers my question, tugging his workbook and pencil from his bag.
“Alright, let me know if you need any help.” He nods, already focused on the question sheet in front of him. Happy that he’s settled, I go about dicing the vegetables that I’ll add to a tin of tomatoes to make the pasta sauce, stealing glances over at Rose every chance I get.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Rose
Not wantingto disturb Phillip’s adorable nephew while he’s doing homework, I grab my bag and pull out my tablet. Adding more intricate details to the set today was a lot of fun but it made me itch to create more of my own work. Now seems as good a time as any to work on another new concept sketch.
The rhythmic tap of Phillip’s knife hitting the cutting board and the scratch of Toby’s pencil melt into the background as I search my mind for new ideas. My eyes sweep over my surroundings and once again land on the blank space on the wall opposite me to the right of the TV that is practicallybeggingfor some artwork. I’ve thought so since I first saw this room. The half-finished piece sitting on the easel in the corner of my bedroom would look perfect there. I’m in an unusually whimsical headspace thanks to working on a fairytale forest for most of the day and I decide to lean into the feeling. My stylus drifts across the screen, an ethereal-looking woman emerging.
“What’s that?” My stylus falls from my fingertips when I jerk in surprise at Toby’s question. I’ve been so engrossed in my work that I didn’t notice him approach. He stands on his tiptoes, peering over the back of the sofa at the screen of my tablet, brown eyes alight with curiosity.
“At the moment it’s an idea but it’s going to be a painting.” I turn the screen so he can see better.
“Wow. Your face looks so good,” he tells me, admiring the draft on my screen. “We did painting at school today but my faces don’t look like that.” Toby frowns, walking round the sofa so he can flop down onto the cushion next to me.
“That’s OK,” I reassure him. “It took me a long time and alotof practice before my faces started looking like this.”
“How’d you practice?” Before I can even begin to answer he continues, barely taking a breath. “My friend Maddie said you’re either good at drawing or not. She’s good at drawing but not as good as you.”
“Natural talent is part of it, sure. Like how some people are naturally better at sports than others, but the same way you can practice tennis to improve your aim, the more you practice drawing, the better you’ll be.” Toby listens, rapt with attention, so I decide to continue. After taking a beat to save my work, I open a fresh project making sure he can see the screen too. Switching to a pencil-style brush I draw an oval in the middle of the page.
“See this?” Toby nods. “This is the start of our face. Now while you’re learning you can draw some guidelines on the face to show you where the features should be. This line is to help keep everything central so you don’t accidentally draw the features too far to one side,” I explain while drawing a vertical line down the middle. “This line is for the centre of the eyes, this one’s for the nose, and this is for the centre of the mouth,” I continue, adding three horizontal lines to the image.
“Can I try?”
“Sure, here you go. Don’t press too hard, the screen will pick up on a light touch from the stylus,” I instruct, clearing the page then handing everything over. Toby draws his own and frowns.
“It’s wonky.”
“That’s alright, just tap the eraser tool up there and you can clear this one away and try again.” He does as I instructed, then switches back to the pencil brush. Happier with his next oval he continues and draws in the guidelines. They’re a little wobbly but not bad at all for a first try. He looks up at me for approval and I smile encouragingly.
“Good job. Why don’t you try adding on the eyes, nose, and mouth?” A look of pure concentration transforms Toby’s face, his tongue poking out the corner of his mouth as he gets to work. A couple of minutes later he lifts the screen to show me.
“Nice, now use the rubber to get rid of your guidelines—that’s it. Why don’t we go and show your uncle.” Toby leaps off the sofa, racing ahead to the kitchen. I follow at a more sedate pace, but arrive in time to see Toby give Phillip a beaming smile before launching into a stream of excited chatter.
“Look uncle Phillip, Rose showed me how to make a face!” He thrusts the tablet into Phillip’s hands and I laugh.
“That’s really good, well done bud. Did you say thank you to Rose?” Toby whips his head around to face me.
“Thank you, Rose!”
“You’re very welcome.”
“Alright, how about we let Rose put this away then we can get baking?”
Phillip hands the tablet back to me, mouthing a ‘thank you’ over Toby’s head. Our fingertips brush, sending sparks crackling up my arms and I inhale sharply. I’ve missed his touch. Things aren’t back to normal between us yet, they won’t be until we talk it out for real, but the unspoken agreement between us is that we both still want this relationship to work. Phillip’s lips twitch into a brief smirk, like he knows exactly what the innocent contact is doing to me, then he turns all his focus back to Toby.
Once I’ve packed everything away, I make my way back to the kitchen area in time to see Phillip pull a punnet of blueberriesfrom the fridge. Touched he planned to make my favourite muffins, I roll up my sleeves ready to join them both.
An hour-and-a-half later I find myself covered in a light dusting of flour and more sexually frustrated than I ever thought was possible. The flour is thanks to Toby getting a little too vigorous with the sieve, making us all laugh. The frustration was courtesy of Phillip, who decided to make a game out of how many gentle caresses and smouldering looks he could give me without his nephew cottoning on. Phillip’s light, teasing touches set me ablaze like nothing else and I’m desperate for some alone time with him. Forget talking it out, I’m ready to say ‘fuck it’ and give us both a reminder of how good those touches feel when there aren’t any clothes in the way. At least one hunger has been satisfied, thanks to the amazing pasta we’ve just finished eating.
