Page 43 of Roses, Pearls, and Hot Summer Nights
Jeremy tugged my hand gently, bringing me back to the present. “I could ask you that same question, I think. Where did you go just now, in your thoughts? Never mind, lovely. I won’t pry. We’re in Chelsea. This building used to be used for something else.” He scrunched up his face, then shook his head. “I can’t remember what, exactly. Where did Julian go? He always knows these things. In his head, he keeps a constant running map of everything, I swear. Wherever we go, he’s instantly able to navigate and find anything.”
I liked the description, imagining learning some of his skills. “He would be useful to call if I am ever lost, then. Weren’t we going for sushi?”
“Shit. I forgot. Are you actually hungry?”
I shook my head. “No, I was just…confused. Isn’t Phoenix hungry?”
Jeremy shrugged. “He might have been but not now. Oh and if you get lost, sure, call Jules, but you can call me, too. I would figure out how to find you, so just call me first every time, in fact. Anyway, this is an old converted building used as an art studio, one trendy enough that everyone who is anyone wants to see what they’re selling. Barrett’s friend is either super talented or she’s connected.” He smirked. “Maybe both. It is possible for two things to be true at the same time, after all.”
The air smelled expensive, so I inhaled it and remembered. Perfume wafted up from diamonds and furs, scenting everything with wealth like a fog of glittering gold. The jazz club had been different, not that I could explain exactly why I thought so. It wasn’t like I knew anything about signature scents like some girls at my last school, nor was I willing to spend thousands on a single bottle for the sake of a name. Still, I recognized the smell of money everywhere in the room. Everyone here oozed wealth, as if it might be contagious. I glanced around the crowd, confirming my suspicions with their shoes.Prada loafers. Balenciaga heels.Top of the line levels of opulence. A bartender dressed in all black shook a shaker while a crowd formed a line to get drinks from him. Conversation around us whirred, a low buzz of continuing sound that roared like a dull wave.
Jeremy stood silently next to me, so I poked him in the arm. “Where did you go in your head?” Since they liked asking me the question, they shouldn’t mind me redirecting it back at them. His smirk made me think he wondered whether or not Barrett would have a friend talented enough to show in the gallery.
Julian appeared in that second, catching my arm and surprising me. “Hey, Sweetheart. Brother. How goes it?”
“Good.” Jeremy turned to him before scanning the room again. “Where did Barrett go?”
“He’s talking to Lily.” He sighed, rolling his eyes. “She isn’t over it.”
Over what?I tuned out their conversation, looking for Barrett out of curiosity. It wasn’t unusual for me to zone out into my own little world when I didn’t know the dynamics of the people around me. In San Francisco, I learned to keep quiet and be unobtrusive or else people got upset. Well … maybe I learned the skill before San Francisco, I realized, shifting my weight from foot to foot in guilt. Sometimes, I could remember my mom needed me to be quiet and leave her alone for a while. I chewed on my fingernail at the memory, then looked around again to distract myself from my thoughts.
Low lit exposed and jagged bricks featured pieces of art centered perfectly to be spotlighted individually. Every wall had a piece; each piece stood on its own easily. Any walls that weren’t brick they’d painted ivory, but there they chose to feature paintings with white backgrounds, portraits of people. I walked away from the twins to look at the faces captured in beautifully textured paints. I didn’t recognize any of the faces, so they weren’t celebrities, but I loved how she implied their noses. The texturing …
Abruptly, I stopped in front of one and froze. I instantly recognized Barrett, flawlessly brought to life on canvas. I smiled at the still version of him, stopped in time with his clever eyes focused on the painter. I knew those eyes. The next canvas showed a different man, grinning but his gaze wasn’t entirely on hers. No … Barrett’s gaze hit much more intense, as if I could practically feel his touch through the image. I bit my lip, perhapsunderstanding more than Barrett intended when I looked at the art.
Julian rubbed a hand up and down my arm, settling the goosebumps which rose when I saw the art. “Wow. I didn’t know … he was going to be in this. I don’t think that he knew. I mean … as far as I know, he didn’t sit for her or anything.”
Jeremy joined them then whistled through his teeth. “Yeah … she’snotover it.”
I ran a hand through my hair, realizing it couldn’t hurt to say it aloud. “She’s in love with him.” I cleared my throat, surprised it upset me at all. “Are they together? You can just tell me, okay? If this is a thing where …”
Jeremy put his arm over my shoulder, the weight both distracting and grounding. He whispered in my ear, his breath tickling my hair, “Never. She wants to be his girlfriend, but she wasn’t who Barrett was looking for. That doesn’t mean she’s over it. Barrett thought she likely was, but yeah, I’m looking at the same thing you are. Where is he, anyway?” He directed the question at Julian, who glanced around obediently. “Go find him. He isn’t going to want a scene. He isn’t going to like this at all.”
Julian turned but stopped because Phoenix appeared behind him. Phoenix swayed, dancing slightly to music I couldn’t hear. Whatever he heard, it wasn’t the smooth listening music playing in the room. He said, “Dude, I amfloating. That’s Barrett, though, right?” He snickered, covering his mouth with the back of one hand. His eyes were still as wounded as before, but they were also half-closed and blurry. He squinted, leaning closer to the painting. “It is Barrett, right? I’m not like …” He never finished that statement, waving his arm around vaguely as if the word might be plucked from the air around him.
It broke my heart to see him so gone, so not himself. I might hardly know the guy, but he clearly wasn’t happy, despite hiscanned laughter. Julian grabbed him and hugged him tight, as if picking up on the same sadness that moved me. Jeremy actually vibrated for a second next to me, a fine tremor running through his body and into mine. Phoenix fell silent, but for just a second, he embraced his brother back. Then he pushed himself away from Julian, a scowl curling his handsome lips into something crueler.
“Don’t.” He spun again and faced off with Barrett’s painting, his hands folded behind his back as he bent over to closely study the work. “He really looks like Daniel. I mean … how does no one notice?”
Jeremy released me to dart toward Phoenix. I couldn’t hear what he said to him, but questions swirled through my mind.Who is Daniel?I glanced at the art again, considering the faces, especially Barrett’s. Like a photograph, but captured by paintbrush, it eerily managed to seem as real as the guy in person.
Then again, she probably chose him because of his captivating symphony of features, perfect for a canvas where every brushstroke seemed to speak. His brown eyes held an intensity that drew me in until I also leaned closer. The depth there seemed to capture the very essence of his soul—the guy who listened to Jazz and didn’t seem all that thrilled to be going to Columbia, but who loved Thai food. She framed his eyes well, capturing the strong, expressive eyebrows that gave his gaze such determined elegance. His nose, as painted by Lily, looked perfectly proportioned, with just a subtle curve adding character to his handsomeness. Actually, she hadn’t gotten it quite right, I realized, mentally stroking my fingertip down the painted line. There was a bump on the top of his nose, a tiny one, proof he’d broken it at some point but it never healed properly.
“Oh, what the hell?” Barrett muttered behind me, so I spun to face him. He took a visible breath then whirled to face thewoman standing next to him. “When did you do this?Whydid you do this?”
She stared at me for a second, her intelligent eyes seeing more than I probably wanted before she answered him with a carefree shrug. “Because I had to paint it. Because I couldn’t stop thinking about you all of the time. I close my eyes at night, and you are all I see beneath my lids.”
Her words might have seemed romantic in other circumstances, but with the strain on Barrett’s actual face in contrast to the one frozen in paint, it only came across as creepy.
His shoulders sagged, as if he took on a weight he thought he left behind. “Lily, we’ve talked about this.”
“I can’t help it, Barrett. Is she why it’s ano? Who is she?” Her voice rose with each word, ending in a hushed whisper as loud as a shout that battered me.
“Yes,” Phoenix answered, interrupting, simply and without other inflection. “She is exactly why it’s always and forevermore no, and I’m willing to vow it on my life. He only met her days ago, but she’s why he turned you down a year ago, totally. This girl—she is one hundred percent to blame for him dumping you. But don’t mind me.” He waved his hand again, a vague and distracted gesture, as if he might be looking for something in an invisible index. “I’m barely here right now, and I like wherever I am better than wherever you are.”
Lily, beautiful in her own right, flipped her blonde hair over her left shoulder in a furious gesture. I took a step back mentally from the scene just to examine her, curious about anyone who held Barrett’s attention, if only for a while. I should have immediately checked out her shoes, so I corrected the error quickly. Avant-garde looking boots with a split toe—something about them seemed almost modeled on traditional Japanese footwear. Expensive shoes, if cool, but right then, they made mewant to run away from her. Shoes like hers could crush my head under their sharp heel, and I wasn’t interested.
Lily folded her arms slowly, crossing them with an elegance that showed she knew she held the spotlight and didn’t mind the weight of the accumulated attention. In fact, she reveled in it—her show, her art, her work on public display. She wasn’t trying to hide a thing from anyone, not when it came to her talent. A striking blonde beauty, her long, dark lashes framed her piercing blue eyes with a sharpness that hinted at underlying cruelty. I cracked my shoulders, but her shoes warned me before I got to her gaze, so I wasn’t surprised. Her full lips, painted a bold red, curved in a slow smile that was more predatory than friendly. Then again, maybe that was because Phoenix basically yelled at her, and Barrett wasn’t in love with her. Or maybe it was because she took an instant dislike to me, who knew?
