Page 21 of Art of Love
“Well, looks like we’re in for a very interesting time indeed.”
“Yes. Looks that way,” I answered, but my eyes were still on Jia.
Chapter 6
Jia
***
Interesting?
I didn’t know how I was supposed to compete against the grandson of Peter Belmont, the artist I did my thesis on at college.
Wow, this all just kept getting better and better, didn’t it?
Shit! I thought I actually had a shot at doing this, but now I knew exactly why John was all buzzed up about Hunter’s work. He had to have known he was getting the real deal straight from the loins of Peter Belmont.
I was surprised Carla didn’t know that, but maybe John thought it would be more interesting if Hunter shared that info, as opposed to looking like he’d considered him for the job purely because of that. Yes, it was that. John was mindful of things like that.
“Well, Jia, over to you.” Carla smiled at me. She was giving me her usual warmth and encouragement. I just didn’t know how I was supposed to follow that up.
I couldn’t very well say ‘HI, I’m Jia Callahan, daughter of Pricilla Callahan the beautician, and Bruce, I’m not sure what his surname is and didn’t care to find out because as far as I’m concerned, my father was just a sperm donor. And as to grandparents, my grandmother made homemade jam for a living before she died, and my grandfather worked in a grocery store. The same one he started to work in when he was sixteen.’ At least that showed he was diligent.
I was momentarily stunned, and I really didn’t know what to say to make myself sound good.
“I’m Jia.”Great start. “I was the only person in my family to go to college. I came across John’s work back in high school, and I worked hard ever since to have a chance to be part of Impasso. I got that chance, and due to unfortunate circumstances, I had to cut my length of internship short, but I’m here again for another shot.” Nutshell. All in a nutshell, and it was all the truth.
That specifically was me. It was the woman I was outside of all that had happened to me in the last few years, and I guess beyond that. I could have said, too, that I got a scholarship to go to Columbia University. That was perhaps the first good thing to happen to me in my life because there was no way that Mom would have been able to pay for me to go to college otherwise.
Carla smiled, but the look in her eyes showed she kind of expected me to say a little more than that, but I really couldn’t follow Hunter’s declaration that he was the grandson of one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century.
“Cool. Okay, now that’s done, let’s get to the meat of the meeting.”
Carla walked over to us and handed us each a folder.
“This looks interesting,” Hunter stated when he opened up his folder.
