Page 70 of Art of Love
“How about I cook it, and you can put your feet up? Just sit on the sofa and look pretty for me.”
I turned into his embrace. “You really are the perfect man.”
“I’m glad my lady thinks so.” He took my hand and led me to the sofa, where he sat me down.
This was nice. It was nice, and it felt right to be with him like this.
I was happy. For the first time in my life, I was happy, but I couldn’t ignore the shadow across my heart.
This agreement we had to keep work separate worked both ways. It was a good concept because we literally didn’t talk about work, but at the same time, I needed someone I could talk to about it.
He started to cook, and within an hour, he indeed had a feast laid out before me on the dinner table. He’d made burritos, enchiladas, and quesadillas with mini shrimp tacos.
I was grateful I’d left the cooking to him.
“Is there anything you do that’s not good? Because I have so many flaws. It would be good to know you’re at the very least human.” I laughed and took a sip of wine, which tasted fantastic.
“I’m human, love, and I don’t know what flaws you’re talking about because I have the perfect woman right here in front of me.”
I moved to sit in his lap, and he held me close. “Thank you, Hunter Kane, for another amazing evening. I don’t know what I’ll do when I don’t have you.” Maybe it was the wine, but I was starting to speak my mind, and I wished I hadn’t said that.
“What makes you think you won’t have me? Something I should know?” Concern washed over his handsome features.
“No, I’m just being realistic, is all. You’re super talented.”
“So are you. Hey, do you want to talk about the project? We have just a month. How’s it coming?”
I laughed and wasn’t sure if I should answer that question. “It’s not.”
“What do you mean?”
I got off his lap and walked over to the window bay. He joined me and sat opposite me.
“Jia, talk to me.”
His voice seeped into me like always. Luring me into that safe haven. I thought maybe it wouldn’t hurt to talk within reason.
“We know the answers to two questions. I can’t figure out the other stuff, and because I can’t, I don’t know what I’m supposed to paint.” That was the truth. When I got the inspiration to do something, I could paint it all in a day or two depending on what it was. We had those last two weeks to prep and get everything sorted out, but Carla was right. It would have been better to come up with an idea well before now.
We had another month. The time had come around so quickly. It flew by. Literally flew by. There would be two weeks left of the tour, and then we’d have two weeks to finish up our projects.
He tilted his head to the side, and his hair fell forward.
“Does it help to know that I haven’t come up with anything yet either?”
I gasped. “You’re kidding. But you said you were working on it a few weeks back.”
“I did, and I came up with nothing. Like you, I can’t figure out the other stuff, and it’s fruitless to only go into it half-hearted. And clearly, we missed whatever it was we were supposed to see.”
I nodded, agreeing completely because we were supposed to have all the information by the third exhibition. That had come and gone weeks ago. Months even. That was thePieces of Purpleexhibit done by Cora. I hadn’t seen anything significant, and while Stephan had calmed down with his visits, he still made himself available to me for questions.
Hunter didn’t like that, so I’d limited my interaction with him. I also hadn’t told him Stephan and I had been a couple because I figured it would make him crazy. Plus, there was also the painful memories around that, that I saw as part of the same problem.
“What if we watch a recording of the third exhibition?” That was the only thing we could really do at this late stage.
“That could work, but thinking back, I really don’t know what we missed.” He ran his hand over his beard and leaned forward.
“Could it be that we were so wrapped up in each other that we missed it?” I offered because when I thought back to a few weeks ago, if we weren’t sneaking off to the basement, we were sneaking out for an early night. We’d end up in bed here or at his place, or a few times, we just parked in an alley and had sex in his car.
