Page 54 of Light Up
“Try not to.”
Jefferson came to their table as Tal finished eating. He was carrying champagne. “Congratulations! Your polar bears won!” He put the bottle on the table.
“Thank you,” Tal said.
Corey beamed.
“And runners up, the snowman watching TV.” Jefferson walked across the room to put a box of chocolates on another table. “Congrats to all who took part. Very good efforts.”
Everyone in the room applauded.
“Do you get accolades for your building designs?” Corey asked.
“I’ve won a couple of prizes.”
“You can add award for snow sculpting to your CV. And quite probably biscuit decorating too. The Bingo was a fluke.”
Tal smiled.
“I have a sneaky suspicion that you’re going to be brilliant at painting.” Corey glanced at him. “Ooh, I know that look.”
“Do you?”
“Well, it’s one of two things. You either want to peel off my clothes with your teeth, or go to the painting class and show me how good you are. I’m not sure. It’s hard to tell with you. You’re an enigma.”
Tal took hold of Corey’s hand and his heart stopped. No one had ever held his hand before, except for his parents when he was little. Even if it was under the table and no one could see, when Tal circled his thumb on Corey’s palm, his throat thickened. He wanted Tal comfortable with him so they could talk later.
“I put our names down for line dancing,” Tal said.
“My jaw just hit the table. Did you hear the clunk? Painting, then line dancing? Why did I not see line dancing?”
“Though the peeling thing with my teeth sounds…”
“Why did you stop? Fun? Hard? Frustrating? Not very tasty? Challenging?”
“Yes.”
Corey smiled. “So painting first, then line dancing, then the teeth. Your first lesson in delayed gratification.”
Tal chuckled. “You do make me smile.”
“I’m glad. Do you think it might be painting by numbers? I might manage that.”
“Can you count to ten?”
“Barely.” Corey grinned. “You make me smile too.”
They went straight from dinner to the painting class. The image of a reindeer had been projected onto a wall.
“Grab an apron, take a seat and sketch the reindeer,” said the middle-aged man standing in front of them.
Corey rubbed at his outline so many times, he wore a hole in the paper and had to ask for a new piece. When the instructor moved on to the actual painting part, Corey’s reindeer stilllooked like a five-year-old had drawn it. Legs too long. Back too curved. Belly too big. Face…head…all wrong.
“There’s no point wasting paint on this.” He whined. “It’ll still look terrible.”
Tal put his beautifully drawn reindeer in front of Corey and took his instead. He turned the paper over and in moments managed to do what Corey would never have achieved even if he’d had hours. And tracing paper.
“Did you know reindeer are the only mammals to see ultra-violet light?” Corey asked.
