up to me while holding a menu card in her hands.

With a smile, I ask, “Can I sit anywhere? I need some good food.”

She grins. “Of course. Since the lunch rush hasn’t yet come through, you can choose a seat.” Glancing around, I note a small table in the corner, which I make a beeline for and settle in. She sets the menu down and tells me, “We have a special, French toast with avocado and bacon today. Other than that, the menu has all our options.”

“Thank you. Can I get a coffee in the meantime?”

With a nod, she leaves me to peruse the food items, each one sounding better than the last. By the time my drink arrives, I decide on the special of the day and sit back to sip the strong black coffee and stare out the window.

Tomorrow, I start my new job, and I know I have to impress the man who’s given me a chance. Even though he looks like he needs a lot more than just someone who can run his gallery.

From the disheveled appearance that greeted me at the door, I think he needs to realize that life moves on. I can’t believe he would be in that state because of his father’s passing. It’s been years, which begs the question, has he been in such deep depression for that long, or is it something else?

Even though I know I should stay out of it, my curiosity burns. I want to delve deeper and find out what makes him tick, and more so, what makes him act like a grumpy old man.

The moment the thought appears in my mind, I try to push it back, but it doesn’t relent. Did he lose a girlfriend or wife? Nothing that I found in the articles stated he was married. But he’s so private about his life; he could’ve had someone special, and nobody would’ve known.

I know what Phoebe would say. She’d convince me to find out all I can. And she’d most probably tell me I should be the one to bring him out of his funk. Rolling my eyes, I dig into my brunch and try to focus on the delicious flavors of the food instead of thinking about my new boss.

I need to remain professional.

Chapter 5

Julian

How is it that it’s been a whole day, and all that’s been on my mind is the strange girl with the black and purple hair? She’s nothing like the women I usually bring home, and she’s definitely far too young for me, but her pretty face has been emblazoned on my brain since I shut the door in it early this morning.

I shouldn’t have been rude, but my head was spinning, pounding painfully at the reminder of the bottle of bourbon I’d finished the night before. But even as I moved through my day, with every twist and turn, raven hair with wild purple strands and wide eyes captured me. And now I find myself in front of the easel that had eluded me for so long. I wanted to capture her, but not just her face. I craved to snag her essence and drench the canvas with it.

Picking up the brush, I hold onto the palette and allow the splashes of color to hit the pristine white fabric in swathes of black and purple. Deep blues and dark reds, vibrant and alluring. I move quickly, lost in the art. It doesn’t take long for me to find myself breathless, and the moment I still all movement, I look at the once blank, taunting canvas and see a creation that stops my heart.

It’s been so long since I’ve seen anything creative from my hand. But what I’ve done is breathtaking. My heart is thudding so loudly it’s deafening, and I drop the brush and palette on the floor. The splatter of paint bounces around the silence of the room, and it grabs my attention. But nothing can deter me right now. All I see is black. The darkness I was always so afraid of is right in front of me.

My phone shrieks from the other room, the ringing dancing in the darkened house, and as I make my way through to the living room, I still feel as if I’ve just had an out-of-body experience.

“Yeah?” I answer, knowing Eli is going to have my ass for my grouchiness.

“What the fuck crawled up your ass?” he bites out, causing me to chuckle.

Sighing, I head into the kitchen. “I’ve been working.”

“You have?” The shock in his tone speaks volumes. He knows how much I’ve been struggling with my art, and for me to say I’ve been working is not something even I thought I’d be doing.

I can’t stop grinning when I think about the painting I just finished. I’ll need to add a few finishing touches to it, but the imagery came from nowhere. “I have. Somehow, I found inspiration.”

“And this has nothing to do with a woman?” he asks. The curiosity in his tone forces me to still before I pull a bottle of beer from the fridge. An image of the pretty girl flashes in my mind, but I shake it off quickly.

“Why would it have anything to do with a woman?”

“Don’t sound so snarky,” he taunts. “It was an innocent question.”

“Nothing is innocent when it comes to you and questions about my love life,” I tell him, but the moment the words are out of my mouth, I want to pull them back.

“Now you have a love life?” This time, he guffaws, which only has me gripping the neck of the bottle even tighter. I’m being an idiot. I put my foot right in that one.

“Is there something you wanted, Eli?” I snap back, hoping he’ll drop the subject because I don’t want to talk about her right now. About the woman who’s going to be at my door bright and early tomorrow. About the woman who’s been on my mind all fucking

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