Mr. Imperfect

chapter 35



Was it wrong when your own creation kind of turned you on?

It was a mental dilemma Rori tried not to think too hard about as she stepped back and regarded her sculpture. There would only be three sculptures in her entire show, and the other two were much more innocent. But this one?

Damn.

That was Rori’s only thought, right after, Did I really make this?

From its profile it looked like a lopsided heart with smaller side overlaying the larger one at the base. It was only when you moved around it that you saw that the shape was formed by two pairs of hips locked together. No genitals showed, but that kind of made it hotter to know that the man was hip-deep in the woman as the two strained to become one. The sculpture wasn’t even close to complete and it already had an impact on Rori. In her mind it was impossible not imagine how the rest of those two bodies would be positioned based on the hips—to imagine the expressions on their faces, the way their hands gripped each other.

Rori turned away, surprised to find herself so affected. Maybe it was time to take a break—to work on the butterfly painting or maybe the flower girl one with Mike.

She bit her lip, debating for the thousandth time whether to call Mike and officially request his permission to use the picture as a model. It was a professional courtesy, even if she knew him well enough to know what his answer would be.

She should still ask. In person. On the phone. Not via text or some lame Facebook post. Manners were manners. He’d been able to call her and keep things professional, now she needed to prove herself capable of the same.

Rori glanced at the clock. It was 1:00 a.m., which meant it was 11:00 p.m. in Mike’s time zone. He might even be asleep. Then she could leave a message and all would be right in the world.

Before she could talk herself out of it, Rori picked up her phone, found Mike’s number, and pressed Send. If he answered, she would just—

“Hello?”

For a moment after hearing his voice, Rori froze, and before she could stop them her eyes darted over to the sculpture. Then she blinked and turned away from it. “Hi. I, uh, wasn’t sure I’d get you this late. Thought you might have an early morning.”

“Not this time,” Mike said, his sexy voice sounding relaxed. “No filming for the next two days so I’m out in the desert doing time-lapse shots.”

“Sounds interesting,”

“Well, I don’t want to jinx myself, but I’m getting some sweet shots here. Definitely sell-able. But to what do I owe the honor of your call?”

“Professional courtesy,” she blurted before pausing awkwardly.

“Yeah?” he prompted.

“I, uh, was looking through some of your shots on Facebook and found some images that I would like to model pieces after. They won’t be literal, in most cases, but still. I thought it best to ask your permission before moving forward.”

“Of course,” he said. “I’m honored. Use whatever you need.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

This was the part where she should say ‘bye’—the end of the professional part of the conversation. And yet she was hesitating.

“How are your pieces coming?” he asked. “You stressing out yet?”

“Not totally,” she said. “I’m probably at about a seven on the stress scale right now. It helps that I’m not short on ideas. The trouble will be editing the options down into a cohesive show.”

Like he cared about that. She was totally rambling.

“Oh, I totally get that,” he said. “That pretty much sums up my daily dilemma: editing six hours of footage into a dynamic thirty-minute video. It can get pretty cutthroat.”

“Indeed,” she said, not envying him. “My cuts won’t be quite so dramatic, but they always sting nonetheless.”

“It sounds like you have a good theme.”

“I think so,” she said, glancing at the sculpture again. “It’s a study in connection.”

“Nice. And ambitious. I look forward to it.”

For a moment she panicked. Mike was going to see the sculpture. And damn if imagining him looking at it didn’t have her turned on all over again. “I hope you like it. It’s a bit different than what I usually do.”

“Different is good.”

“Or a disaster,” she amended. “With art it’s usually one or the other.”

“And either extreme is better than just plain ol’ boring.”

She laughed outright. “Touché.”

The conversation had reached another stopping point, and for a moment there was an awkward pause. One her subconscious apparently decided to fill.

“So are you out in the desert with anyone?”

He hesitated. “Like a date?”

She blushed. “Or a buddy, or someone who can go for help if you get trapped by a boulder or something?”

“No buddy, although I did text Kris my GPS coordinates, so she knows where I am if I don’t return on schedule.”

“Oh. Well, that’s better than nothing, I guess.”

“I do it all the time,” he said dismissively. “I’ve been coming down to Southern Utah since I was a kid. It’s like my backyard.”

So no girlfriend? Rori had no idea where the question came from, but she barely stopped herself from asking it. It didn’t matter if he was dating someone. She wouldn’t let it matter.

“It’s okay,” he said softly. “You can ask.”

Ask? “Ask what?” Had he read her mind?

“About Luke,” he said carefully. “And Kris. I can tell you’re holding back a question.”

Well, if that’s how he wanted to interpret her awkwardness, Rori was more than happy to go along with it. “Are they happy?”

“Yeah,” he said gently. “They are. I hope that doesn’t hurt you to hear, but at the same time, I’m pretty sure they would still be dancing around each other if it weren’t for you.”

“No, I’m happy for them,” she said honestly. “And while Luke would have made a great husband, I’ve already made arrangements with my matchmaker for a man that will fit the bill just as well. I’m glad that Luke and Kris can build on a lifelong relationship. I think they’ll be happy together.”

“Yeah,” Mike said, his voice suddenly much more stiff. “I’m starting to see that, too. I think I’m the last to see it, but that’s not a first.”

“On the contrary, you seem like a man who picks up on things rather quickly.”

“Nah,” he said. “No more than any other guy.”

Something was wrong. Somewhere in the past ten seconds something had shifted between them, and Rori wasn’t sure what. More than that, she wasn’t sure why she cared so much.

“Oh, wow. I just got a great shot,” he said out of the blue.

“Yeah? Wish I could see it.”

He hesitated. “Well, you could. I could post it to Facebook.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, but I would need to get off the phone with you first.”

“Sure. No problem. We’re done anyway.” Or were they?

“Cool. Well, watch my wall then. You should see it pop up in a minute or so, and then you’ll see the view I’m looking at tonight.”

“Sounds good. It was good talking with you.”

“And you,” he said. “Always good to hear your voice.”

Okay, it was just outright stupidity that her heart fluttered at that. “You, too. Bye.”

“Bye.”

An instant later he was gone and Rori was staring at her phone. “Why do I feel like I just got ditched?”

No one answered her, of course, and after a moment of telling herself all the reasons she shouldn’t care enough to try to answer the question herself, she pulled Mike’s profile up on her phone. Sure enough, thirty seconds later a picture popped up.

A perfect picture unlike anything she’d seen—and that was saying a lot.

In the foreground was the entrance to cave. Beyond that entrance lay a scene so picturesque she would have sworn it was Photoshopped. The next layer was a redrock arch, its color somehow visible in the night, but the real star of the picture was the sky. The stars—so many stars. And a cloudy mist that went from the top of the frame all the way to the horizon line. She’d never seen the Milky Way look so clear and even multi-colored.

So this was what Mike Cannon did on his day off?

Rori took a slow breath, and decided she was probably better off not knowing as little as possible when it came to Mike Cannon. If she had met him a few years earlier things would have been different. She would be seducing him and telling herself that their common ground was greater than everything else. She would convince herself to give him a shot.

But no. Rori had been there and done that. She knew how everything played out because she had lived it. Multiple times. The phase of her life where she wasted time on common men with seemingly good hearts was over. In the end the money always got in the way. One way or another the relationship couldn’t survive.

So why even start?

Rori had learned her lesson the hard way. Chasing after men like Mike led to heartbreak and regret. And why deal with that when you had a sure thing on its way?

Putting her phone down, Rori walked over to a fresh canvas and got to work.