Just a Sketch
By A.J. Marcus
Leo Caldwell’s life can be summed up in two words: ho hum. His job at a tech-support call center offers little in the way of excitement and outside of spending time with his two best friends, Felix and Julie, his social life is nonexistent. When Felix decides it’s time for the three of them to try something new to spice things up, they go all out… and take a drawing class at the local library.
But that’s when everything changes. Leo meets Aud Sorenson, owner of Bright Thoughts Gallery and resident art teacher at the library. When Aud gets to know Leo and his friends, he feels an instant connection with the cute and geeky Leo and asks him to pose for a sketch.
As sparks fly between them, Aud discovers he has a stalker who’s willing to do anything he can to make sure Aud is his and his alone. Aud and Leo hope their blossoming feelings will be enough to see them through the chaos that erupts around them.
To Deb Ross. Thanks for the very interesting drawing class that inspired this book while at the same time reminded me that I need to leave drawing to artistic people and keep my creative endeavors to writing and photography. At least I made nice refrigerator art.
1
LEO CALDWELL glanced at the clock on his phone. Four fifty. Too early to log out and get ready to go home. He crossed his fingers as he hit the button to accept his next call hoping it wouldn’t be a long one. One hour and thirty-three minutes later, the call finished and he was able to hang up and log out.
Someone cleared her throat right behind him. “Leo,” said his boss, Chenquiqua Williams, “Sugar, we’ve talked about these long calls you always manage to get on right before it’s time for you to go. You’ve got to stop this. I know the customers like you. You get things done and solve their problem. But if you keep this up, HR is going to be breathing down my neck about budget, and that won’t be pretty.”
“Sorry, Chenquiqua.” Leo put his headset in his desk and locked the drawer. “I was really hoping this one would be a short call.”
“Sugar, your calls are never short. Your call handle time is the longest in the center. We need to find a way to balance that with your customer satisfaction scores. We’ll talk about this more tomorrow. You’ve also just cost me an extra two hours in child care. Go.” She turned and stomped off.
Leo’s shoulders dropped as he picked up his backpack and headed for the breakroom. His best friend and carpool buddy, Felix Sanders, was waiting for him. The credits on the evening news rolled as Leo walked into the small room that perpetually smelled of burned popcorn and Hot Pockets.
“You better hope we’re not late for class tonight,” Felix said, slipping his Kindle into his backpack.
“Class.” Leo smacked himself in the forehead. “I completely forgot about that art class you signed us up for. Doesn’t it start at seven?”
Felix walked past him and out the door. “It does, which means we don’t have much time to get there.”
“We can skip it if you want.” Leo fell into step beside Felix.
Felix stopped and glared at Leo through his dark bangs. “No, we’re not skipping this class. It might not be much, but you and I both need to get out more. We’ve become nothing more than cubicle rats who go to work, go home, drink beer, and repeat. We’re going. If either one of us ever wants to have a social life, we’ve got to take a few steps on that path.”
Leo kept strolling toward the door. “Okay. I guess we have to wait until after the class for dinner.”
“Yeah, thanks to your being so damn helpful. But I had a Snickers bar out of the machine a few minutes ago.” He handed Leo a candy bar. “I figured you could use one too.”
With a broad smile, Leo took the snack. “Thanks. I really don’t deserve a good friend like you.”
“And don’t forget that. So what was the problem tonight?”
“Same ol’ thing.” Cool wind hit him as Leo held the door into the parking lot open for Felix. “She couldn’t get her computer to boot properly. The call came in ten minutes before five.”
“You know you could’ve just transferred her to someone else.”
“There are too many people who take the easy route out and do stuff like that. I hate it when people do it to me, and I don’t like doing it to other people.”
“Leo, you’re too nice, even to people you don’t know.” Felix pulled out his keys and pushed the button to unlock his yellow Honda Accord. “Some people would see that as a character flaw.”
“I know. People like bad boys.” Leo settled into the passenger seat after swinging his backpack into the backseat. “I’m sorry, I just don’t have much bad boy in me.”