“Good. They are both habitually late. If they weren’t so charming, I wouldn’t put up with them.” She moved her purse and sat down.
Aud handed out drawing paper and packs of colored pencils to everyone there and left two extra stacks of supplies for the brunette’s friends.
He was about ready to start when two men appeared in the doorway. They both looked a bit frantic, but the shorter one, with auburn hair and wire-rimmed glasses, was fairly cute.
“You two are right on time,” he said.
The cute one stared at him as they walked over to sit next to the brunette. But he slipped or something as he went to sit and ended up sprawled on the floor.
Aud rushed around the table. “Are you okay?” He held out his hand to help the man up.
A deep blush came over his pale face as he straightened his glasses. His hand quivered slightly as it closed on Aud’s. “I think so.”
“He’s just a bit clumsy,” said the other man as he straightened the fallen chair.
The woman sighed and shook her head.
Less than a minute later, they had everyone in their seats and Aud was back at his place in front of the flip chart. “I guess this is going to be it. If we have a few stragglers, I can catch them up without too much trouble. Before we start, let’s get some names. I’m your instructor, Aud Sorenson. You can find me down in Old Colorado City at the Bright Thoughts Gallery. I have a bachelor’s degree in art. I’ve been an artist for ten years.” He gestured to the first woman to come in. “If you’re not comfortable with more than a name, that’s fine. But if you want to tell us a bit about why you’re here, that would be awesome.”
“Hi, I’m Mindy. My husband thinks I need a hobby, so I want to try my hand at drawing.” She dropped silent.
Aud looked at the brunette woman.
“Hi, I’m Julie.” She glanced at the two men who’d come in together. “Felix feels we all need to get out more, so he thought this would be interesting.”
The taller, darker man sighed. “Hi, I’m Felix. Julie kinda explained it all. This has got to be better than sitting around the house, right?”
“I hope so,” Aud said and looked at the cute guy with the glasses.
He pushed his glasses up in an obviously nervous habit. “Hi, I’m Leo. Like Julie said, this was all Felix’s idea, but since I’ve already made a complete ass of myself, I’d like to be excused.”
Aud shook his head. “You didn’t make an ass of yourself. So the chair slipped. It happens all the time. Those chairs are fairly flimsy. They are always dumping things on the floor.” Aud tried to give Leo his best reassuring look.
“I’m also not great at drawing.” Leo looked away from Aud and down at his paper.
“Maybe we can change that.” Aud forced his gaze from Leo to the last two women in the class. The more Aud studied Leo, the cuter he was, and the unease just made him that much more attractive. He wasn’t ruggedly handsome like Randal Hudspeth was, but he had a geeky, awkward sexiness to him.
Once everyone introduced themselves, Aud started his lesson on basic drawing. As things progressed, like they had done in previous classes, various people in the class showed different levels of aptitude. It was all Aud could do not to spend all his time with Leo, lending as much help as he could, but he forced himself to assist the other attendees too. From little things he observed, it looked like he and Felix were just friends. By the time they were done, the pictures of butterflies everyone had drawn ranged in style from frameable to basic refrigerator art. Leo’s fell into the latter category, but he’d at least tried.
Aud made his customary suggestions on where to find art supplies if anyone was interested in continuing their journey into creativity once their time was up. By then he wanted to try to see Leo some more. It had been years since he’d felt like he needed to trick someone into spending time with him, but he thought it was worth a shot.
As Leo, Felix, and Julie gathered their papers together, Aud walked over. “Leo, can I ask you a question?”
Leo blinked and an adorable confused look crossed his face. “Sure.” The way his brows knit together while his nose scrunched up endeared him to Aud and made Aud hope to see more of Leo.
“Would you mind posing for a sketch for me?” Aud asked. He knew he’d love to try to catch the soft sexiness he saw in Leo, so it wasn’t exactly a trick.
“Me?” Leo looked shocked. “What kind of posing?”
“You have a very expressive face. I’d like to try to capture it on canvas.” Aud began working out where he’d like Leo to pose and in what light to make the most of his features.
Leo glanced at Felix and Julie, who both made little gestures like they were trying to send him toward Aud.
“How much time are we talking about?” Leo asked.