“He enjoyed it?” the old man asked, his cane clicking against the ground as he approached.
“He did, but his pride won’t let him admit I’m amazing,” she answered.
Oh god. “Aren’t you supposed to be humble?”
“I’ll work on it.”
“If you don’t mind, can I steal her away now?” Mr. D’Amour cut in.
I nodded. “Please do, I need a break. I’ll see you.” I waved, heading toward the exit. Only when the summer breeze hit my face did I think back on what I'd just done.
I’ll see you? Waving? When had we advanced to doing that? I could hardly believe I had spent two hours alone with her, on top of the time we had already spent together.
Apparently we were friends now.
Guinevere
Waving back as Eli left, Mr. D’Amour wrapped his hand around mine, walking slowly with me through the rest of the gallery that had not yet been set up.
“This is your best work yet, Lady Guinevere.” He stopped in front of the blank wall, watching as his crew lifted my painting gently, almost like it was a child. He looked grateful for the amount of care they took with it.
“You always say that, Mr. D’Amour.” I smiled.
“Of course. If I didn’t say it, that would mean you are getting worse. That is one of the goals for an artist, to make each work better than the last.”
“I’m not sure if I try to make each work better.” Some days it all looked like an absolute mess with no rhyme or reason behind it.
“Are you all right?”
“Huh?” I glanced back down at him. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”
He frowned, stroking his beard. “I said, are you all right? I heard about the end of your engagement, Guinevere, and have not seen you since then. So once again, my dear, are you all right?”
How many people have heard about it? I tried to smile, but for some reason I couldn’t fake it with him, and I couldn’t handle looking at his face either. I just stared at the wall as I made us keep walking. “I’m sorry for disappearing while you were setting all of this up. I…I forgot. The only reason I came to the city was my art. When I first got here, it was all I cared about, all I wanted. And now I’m opening another gallery, and it’s so beautiful. I feel I’ve come so far, and yet for some reason, I can’t feel the way I dreamt I would. I want to be completely over everything that happened and never think about it again. I don’t want it to affect me. When do you think that will happen?”
“Your heart broke, Guinevere. There is no way to fast-forward or avoid the pain. You must accept that first before you can heal. You and your art will be better for it. If you don’t believe me, there are a billion songs all about it.”
I laughed. He was right, because the more I thought about the last few weeks, the more I realized I was able to laugh.
I had forgotten that just because your heart breaks doesn’t mean the world comes to an end. I wasn’t better. I didn’t think I would be better for a while, but I wasn’t horrible either, which made me sort of proud.
Chapter Six
Baptism By Fire
Eli
“Look to your right,” I told the little girl with a bright pink bow tied in her hair as she sat in front of me. She wasn’t sure which way I meant, so I nodded my head to her right.
Grinning, she nodded, her brown eyes shifting.
“Now look to your left. Okay, thank you Molly. You have pretty eyes.”
“I get them from my mommy,” she replied happily.
I would have called her father a lucky man, but he only seemed more depressed at her words. “My interns here will draw some blood from you while I talk to your dad, okay? If it hurts, tell me, and I’ll make sure they go back to school.”
“Wait, what?” one of the interns whispered behind me.
I nodded to her father to follow me outside.
“Is she all right?” he asked as soon as I closed the door.
“Mr. Wesley, how long has Molly’s eye been twitching like that?”
“I’m not sure. I might have noticed it a week or two ago? It was only after she rubbed it, and not often, so I just thought it was an infection or something.”
“Has she been sick? Vomiting at all, or complaining about headaches?”
He nodded. “She just got over the flu last week. Dr. Davenport, what is it? We only came in for her shots.”
“I’m not sure, and I don’t want to make you panic before I know anything concrete. We will do a full workup, and the second I know for sure what’s going on with her, I will let you know. And I’ll make sure to rush it—no kid should spend their birthday surrounded by doctors.” I tried to smile for his sake.
“Dr. Davenport, we’re done,” said one of my interns.
Dr…oh whatever, like I was going to remember who the intern was. I just knew him as Four Eyes; the glasses he wore made his eyes look almost cartoonish. “They’re done, all right?” I said, walking to where the child waited. “Molly, did it hurt? Point at which one has to go back to school.”