"I went there to get your car for you." She doesn't need to know I went there to keep her away from Kelso.
"Well, I got it myself. I'm a big girl."
"As long as Kelso didn't do anything to you."
"No, he just talked some shit and I left."
I try to urge her down the hallway, or at least away from the entrance, but she doesn't budge.
"Sunshine, are you okay?" I reach out and take her hands in mine.
"You and Kelso are real rivals, aren't you?" She takes her hands away and folds them across her chest.
"I hate the bastard."
"You'd do anything to hurt him, huh?"
"Hell yes."
"Including screwing the chick who's working for him in his own bed."
"What? No. That was all your fault, seeing you and that painting, I couldn't contain myself."
"Uh huh."
"Come on, you can't seriously think that."
"This is what I think: I think I'm a pathetic little pawn caught in the middle of a pissing match of two billionaires."
I slam the side of my fist against the open door, causing a loud bang. Skye flinches.
"For fuck's sake, Skye, that's insane."
"Oh, oh, I see. I have the guts to say what's so obviously happening, and that makes me insane."
"I never said you were insane, I said the idea was. There's a big difference."
"Whatever. How else do you explain whatever's going on between you and Kelso? The two of you treat me like a toy you're fighting over in the sandbox."
"Where are you getting this? Did Kelso fill you with these ideas?"
This is fucking bullshit. I'll be damned if I let that asshole fuck over my relationship. Part of me wants to drive right back over there and do what I should've done this morning: beat his face in.
"I think I'm smart enough to see it on my own, thank you."
"That's absurd. Think about it, I didn't even know you worked there when I met you."
"I know that! But once you found out, you turned it into another opportunity to get at him."
"You know what I think? I think that asshole is fucking me over right now. He's filled you full of ideas, because he knows it'll fuck over my relationship with the only woman I've ever cared about."
Skye's chin is quivering. She squeezes her eyes shut and opens them again, blinking like crazy to wash her tears away.
"I can't do it."
"Do what?" My throat is so tight I struggle to get the words out.
"This. Us. We're too different. I'm not from your world. I don't belong in it any more than you belong in mine."
"For fuck's sake, Skye, enough with the different worlds bullshit." I'm struggling to contain myself now. I always control myself. Always. Part of me knows I should get out of here now, go and calm down and then come back. But Skye's so upset, I can't bear the thought of leaving her like this.
"It's not bullshit! You have no idea how important that job at Kelso's was to me. And now I've lost it, all because you didn't take it seriously."
"Hey, I didn't make you take your clothes off yesterday. If I remember right, you didn't object to the idea for one second. And you sure as hell weren't complaining by the end."
Her cheeks turn the color of her puffy eyes. For a moment a coy smile almost graces her face, but not quite.
Skye swallows, and says, "It was a momentary lapse in judgement."
"I don't think it was a lapse at all. I think it was the best way I've ever spent a morning."
"It cost me my first commission and my dream."
I smirk. "You were painting a pussy, is that really your dream?"
"It was only one painting of ten! Plus he was funding a gallery showing. Now I've lost the commission and the show, because of you."
"I would love to fund a show for you. Not because you're sleeping with me, but because you're talented."
She shakes her head. "No. It's best if I don't wrap myself up in your life anymore than I already have."
"Listen to me. The reality is, I'm going to crush Kelso in the courts. When I get through with him, he won't have money left over to pay for gallery shows."
"That sounds an awful lot like a pissing contest to me."
I close my eyes. My heart is racing and my throat feels like I'm being strangled. I'm not even sure what's going on.
"My issues with Kelso are nothing to do with you. Why can't you see that?"
"Stop."
"No I will not stop. Why can't you see how much you mean to me?"
"I'm just another poor person you think you can order around and use."
"You know what I think it is? I think you don't want to see it. Fuck, twenty four hours ago your toes were curled from my touch, and now all of a sudden you want me to leave?"
"Go. Leave. Now." She pushes me towards the door. She's using all her strength and I don't want to physically resist her.
"What's wrong with you, Skye? Why do you keep making shit up in your head?"
I cross the threshold and she slams the door shut, and the bolt snaps a second later. My entire body is numb.
"Let me back in, let me talk to you," I say, pounding on the door.
There's nothing, only silence.
Defeated, I drag my feet to my car and sit in it. In my daze, I can't even turn the engine on. The only place I want to go is back inside with Skye.
I try sending a text.
Talk to me
-Leave me alone, I have to get on with my life
I need you in my life
-I don't belong in your life
The door doesn't open again, even after twenty minutes. Reluctantly, I switch my car on. In the slowest speed any Maserati has ever gone, I back out of the driveway.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Becoming Taylor Swift (Skye)
Tears burst from my eyes as I bury my face in my pillow. After I send the text to Lawson, I turn my phone off. I don't want to read his messages. And I certainly don't want to speak to him on the phone.
My heart is crushing in my chest, enough that I worry I might actually die. If this is what it feels like to break up with someone, then I'm glad I didn't date in high school or college. This pain is unbearable.
I'm so angry for allowing myself to date someone like Lawson. I should've known from the start that it was a bad idea. What is someone like me, a poor artist, ever going to offer a billionaire? It could only ever end in nothing but heartache for me.
How could I let myself get in the middle of Lawson and Kelso? To be a stupid little pawn in their billionaire game?
Lesson learned. From now on, I will stay far away from anyone who isn't like me. If I can't find a poor, starving artist I can identify with, then I'd rather be alone.
But that doesn't make the pain that I'm feeling right now hurt any less.
Lying on my bed is only making things worse. There's nothing to distract me, and right now I need to be distracted.
I drag my feet down the hall into my studio. The earring in the tree painting is still waiting to be finished. Gordon is pressuring me for more paintings to sell, and I can easily get this finished by the end of the day for him.
After preparing all my paints and putting on my smock, I stand in front of the painting.
Nothing.
I try sitting down in front of the painting.
Still nothing.
This isn't something I've experienced before. It's a complete absence of any feeling other than hurt and pain. I can't bring myself to touch the painting like this, I'd ruin it.
I sit for a few moments, staring at the painting and looking around the room. Tears are about to start flowing again but I bite them back.
Without thinking, I spring from my seat and set the mostly finished painting in the next room. I set three fresh, blank canvases on the three easels and pick up my brush.
If ever I had a need for an outlet, this is it.
Fueled with hurt, anger and pain, I fling paint at the canvases. I scrape blacks and browns and blues over them, each color a representation of my emotion.
My arms work furiously, not caring if the paint lands on the canvas, floor or wall. Even the windows become flecked with paint.
I'm busy chucking reds at the canvases when Ava opens the door.
"What's happening? I'd think you were taking your painting in a new direction, but the look on your face tells a different story."
My tears had drained ages ago, but I'm sure their streaks still stain my face.
"I broke up with Lawson." My voice is flat, monotonous. As if the three new paintings sucked up anything that was left of my soul.
"Oh honey, I'm sorry."
Ava moves across the room and stands at my side. She puts her arms up to hug me before taking them away again. I look down at myself, there's as much paint on me as there is on the canvases.
"I lost my commission, and Lawson doesn't even care," I say, my voice descending until I'm blubbering by the time I finish. I wipe my eyes on the backs of my hands, smearing fresh paint on my cheeks.
"That's terrible, you lost the commission at the mansion?"
"Yes. Kelso and Lawson knew each other. They're rivals, and Lawson used me to get at Kelso." I'm not sure how much of that she understands, given how difficult it must be to make out the words between my sobs.