“The paintings, huh?”
“Will you say no if I said it was for you and not the paintings?”
“Possibly.”
“Then borrow my Range Rover until you can buy a better one yourself.”
“You want me to borrow your car?”
“Not really, I want you to have my car but I’m willing to settle for you borrowing it.”
“Well, since it will make you happy, when do I get the keys?”
“As soon as we get to my place.”
We both laugh, and I still haven’t let go of her. Skye tries to pull away from me and toward her car but I hold on tight.
“Let’s go in my car, we’ll get something to eat on the way to my place.”
“My car’s here, I can’t leave it.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll have someone pick it up. And take it to the wreckers from here.”
“Fine. Let me grab my stuff out of it.”
Isn’t it much better when you trust me? I don’t think it would be a good idea to say that to her though.
Skye grabs an armful of stuff, passing most of it to me.
“Goodbye, piece of crap,” she says, patting the roof.
With an armful of sweaters topped with a pair of sneakers, I lead her to my car.
“It’s a Maserati day, is it?”
“Most days are.”
Her lips twist in thought. “I’m never going to stop fighting for the ninety-nine percent.”
“I don’t expect you to,” I say, grinning. Her smile beams back at me.
We dump her stuff in my car and get in. I rev the engine a few times, just for fun, and we tear out of the parking lot.
“I’m starving. For some reason I didn’t manage to eat much yesterday or today,” Skye says.
I look over at her and smile. “I know just the place.”
We talk freely as we drive and it reconfirms everything I feel about her. She’s not after me for my money. She’s not interested in keeping me happy for fear of losing her free ride. All she wants is me.
And all I want is her.
“What are you doing?” she asks as I pull into the Chicken Chums parking lot.
“You’re hungry, right?”
Skye bursts into a throaty laugh, “You’re so awesome.”
I lean over to kiss her cheek, but she turns her head and our lips connect. Skye’s priceless, and she’s mine. There’s no way I’m ever letting go.
Epilogue
(Skye)
One year later
I’m standing in my new studio, the one I bought all by myself! And even better, I now have three artists working with me to help create my products. Lawson likes to call them my disciples.
Since accepting Lawson’s offer to create paintings for his hotel lobbies, my earnings have gone through the roof. I not only have a whole range in the hotels, but they’ve also converted them into prints, which hang in the hotel bedrooms.
I also sell the prints to the public in a range of quality and price points, so something is affordable to most everyone.
They’ve been snapped up, and hang in college dorms rooms and living room walls across the country.
You can even get them on things like mugs, shower curtains and calendars.
Most lucrative of all, I do limited-edition hand-finished and signed canvas prints of each painting, which I sell for a high four figures a pop.
And the best thing of all? Every single one of my works challenges the concept of the division of wealth in the world. And thousands and thousands have sold.
My message, so core to my being, is getting out. I might not change the world, but I’m trying.
Soon after the day my mother left the voicemail, Lawson flew my parents out to California for a reunion . He even put them up in his newest hotel, so they’d see my paintings every time they went in and out of the hotel.
They loved it, though I’m not sure that was the reason he put them there. I think he was trying to reinforce to them how wrong they’d been not to support me.
Meanwhile, they told everyone who entered the lobby that their daughter was the artist, whether the people were looking at my paintings or not.
Lawson really did run that article on me. My parents provided him with enough stories of me to fill a novel, let alone three pages in a glossy magazine.
As a result, people from all over the world now commission me for private works. Which I do for a mega-large fee, provided I have the time.
It didn’t take much for me to convince Lawson I was glad I lost the Kelso commission.
Kelso was so freaked by Lawson’s anger and threats that he practically begged to settle a few months later. Which Lawson used to his advantage, and got far more out of Kelso than the amount he was originally willing to settle for. Sucker.
“This building is amazing, sweetie,” my dad says as we enter the main area.