The camera in my hands click as I press down the button, causing Austin to jump a little. I laugh and look at him, biting my lip as I focus on the painting in front of me, zooming in a little. I click again, blinking as I do so.
"I didn't know you can use an actual camera." He says and I look at him. I sit on the stool and start checking out the pictures.
"I actually took photography in our art class alongside painting, I was the year book kid." I say and his brows shoot up.
"You surprise me a lot, next I hear, you can communicate with Martians." He jokes and I laugh.
"As if, but you my dear friend can only hope." I say in a fake accent and he laughs. I look through the rest of the pictures and nod to myself, choosing the ones that I'd edit.
"So, do you normally do art galleries?" He asks and I look up, standing at the same time. I shake my head and turn back on the black lights, staring at the painting before I walk out. Austin follows behind me, his feet slapping against the floor.
"I don't, this one was for a bet, I lost one to Adam and he said that I had to try it out, I have an art collector that I usually sell them to, but he said that I don't have to give it up, if I don't like the conditions, I can withdraw." I say and he leans against the door of the study room, watching as I connect to the system. I pull out the files and start editing them, the lighting and everything is perfect, I just zoom in a little and when I'm satisfied, I connect it to the printer and start printing it out. I look at Austin and find him already staring at me.
"You're weird and creepy."
"So I've been told." He answers and gives me a crooked smile. I stare only at his face, noticing the small scar on the side of his face, at his temple.
"What happened to your face?" I ask and walk up to him, raising my hands a little. He seems to tense and I look into his eyes, waiting for him to let me touch him.
He stares down at me, looking into my eyes before nodding a little. My hand automatically unfreezes and I reach up a little, the tips of my fingers skimming across the damaged skin.
"What happened here?" I ask as I concentrate on the jagged scar. It looks like it must have hurt. A lot.
He lets out a deep breath, his long lashes fanning across his face as he blinks slowly, looking at me.
"Accident, with Kai, someone tried to kill her." He answers simply, his voice deeper than usual and I look into his eyes, his ocean blue eyes. His breath fans my face lightly and it's then that I realize the position we're in. Our chests are almost touching from how short I am and how close I had to be to reach his face and see it up close.
I know how cliché all this sounds, but trust me, the only thing that kept me from shitting my pants was the thought that someone is right in front of me.
I can't remember the last time I've been this close with someone, was well, with Storm's pet fox. Yes, a fox.
But a fennec fox.
My lips suddenly feel dry and I stick out my tongue to lick them. His eyes travel from my eyes to my lips, his pupils dilating.
Mine flit so quickly from his eyes to his lips, resting there for a while before traveling back, hesitantly to his eyes.
He leans forward, his eyebrows twitching and raising slightly and I narrow my eyes on him. His lips etch upwards and he licks his lips, parting his lips.
"Why don't you go check your picture, shorty?" He asks and I gasp, drawing back my hand to smack his chest but he catches them, smiling a crooked smile.
"What is going on?" I hear a voice ask and I spring away from Austin to stare at Macy standing with a shocked expression on her face.
"Macy! How long have you been standing there?" I ask but deep down, I think I already know the answer.
"Long enough to see that something is definitely going on!" She exclaims and walks up to Austin, glaring him down.
"Why were you touching her?" She asks and I nearly roll my eyes but if she caught me, I don't think A it 11ustin will be remembered.
"Macy it's fine, I don't feel it with him." I say and she freezes, looking at me with wide eyes.
"What?" She asks, clutching my wrists tightly in her grip. I groan and she immediately releases me, shooting me an apologetic look. I nod and look at Austin who is staring at Macy with furrowed brows.
"What do you mean by that? You don't feel it?" She asks and I shrug, nodding as I do. Her brows shoot to the sky and she looks at Austin who is staring at me like I'm the only person in this room.
"Okay, then, well I'll leave you guys to it, you can continue from where you stopped, just pretend I was never here." She rushes out and dashes out of the room.
I shake my head, laughing to myself. I catch Austin looking at me from the side of my eye and I look at him, pulling out the pictures from the printer.
"So, you wanna continue from where we stopped?" He asks and I roll my eyes.
"You think you're so funny don't you?" I ask and he laughs, his eyes squinting. I bite my lip and inspect the pictures.
"Come on, let's go show these to Macy." I say and walk up to him, he nods and we walk out together, him still laughing to himself about something.
When we reach the living room space, I see Macy and Adam cuddling, talking softly about something to each other. Macy smiles and leans in, pecking Adam slightly on the lips before pulling away. He shakes his head and grabs her, leaning in. But me being me, I decide to cut in.
"As much as I absolutely love the both of you, I think I'm going to barf if I see a full on make out." I say and Macy rolls her eyes, turning to look at me. They brighten and she immediately detaches herself from Adam and runs up to me.
"Did you pick up from where you left off?" She asks, her tone full of excitement. I glare at her and slap her hands away.
"No, and there was nothing going on, go back to cuddling with your man chick." I say and she laughs, not even caring that I called her husband a man chick.
"Babe, you really left me for that dufus?" Adam whines and I glare at him.
"Don't be jealous that my relationship with your wife is stronger than yours." I retort and he gasps.
"I refuse to share my wife with you! You're not man enough." He accuses and I roll my eyes.
"Please, I still have the video of you chickening out when I got my tattoos." I say and he clamps his mouth shut. I catch Austin staring at us with amusement and I eye him.
"What are you laughing about?" I ask and he shakes his head.
"Nothing." He replies, looking back at Adam with that smile on his face.
"Hey, you must be the writer that my wife has been fawning over all day huh? Nice to meet you, I'm that rhinoceros' best friend, but I'm not sure I'm the only one." He says, eyeing Macy. I roll my eyes at him and Austin laughs.
"Yeah, I've heard about you from April." He says and I furrow my brows. Do I talk in my sleep?
"Oh, all the good things I suppose?"
"Pfft, there is no good thing about you." I say and walk up to him, sitting on the couch next to him.
"Macy, come check out the pictures for the gallery." I say and she runs up to my side, plucking some of the pictures from my hands. I roll my eyes and give the rest to Adam, looking at the ones in Macy's hands.
"Ap, these are too good for the gallery, are you sure you still want to do this?" Adam asks, looking at me with furrowed brows.
"Of course not! I lost the bet to you and you pretty much made me swear that I was going to do it!" I yell and he smiles at me.
"I may or may not have been out of it." He says and I gape at him, blinking so furiously.
"What?" I ask in a calm voice that almost scares me. His eyes widen and he stands up, holding his hand out for Macy to take it.
She gingerly puts the pictures down and takes his hand, standing up and grabbing her bag while she does so. I stare at them as they smile nervously at me.
"Um, all I have to say is that you really don't have to submit it to the gallery, it was drunk Adam talking so, yeah!" He says and runs out of the house and I surprised myself by sitting calmly on the couch staring at them as they leave.
I hear the car engine rev and the screeching tires as they zoom out of the driveway. I awkwardly smile at the door and bite my lip, not knowing how to release the suspecting calm.
"Um, April? Are you okay?" Austin asks and I look at him and smile.
"I'm surprisingly calm so I'm thinking that should be a good thing?" I say and he nods, not looking too convinced.
I grab the pictures and place them on the table, walking into the kitchen to grab a fruit cup.
I pull out my phone from my pocket and unlock it, dialing Lola because I don't think I can risk my eardrums and call Temi.
She picks up after the second ring and I put it on speaker.
"Yeppers?" She calls into the phone and I roll my eyes.
"Turns out Adam was drunk so I don't have to submit to the gallery anymore." I say and I hear Storm's laugh from the background. Is she at the party?
"Woah, and you're not breathing hard?" She asks and I resist the urge to roll my eyes again, they might just fall out.
"I'm surprised about how calm I'm taking this. Is Storm there with you?" I see Austin grab a bottle of water and open the cap.
"Yep, he picked me up and took me to this his niece's birthday party, seems super happy about something." She says and I hear another roar of laughter.
"Cool, can you tell Temi the great but sad news? I don't want to risk my fragile heart and eardrums. June has already damaged my heart enough, don't want my ears following suit." I say and she laughs, calling out a yes before Storm calls for her, sounding very whiny.
"Go take care of your hormonal boyfriend." I say and she curses at me, before the line goes dead.
"Oh can I feel the love!" I yell and Austin laughs. I dial May but it says busy so I call June, she always answers my calls.
"Hey, what's up?" She asks when she answers.
"I don't have to submit to the gallery again, Adam was drunk." I say and she barks out a laugh.
"If you're this calm, he should expect a flat tire and duct tape keeping him to the wall by next weekend." She says and I laugh.
"Okay, I gotta go, my shoot is next." She says and I throw another fruit into my mouth.
Next week, and being vegetarian will be over.
"Kay, bye." I say but she doesn't even reply, hanging up on me.
"There's definitely love today." I call and look up at Austin, seeing him watching me from behind that bottle. He raises a brow and pulls the bottle away, nodding towards my phone.
"I'm calling my assistant." She answers almost immediately and I know that something is wrong.
"Mia, what happened?" I ask and she laughs nervously. I hear sirens and someone calling for her to move back.
"My kitchen is on fire." She laughs and I close my eyes, shaking my head.
"I left you for an hour Mia, an hour, how did that happen so fast?" More yelling in the background.
"I was cooking something and I started craving ice cream so I went out to get some, and when I came back, they'd already called the firefighters." She says and I hear her whine about how her ice cream is melting.
"I'm really not surprised, is your house going to be okay?" I ask and she chirps a yes into the phone and I can almost see her rocking on her feet.
"Well, your files aren't destroyed or anything right?" I ask and she pauses.
"Oh, it's not the town house, it's the country house, you know, the one where nothing apart from silence is?" She asks and I roll my eyes, understanding why she was so normal about it.
"Phew, well, we aren't going to the gallery again, Adam was drunk so the only thing you need to do is get in contact with my collector again."
"Of course, I'll get right on it." She says and I for the first time today, hang up the phone. Does it feel nice.
"So, your assistant is an interesting person," Austin starts and I laugh.
"Yeah, no kidding."
My phone starts to ring and I look at the caller ID.
Le gasp!
The audacity!