"Jeremy is a sculptor. He is up and coming, but I have seen some of his pieces. I am certain that pretty soon his name will be known throughout the world," Those had been Stella's exact words when describing Eve's upcoming date. That had intrigued her enough to go online and search for him. Having to admit after seeing pictures of the man's work that Stella was absolutely right.
There was something in the way that he handled whatever media he used, be it clay, wood, or any other material that gave a sense of intimacy to the whole thing.
Whether the subject was living or an inanimate object, you could tell that he put a lot of effort into it. Just from seeing his work. Eve had come to like the man even before she met him.
Her belief being that someone so talented had to be worth knowing. For the first time since the whole blind date thing had begun, she had gone into a date feeling enthusiastic. When Jeremy had come in, the hope in her heart had unfurled fully.
Not only was he talented, he was easy on the eyes too. And when they actually got down to talking, Eve found herself hanging off his every word. It was always nice talking to a fellow creative.
The two of them spent the majority of the dinner bouncing ideas off each other. Debating on the benefits of various media, and how using them affected the final product. Given the nature of her business, Eve had dabbled a bit in sculpting. She was not at Jeremy's level and most likely never would be, but she was good enough at it to have a few insights.
It was a very enthralling talk and Eve was not looking to escape at all. Instead she was even searching for reasons why she and Jeremy should be in each other's presence for longer. At least that had been the case until right after their dessert had arrived. Now she wanted to be as far away from the man as possible. Jeremy had just reached into his pocket and pulled something out. Eve, being her naive self, had actually thought that it was perhaps some sort of painkiller at first.
But then Jeremy had unfurled his fingers, and she had realised that he was holding a tiny sachet filled with a white powder. A powder that she would have been able to identify from a mile away even if he had not taken out his credit card, and used it to divide the powder into lines. Then like it was the most normal thing in the world, he had covered one nostril and had then inhaled through the other.
Eve had watched, too shocked to even make a sound or move. Now her brain was slowly coming to terms with what she had just witnessed.
What! Had she just watched him taking a hit right in the middle of the restaurant like it was nothing.
Eve's heart sank as realization set in.
All of the passion, all of the soul that she had thought she could feel when looking at Jeremy's art was probably just him being high all the time. High because apparently Jeremy did cocaine.
Not only did he do cocaine, he did the drug to the extent that he saw nothing wrong with snorting a line, not only in public, but also during their first date together.
The revelation rattled Eve so bad that she just sat there for a moment. Her mouth opening and closing like she was a fish on dry land. Had she really just witnessed that? Had he really just done that?
She looked at the white powder that he was wiping off his nose and there was no denying it.
All of a sudden, all of her previous dates looked like they were saints. An overly critical man, and one who thought showers were optional she could deal with.
But Jeremy was on a train to destruction that she refused to board. If there was one place in the world that Eve did not want to go to, even if she were visiting, it was jail. There was absolutely no way she would be hanging out with somebody, if it meant that she risked either getting arrested, or ending up as a drug addict herself.
Without another word, Eve got up and left. Jeremy did not even seem to realize that she was leaving. His too bright eyes looking through her.
It was a sad thing to behold.
The sharp-witted man that she had just spent the majority of her evening conversing with was completely gone. Replaced by a shell that had pupils blown wide, and was not making any sense as he tried to speak. Unlike the other times Eve did not walk out of the restaurant. She ran, pausing only for one wild second as she looked around the restaurant. Hoping to find a familiar face( one face in particular- the face of a handsome man who had a dusting of freckles across his face) but he was not there.
Of all the nights, for him to not be there. It happened on the night when she really needed him. Feeling ridiculous for searching for comfort in a man that she did not really know. Eve forced herself to think about the problem that she was currently dodging.
Drugs were a horrible habit to have. Sure, some people out there saw them as a way of enhancing the art. But Eve had never been one of those people. If you needed to get high to do your job. Then you seriously had to reconsider exactly what it was that you were doing. Drugs only offered a temporary boost.
To know what you were capable of. You had to be stone-cold sober while creating the art. That way one could really appreciate it, all of the blood, sweat and tears were what made the final product worth it. The most that Eve had ever gotten to doing drugs was drinking absinthe, and she knew many in the creative industry would laugh if they were ever to hear of such a thing.
But Eve did not care about the opinions of others. What she cared about was keeping herself as sane and as healthy as possible. The world had enough stressors out there without her adding to them by smoking, snorting or drinking things that would do her more harm than good. Later that evening when Stella called, Eve picked up without hesitation, wanting to face things head on.
"Jeremy was perfect. What happened? I really thought that the two of you would get along," Her friend actually sounded like she had really believed that. And the tiny bits of rage that Eve had felt building within her dissipated. It was not Stella's fault. Clearly she too had been caught up in the dazzle and charm that Jeremy exuded.
"You are right, the two of us were good together and we got along, at least until he snorted a line of cocaine right in front of me,"
"What?!" Stella's yell was not loud enough to disguise the sound of plates shattering in the background. She was clearly as shocked by Jeremy's habit as Eve had been.
Eve was no newbie to the industry. She knew exactly how prevalent drugs were. But just because almost everyone and their neighbor was taking some drug or the other, it did not mean that she had to. And she tried her best to steer clear of them. They never led anywhere good.
Even if Jeremy seemed to create some of his best work while high as a kite, it could not last. People who did drugs like him tended to experiment and at some point in time he would run into a drug that he would not be able to shake. Something that would suck all of the joy from his life and render him with a permanent block where his creativity used to just flow. Sometimes it might be slow going for her on the creative front because she did not use anything extra to enhance herself, but it was not something that Eve was willing to be flexible about.
She had been struggling with painting from the heart for months. But not once had she thought of getting high to try and solve the problem. Drugs were a hard no for her. And Stella understood that.
"So he is definitely off the cards then,"
"Definitely. How is Ryan, by the way?" Eve asked, wanting to know more about her friend's life. It seemed that in the past few weeks most of their talks had centred on talking about Eve's blind dates. That was no way for them to keep their friendship going. She was also very interested in hearing about Stella's day-to-day life. It seemed Stella was also very interested in sharing her day to day life with someone.
"You will not believe what he did the other day. So he comes home early from work, right, and then he decided to cook-" Eve settled down, letting her friend's story wash over her. She did not like the blind dates but she liked to think that maybe one of them would lead to her finding someone that she would love as much as Stella loved Ryan. They were the one example of a rock-solid relationship that Eve had and she wanted something similar for herself. Hopefully she would get that soon.