Broken (4 page)

“Your girl is mesmerized there.
How old is she?”

The mother looked up at me from a
drawing and said, “She's four, and yes, she certainly knows what she likes.”

I bent down towards the little
girl, and asked her what she liked about the painting.

“It makes me feel magical.”

“Thank you.” I smiled at her
before returning to my chair where I had been sitting with a classmate of mine,
named
Brenda,
the one had brought me a cup of coffee.
A girl after my own heart, to be sure.
Her media of choice
had been photography and her work was breathtaking. She had stopped at my tent
to take a break before the show started.

The mother approached me with the
drawing she had been looking at, as well as the painting her daughter had grown
so attached to.

“I would like to buy these.”

I smiled, and wrapped them up for
her with paper before handing them back.

“That will be $50, please.” The
woman paid, and then took her daughter’s hand, and left.

I sat back down once again.

“You really need to start
charging more for your work,
Natalie,
you are
practically giving the stuff away.”

“One day maybe.
I'm not too worried about it
right now. When the time is right, I will.”

“You could have easily made $300
bucks right there though.”

“I know, but it seems like an
awful lot of money...”

“You're an artist Nat, and you
have to understand that your work is worth that much.”

“Like I said, one day.”

“All right, I hope so. So what
have you decided to do for your changing object project?”

“Ugh, I have no idea. I keep
trying to come up with something creative but it's just not happening. I should
be able to come up with something, but every time I think about it, I get ...
nothing.”

I sipped on my coffee, enjoying
the heat that the creamy liquid offered my throat. The day just couldn't get
any better for me. I certainly didn't think it could get any worse, but that
was until Jet showed up.

He walked into the tent like he
owned the place, and I couldn't believe that I couldn't shake the guy.

“Well, well, well, what do we
have here? I found you at last,” he chuckled as he said it.

“What are you doing here, Jet? I
wouldn't expect you to find you out at an art walk.”

“Well, I figured you would be
here, and I wanted to see you.”

I looked over at Brenda, whose
mouth was awkwardly dangling on the ground. We artists weren't use to incredibly
hot guys visiting our art tents. I nudged her arm so she could get a handle on
herself.

There was no doubt about it, Jet
was insanely good-looking. Most girls would swoon over that black hair and
brown eyes, not to mention the body of a Greek god. The problem for me,
however, was every time I looked at
him,
I was
reminded of my boyfriend, and all he had done to me. I was not over the pain of
finding out he cheated on me, and chose my best friend to do it with. How could
I trust another man after that, especially one as smooth as Jet? He was used to
getting whatever he wanted from women. How was I any different? I had to assume
I would be used and abused, just like the rest of them.

I continued to sip my coffee
while he looked at me for some sign of affection.

“What do you want, Jet?”

“A date, one date.”

“Not
gonna
happen.”

“You promised me, though.”

I snorted, “Oh is that what that
sounded like to you? Do you know what a promise actually is?”

“You are such a
hardass
. I can't get through to you no matter what.”

“That's the truth.”

He smiled. “Well, why the hell is
that?”

“Too many reasons to list.”

“There was this guy ...” Brenda
chirped up.

“Brenda!” I yelled.

Jet laughed. “Come on, you can't
be blaming me for whatever some guy did to you in the past. It's too cliché.”

I felt my blood pressure rise.
“I'm not blaming you for anything. I just don't like you, and I'm entitled to
my opinion.”

“Damn. Why are you so cold? I'm
actually a fun guy to hang around with. You know how to have fun, don't you?”

“I do!” Brenda chimed in once
again. Both Jet and I turned to stare at her, and as she blushed, I smirked.

“Thank you for that, Brenda.”

“See, Brenda likes fun. I'm sure
if you tried it too, you would also find that it's kind of fun.”

My coffee was getting cold, and I
was growing bored with our conversation.

“So, what do you say?”

“I don't want to hang out with
you, Jet.”

Instead of leaving with his tail
between his legs, he started to browse my artwork. I just shook my head in
disbelief. He seemed to actually be looking at my pictures with interest. He
studied each and every one, and it started to make me a little uncomfortable.
He got real up close and personal with them, and it made me wonder what his
game really was.

“Where do you get your
inspiration from? These are amazing.”

I watched him, and decided to
have one little honest moment. “I get my inspiration from many things. Things I
feel passionate about, things I have learned for the first time, something that
just sort of tweaks,
ya
know?”

“I don't know at all. I can't
even imagine how you do any of this, but I like it. It's all pretty incredible,
just like you.”

“Awe,” squealed Brenda.

I casted Brenda a scathing look,
hoping she would stop making the situation infinitely worse every time she
opened her mouth.

At least he had stopped asking me
out, or checking out my body. Asking about my artwork was a little more
preferable.

“So if I wanted one of these, how
much would it cost me?”

For the first time since Jet
arrived, I actually smiled, and it felt really good. “$300,” I told him.

I heard Brenda gasp beside me,
and it made the moment that much more enjoyable.

“Really, $300?”
He looked back at the artwork
and I could see the wheels turning. I didn't want him to own one of my pieces,
but if he was desperate enough to try to impress me, then he could pay for it.

He continued to study a
particular drawing, and to my surprise, he took it off the wall and handed it
to me.

“You can't be serious.”

“Oh, I am. I will have something
of yours.” He chuckled as I rolled my eyes. I watched as he took out his
wallet, and literally counted out three hundred dollars right in front of me.
He handed the money to me, and I took it, thinking that he must have very rich
parents. I handed the painting to Brenda and asked her to wrap it as I turned
back to him.

“Well, thank you.”

“You're welcome. I can't wait to
see what it looks like in my place.”

Brenda finished wrapping the
piece, and handed it to him.

“Anyway ... I happened to get
here in time to overhear your little conversation.”

“What conversation would that
have been?” I asked confused.

“Something about needing a changing subject.”
I just stared at him, not
understanding where he was going with the conversation. “You seem to be having
trouble with your project, so I thought I would help you out.”

“How could you possibly help me
out? You don't know a thing about art.”

“Well, that's true, but I thought
maybe I could help you by being the changing object in your art project.”

“If this is some kind of an
erection joke, I'm not finding it very funny.”

He laughed, and I couldn't help
but awkwardly join him.

“I'm dead serious, though. I
think it would be fun, and it would really help you to finish your project.”

“I don't know.”

“Natalie, there aren't too many
people I'm willing to go out on a limb for. Let's just go out once and you can
draw me for your project even if you never want to go out with me again. What
do you have to lose?”

It was true, I didn't have a clue
what I was going to do for the project, and nothing seemed to be coming to me.
So maybe I should use Jet for the project, and see how it went. I could always
stop it at any time if a better idea came along.

“Alright, Jet, you have a deal,
but don't think for a minute you’re getting lucky with an artist. That drawing
is as close to me as you're going to get.”

He grinned as he gave me his
number, and told me to call him later to meet up. He then put my picture under
his arm, and headed out of the tent before I could change my mind.

“Goodbye, beautiful!” he shouted
over his shoulder and just like that, he was gone.

I turned to look at Brenda. “I
must be out of my mind.”

“This is the most excitement I've
ever had at an art walk.”

We laughed; however, the comment
was totally true.

“I can't believe you charged him
$300 for that drawing after what you said to me!”

“He was an exception, and he
deserved it.”

It turned out that the day was a
pretty profitable one, after all.

When I arrived home from the art
walk, I put my money in a jar, excited that I had made so much, and giddy that
I had pulled one over on Jet. I thought about what I was going to spend my
newfound wealth on as I stripped down in my bedroom. I walked into the
bathroom, and turned on the shower, the hotter the better. I desperately needed
to relax, and a hot shower always eased my aches and pains.

Before leaving the art walk, I
had sent a message to Jet about meeting that night so I could start on my
project as soon as possible. I was a little on edge about the whole thing. I
couldn't even believe I had agreed to meet with him, and I hoped the evening
wasn't going to turn into a disaster. I didn't need the stress, especially
since I would be back to square one with my changing objects project.

I quickly brushed out my hair.
The stream coming from the shower drew me in, and as I stepped into the hot
water, my anxiety seemed to melt away instantly. The shower had been exactly
what I needed. I had absolutely no reason to be nervous. This wasn't a date
with a new guy I was interested in. All we were doing was meeting so that I
could complete my project. It was nothing. I would survive this meeting
unscathed, and maybe even have a story to tell my friends. They would love to
hear how some hot guy on campus posed for me. It would be the highlight of most
of their years, including mine.

I was just about done with my
shower, when I heard a door slam. It must have been Julie coming into the
apartment. I turned the taps off before getting out to dry myself off. By the
time I got out and dressed, I felt much better about the whole situation.

I headed out of the bathroom to
see Julie, who was in the kitchen pouring
herself
a
glass of wine.

“I'll have one of those.”

Julie grabbed another glass out
of the cupboard, and poured me a glass as well.

“How was the art walk?”

“Fabulous. A hilarious thing
happened today. Jet showed up and bought one of my drawings for $300.”

Julie looked confused.
“Jet?
Jet from school?”

I rolled my eyes.
“Of course.
How many Jets do you know?”

“Why was he in your tent, or at
the art walk, for that matter? I wasn't even there.”

“Well, he's been stalking me
relentlessly for the past few days.”

“Seriously?
You have seen him since the
night at the bar? Why didn't you tell me?”

“I don't know. I didn't think it
was important.”

“Are you new to gossip? This is
incredible news.
So $300, right?
Wow, you really took
the guy for everything.”

“He got everything he deserved,”
I laughed. “I guarantee that drawing is in a trash can somewhere. The guy is
clearly just trying to get in my pants.”

“I don't know, Natalie, that's a
lot of money to spend on a girl who he hasn't even gone on a date with. He may
actually be really into you.”

“That's ridiculous. But speaking
of dates, I am actually seeing him tonight.”

“You are going on a date with
Jet? Oh, this is so rich.”

“It's not a date.”

“Then what is it?”

“He offered to help me with my
changing objects project, so we are meeting for that reason, and that reason
alone.”

“Oh my God, this is hilarious.
Just days ago you were ripping this guy apart in a bar. You didn't even know
who he was, and you told him you couldn't care less about him. Now you guys are
going out on a date? How funny is this?”