#bellstart

[sidjcmes2-blog]

When darkness fell around Bellevue and Inkology shut up shop for the evening it was a sure bet that Sidney James was comfortably perched on a barstool. She had finished a tedious back piece that seemingly didn’t want to end and wanted to treat herself for the time endured. Her own back had been crippled by the difficult positioning and the time-intensive task. In the end, it was a beautiful piece that she was proud of and would certainly flaunt it all over Instagram when she had the energy to engage with her online presence. With each piece, there were different scales of release. Small wrist pieces were a twenty-minute chat for Sid, but multiple sessions became a bonding experience if the person in her chair was worth keeping around. Sometimes they’d get to know her, even with how little she offered up and other times they were well and truly let go of when their time was up. But in her high spirits, she was very ready to get to know someone else or at the very least the inside of their of their bed. “Can I get you a drink? I’m celebrating and I’ve just realized I’m in the need of some company.” Sid’s eyes were always her tell, eyeing her company like prey, her stance relaxed but all too ready to pounce.

[calebxwilliams-blog]

“I know it’s still a little early, but I’m at a loss at what to get my mom for Mother’s Day this year. It feels like I always get her the same thing every year: flowers, jewelry, cards..all that.”

[dakota-lloyd]

“You can pet him, if you’d like.” Dakota’s gaze flipped from the passerby to near her ankles as she gestured down to the Bengal cat who roamed by her side on a harness and lead. “He’s very curious.” She’d started taking Mowgli out on walks a few weeks ago, and what had started out as an experiment was now becoming a daily ritual. As the cat seemed to outgrow their apartment, it felt only right to introduce him to the real world. The only downside however, was that everyone found the scene either hilarious or foolish. “We’re trying to socialize him more, so any human interactions are welcome.”

[rhylandpark-blog]

Despite the sickeningly thick, warm air that had graced the city on this summer morn, it had done little to perturb him enough to send him scurrying from his set schedule, the very thing that succeeded daily in coaxing him from the white walls of his apartment.

The metal frame of the chair creaked as his elbows pressed against the table top. There weren’t too many people in the restaurant, which made sense considering most preferred to spend their time outside when the weather was this “pleasant” as they put it. He had overheard some of the employees discussing their weekend plans, and one had exclaimed that they wished to visit the coast, weather permitting.

The tailor’s blue eyes flickered to the nearby window. The weather was permitting.

Pale fingers tentatively touched the side of a ceramic coffee cup, as if testing the waters before allowing his palm to curl about the mug. On the table before him lay a newspaper, the economics section scattered with stocks statistics and updates that he knew far too much about via his father. The DOW was down again, a fact that had ceased to surprise him, and with a slow nod he raised the coffee to his lips.

[ari--devar-blog]

“What you’re saying is... you accidentally followed her across country to her new town? How does that even happen? Didn’t you see she’d moved, like, Facebook?”

“She doesn’t have Facebook, Jay, she’s... cool. All she has is Instagram, and... it’s set to private, so.” 

“Well... you fucked up, my dude.”

Jaya sounded positively gleeful, and Ari grimaced. “Shut up.”

“It’s like an epic Bollywood romance. Or a horror movie, where she gets stalked by an ex. You gonna win her back?” He could hear her click her tongue. “Hard to do when you dumped her.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose and begged for patience. “No, I’m definitely not going to do that,” he said evenly. “I’m gonna try to never even see her, actually. It’s a big place, and I---I know her.” Even he thought that reasoning was a bit shaky, now. “I know where she’ll be and where she won’t. So. We won’t run into each other, and if we do, I dunno. I’ll hope she’s. You know, reasonable, like she can be.”

“Yeah, sounds like a solid plan. Good luck with that.” He could still hear the laughter in his sister’s voice. “Hey, I’ll call you back, my laundry’s done and I don’t want someone stealing my shit from the dryer while I talk you through your new hell. Love you, bhai.”

“Right. Later. Love you too.” 

He hung up his phone, and took stock of his surroundings. Someone was standing nearby, and he caught their eye, then looked away. Maybe outside of Blank Space wasn’t the best place to have a personal conversation---about six people had probably overheard sections of his humiliation as he’d explained it to his sister. Oh well. He looked back at them, directly. “I just moved here, but since you heard all of that, guess you and I are close now. Want a coffee? I want a fucking coffee. Or something way stronger.”

[stellarosenthal-blog]

《 ‹ stella & .

The canvas stood clamped up on an easel, though the blank, gessoed surface stared accusingly at Stella Rosenthal. So many masterpieces have passed under her delicate hands – be it from Rosenthal Fine Art Restoration or within the museum archives. Her own work often remained unnoticed. Anything besides restoring voids and losses, or finding the intended luminosity of old works was far too much. Stella was a vibrant creature, but she crafted her life and created things with such subtle grace and nuance. If you could notice her work outside of the original artistic vision, she had gone too far. She dabbled in honing her own artistic abilities, but she was struggling to find her muse when so much of it was spent vanishing it into the background. The empty canvas was just an echo of her internal frustration and mockery. The knock upon the studio door was a welcome distraction. Clients typically caught her in the office space, so she was anticipating a friendly face as she stepped nearer. “You can’t use the digital microscope to find your common sense.” Stella teased, should anyone be coming to shed their weekend’s regrets in her company, before finally swinging the door open. 

[milena-torres]

It wasn’t often that Milena gave herself the night off. In fact, it was almost unheard of. But after landing an author that everyone had told her would be an impossible feat, Mila felt she deserved a little bit of fun. A few drinks at the bar to loosen her up the dirty blonde began to make her way towards the dance floor, waving towards another patron as she passed by. “Come on, one dance!” she shouted happily, holding her arm out while continuing to dance backwards into the crowd.

[andrewsjamie]

“Oh, shit.” Jamie muttered, picking up an object on the ground. “Excuse me...” She called out to a passerby. “Did you drop this?”