It stared out innocently enough with a call from the owner of the Gallery that Tamsin had been part of a showing of up-and-coming artists a few weeks earlier. A friend of the collector who'd bought the one--and only--piece Tamsin had sold through the several days of the exhibit wanted to meet with her.
Even that first meeting had been innocent. More than a little unexpected, and bordering on too-good-to-be-true once Tamsin found out what Kit wanted to see her about, but innocent enough that it didn't take much to convince Tamsin to say yes. It wasn't like there wasn't historical precedence for it, and really, when you looked at it, Kit's offer wasn't that much different from any of the other side jobs or commissions Tamsin took to keep herself in art supplies while also keeping a roof over her head. The only real difference was that Kit's commission wasn't for something specific, just for Tamsin to keep doing what she was doing anyway.
And that's how it was, Kit was her patron, and Tamsin had a few extra hundred dollars a week freeing up her budget while keeping her in supplies and freeing up the time she would have spent on side jobs so she could spend it on her own projects instead. Win-win for everyone.
Sure, the exact amount of her stipend had grown over time, and yeah, she might have half jokingly mentioned to Kit during their semi-frequent conversations that with her own apartment becoming ever more crammed full of half completed projects since Kit started footing the bill for her supplies, she could really use a studio. But she'd never really expected Kit to follow through and find her one, let alone gift her an entire warehouse for one.
Tamsin made another slow 360 as she took in the empty, well lit space. It wasn't huge as far as warehouses went, but she could easily fit her whole apartment inside it at least twice and still have room left. Add in the large skylights in the ceiling that let in plenty of natural light, and it was too-good-to-be-true.
"Kit, I- This is too much. I can’t accept this."