Update: Miss Caulfield and Other Bad Ideas, Chapter 10
it's a big one, a long one, a momentous one...
“...I was talking about the show, and I could tell halfway through that they’d already stopped listening.”
She nodded faintly. “My mom called first,” she said. “Then…” She hesitated, face tightening again. “And... someone else basically told me I should stop getting so emotional over a 'small gallery show'.”
The way she said someone else told him enough to make Warren’s name flare hot in the back of his mind, but he kept his mouth shut.
Max stared down at the desk in front of her. “I know Chase Space isn’t some huge museum,” she said. “I know it’s not a retrospective at the MoMA or whatever. I know I’m not famous, but... it still matters to me.”
“Of course it should,” Nathan said. "Fuck them."
Max’s mouth trembled faintly, like she didn’t know whether to smile or cry again.
“That’s a very measured response.”
“I know.” Her eyes dropped to her lap. “That’s why I called you, I think.”
Something in his chest dropped hearing that— hearing her say it so point blank.
“You... look at my work and you actually see it,” she said softly. “Or at least, you try to. You don’t just... nod, and say something polite. You notice things, and you ask questions I actually want to answer.” Her throat bobbed. “And tonight I just… I really didn’t want another person telling me not to overreact.”
He stared at her, pulse beating hard in his throat now for a completely different reason.
There it was again—that dangerous feeling from the phone call last night, from the darkroom, from every tiny private exchange that made him feel like she was stepping closer to him in some way he couldn’t quite put words to, but...
