When I Show You the Day || Birdie & Alan
It had been an event ten years in the making. Longer, if you counted Alan’s first dabbles into art back when he had only been capable of dipping his fingers into paint and smearing them across a sheaf of paper. But this painting, the one he had worked to finish off and on for the past ten years was his one shining star.
He had begun to picture this moment from the second he had set back, surveyed the painting and decided that, finally, it was complete. It was the moment he would show it to his friends and family. The moment when he would finally be a real artist.
But no imaging could have made this moment more real. No imagining would give him the feeling that would so completely overcome him when he saw his friends stop, stare at the painting and that hint of a smile begin to play on their lips.
It was a high Alan had never before felt but knew he would long to feel again.
And when he watched a small brunette stop before the painting and go through the same rounds he’d watched each party guest before her reach, Alan did something he’d done with none of the others. He walked up to stop beside her, crossing his arms over his chest and taking in the painting as she did.
After a moment, he tore his eyes away and looked down to focus on her. He leaned toward her, bumping her shoulder with his own.
“You know, soon we’ll be doing this for you. And then I’ll have the chance to return the favor. And tell you how great your painting is and how much I’ve longed to see it framed and hanging in a museum somewhere.”
He smiled then before adding, “But I’m getting ahead of myself. Thanks for coming. I’d hoped I’d see you here.”