“Listen, Jack, you beautiful beast of a man, there’s an art show down at that museum that’s on the corner of sixteenth and forty-third! You remember, the one that displayed Lardo’s stuff last year? Anyways, they’ve got this big show coming up, and one of their artists pulled out and now they need someone to fill the slot! Guess who pulled some strings and got you in?”
That had had been the excited voicemail Shitty had left Jack that had started it all, but now, amidst the swarm of people, Jack was beginning to rethink his decision. He was past the point of uncomfortable with the crowd of people in the gallery.
The three photographers who were also on display tonight alongside Jack were dismissive when he’d tried to make conversation with them earlier, although that probably had something more to do with Jack’s terrible small talk skills. Alexei, one of the gallery assistants, had handed Jack a drink with a reassuring pat on the arm at the beginning of the night. It gave his hands something to hold on to rather than hiding them in his pockets.
The crowd was starting to dwindle, at least, but there was still another two hours left before the evening was officially over.
A commotion towards the front of the gallery caught Jack’s attention as he realized there were some uniformed police officers coming in. The gallery owner, Georgia, rushed forward in obvious concern. Jack couldn’t make out their conversation, but it ended with Georgia leading the police upstairs, presumably to her office where they could talk without several people trying to listen in.
Hushed whispers broke out as people began to speculate and wonder why cops were suddenly here. Several took it as a sign that the evening was over and began to take their jackets and leave, which Jack was secretly grateful for. Part of him wished he could leave with them, but it was probably bad manners to leave his own art showing early.
Half an hour later, the crowd had thinned out substantially before Georgia and the police made another appearance. As they passed by Jack’s display, one of the police officers, blond, cute, and exactly the type that would catch Jack’s eye, suddenly stopped to contemplate his collection of photos.
“Bittle! Let’s go!” called one of the other cops by the front door.
“Coming!” Bittle said before he joined his colleagues.
In another minute, they were gone, and Georgia was turned around to face what was left of the attendees with a steel expression that gave nothing away. She pasted on a smile, and continued the rest of the evening like nothing had happened, though the exhibition did end an hour earlier than planned.
Two days later, Jack received an unexpected phone call from the art gallery
“Jack, congratulations! Someone buy two of your pieces,” Alexei announced happily.
“What?” Jack said a little breathlessly, having just stepped off the treadmill. He wiped the sweat from his brow with a towel. “Someone bought two of them?”
“You not have to sound surprised, you know. You are really talented.”
“I just didn’t expect anything so fast, I guess.”
Alexei laughed lightly. “He’s picking up this afternoon. You should come meet him.”
“Did he want to meet me?” Jack asked haltingly. He wasn’t sure how this buy and sell process worked with art galleries.
“I mean, he not really say, but you should come by gallery at two o’clock anyways.”
“Uh, Alexei…” Jack started because he’d literally just met the gallery assistant less than two weeks ago. The last thing he needed was someone to start playing matchmaker in his life.
“He very cute! I promise! Okay, see you later,” Alexei shouted, and hung up the phone before Jack could protest.
Jack considered not going, but in the end, his curiosity about who bought his photos won out.
When he walked in the gallery, Alexei’s eyes immediately lit up from behind the counter. “Oh, wow, what coincidence! Photographer is here!”
The person whom Alexei had been previously talking to turned around, and Jack was stunned to realize it was the police officer from earlier on in the week, the one who had stopped to look at Jack’s pictures.
“Oh,” he said in surprise. “I didn’t–I”
“Uh, hi,” Jack said nervously. “Um.”
“Eric tell me how much he like your pictures,” Alexei interrupted happily. “He buy!”
“Yeah, I’ve been looking for something to put up in my living room for a while,” Eric said sheepishly. “Your pictures caught my eye.”
“Which ones did you get?” Jack asked as he eyed the brown, paper packages on the counter.
“The ones of the trees and the pond, but it looks like they were taken in different seasons.”
“Yeah, that was behind my parent’s house,” he admitted.
“Really? That’s neat.” Eric picked up the two wrapped photos. He paused, and almost shyly, asked, “I don’t suppose you want to get a coffee or something? I’d love to hear more behind the pictures.”
“Um, yeah,” Jack said nodding, “I’d like that.”
As they were headed out the door, Jack caught Alexei grinning widely and giving him two, very enthusiastic thumbs up.
turnnoffyourmind
gummygunk
kaledo-art
izzy806
