aterovis_bm_reapthewhirlwind.p65 (8 page)

“I told you, we were just wrestling when you got here and he wasn’t sneaking anywhere. He was probably just trying not to wake you guys up.” Asher arched an eyebrow. “Neat trick. Really, we were just talking. He’s my friend. That’s it.”

“Okay, if you say so. So I guess that means you’re still straight?”

I sat down on the bed and tried to decide how to answer that. I wasn’t even sure myself.

“Earth to Will,” Asher said after a minute. “Are you okay?”

“Huh?” I said stupidly. I had almost forgotten he was there.

“I asked if you were straight and you spaced out.”

I stood up and walked a few feet away. “Am I straight?”

“That’s what I’m asking you.”

“As opposed to what? Crooked?”

“You know perfectly well what I mean; straight as 65

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opposed to gay, queer, homosexual. It’s a simple yes or no question.” He eyed me critically.

“Maybe it’s not so simple for me.”

His eyes widened. “You mean—”

“I don’t know what I mean.” I sighed. “It used to be so clear cut—then Laura had to go and get me all confused.”

“Laura? How did she confuse you?”

“It’s a long story. How did you know you were gay?”

“I guess I’ve always known on some level, but I was afraid to tell anyone. I mean as soon as I was old enough to understand that only girls were supposed to have crushes on guys I knew I was different. I’ve been in love with Killian almost as long as I can remember, even back when he was a shy, awkward kid. We’ve been best friends since we were little.”

“Oh great!” I moaned. I sat down on a box that was still in the room and to my surprise found myself going right through the top. With my feet in the air, I struggled to pull myself out of the empty box while Asher laughed hysterically. I finally succeeded only in splitting it open but at least I was out.

“I’m going to take a shower,” I said with as much dignity as I could muster and grabbing my clothes, I made my exit. I left Asher rolling on the bed in tears, gasping for breath in between uncontrolled fits of laughter.When I got out, we had cold cereal for breakfast, the extent of our culinary talents that early in the morning.

After eating, we set to unpacking the rest of the boxes.

With extra sets of hands, the work went quickly and by lunchtime, the apartment looked like we’d always lived here.

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We were making a large pizza with everything disappear when someone knocked on our door. Aidan and I raced the short distance to the door, but he got there first and pulled the door open with one hand while holding a slice of pizza in the other. A woman I didn’t know stood in the doorway, guessed her to be in her early to mid-twenties. She had short, spiky dark hair with the tips bleached white-blonde and wore black horn-rimmed glasses, a white halter under faded bib overalls and funky faux leopard-skin fuzzy sandals.

These last items caught and held my attention.

“Hiya! I’m Nikki Avanti. I live right across the hall. I just thought I’d stick my head in and say welcome to the neighborhood. I was going to bring a fruit basket but then I thought who the hell brings fruit these days?”

We stood blinking at her for a moment; neither of us knew quite what to say. Aidan recovered first. “Uh, thanks. I’m Aidan Scott and this is my roommate, Will Keegan,” Aidan said. My attention wandered back to her feet, or actually her sandals, which she now waggled in greeting. I quickly looked up and held out my hand as my face turned red.

She took my proffered hand in a firm grasp with an amused smile on her not-quite-attractive face. “Like my shoes?” she said. “I kinda have my own style. I like to dress with flair! I think certain other residents of the building have betting pools on just how bizarre I can get. I’m always trying to top myself. You know, do my part to keep their lives interesting.”

I grinned back. I liked her already. She had an easy manner that put me at ease. “This is Killian and Asher, they’re our cousins,” I told her as they came into the hall to see who we were talking to, each carrying his 67

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own slice of pizza. “Would you like a slice of pizza?” I offered.

“No thanks, I’m a health food freak. You know, or-ganic foods only, lots of herbs, almost a vegetarian.”

She looked around the apartment while she talked. Her eyes lit up when she spotted my drawing table. “Oh wow! Who’s the artist?”

“That would be me,” I said, making an effort not to blush.

“Nifty! Can I?” She made a motion toward the table.

“Help yourself.”

She looked over my supplies for a few minutes.

“Quite a professional set up you got here, Will. Nice quality, no junk. You must be a serious artist.”

I lost my battle against the blush. “No, it’s just a hobby.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Aidan said as he walked over.

“He’s really good. Look at this.” He pulled out the frog painting with a dramatic flourish.

Nikki’s eyebrows shot up above her glasses. “You did this?” she said leaning in for a closer look.

“Yeah,” I said. I wondered how much blood could rush to my face before it exploded. I was actually starting to feel a little lightheaded.

“Nice, very dramatic. I like the symbolism here. Are you represented?” she asked.

“I guess you could say the frog.”

She gave me a blank look. “Come again?”

I blushed. “Well, the frog kind of represents me because I’ve been feeling like I’m caught in a storm—” I stopped abruptly as she began to laugh.

“That’s not quite what I meant. I meant are you represented by a gallery? Do you show anywhere?”

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“Oh God, no!”

She looked at me over the top of her glasses. “You should be.”

“I’m not good enough—”

“Bullshit. Pardon my French. I’m an artist; I know what I’m talking about here. Actually, I own my own gallery and I’m always looking for new talent. Are you from around here?”

“Yeah,” I said with my head spinning.

“I’d like to see some of your other work. Do you have it here?”

“No, it’s at home…I mean my parents’ home.”

“Can you get it for me to see? If I like it as much as what I see here, I might be interested in exhibiting a few of your pieces. We could see what kind of reaction we get, maybe do a show. You know, after we see what kind of vibes we get.”

I had to sit down. So I did. Without checking to see if there was a chair there first. There wasn’t. Aidan snorted and I heard laughter from the kitchen where Killian and Asher had quickly ducked.

“Am I going too fast for you?” Nikki asked.

I nodded mutely.

“You have your own gallery?” Killian asked as he came back out of the kitchen.

“Yes, well, my brother and I own it. My father started it and he left it to us when he died. It’s called Avant Guard and it’s on the old downtown plaza.”

“Cool. You look pretty young to have your own gallery.”

“I didn’t know there was an age limit and actually I’m thirty.”

“The health food must work,” Aidan quipped.

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Nikki laughed and turned her attention back to me.

“So what do you say, Will? Can I see your work? You interested in maybe taking a shot at being a professional artiste?”

“I don’t know,” I said slowly.

“Come on, Will,” Asher said. “How often do you get an offer like that?”

“Why don’t you think about it for a while?” Nikki suggested.

“I don’t mean to sound rude, but can I ask you a question?” I said hesitantly.

“Hey, you can ask me anything you want. I don’t insult easily. You have to have pretty thick skin to dress like I do.”

“Well, what do you get out of this?”

She threw her head back and laughed loudly. “A shrewd business man! I love it! Okay, let’s see, what do I get out of it? Well, I’m assuming you mean besides the altruistic pleasure of helping out a fellow artist?”

I heard Asher mutter to Killian, “Quick, get a dictio-nary.” Nikki winked at me.

“Yeah, besides that,” I agreed.

“Well, it’s standard procedure for the gallery to get a commission on anything we sell, usually between thirty and fifty percent. I’d only ask thirty from you since you’re just getting started. More importantly, though, I get the pleasure and credit, keyword “credit,” of discovering an up-and-coming artist. If you make a splash then Avant Guard gets exposure and publicity and I can really start building a reputation of my own instead of riding on Daddy’s coattails.”

I nodded. “I need to think about it.”

“Sure. Why don’t you and Aidan come over to my 70

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apartment for dinner tomorrow night? You can meet my new boyfriend and see some of my work.”

I looked over to Aidan, who nodded encouragingly.

“Okay,” I said.

“Great! It’s a date! Toodles.” And with that she let herself out, leaving behind the slightest hint of incense.

“Wow! Will, a real live artist!” Asher exclaimed.

“I dunno, it seems too good to be true,” I said.

“Don’t be so negative,” Aidan scolded. “She’s like a force of nature, isn’t she? I bet if anyone can make this work she can.”

“She seemed cool to me,” Killian added helpfully.

“I have an idea,” Aidan said. “How ‘bout the four of us drive downtown to the plaza and check out the gallery for ourselves. That way we’ll know what we’re looking at.”

“What if it’s not open on Sunday?” Asher asked.

“Oh shit!” I gasped.

“What?”

“Today is Sunday!”

“And—”

“I missed church!”

“Too late to worry about it now,” Aidan said philosophically. “Let’s go see if this gallery is open right now and you can worry about that later.”

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We piled into Killian’s black Volkswagen Bug and drove to the downtown area. The Plaza, as it is known, is a brick courtyard in the middle of the city with tall Victorian era brick buildings lining it and fountains, sculptures, and flowerbeds scattered about the middle.

The buildings mostly house up-scale boutiques, lawyer’s offices, and antique stores. It didn’t take long to find Avant Guard once we were there. It stood out a bit since it was the only place with a life-sized statue in the window of a man and a woman caught in the act of making love. The people depicted in this particular sculpture actually had wings, and something that looked like horns coming out of their heads. Not your typical couple. It looked like it was made of bronze and must have weighed a ton. We all stood in a kind of silent awe for several minutes before anyone spoke.

“Well—isn’t that—amazingly accurate?” Aidan said.

“I wouldn’t know. I’m still a virgin,” Asher said with a giggle.

“You two might have to wait outside,” I said, only half joking.

“Why?” Killian asked.

“It might be over 21 only!”

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“That eliminates you guys too,” Killian pointed out reasonably.

We finally managed to tear ourselves away from the amorous couple and entered the gallery, which was indeed open.

There were no other pornographic statues in view, but everything I did see looked terribly expensive and elegant. I felt very out of place in my cargo-pocket shorts and surf t-shirt. I was having some trouble picturing Nikki here as well.

I was just about to suggest we leave when a stuffy looking man in an Armani suit suddenly appeared out of thin air. “Hello, this is Avant Guard. Can I help you with something?” His tone of voice clearly said that he seriously doubted that this would be the case.

Before I could say no, Aidan stepped forward and offered his hand. Mr. Armani looked at it disdainfully for a moment before reluctantly shaking it. He casually wiped it on his pant leg as if it had possibly become contaminated by Aidan’s touch.

“I’m Aidan Scott,” Aidan said in a cool, cultured voice that was so unlike his usual voice that I almost did a double take. “This is my client, Will Keegan; perhaps you’ve heard of him.” He managed to make it sound like he was a fool if he hadn’t.

The suit began to look a bit flustered. Meanwhile I turned a lovely shade of crimson.

“He’s being called the next big thing. We met earlier today with Ms. Avanti,” Aidan swept on, “and she expressed an interest in perhaps representing Mr. Keegan in this area. We thought we’d stop by unannounced and have a look around. You know we can’t be represented by just anyone.”

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“Of course,” Mr. Armani gushed. “I think you’ll be very pleased with Avant Guard. We may be a small gallery, but we’ve had some wonderful success on the international market. As you can see, we cater to a very specific clientele.”

“Yes, so I see,” Aidan said, allowing just a hint of disapproval to enter his voice. “I just hope the scope isn’t too narrow.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“I’m afraid you don’t,” Aidan agreed. “We’ll look around now. Thank you.” It was clearly a dismissal but the man seemed hesitant to leave us alone in the gallery.

“Please let me know if I can help you with anything,”

he tried.

“I doubt that very seriously, but thank you ever so much once again.”

The man now looked completely unnerved and began to back away with a slight bow that would have been laughable if I wasn’t so nervous myself.

“That was freaking awesome!” Killian whispered as soon as he was out of sight.

“Shh!” I hissed, then reeled to face Aidan. “What was that?” I growled as quietly as possible and still let him know exactly how I felt about his little performance.

“What was what?” he asked innocently.

“The next big thing?”

“What? I called you that didn’t I?”

“Your client?”

“Will, calm down. You’re gonna pop a vein.”

“What if Nikki finds out about this?”

“Relax. I know his type. He won’t dare breathe a word of this to Nikki and make himself look bad. He’ll wait 74

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and see if we say anything, see what take we give her, then he’ll try to spin it to make himself look better. Trust me. I’m telling you I grew up in places like this.”