Just a Sketch (5 page)

LEO HAD
just managed to get out of the shower before the doorbell rang. “Just a second!” he shouted as he scrambled to pull on a clean shirt and jeans.

Julie and Felix stood outside with inquiring looks on their faces.

“Come on in. I still need to get my shoes on.” Leo opened the door for them, then picked up his shoes from the spot where they always rested below his jackets near the door.

“So tell us what happened,” Julie said as Felix closed the door.

“Yeah. How big was his cock?” Felix added.

Leo rolled his eyes. “I don’t know.” He pulled on his shoes and started tying them. “We didn’t get to the undressing part. But he is a good kisser.” Years earlier, he’d given up trying not to kiss and tell around his two best friends. They were relentless in their pursuit of details.

“And that’s all you did? Kiss?” Felix sounded disappointed in him. “I’d have done so much more with him. It was probably your only chance.”

Standing, Leo shook his head. “Nope. We’ve got another date planned. We’re actually calling it a date this time as opposed to a sitting. Although I did sit for him, and he did do some sketching of me.”

“And how did it look?” Julie leaned against the back of the couch and scratched Sofi’s ears. The big cat began purring loudly.

“I don’t know that either.” Leo grabbed a light jacket. “He said I could see it when it was done. The way he said it, I probably had a better chance at seeing his cock last night than the drawing.”

Felix opened the door. “I hope you didn’t pass up a good thing.”

“I didn’t. I had to come home so we three could go get some breakfast.” Leo made sure the door was locked and gestured for Julie and Felix to walk out onto the porch. “I know you two. If I’d looked anything more than my normal perky self, then you would’ve been all over me like lions on a gazelle.”

Felix turned and looked at Leo with a raised eyebrow. “Gazelle? When was the last time you went to the gym? Wildebeest, maybe. Not quite a hippo, but definitely not a gazelle.”

Leo shoved him toward the car. “Look who’s talking. Get a move on, Pumbaa.”

LEO MOTIONED
for the waitress to refill his orange juice.

“So, I might’ve made a love connection myself,” Felix said, right before the server arrived with their breakfast.

“Really? Where did you two meet?” Julie asked.

“Online.” Felix slid his plate closer before he cut into his french toast.

“Dating site or cruising app?” Leo poured syrup over his pancakes.

Felix pouted. “If you must know, app. No one uses dating sites anymore; that was over two years ago. Nowadays all you have to do is pull up an app on your phone and see where all the hot guys are in your vicinity.”

“So what’s his name?” Julie asked between bites of her omelet.

“We didn’t get to names. His profile is Woodsyaxeman.” Felix set down his fork and pulled out his phone. “Here’s his picture. Kinda hot, huh?”

On the screen the picture looked more than a little out of focus and grainy. There wasn’t a head, just a chiseled chest and six-pack abs.

Julie frowned and went back to eating after returning the phone to Felix. “You know, I’m not big into headless guys. What happens if he’s some kind of meth addict with no teeth or something? There’s more to guys than just great bods.”

“Not to mention the odds are that isn’t even his torso,” Leo added.

“He said it was his picture.” Felix dropped his phone into his pocket a little harder than he needed to, obviously upset that Leo and Julie weren’t embracing Woodsyaxeman with the enthusiasm he wanted them to have.

“Did you go meet up with him?” Leo asked.

Felix stabbed his toast a little too hard and his fork slid across the slick plate. “No. He said he had other things to do last night, but he’d be in touch.”

“Oh, Felix.” Julie reached across the table and patted his hand. “I hope he does, but just please don’t sit around waiting for your app to beep. We all know how fickle men can be. That’s one of the reasons we have the three of us.”

“I know.” He pouted some more.

Leo sat silently eating his pancakes as Felix and Julie settled into quiet too.
None of us has ever had really good luck with guys. I hope Aud is different. He seems super nice. But I know from experience that just because we’re having a second date, it doesn’t mean we’re going to connect. It felt like we were connecting last night, but it’s hard to say if that was real or not.

“So what are we going to do this afternoon?” Julie asked. “We never decided.”

“I thought all we wanted was the juicy details of Leo and Aud’s date, and then we were going to go our separate ways.” Felix still sounded mopey, but not as bad as he had before they all dropped into silence.

“Let’s go shopping,” Julie suggested.

Knowing her enjoyment of dragging them through all sorts of horrors while shoe or clothes shopping, Leo cocked an eyebrow. “For what?”

“You guys are actually going to like this one. I need a new laptop. Mine died last night, or at least I think it died.” She pushed her plate toward the center of the table. “It won’t come on. I guess that means it’s dead.”

“Maybe, maybe not.” Leo set his empty plate on top of hers. “But how old is it?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Six or seven years.”

“Then it’s time to replace it,” Felix said, sounding better than he had since they started eating. “Okay, we’ll go find you a new laptop. If we’re lucky, Leo and I can sort out a way to get your important information off the old one.”

“We can try.”
I just hope it’s not too big a problem. I wonder if Aud has thought about me today.

AUD UNLOCKED
the gallery door and walked in, making a long mental list of the things he needed to do. He strolled back to the office and flipped the switches to turn on the lights. By the time he returned to the main counter, a soft beep from someone breaking the beam at the door sounded through the gallery as the front door opened again.

“Aud?” Heather walked toward him. “You’re in early this morning.”

He shook his head as he booted up the computer. “Not really. I only beat you in by a minute. I’m surprised you didn’t see me walking down the sidewalk.”

“You must’ve slipped past me.” She pulled off her cashmere jacket and headed for the back room. “I wasn’t expecting you to open today.”

“Why?” Aud turned from the slow-starting machine.

“Well, didn’t you have a date last night?” The distance between them muffled her voice. “I figured you’d have had a long night. Or didn’t the date go well?”

“It went great.” Aud couldn’t keep the happiness out of his voice if he’d tried. His sleep had been filled with sexy dreams that featured Leo.

“But you’re still in at opening.” Heather reappeared, smoothing her red silk dress. Her perfectly groomed nails matched the garment’s color.

“We’re going to take things slow.” Aud turned back to the computer as the tones of it finally launching the desktop rang out. “But we had a great time, and we’ll be going out again tomorrow night. That is, if you can close, should we have any lingering customers at five.”

She came behind the counter and leaned against the chair he settled into. “A second date? That’s good. So he’s a nice guy, then?”

“Yeah, I think he’s a great guy. The sketch of him went really smoothly. I might even finish it when I get home tonight.” Aud started pulling up files.

“How detailed a sketch are you doing?”

“Fairly. He’s got a very expressive face. I could stare at him and draw him for hours, days even.”

Heather blinked at him. “Are you serious? You never spend hours drawing someone. How many sketches have you started, just to toss them aside because they got boring, or you did something small that didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to?”

“This one is going perfectly.” Aud ran a finger down the screen as he studied the spreadsheet he’d brought up. “So, we need to go through this. Anything we’ve had in a gallery for more than six months that hasn’t moved, we need to contact the artist or their agent and find out if they want to drop the price, replace it, or pull it out completely.”

“What?” Heather blinked. “Wait a minute. Are you trying to change the subject on me?”

“Not exactly. We need to get some work done, not just chat about my love life. If I’m lucky, I’ll have more to discuss on Monday.” Aud smiled at the thought of seeing Leo again.
How long has it been since the idea of going out with a guy for a second date made me smile? How long has it been since I actually had a second date?

“Okay. I’ll give you that.” Heather leaned closer and studied the sheet. She tapped an entry. “I’ll be happy to call this one. That hideous piece of glass has been here way too long. We’ve got several other glass artists who have been in recently wanting to know if we’re looking for new stained glass. That abstract has been hanging in the front window so long some of the regulars think it’s our new logo.”

Aud glanced up at the massive mosaic stained-glass piece. The frame was beautiful, but the mosaic looked like the artist had just swept up all her scraps and decided to make a huge piece out of them. When it arrived, he’d worried it wouldn’t sell, even though she had a good record with other pieces over the years. His gut instinct had been right, and now it was the last piece of hers he had in the shop. “Thanks. She’s been rather distant the past few times I’ve talked to her.”

They settled into a lively discussion about the changes in art they needed to make as well as confirming the openings that were happening over the next few weeks. Aud always felt happy when he was making improvements to his gallery. It was the perfect thing for him to do after an enjoyable date and the hopes of future dates.

“HOW WOULD
you like it delivered?” Aud asked the middle-aged woman who had just purchased a large bronze statue of the goddess Artemis.

“What are my options?” She slid her credit card back into her purse.

“We have a delivery company that we’ve never had any problems with. You can arrange your own transport, or I can contact the artist and see if she could move it for you. I know she likes the opportunity to see where her pieces end up.”

She graced him with a pleasant smile. “I’d love to meet the artist. She has done such a magnificent job capturing the beauty and ferocity of Artemis. It’s almost like the goddess came to her in a dream or something.” She handed him a business card. “See when she can handle the move and I’ll make sure to clear my schedule.”

He took the card and stapled it to the sales receipt. “I’ll call you as soon as I contact her.”

“Thank you. It’s always a pleasure to come in and see what’s new.” She slipped her purse over her arm. “You have a good day.” She headed for the door.

“You too,” he called after her as she opened the door and stepped out onto the street.
That definitely makes for a good day. It’s not even noon yet and if I don’t sell anything else the whole weekend, bills are paid for the week on that commission.

The front door beeped, causing Aud to look up after he slid the receipt into his to-do pile. Randal Hudspeth, the pushy guy from the gym, stood there.

“So you really do work in an art gallery.” Randal walked toward Aud with a strange swagger in his step. “Real fancy one too.”

“I own it,” Aud replied.
What is Randal doing here?

“Nice. You’re a better catch than I realized.” Randal stopped and stared at the large painting of a bull. “I think your balls are bigger than this guy’s.”

“Can I help you with something, Randal?” Aud didn’t bother to keep the irritation out of his voice.

“I thought I’d try and track you down outside the gym and see if you avoided me there too.” He turned from the painting. “It’s good to see that you aren’t.”

“What?” Aud shook his head for a second, trying to comprehend what Randal had just said. “Are you saying you’ve been stalking me?”

“No. Not at all.” Randal waved his hand dismissively. “This is my first stop. One of the guys who works at the gym slipped me your information after I gave him the blow job of his life in the steam room last night.”

And that might be enough to make me change gyms.
“I see. I thought all you were looking for was tricks. Why go to all the trouble of tracking me down when I’ve made it clear to you that our little encounter didn’t do much for me?”

Randal sighed dramatically and walked over to another large painting, this one of an adobe chapel. “I was thinking about that and figured maybe we could go out to dinner and afterward I could show you what I’m really capable of when I’m not constrained by either time or the size of the steam room.”

Aud rolled his eyes. “Randal, I guess I’m going to need to be a little more direct. I’m not interested. We had a moment of madness in the steam room. That was it. We both managed to get a release we needed at the time. I don’t really see it happening again.”

Randal blinked at him. “So you’re saying you’re not interested in going out with me?”

“That’s right.” Aud crossed his arms and glared at Randal.

“But I’m one of the most popular guys at the gym.” Randal’s face reddened. “I’ve got the hottest body there, after you. Even the straight boys like me on their cocks.”

“And that’s part of the problem. I don’t really like to have the same guy everyone else is having. Randal, go back to the gym and troll around in the steam room. You’ll be happier there. I’ve got a business to run.”

The front door opened and Heather walked in, carrying their lunch and two large cappuccinos.

Randal didn’t seem to notice her. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re rude? Not to mention you’ve got a small cock.” He spun on his heel and stormed out of the gallery.

Heather stared at Randal before turning to Aud. “What was that all about?”

“I think I’ve got my first stalker.” Aud walked back behind the counter.

“Should we call the police?” Heather set the bag of deli sandwiches on the counter, then placed the coffees beside it.