Guess what?
I'm a professional artist now!
No, really! About a week ago the director of the art gallery came in to observe our class, and he must have really like what I was doing because he took me aside and told me he could arrange to sell it to some art collector! Crazy, right?
I mean, all that time when I was a kid being told that being an artist is so hard and nobody makes any money on it...and now here I am selling my work to collectors. And not for small change either. Granted, my primary shelter is still that stupid tent, but you do happen to be reading the words of a woman with a real, functioning bathroom! (And just in time, too. I think the other people at the gym were starting to catch on that I was only using the place to shower.)
Everybody in the class congratulated me, but I could tell that most of them were barely hiding their jealousy...except for Sadie, of course.
Sadie...well, I guess you could say that Sadie's my friend for all intents and purposes. We both started class at the same time, and somehow we always end up at easels next to each other.
Calling Sadie a friend feels like a bit of a stretch, though. She seems nice enough, but she's certainly not the type of person I'd have hung out with back home. Still, it's someone to talk to-even if all we talk about is what Sadie is freaking out about that day. (And trust me, there's a lot to discuss there.)
Apparently the entire reason Sadie took the class in the first place was to try and calm herself down. She said something about a therapist and how she's already tried deep breathing, aromatherapy, and...truthfully I was tuning out by then. (I'm getting really good at that lately thanks to you-know-who.) Art class doesn't seem to be working that well for her either, but she swears if she just sticks with it a couple more months... Still, I guess she's not the worst person I could have bumped into. I mean, she did let me know about Arthur...
Arthur works in the cafe in the gallery's basement. Technically, that's what Sadie told me about. Four months at this place and I never realized it had a cafe. (When I finally found it, Echo burst out laughing and said something about how she told me on day one. Of course, the first time I'm actually able to ignore her and I miss the memo about a nearby food source.)
Apparently signing up for a class entitles you to a free snack or drink from the snack bar, so...yeah, there's no way I'm turning that down. Even if the snack is just a bowl of the most generic potato chips on the planet.
Arthur never seemed to be super into art, but when he first heard about my paintings being sold he wouldn't stop congratulating me. Apparently he'd seen my painting being wrapped up for its' journey and had really loved it.
And then he said, "I guess I won't be seeing you around as much now..."
Now that was unexpected.
When I asked him what he was talking about, he said "Well, you've got connections now. Wouldn't it be easier to just sell your work from home?"
Off course. Normal people who spent this much time in art class would probably have at least some supplies at home too.
"Well, I don't exactly have the setup for it." I admitted. "Once I have both a functional bathroom and a kitchen, maybe I can think about an easel..."
I hadn't even realized what I was saying until I noticed he had stopped rummaging behind the bar and was staring directly at me.
"You...don't have a kitchen? Where are you living, the Bluffs?"
"I...don't think so." I said. I honestly had never heard of "the Bluffs"; for all I knew I could have been living there. "I'm down by the waterfront."
Luckily, he seemed to know where I was talking about. But that didn't do anything to change his confused expression. "Wait, you live by the waterfront and your house doesn't have a kitchen in it?"
"Not a lot of room for a kitchen in a tent." I cringed as I spoke. Why was tonight honesty night all of a sudden? I shot a quick glare towards the sky. I wasn't sure how, but Echo had to be to blame for this.
"Here..." he said, placing a plate of fries in front of me. "They're on the house. The name's Arthur, by the way."
"Riley Cohen".
Arthur nodded. "So Riley, tell me. How exactly does someone end up living in a tent by the waterfront?"
It was a perfectly reasonable question. of course. But what was I supposed to say that wouldn't make me out to be "Ditz of the Year?" And even if I could manage to explain how I ended up here, what reasonable person would have actually stayed? I mean, aside from ones trying to stick it to their childhood imaginary friends.
I ended up going with "I just needed a change", which really didn't explain either of those things. But he seemed to buy it. He wasn't done with the questions, though. He had a ton about where I was living. He couldn't believe just how much property I had. He almost seemed...impressed.
I'm glad he thinks it's so amazing, because let me tell you, he's pretty much the only one. This morning, I had the pleasure of meeting some of my neighbors. (Yeah, I know. Who knew, right?)
Apparently my neighborhood has some sort of...welcoming committee. (Although why they waited this long to drop by is anybody's guess.) I didn't catch their names, but apparently my new functioning bathroom wasn't quite enough to impress them. They both kept asking over and over,
"So, this is really it? You're really living like this?" The wife almost looked like she was going to start crying.
And sure, it was a little embarrassing at first, but...come on! It's not like they have to live here! And it's not like they can see my little toilet shack from their house either. (Otherwise they probably wouldn't have been so surprised when they got there.)
They stayed for hours! And even when the husband decided it was time for them to go home, the wife kept asking me if I wanted to go back with them.
"I hope you know that we're here for you..." she kept saying. I mean, seriously, she was almost worse than Echo!
Almost. Nobody's worse than Echo.
Anyway, that's when I knew there was something special about Arthur. Because when I told him about the whole thing, he actually laughed.
"Seems to me like they don't know who they're dealing with." he said. "I mean, roughing it in a tent like that takes some guts."
After his shift was over, we stuck around outside and looked up at the stars. Apparently Arthur's super into astronomy; he seemed to know every constellation in the whole sky.
We talked about other stuff too, though. Apparently Arthur also moved away from his family to come here, although he's in an apartment with a couple roommates. I was so worried that he was going to ask about where I was from. I still get this weird feeling when I talk about home. I don't miss it, but...well, maybe I do miss it a little. A version of it, maybe. But anyway, it just didn't seem right to lay that story on him this early in the game.
There will be plenty of time for that.
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