Pencil, Paper and Passion.

Saturday morning came with torrents of rain. I sat in the middle of my bed and stared glumly out the window, thinking that the weather had really become dreadful in the last month. Just like your life, I thought sulkily, then frowned. No, that wasn’t true. It hadn’t been all terrible, but it had certainly taken several daytime TV drama worthy twists and turns. Namely, my relationship with Ben. Then there was the fight with my mother, and her escape to the Hamptons. Lastly, this thing with Ryan Laski, which I was still concerned about as I hadn’t heard a peep from him since my tires were slashed and I waited uneasily for the other shoe to drop.

Still pouting at the downpour outside, I glanced at my bedside clock and groaned. It was eleven o’ clock and I hadn’t even gotten out of bed yet. Instead, I’d been sitting here worrying about every little thing, which was completely unnecessary as there wasn’t a thing I could do to change any of it. And, I thought as my mood lifted, there was one worry I didn’t want to go away… and he’d be here in an hour. Grinning, I climbed from my bed and headed straight to my shower, wondering what Ben would think if he knew I thought of him as worrisome.

I took a quick, ten minute shower, spent thirty minutes on my hair and makeup, and then the rest of my hour went to searching for the right clothes. I was just pulling a sapphire cashmere sweater over my head when the doorbell rang out. Swearing, I snatched my cell phone from its charger and shoved it into the pocket of my white, calf-length skirt. I grabbed my purse and a pair of silver flats from my closet before exiting my room and hurrying barefoot down the stairs. I reached the door just as the bell pealed again. Chuckling, I threw open the door. “Impatient, are we?”

Ben grinned down at me as rain dripped from his hair and down his face. “Little bit.” And with that he cupped my elbows, lifted me off my feet and claimed my lips. This kiss was just as devastating as the first one and I immediately dropped the shoes and purse I still held in my hands so I could twist my fingers through his wet hair and participate fully. I could taste the rain on his lips and gained a new appreciation for the weather. All too soon, however, he pulled his mouth away and sat me back on my feet. He kept his hands on my elbows and I opened my eyes to see him smiling sensually down at me. There was a flush high on his cheekbones and his pupils had dilated so only a thin ring of violet showed of his irises. So, this is what desire looks like, I thought, knowing full well I had the same aroused-and-not-quite-satisfied look upon my face that was on Ben’s.

I gazed up at him, trying to get a hold on my thoughts. “Hm. Well, hm. Hello.”

The smile widened and his dimples winked out. “Hello. I wouldn’t have been able to have a decent conversation with you if I hadn’t gotten that out.” He tilted his head inquiringly when I made no response, “Are you going to invite me in? It’s a bit damp out here.”

“Oh, right,” I said dumbly and stepped back to let him inside, shutting the door at his back as he looked around the foyer. Shaking my head, I finally reined in my thoughts and gestured him into the sitting room, then slipped the silver flats onto my feet before following him. I figured the fancy room would be neutral enough ground for us to talk about the aspects of our relationship. I motioned for him to sit on the sofa and took the dainty chair that sat across from it. I laced my fingers together and met his eyes over the coffee table between us. “Ben-”

He cut me off. “Don’t, Elizabeth.”

“You don’t even know what I’m going to say.” I frowned at him.

“You’re going to say that we need to talk about the consequences a romantic relationship between the two of us could bring. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“But it’s important that we do! If anybody were to find out-”

“They won’t.” Ben said flatly, interrupting me once again and leaving no room for an argument.

“But-”

“Elizabeth, no one is going to find out. I don’t intend on telling anyone and I’m sure you’re not either.”

“But what if someone sees us together? I mean… In order to avoid that, we’d basically have to stay cooped up in one of our houses.”

He smiled and slowly shook his head, “No, we wouldn’t. There are cities other than the one we’re in. In fact, I had planned on taking you to the opening of a show at a gallery and to dinner in one, today.”

“Oh…” I breathed. He had planned a date and here I was, tossing out reasons why we shouldn’t have a relationship. And I had no reason for doing so, as I was all for us being together.

Ben suddenly scowled at me, apparently questioning my actions also. He got up from the sofa and came to stand in front of me. “However, you seem to be having second thoughts.”

I quickly shook my head as I looked up at him. “I’m not though.”

“Then why are you arguing against us?” He asked, reaching down take my hands in his.

“I don’t know. I guess… I’m prepared to deal with the trouble we could get into, but I wasn’t sure if you’d thought it all through. I wanted to make sure you had.”

“I have. I’ve been thinking it through since the day I met you.”

“Oh.”

He chuckled and pulled me up from my seat. “You say that a lot, Elizabeth. I’m beginning to think it has something to do with me.”

“Uhm… probably.” I let my fingers intertwine with his. “It probably has something to do with your, uh, skills in this area and the fact that I deal with high school boys, who’s skills consist of ‘hey, baby want to go for a ride’ and leering. Lot’s of adolescent leering.”

He pulled me closer as an unholy amusement lit his eyes. His hand suddenly made it’s way to my butt and he leered mockingly at me. “Hey, baby, wanna go for a ride?”

I groaned. “Ben! That was a very poor attempt at humor!”

He laughed and leaned down to nuzzle my cheek, keeping his hand where it was. “I mean it though. It’s about an hour and a half to that gallery I mentioned, so it’s a bit of a ride. We should also be leaving soon since it starts at two. We should just make it in time.”

“Hm. Alright then.” I closed my eyes, reveling in his easy affection. It seemed to come so naturally to him, even as early as it was in our relationship. I care for you, it seemed to say, so why shouldn’t I show it? Why shouldn’t I touch and nuzzle and kiss and why shouldn’t I enjoy it? I rested my hands against his chest as his wandering lips came to the collar of my sweater and his hands started to roam. “Uhm… weren’t we going somewhere?”

He paused in the action of slipping a hand up under the back of sweater and sighed. “Yes, you’re right.” He pulled away from me and grinned. “Let’s go then.”

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The car ride to the gallery was filled with easy conversation, laughter, and Ben’s constant need to touch. He’d reach out with his free hand to run his fingers up my arm, or to trail across the back of my hand. I wondered at it, this need of his to touch every few seconds as if to make sure I was still there, like I’d suddenly vanish if he didn’t have a hold of me. His hand rested on my knee now, squeezing every so often, and I made myself stop wondering about it and accept the ease of affection he offered.

When we arrived at the gallery, I read the sign as Ben parked, then let out a mourn filled wail. “Gallery to Modern Art?!”

“Yes…,” He answered, staring at me in confusion as he pulled the key from the ignition. “What’s so terrible about it?”

“You’re going to make me look at colorful painted shapes and splatter. There’ll be ghastly sculptures that look like something from that horrible movie, Beetlejuice, and every person in there will claim to know exactly what the meaning of each piece is. And they’ll be very deep meanings too, even though it’ll all look like something a four year old put together.” I scowled at the building before us, noting it’s uncluttered lines and walls of glass. Even the building itself held no charm or imagination!

“I take it you don’t like modern art,” Ben murmured, obviously amused at my outburst. “May I ask why?”

I sighed. “It just doesn’t seem fair that there are hundreds of artists out there who can take pencil or paint and make a drawing look like a photograph and get absolutely no recognition for it, while these people throw some paint at a canvas or stick a wire in some clay and get thousands of dollars for each monstrosity.”

“I’d never thought of it that way,” He admitted, reaching up to toy with the ends of my hair. “You make a very good point though and you seem very passionate about it.”

I shrugged. “My mom used to drag me to millions of openings. They were mostly for modern art, like this, but every so often we’d go to a show with landscapes and portraits. They’re the only one’s that I ever enjoyed. But they always made the least amount of money and people would whisper about how much of a nobody the artist was. It’s just not fair.”

“No, it’s not.” He suddenly grinned and tugged on the strand of hair he’d been running through his fingers, “Why don’t we go in, spend absolutely no money and whisper about how terrible the pieces are.”

“But you have to buy tickets to attend, don’t you?”

He shook his head and pulled two tickets from his jacket pocket. “A friend gave them to me.”

“Well, in that case, let’s go.” I grinned back at him.

He grabbed an umbrella from the backseat, it was still raining, then put it to use as he got out of the SUV and came round to my door. He opened it and grabbed my hand, pulling me from the vehicle, barely giving me time to grab my purse, and under the shelter of the umbrella before shutting the door with his hip. We walked toward the entrance of the gallery, hand in hand.

Ben continued to speak as we walked. “We also get free finger food and champagne.”

“I’m not old enough.” I reminded him.

He snorted. “They’re not going to know that. Come on, live dangerously!”

I stared pointedly at our joined hands. Wasn’t a forbidden relationship with my chemistry teacher dangerous enough?

The teacher laughed and swung our hands as we walked up the stairs to the gallery. He spoke, seemingly reading my thoughts, “Doesn’t count. You’re of age. We‘re just a regular couple.”

“You’re my teacher.”

He seemed to consider it then shook his head. “I won’t be at the end of the year, so it doesn’t count.”

“But that’s a whole year of sneaking around and possible discovery. Danger.” I spoke calmly, but my heart was beating rapidly. He was speaking in the long term. We hadn’t been a couple for two days and he was already confident that we’d still be one in a year. Wasn’t this moving just a little too quickly?

“I guess. Does this mean you’re not going to drink champagne with me?” He eyed me sadly. “I can only have one glass, as I’m driving, in any case.”

I sighed as we walked through the doors leading into the gallery. “I’ll drink a glass of champagne with you.” I waited while he let go of my hand to deal with the umbrella. When he started struggling with it, I noticed a blonde haired woman standing just inside the building, collecting tickets. She stared at us impatiently, as we had already arrived late and now seemed to be holding up the line. I chuckled and reached into Ben’s coat pocket to retrieve the tickets, then handed them to the woman along with an apologetic smile. By the time Ben got the umbrella closed, the woman had torn our ticket stubs off and handed them back to me. I slipped the stubs into Ben’s coat pocket then slipped my hand into his.

He smiled down at me and twined our fingers together. There was that easy affection again. This time, though, I didn’t wonder at it. I just leaned into his side and let the warmth of it slide over me, as we walked into the huge white-walled room where the show was being held. I knew our relationship was moving a lot faster than it should and that I should do something to slow it down, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I was content to let it progress as quickly as it wanted, as long as I got to be with Ben.

He grabbed two glasses of champagne from the tray of a passing waiter and after he‘d handed me one, I sipped, trying to examine my feelings about him. I didn’t love him. At least, I was quite sure that I didn’t. I cared for him, certainly, but I’d only known if for three weeks and it was far too soon to have fallen in love with him. I was certain, however, that I’d fallen deeply into lust with Ben Gallagher. There was no doubt that I wanted him; my hormones screamed for mercy every time he touched me, which was strange. I’d been kissed and touched before, by different people, but I’d never had this urge to take it further. And I definitely wanted to go further with Ben.

“… sorry, Elizabeth, but I might have to buy this one.” Ben’s apologetic voice broke through my thoughts and I glanced around, surprised to find that we’d already gone through at least half of the pieces arranged in the huge room. He continued, “You don’t mind, do you? What do you think of it?”

I looked up at the painting he indicated and was surprised again. It was a landscape! A wide field of multicolored flowers, with a small dirt path running up the middle that lead to a small white cottage. Or so it seemed to be… On closer inspection, I found that every small detail was a different geometric shape; squares, circles, triangles, trapezoids and a million others that I couldn’t name. It was stunning and I could see why Ben was keen to have it. I shook my head at him. “I don’t mind at all. It’s amazing. I might have to rethink my opinion on modern art.”

He grinned at me, then leaned forward to peer at the discreet tag hanging below the simple brown frame. His grin turned to a disappointed frown. “On second thought, I don’t think I like it all that much. That‘s a little too steep for me.”

I zeroed in on the tag and frowned. Fifteen thousand was actually a very good price for such a piece. I opened my mouth to tell him so then remembered that he was a high school teacher, with a high school teachers’ salary and probably couldn’t afford to blow five figures on a painting.

But I can, I thought to myself as a plan hatched in my mind. Going with it, I gave Ben a sympathetic smile and ran my hand up his arm. “Why don’t you think about it? I’m going to go find a powder room.”

He nodded absently, his gaze still on the painting. I walked away from him, moving quickly from the room, back to the entrance, where a man sat behind a large glass desk. “Excuse me?”

He looked up and smiled winningly. “Yes, can I help you?”

“I’d like to purchase the painting of the white cottage. I’m sorry, I didn’t think to look for a name.”

“No worry. I know exactly which one you’re talking about. Now, the price is $15,00, but-”

I quickly shook my head. “That’s no matter.”

He seemed surprised and I realized that the prices here were negotiable. He was probably used to people haggling with him. A small smile touched my lips as I pulled my wallet from my purse. The man’s eyes lit up at the sight of it. “Cash or charge, miss?”

“Charge,” I replied and handed over my credit card. “Can I have it delivered?”

“Of course!” He laid a small form on the desk and, using the pen he handed me, I quickly filled out my name and address and such. I sighed briefly over the fact that I didn’t know Ben’s address, but I’d find out later and have it redelivered from my house. I handed the form back to him and signed the credit slip, putting my copy and credit card into my purse, then smiled at the man. “Thank you.”

“No, thank you. Enjoy the rest of the show.”

I nodded and reentered the big room, moving to Ben’s side just as a gallery employee exchanged the price tag under the painting for one that said sold. Ben looked on in disgust. “Can you believe that? I was just deciding I was going to be reckless and buy it, too.”

I slipped my hand into his and tried to look sympathetic. “Oh, Ben, I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault.” He said, shaking his head. “It was probably just as well. I couldn’t really afford it right now.”

“Hm. Better luck next time, I suppose,” I told him, still sympathetic. I had to hide my smile from him, though, as it was no doubt filled with mischief. Oh, this’ll be fun.