Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 82767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
I just lost my passion for art, my interest in design. After him, I was just going through the motions to get through college. I’d placed all my hopes in my plans for traveling – there I would become inspired again, I would draw, I would have ideas, I would learn who I truly was. It was a cliché, and if I let myself think too deeply about it, I knew that traveling wasn’t going to rid me of my issues. But hey, I’d rather be unfulfilled in Italy or Spain, so it was worth a shot, right?
“I’m sorry,” Beatrix apologized, and I was inwardly glad of something else to focus on other than the memory of awkward sex with Jason. “I’m not trying to tease you, just give some sisterly advice!”
“To get laid?” I laughed. “With some rando?”
“Not some random guy, no. But you need to find a safe pair of hands, if you know what I mean, to get you over the whole Jason thing, so you can move on.” She smiled meaningfully, and I suddenly realized what she was getting at.
“Drew?” I gasped. “You want me to just… fuck Drew?”
She looked slightly shocked at my wording, but then shrugged. “Why not? You’ll be out of here soon enough, and he is clearly up for it…”
“You are losing it, Bea.” I smiled and shook my head, making my way to the door.
“Think about it!” she called, laughing.
I didn’t think about it. If Drew wanted to see me before I left, the last thing I needed was a mental picture of us in bed together as I tried to make small talk with him. I made my way into the studio, where he was just packing his things into his backpack. He gave me a wide grin as I entered and rummaged through the bag, picking out a book and handing it to me.
“This is yours,” he said as I took it off him and opened it. It was a sketchbook, and I hadn’t seen it in years. I flicked through it, and hundreds of old sketches that I had long since forgotten suddenly became alive to me again.
“I can’t believe you kept this!” I laughed, trying to ignore the lump in my throat.
“There’s space,” he said, showing me empty pages towards the end of the book, his hand brushing mine and sending a little tingle of electricity through me. “So, maybe you can find the time to add to it.”
“Thank you,” I said. “See you around.”
Chapter 11
KEEGAN
IT WAS JUST before noon, and I was frantically trying to learn as much as I could about some virtual reality enterprise that was apparently going to be pitching us their ideas at two. I was completely sure that I had never had any email about a meeting, but Sean insisted that one had been sent through two weeks ago.
“There is no damn email. I have searched my email, all folders. Junk. Spam. Nothing was sent!” I complained to Effie, who sat calmly on the opposite side of the desk. I had given her my laptop and she was engrossed in the information I had found on this new virtual reality technology presentation.
“What do you want me to look for in this?” she asked.
“Just get a feel for it,” I said, trying to get my brain to focus on what I was reading.
“But I won’t be in the meeting?” She looked unsettled.
“You will. I’m sorry to throw you in at the deep end, but I could do with a second opinion on this stuff. Between the two of us we might at least be able to bluff our way through.” I was embarrassed that she was seeing me like this – struggling, bullshitting everyone around me that I knew what I was doing, or cared about it. It was exactly what I did not want, and exactly why I refused to hire an assistant. She didn’t appear to notice.
“Okay,” she agreed, and went silent.
If I was ever worried about an assistant being a distraction, I needn’t have. She barely said a word. What was it with me lately that I seemed to be surrounded by these meek and mild, subservient women? I smirked at myself – surrounded? I was hardly surrounded. In fact, the only two people I saw regularly were Lucy and Effie. Even Sean seemed to be avoiding me. Lucy with her small, pasted-on smile, as if she were always posing for a passport photograph. Effie with her serious expression and lack of personality. Well, maybe that wasn’t strictly true. I had caught her a few times lost in a daydream, and she looked nothing like her usual professional self. And then there was the incident in the coffee shop yesterday.
The previous day I had gone out before lunchtime. I’d had a call from my mechanic that it was time to pick up my bike from the repair shop, and had taken the opportunity of a sunny day to test it out, getting out into the suburbs to get a bit of speed up. It felt good to be riding again, and the tune-up was everything the bike had needed. It was faster, sure, but more responsive, the power easier to control. It had felt incredible. I’d stopped to grab a sandwich before going back to work, choosing a coffee shop near the office.