Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 75003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
“Oh, that’s nice,” Jade said.
“I would like him to be astride a unicorn with a cowboy hat on,” Zayn said, getting a snort out of me, who knew he was serious, and a bemused laugh out of Jade, who thought he was kidding.
“He means that,” I told her.
“Really?” Jade asked, eyes brightening.
“Really,” Zayn confirmed. “He is young at heart,” he insisted. “Would it be possible to have the unicorn surfing?” he asked.
“Ah, yeah, sure,” Jade said, nodding. “That sounds fun.”
“And could he—“ Zayn started again.
“Zayn, look, there’s a pretty redhead,” I said, turning him to point her out.
“Indeed there is. Jade,” he said, reaching for her hand and bringing it to his lips. “I will be in touch.”
With that, he was gone.
“If I didn’t stop him, he was just going to keep going, coming up with more and more asinine ideas. Next thing you know, he’ll have rubber ducky shoes on and a tattoo of a dinosaur merman on his chest.”
“He does seem very… eccentric,” Jade declared, glancing around, then starting to pull her own pictures off of the walls of the booth.
“He’s richer than God and is used to the whole world being his playground.”
“What I’m hearing is he won’t scoff at the five hundred bucks I was going to charge him for the portrait.”
“Doll, I don’t think he would blink an eye if it was five hundred thousand,” I told her as I helped her pull down the rest of her art.
“Wow,” she said, shaking her head.
“He also has contacts all over the world. You might be a very busy artist once he has some canvases of yours.”
“I’ll just be happy to make a few sales from him personally,” she said.
The humbleness seemed to be innate in her. She always seemed to be wanting to do good, to offer of herself to others. Without seeming to ask for anything in return.
As much as I’d gone years liking the club girls who were just a little more vapid and seeking their own interests, I found Jade refreshing.
“So what are you doing after you’re done here?” I asked as she hauled the boxes out from under the table to organize her prints.
“Uhm, coming to see what the inside of a party bus looks like, obviously,” she said, shooting me a playful smile. “Though, I have some plans later. So I can only hang for a few hours.”
As much as I’d prefer to spend a few hours alone with her instead of with the guys and whatever girls they’d rounded up, if I was going to get a few hours with her at all, I was sure as hell going to take them.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Jade
He saved me.
That was dramatic.
But it had been a long, hot, boring day that felt mostly not worth my time.
Sure, I’d had lots of conversations with lovely fellow vendors who tried to assure me that things would pick up, that it took them weeks to really start to make a solid income. But when it came to the public, I had a lot of people stopping for a quick look, but very few who even moved in the booth to check things out. Fewer still who actually bought anything.
More so than that, though, Levee saved me from my own thoughts. Which had, admittedly, taken a really dark turn ever since the sounds in the apartment above mine got my imagination going in endless circles.
They all inevitably ended with me trying to convince myself that I was being crazy.
But the feelings kept coming back regardless.
Especially when I didn’t see that neighbor the next day. The thing was, though, that I didn’t see all of my neighbors every single day. We all had different lives and schedules. When I sat to think about it, I wasn’t sure I’d ever actually noticed that particular neighbor before.
Still, there was no reasoning with my fears. And with nothing to do but sit around all day, they’d been growing stronger and stronger.
So, yeah, Levee’s timing was pretty awesome in that respect.
He saved me from my own mind.
And, honestly, I was actually pretty excited about the party bus.
Since moving to the area, I’d been doing lots of exploring. The beaches. Local coffee places. Pet stores. Little independent restaurants.
But, well, I didn’t exactly have any friends to go out at night with. Sure, I had friendly relationships with other tenants in my building, but we were strictly ‘in and around the building’ friends. Which was fine. Good, even. I really believed in community like that.
Still, I had to admit that it felt like a little something was missing. No one to go out to the bars or clubs with, to dinner, to a movie, poetry reading, play. Stuff I was used to doing in my old town. With other people.
So, yeah, this was going to be good for me. Bonus points for getting to spend some time with Levee.