“Are you crying?” Krysta asked, confused.
“No, it’s just the smoke, you know.” There was no smoke, thanks to a city by-law.
“There are so many people I want you to meet.”
Angela met quite of few of Adam’s friends throughout the evening; arty types mostly. They talked, in large, about Adam’s wonderful talent. Yawn. Mostly, she took the opportunity to snack on cheese and crackers and more wine of course. She tried her best to keep her eyes off Michael. This was extremely hard.
The first sign she was a bit tipsy was a forward discussion about art and the pretentiousness of it; how a few dabs of paint by a pompous ‘it’ arty type could be revered and sold for thousands of dollars, while a true to life painting carefully created in hours of painstaking effort by an unknown elderly woman living on a small farm could be worthless. No surprise, she wasn’t the most well received guest at the gallery.
Through out the evening, as much as she tried not to, she spotted Michael speaking with Adam and various other people including the gallery owner.
Krysta was even tipsier than Angela at the end of the night. She was the designated driver for the evening. Angela hadn’t paid attention to her friend downing glasses of wine throughout the evening. She had been preoccupied.
“Are you drunk?” Angela asked
Krysta hobbled over and leaned her arm around her best friend.
“I’m sorry. I got carried away,” she slurred.
“You certainly did. I can’t drive either. I think I’m over the limit too,” Angela told her, furious.
“I called my mom. She can stay overnight with Madison so I’m gonna crash at Adam’s tonight,” she said slowly.
“Well, what about me?”
“Well, I spoke to your good friend Michael over there.” She gave her a cheeky smile. “He says he can give you a lift.”
“What?!” Angela didn’t know what to think. “I hate you.”
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Krysta chuckled as she was dragged away by Adam.
Michael made his way from across the room to Angela. “It looks like I’m your ride.”
“I’m sorry about my friend. She was supposed to be the DD and-”
“It’s no problem, really. It’s on my way.”
“Well, you just said-”
“Well, after I drop you off, I am officially staying away from you.”
They left a few minutes shy of midnight. They stepped out into a much cooler night. The night had gotten quite cold and wet throughout the evening. They walked along the storefront on the wet sidewalk. Of course, she hadn’t brought a jacket or an umbrella. She buried her hands in her armpits and tried to walk carefully in her heels.
They walked briskly.
“I bought three paintings,” Michael told her.
“Wow! Which ones?”
“I bought the large piece by the entrance, the one with the dark sky.”
“Nice.”
“I bought the snowy street scene, and the flatiron building.”
“I love that one. You bought my favorite one!” She was envious.
“I bought it for you,” he told her. “I hope it’s not too forward.”
