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“Nope?”
“Well where is she?”
“I don’t know,” said Nikki, feeling a little twinge of satisfaction.
“Go check the rest of the house.”
Nikki obliged. She went from one room to the next, becoming just a little bit more happy as each room proved to be another place Ant wasn’t. When she finally reported back to her aunt that Ant was gone, the shit really hit the fan.
Mrs Cap went into full freak out panic mode.
And Nikki silently reveled in the fact that little miss perfect was going to be in a whole heap of trouble.
22
Nighttime fell early that evening. The sky was gray and unsettled and the clouds held sway over the setting sun. It was drab and it was dreary, and it matched Romeo’s mood to a T.
He took a sip out of the short glass in his hand. The warm whiskey burned his throat and warmed his belly. He moved a half finished painting off the easel and grabbed a fresh canvas. He opened and mixed some colors. Burnt umber with burnt sienna, diaxozine purple with primary blue, and red oxide with mars black. He dipped his brush into the red/black, brought it to the canvas, and stopped. He had no idea what to paint.
At first, when he started painting, he was doing portraits, and they were mostly okay. But after a while he found he didn’t like spending so much time with anyone, especially when they posed for him. He liked people, he just didn’t care for idle chit chat and sometimes his subjects would just talk and talk and talk.
Then he began painting still lifes. He tried vegetables and fruit for a while - bowls of peppers, a cut up watermelon. But it all seemed so pointless. Such a waste of time. A subject with which he had no real connection.
Next he got into cityscapes - roofs, skylines, interesting architectural details. He dug the physicality and geometry of architecture .
He would have liked to go up to the roof of his apartment house and paint the buildings laid out in front of him. But he wasn’t spending any time up there unless he absolutely had to.
So most of the time, these days, he would take his supplies and head out to the edge of town. He would stand outside, look in, and paint the glass, brick and wrought iron that were the shapes and colors of the town in which he lived.
But not tonight. Tonight it was raining and he had no desire to go out. So he stared at the blank canvas in front of him and the colors he just mixed and the pieces of himself around his place and he waited for inspiration to come. He knew it was out there. Somewhere. It had to be…
Then there was a knock at the door.
“I’ll get it,” squealed Nikki, practically skipping down the hall. She ripped open the front door. “Patrick,” she said. “What a nice surprise.”
“Oh, hi there. Is Antoinette ready?”
“Yeah… About that… She’s not here.”
“Really? Oh. Um…”
“I know, right?”
“Where is she?”
Nikki shrugged. “Dunno.”
“Of course we know. Don't be silly,” said Mrs Cap as she rushed over. “Patrick! So nice to see you.” She hip checked Nikki out of the way and grabbed Patrick’s arm. “Come in, come in.” She literally pulled him into the house and locked the door behind him. “It is so good to see you.”
“Um… Thank you. It’s nice to see you too. So…?”
“Yes yes I know. We are so sorry, so very sorry. Ant was unexpectedly called away. It was completely unavoidable. Unexpected and unavoidable. Such a shame. And none of us had your number. Honestly. We would have called. Of course we would have called. It was an emergency. A complete surprise. So sudden. ”
“Is she okay?”
“Yes yes, she’s fine, totally fine.”
“Oh. Okay. Well another time then I guess.”
