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“This artist is one of my favorites.” He stops in front of one of the most gorgeous paintings I’ve ever seen. “He’s no Monet or Picasso, but there’s something about his paintings that I like.”
I step closer to take the whole painting in. It’s of a couple walking along a street that appears to be in Europe or Italy - somewhere with older architecture. There’s no evidence of rain falling, but the street is painted so that it resembles a reflective sheen from the lights, and it is vibrant. Every color is bright, and while some blend into the color next to them, others stand apart. Some brush strokes, like the sky, are clearly seen, while the rest of the painting looks more like a photograph. “This is beautiful.” A part of me wants to reach out and touch the picture to see if I could be transported there.
“It is. Sadly the artist, Leonid Afremov, passed away in 2019. The world lost an amazing talent that day.”
“Absolutely, and I think he should be our first scavenger hunt clue. If his paintings can make me want to come here, then I think they could for others too.”
Derek smiles at me and nods. “Okay, shall I take a picture of you in front of this one?”
“Let’s take one together.” The words pop out before I can stop them, and my breath catches when I realize what I’ve just said. Maybe it’s this place or the way this painting makes me feel, but I don’t find Derek quite as stiff and annoying as I did at first. My eyes are locked on his waiting for any sign of how he feels. One step forward or two steps back?
Finally, he nods and pulls out his phone. “Okay, let’s do it.” He’s not exactly smiling, but he’s not frowning either. I’ll take it as a win.
He takes a step closer to me and holds the phone out so we can both be in the picture with the beautiful painting visible behind our heads. As I stare at the two of us on the phone screen, something inside me moves. It’s not a tingle or a shudder. It’s just a…a movement. A feeling that something has shifted between us though I don’t know what and couldn’t name it if I had to. I wonder if he’s feeling it too but that thought is interrupted by a voice I never thought I would hear again.
“Katie? Is that you?”
Even though I want to pretend I haven’t heard her - if I ignore her, she’ll go away, right - my head swivels toward the grating sound of her voice, and there she is, smiling at me with her sugary fake smile. Her perfect blonde hair hangs in perfect waves to her shoulders, her satiny shirt and skirt hug her perfect petite frame, and her perfect red lips display her blazingly white teeth, perfectly. If the word had a picture next to it in the dictionary, Amy would be it. She is perfect in every single way except one. She is a terrible friend. A terrible friend who stole my fiancé.
“Amy, so nice to see you,” I lie as I frantically try to think of a way to explain Derek. She knows me well enough to know he’s not a relative and calling him my coworker, while true, leaves me with no ammunition. And I need some ammunition, so I say the one thing I never thought I’d say in a million years. “This is my boyfriend, Derek.”
I’m not sure who is more surprised by this statement, but thankfully Derek’s surprise leaves him speechless and unable to deny it.
“Boyfriend, huh?” Amy’s eyes roam over Derek like he’s an item at an auction, and I wait for her to make a move on him. She stole my boyfriend once, so what’s to stop her again? “I didn’t know you were seeing someone.” Finished with her appraisal, she turns her gaze back to me and smiles. Smiles! As if we’re still friends or something. “How long have you been dating?”
Derek is still speechless, so I take his arm and stare up at him with what I hope is a look of adoration. Please don’t ruin this is the message I mentally send to him as I say, “Oh, for about six months, right, honey?”
His eyes are wide as he looks down at me and I send another mental plea. I’ve picked up on the fact that he doesn’t always catch social signals but I’m sure hoping he catches this one. For another second, he just blinks at me, and then I swear I see this change come over him. He pulls back his shoulders, pulls me to his side, and flashes the most charming smile I’ve ever seen on his face at Amy. “Actually, darling, I think it’s closer to seven, but it’s so hard to be sure since time stands still when I’m with you.”
Now it’s my turn to stare, and I know my mouth is hanging open. What the heck just happened? He’s like another person entirely.
“Well, isn’t that nice?” Amy says, though the tone of her voice implies it is anything but. “Are you still at the same address?”
“Uh, yeah,” I answer, confused as to why she would even want to know.
“Perfect. It was so nice to meet you Derek and to see you again Katie. Maybe we’ll meet again soon.” Her smile is more predatory than genuine, and it is punctuated by the swinging of her hips as she walks away.
When she is out of sight, Derek’s arm falls from my shoulder and the stiffness returns. “I suppose you won’t mind telling me who that was and what just happened.”
My shoulders fall as the memories of the past return with full force. “How about over some ice cream?” I’m honestly not sure I could tell him here. I need to get out of this place and away from Amy, from the past, before I can spill that secret.
He nods and leads the way to the car. Part of me feels badly that he didn’t get to see as much of the museum as he wanted, but the rest of me is filled with relief. Fifteen minutes later, we pull into the small ice cream shop.
After scanning the flavors, I decide today is definitely a double brownie chocolate chunk kind of day, but I’m surprised when Derek orders the same thing. “You did not strike me as an uber chocoholic like myself,” I say as we grab a small table by the window.
“I do not indulge in ice cream or chocolate very often, but it is another guilty pleasure,” he says, before spooning a large bite into his mouth.
“You seem to have a lot of those hidden guilty pleasures.” He is definitely surprising me, and I’m starting to wonder if there are two sides to Derek - the professional business side he shows everyone and the freer, fun-loving side that rarely gets let out. A tinge of pink colors his cheeks, and he drops his eyes to his ice cream, but it’s enough of a reaction to tell me I might be right. I wonder what it would take to get the other side to come out more often?
“So, you told me you would enlighten me as to who your friend was and why you pretended we were together.”
Though I knew it would be a long shot, I had been hoping he would forget, but I should have known better. Derek is like an elephant that way, remembering everything. “That was Amy. She was one of my best friends in college.”
His brows lifts slightly. “I’m assuming something happened to destroy the friendship.”
A mirthless laugh spills from my lips. “You could say that. Last year, the guy I had been seeing, Adam, asked me to marry him, and of course I said yes. Unfortunately, shortly after he proposed, he decided that he had more in common with Amy than with me, and he called off the engagement. I lost both my friend and my fiancé that day.”
Derek sets his spoon down in his bowl and his eyes lock on mine. I’ve never really noticed them before, but now that I feel like they’re holding me in a tractor beam, I have no choice but to peruse them. They are a deep brown, like a velvety chocolate but there’s tiny flecks of gold that appear to sparkle when the light hits them just right. They are…mesmerizing.
