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Looking at the empty café room, I know it will be an amazing final product. Nichelle has let me have quite a bit of fun with this one. Her artsy side makes her extra flexible, which I love. As I start putting some of the new wall décor where I know I’ll want to hang it up, I realize just how much I love decorating public spaces.
Doing private homes is fun. It was a great time for me to do Spencer’s house, and I’ve liked the private work I’ve bid on since moving to California. But one thing I really miss about being back East is that I was doing a lot of public spaces. I got to do a whole lobby for a public library, help with doctors’ offices and a bunch of businesses. Here, it has been mostly private up to the last week. Our new hire, Sophia, specializes in private spaces, which has given me more opportunities to get public options. I’ve been bidding on a ton of businesses, and while I haven’t gotten all of them, I am starting to build up a good catalog.
The café smells like leftover coffee and the baked goods they make fresh in the back every morning. Nichelle left me a bag with some chocolate croissants, and I bite into one, catching the crumbs with my other hand.
“Mmm,” I say aloud. “So good.”
There’s no one here to hear me yet, but I hope the walls appreciate how much I like Nichelle’s pastries. I’ve come here a few times since that date with Spencer, and I can’t wait to keep coming back once I’ve finished decorating.
Someone knocks on the locked front door, and I jump, spinning around to find Spencer smiling at me through the glass. I unlock it and let him in.
“You scared me!”
“Sorry! You knew I was coming.”
“Yeah, but apparently that didn’t make a difference.”
Spencer laughs. “That’s your fault, not mine. You’ve made a lot of progress in here.”
“Thanks, but it’s all set up. Now that you’re here, the real work begins. We need to hang everything up. I want to be done with as much as possible before the tables arrive.”
“I’m here to work. Just tell me what to do.”
I grab my hammer and nails from the counter. “You can be the handyman, and I’ll make sure everything looks right.”
He gives me a fake salute. “I can do that.”
Spencer is here to work, but he’s also here to make sure I stay safe. Nichelle agreed that I shouldn’t be here by myself after hours, especially when meeting a random stranger for a delivery. She offered to stay herself, but her daughter isn’t feeling well, so she wanted to get home. Thankfully, Spencer had another early day on set, so he could join me. Otherwise, I probably would’ve bothered Malia or Mason or changed the delivery to another night when someone was available.
“So, the places where I’ve placed décor on this wall, you can put them up. I don’t want them all lined up perfectly but evenly spaced between them. I marked off the heights for each one with a pencil.”
Spencer squints at the left wall until he can see my little pencil marks. “Is this where you want the nails?”
“Yeah, that’d be perfect.”
“Okay, I got it.”
Spencer starts hammering away, and I’m glad the business next door is a daycare that has already left for the day. It was definitely a good idea to do this work after hours, so I’m not disturbing anyone and so Nichelle didn’t have to close down for me to get everything done.
While my boyfriend works, and I steal glances at his arm muscles, I focus on the right wall, which will be the new gallery. The space is completely cleared out from all other décor, and the table delivery today will include paintings and sculptures to put on display. Each one will have a tag with a cost so that it can double as sales. I suggested Nichelle take a portion of the sales for displaying them, but she actually decided against it. She said she wanted to give these local artists a chance, so she’s putting their work up for free.
It makes me happy when clients agree with my vision for their space. The gallery was the first thing I thought of in this space because it’s something many coffee shops do, especially in the hipster parts of town. I don’t see a downside to it. The art looks great on the wall, and the artists have potential sales.
“What do you think?” Spencer asks me. He has hung four of the pieces that are going on his wall.
I clap my hands together. “It’s perfect!”
“Good to keep going?”
“Yeah, put up the last two.” My phone buzzes, and I read the message. “The tables will be here any minute. This is so exciting! I can’t wait to see what this studio did with them.”
