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“We’ll talk about this better when we get home. I have to go.”
I hugged her briefly and she walked back into the hall. I went in after finishing with my coffee and sat down. The presentation was over soon and the project was launched. There were multiple applauses from the hall and a standing ovation. I joined them and took videos and pictures of Vivian.
When the event was drawing to an end, Vivian came out to meet me and said, “Some of these CEOs have invited me to join them for a late lunch. I have to go.”
“You have to. I will head back to the gallery and finish up on some work myself.” We hugged briefly before she was dragged away by a young tech enthusiast who had burning questions to ask her. It made me smile.
When I got into my car, Ava’s babysitter, Angela video called me. Ava was excitedly screaming, “Mommy! Mommy!” When she saw my face. I laughed and played with her a bit before asking how she was doing from Angela.
Angela said that she was fine and had eaten her lunch. I told them I’d be home in a few hours and ended the call after blowing kisses at Ava. I started the car and drove to my gallery. We had received an influx of artwork and were planning an exhibition soon, in hopes that we would make sales.
My front desk worker, James, a young man who just graduated from college, rushed to me immediately when he saw me. He was with his inventory list and started showing me the number of artworks that came in when I was out. A total of seven were received.
He also took me to the back to show them to me. They were amazing pieces and I was hopeful that we would make a lot of sales.
“James, have you spoken to the repairmen? I need that exhibition hall done as soon as possible.”
“Yes, I have and they said first thing in the morning, they’d send someone over to see the extent of damage done and how to fix it.”
“Thank you,” I responded and went into my office.
The rain this year had done a number on our exhibition hall and we needed it all fixed up in order to hold another exhibition. While in the office, I received a call from an artist who submitted his work last year. He asked if we were still accepting artwork, and I told him we were.
After work, I drove home to find Ava sleeping. Angela said, “She tired herself out running around in circles this evening. For some weird reason, it seemed to be funny.”
I laughed thanking her for all of her hard work and said a quick goodbye, then I took Ava to her room and carefully placed her in bed. She smelt of talc powder and I knew that Angela must have given her a bath before she slept off.
Ava sleeping meant that I had some alone time with myself before Vivian returned from work and I found myself thinking about meeting Leon Pierce today. While back at my office, I took out some time and went to Google him. He was truly a wealthy and influential man. What if he snooped too much and found out about Ava.
I didn’t want that to happen and I needed to think of a way to prevent it. The only solution would be to keep my distance from him. If I got close to him in any way, he might find out about my daughter and try to play a power trip on me and take her away.
I took out my drawing board and decided to start painting the drawing of the Japanese girl. I usually painted in the extra room, which also served as a guest room sometimes and a storage room other times. I went in there, took out my paints and brush and went to work. I usually listened to a podcast while painting so I put on the latest episode of a scientific fact podcast.
Vivian opened the door and walked into the room. “Hey. I’m home late, right?” she asked.
I didn’t know what time it was or how long I’d been painting so I shrugged, “Maybe.”
“I’m sorry. Those CEOs can party and I mean really party.”
“Wait, I thought you said it was late lunch.”
“Initially, it was and then it just spiraled into something else. One of them knew a spot, a really good spot and we went there. Before I knew what was happening, we were taking shots.” She said and laughed.
“I’m glad you had fun, Viv,” I said, smiling at her.
“I’m glad I did too. I had been so busy with this project and now it has launched. I’m relieved I can rest a little. Now, can we talk about what happened earlier today?”
I sighed and put the palette I was holding down. “Viv, it’s all I’ve been thinking about. What if this man just upturns my life and wants to take Ava away from me?”
“I think you should calm down Val. You guys just saw each other today. He has no idea about Ava and he doesn’t need to. You might never even run into each other in this city again.”
“What if we do?”
“This is the overthinking part of you speaking. I don’t want you to stress yourself over this. Leon has no business with you, so the chances that you’ll run into each other again are quite low.”
“What if he actively starts looking for me? You know how men can get. He might want to rekindle whatever old thing we had.”
“Like I said, you’re overthinking it. It’s not like you were in a relationship or anything. He met you just once. Don’t worry yourself about this, please. I just need you to focus on planning that exhibition you told me about.”
