Mergers & Acquisitions by Jennifer Griffith

Author:Jennifer Griffith [Griffith, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-08-28T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

Lunch? That was all the text from Aero said a few days later.

Where? When? Maybe my reply sounded desperate.

But frankly, after several restless nights, I’d probably define myself as desperate— to see Aero again, to get another dose of everything about him.

A glance at the photo of us I’d framed and placed on my desk sent all those emotions spiraling again. We’d parted right after he gave me the photos the other night, when Ryker the Spoiler had called and interrupted our talk.

Ryker. For as much as he seemed to want us to get together, he also had atrocious timing, preventing a repeat of our kiss in the hot tub after we ate, blast him. Plus, the call had prevented an awkward but necessary conversation about why I didn’t want to sell Aero the painting of Woman Draped in Red.

Then again, it had also prevented me from asking Aero exactly why he wanted it so much. A few suppositions formed in my mind as I worked the morning through, fielding a couple of new requests from actors-turned-painters who’d heard about Mindi’s success, presumably not from Mindi.

I sent Mindi an updated list of her sales.

Ms. Dresser,

In the few days since Red Drape Gallery opened, you have sold eleven pieces of art. After commissions, taxes and fees, your sales total—

I named a number in the mid-five-figure range. She couldn’t be disappointed with that.

I’m very pleased to report this. If there comes a time you’d like to have Red Drape Gallery make an announcement as to your identity, please let me know.

I didn’t hear back right away, unfortunately, but that morning I did pick up two new artists, and their quality was a little higher than the purely amateur work of the bulk of my initial batch of famous-for-a-different-craft painters, carvers, and sculptors.

Plus, once next week arrived and Art World Magazine rolled out its article on Red Drape Gallery as well as revealing Woman Draped in Red for the first time for everyone all over the world to see, things might change even more. I checked, and the magazine’s website was promoting it heavily. Comments were even lining up about the upcoming article.

Tremors of something big on the horizon rumbled for this gallery.

Could the rumblings possibly be related to Aero and me as well?

“You look nice today,” Aero said as he pulled out my chair for me at Gateaux de Gaul.

“It’s more clothing than you saw me in last time we had a meal together.” I probably shouldn’t have said it. It likely invoked images of me in a swimsuit, but the look on his face said he didn’t mind. Meanwhile, I indulged myself in a little trip down memory lane thinking of those nice muscles rippling near his shoulder blades.

We ordered and talked about nothing— the weather, a mutual love of autumn in southern California, our favorite beaches by season, a disagreement as to which wood-fired pizza place in Old Town was best. It was light, easy, fun.

Until …

“You have probably been dreading this moment.

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