11. The Opening

Chrissy loses her cool.

Chrissy was in a foul mood! She absolutely detested gallery openings, even Ian's. She saw them as nothing more than events where pretentious, artsy-fartsy people came to show off their latest outfits, get free wine and cheese, act sophisticated and then leave without buying anything. She especially hated watching Ian schmooze and charm the patrons as they told him how much they just adored his paintings and then left empty handed or with only a cheap print. She thought it was so demeaning! And there were always one or two women that flirted with him at these things, though he was usually too clueless to realize it.

She stood off to one side of the gallery with a sullen look on her face that warned most people away from trying to start a conversation with her. Ian was talking to various people in the center of the gallery and seemed to be enjoying himself, though she knew that it bothered him that he hadn't sold a painting in over two years. Being an artist was everything to him, but she could see that he had been getting a little jaded about it lately, and that made her hate these people even more.

She didn't dress up for the occasion. Instead, she wore torn black jeans and a white, wife-beater tank top over a black bra. For shoes she wore her usual black work boots. It was unintentional, but it was the same basic outfit that she had worn while posing for Ian's latest painting, 'The Critic'. Tonight was the first public showing of that painting. Ian was so pleased with it that he had decided not to sell it, offering only prints of it instead. She was kind of glad about that. She liked the painting, too. It was his best one in her opinion. In addition to 'The Critic', he had also brought six of his other paintings.

Ian broke away from the rest of the patrons and walked over to her. “Everything okay?” he asked her.  

“No! It's not okay!” she answered crossly, “Can we leave now?”

“Come on, Bittersweet. You know I have to be here. The gallery owner will get mad if I leave.”

'Bittersweet' was his pet name for her. He said it described her personality - dark and bitter, with just enough sweetness to keep him coming back for more. Yeah, it was hokey, but she kind of liked it. It was better than 'sweetypie' or 'snookums' or some of the other idiotic names that couples gave each other. And she knew that he would never call another woman by that name for the rest of his life.

“So what?!” she said curtly, “He's just using you to draw people into his gallery so he can sell some of that sappy kitsch that his other artists call art! These phonies wouldn’t know good art if it bit them on the a*s!”

“Maybe I should entitle my next painting 'The Cynic',” he chuckled. She made a nasty face at him. “Cheer up,” he smiled, “They really love 'The Critic'. I've sold three prints of it.”

“Chump change!” she retorted, “By the time you figure in the printing costs and then the gallery's commission, you're lucky if you break even on those.”

“I know, but it's nice when people are willing to spend money on something I've created. It's good for my ego.”

“You're a talented artist, Ian. You deserve more than just having your ego stroked. And I'm not talking about that red head in the green sweater who obviously wants to stroke more than just your ego.”

He furrowed his brow. “What are you talking about?”

“Jesus, Ian! She's been hitting on you all night! Can't you tell?!”

“She has?” He turned to look for her.

Chrissy slapped him on the arm. “Never mind about her!”

He turned back to her and sighed, “Look Babe, don't you think I'm already aware of everything you’re saying? For my entire life all I've wanted is to be an artist, and if this is as close as I ever get, then I'll take it. Once every few months I get to be the center of attention at an opening like this, and I can just be myself because people expect artists to be weird.”

She sighed and looked slightly abashed. “I'm sorry,” she said, “I didn't mean to spoil your moment. Go back and mingle with your 'fans'. I'll be fine.”

“You could mingle a little, too, you know. Some of these people would get a kick out of meeting the model for 'The Critic'. And you might find out they're really not so bad.”

“I suppose,” she sighed again, and then added angrily, “But I swear, if one more person mistakes me for your daughter I'm going to throw a fit!”

“Just don't do anything that would get me banned from every gallery in the city,” he chuckled. He turned and went back to the crowd.

Chrissy wandered over to a wall where some of Ian's paintings were hanging and pretended to peruse them. Presently, she heard a voice beside her say, “Hello.”

She turned to find the redheaded woman in the green sweater smiling at her. Oh great! She was the last person Chrissy wanted to be cordial to. She gave her a curt nod in greeting.

“It must be exciting to be an artist's model,” said the woman.

“About as exciting as standing stock still for an hour at a time can be, I suppose,” Chrissy answered a tad flippantly.

The woman laughed, thinking Chrissy was making a joke. “Well, I think your father is a very talented artist,” she said, then added under her breath, “Tell me, do you know if he's seeing anyone right now?”

That did it!! Chrissy shot her such an evil look that the woman actually stepped back two paces. Then Chrissy brushed past her and stormed across the gallery to where Ian was standing, conversing with an elderly gentleman. A couple of the gallery patrons glanced at her curiously as she strode by. “Excuse me!” she interrupted when she reached him. Then she turned around to the crowd of people, held her right hand in the air and said loudly, “May I have your attention, please?! I'd like everybody's attention here, please!”

Once she was satisfied that she had everyone's attention, she turned to Ian, wrapped her right arm around his neck and planted a very passionate kiss on his mouth. At the same time, she reached around behind him with her other hand and, with a flourish, grabbed his right buttock and gave it a good squeeze. Except for a couple of gasps, the gallery was stone silent. Then she disengaged herself from him, turned to face the astonished onlookers and practically shouted, “He's not my father! Got it?! He's not my father!”

She marched back across the gallery through the shocked crowd, some of whom had their mouths agape, to the refreshment table where she grabbed a bottle of beer from the ice bucket, twisted the cap off, and took a swig. She almost threw the cap at the attendant behind the table but decided that he was just a minimum wage flunky and flipped it past his ear into the garbage can instead.

Ian was the first one to regain his composure. He turned to the gentleman that had been talking to him, smiled, and said, “I'm sorry, you were saying...?

Reviews

[John Lauterbach]

Love the interactions at the gallery. All the little personal experience details and cynicisms bring it to life. I like Chrissy sparing the attendant and how the redhead does everything wrong to her.

The bitterswet nickname is great for her. Previously, Ian wanted to call her 'babe' while trying to make an official pet name; I liked it back there for Ian's old-style approach to things, so I'd love to see an additional line talking about how 'babe' evolved into bittersweet.

Excellent Chapter.

[Persona]

Craig, your style is so good, funny, clever and consistent! I loved the art gallery and the fun use of how Chrissy dislikes it! I love how things play out in such a silly way, despite that they should be acting mature! It's always great to have a character with a very real personality and I think people rarely show a character in their stories that have bad sides to them. Brill!

[Craig2591]

Thank you very much! I wrote this chapter partly from experience since I am an artist. There's a bit of a Jekyl and Hyde aspect to it. I have had so many openings and shows in which I didn't sell a single painting and I felt like Chrissy, but had to act like Ian and smile and be friendly. There's a bit of both characters in me. It was nice to have a character like Chrissy to write about and let her act like I sometimes feel.

[Persona]

Wow I love that. You're very welcome and I love how you've thought about who you are and have used your own traits in the characters! These two are great and I can see why you write about them.

[Bella Luna]

Hahaha Oh Chrissy, what a temper! She is so hilarious! I think alerting the whole gallery and grabbing Ian's butt in front of all of them was the opposite of what he asked her to do lol This was hilarious and I absolutely love how Ian just continues like it didn't even happen! Great chapter!

[Craig2591]

Thank you for continuing to read. The next chapter is a little long, but Chrissy has a couple more surprises for Ian and she makes an unlikely new friend.

[Bella Luna]

I can't wait! :)

[Tegon Maus]

I liked this one Craig... very good. Nothing better than a May - December romance

[Craig2591]

Thank you very much!

[Tina Kline]

I like this chapter. I'm glad she set the record straight.

[Faith]

she got that message through! I love these characters. You really are good at this.