Better Than Chocolate (11 page)

“Of course,” Elena said. “I want to be a responsible employer. You’re not going to want every weekend off are you?”

“If it’s alright with you how about if I work Tuesday to Saturday on a regular basis. If that doesn’t work or something comes up we can adjust it but the weekends are too important to a place like this to have management take it off.”

Elena breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. It looks like we’re on track then.” She was having a hard time believing they were less than a week away from the opening. Bente had phoned the night before.

“I can’t believe it! Your own gallery and coffee shop! We’re coming down Friday night. If everything isn’t totally ready we can pitch in and help. I can’t wait to find out what’s happening with you.”

And Brad. She could almost hear Bente saying it. Her heart sped up at the thought of it. “Where are you staying?”

“Oh, my aunt has a place just outside Chemainus and she’s offered to let us stay. That and babysit. Somehow I don’t see my little darlings managing a full day in a gallery.”

“But they could come for awhile.”

“Star wouldn’t miss it. You’re not only her godmother you know, you’re her hero!”

Her family was arriving enmasse on Friday as well. A thought that had butterflies doing manoeuvres in her stomache. Even as she looked forward to seeing them again and showing them her baby she was afraid.

Afraid her Dad would be disappointed in her, would find things she’d done wrong with Elena’s. She was afraid her mother would complain about her living in Chemainus and tell her she should find someone suitable (rich) and settle down. She was afraid of having her sister Suzanne thrown in her face as an example of what she should be with her brother, Nathan, held up as the family disappointment. Just the average dysfunctional family she thought, resigned.

She loved them. And maybe they’d changed. Maybe she’d changed. And maybe pigs had wings and had started flying while she’d been busy creating Elena’s. Probably not though. She could feel a headache coming on at the thought of it.

Door prizes. She needed door prizes. She’d already decided to do a draw for one of her paintings. If she gave away one of Bente’s birdhouses someone would be very lucky she thought. Maybe one of Race’s pieces, along with some smaller door prizes. She wished she had made some cards up of their work. She should look into it.

It was too late now, though. She almost picked up the phone and called Brad to ask his advice, then stopped herself.

He’d become part of her life. How was she going to survive without him after the opening? But was she ready for something more? Was he?

He was willing to move over here. And he was talking about balance in his life. She’d believe that when she saw it. For just a moment she found herself daydreaming, doodling her name along with Brad’s on the notepad in front of her. Then she picked up a copy of the Chemainus news and found the ad for Elena’s grand opening in it.

      She could feel a warm glow of pride inside herself. Elena’s was going to be everything she’d ever imagined for it and more. She hoped they had a good turnout for the opening. Carol was sure they would.

      Carol looked like she was going to be a godsend. One day and she’d already lined up someone to work part-time. “And she’ll do more hours if it’s needed. I’ve been going over the accounting software from Accounts America. I think it’s going to be just what we need.”

      “Am I going to need training on it?”

      “Yes, but it’s really easy. I can show you in an hour, probably less. I’d like to get Tracy, the new girl in as well.”

      “I’m hoping we’ll have the kitchen ready to go the day before and you can go over what needs to be done to get everything ready, how to do everything with us.”

      “That’s my hope too. At least the first day we’re not worrying about money. And since we’re opening at noon we don’t have to worry too much about the fruit kebabs and breakfast items.”

      “Until Sunday. And that’s probably going to be a slower day than the normal weekdays.”

      Grant gave her a call. “Come up and have a look.”

      She couldn’t wait. She threw on a coat. “Come with me,” she said to Mary who’d arrived home the night before. “Grant wants us to have a look!” They walked to Elena’s barely able to contain themselves.

      “It’s ready?!”

      “Just about,” Grant said. “I’ve still got to put in the display case and set up the kitchen area. But the gallery section’s ready to go.”

      She walked in. It was beautiful! The floors gleamed. The walls were painted a forest green and the recessed display cases an earthy brown. The store-front consisted of display glass so that light flooded the gallery.

      “Grant!” she couldn’t believe it. “This is so beautiful! Thank you! Thank you! For the first time in a long time she could feel herself actually jumping up and down in excitement, all reserve gone. Tears of joy ran down her face.

      Mary just looked amazed. “This is incredible.”

      “I know. It’s so much better than I even imagined. I have to call Brad.” She pulled out her cell phone.

      “I already have. He’s tied up right now but he said to go ahead without him. He’ll be in about an hour. I thought this would give you a chance to set up the gallery while I finished the café area.”

      “Thank you so much,” Elena said. But at the same time she couldn’t help feeling a sense of let down. She’d expected him to be as excited about this as she was.

In fact she’d been looking forward to seeing his reaction along with her own she realized. She’d just expected him to be here.

      “As long as you like it,” Grant said but she could tell he was pleased with her reaction. She looked around again. It was incredible. She couldn’t wait to start bringing down art work and setting up the gallery.

      “You realize what this means,” she said to Mary.

      “What?”

      “You’re getting your spare room back.”

      “You’re not moving in yet are you,” Mary said horrified.

      “No,” Elena said laughing. “I mean where all my paintings and art work I got for the gallery are stored.”

      “You had me going for a minute.”

      “But it won’t be long.” She looked towards the loft area but she couldn’t even see it because a tarp had bee draped across the opening where she had gone up from the café area to her living area before. She looked towards Grant but he’d already started talking to his crew, working on the café area and she decided not to bother him.

      “OK, let’s go get some of the art work and bring it down.”

      “I haven’t even seen most of it you know.”

      “Why didn’t you say something? I’d have been happy to show you anything you wanted to see. And more besides,” she said laughing.

      “It was crated up when you brought it in and I didn’t want to cause any more work for you,” Mary said simply.

      They used Mary’s SUV to bring the first load down. She was unloading it into the gallery when Brad arrived.

      “That’s too heavy for you,” he said grabbing her end and helping her with it.

      “I was doing just fine,” she protested shoving back a lock of hair that had escaped from the bandanna tied around her head.

      “You could’ve fooled me,” he said looking at her sweat-stained shirt and hair.

      “A little hard work never hurt anyone,” she said icily.

      Why don’t we take a break,” Mary said. “I just happen to have brought lemonade with me.”

      Elena had to admit lemonade sounded more than welcome. She looked around the gallery. It had looked better before they’d started bringing boxes in. But it still looked awesome! And when she’d finished it would look better than ever. More importantly it would make the art look better than ever. At least that’s what she hoped.

      “Can you believe it?” she said happily to Brad.

      “It looks even better than what I expected.”

      “It’s so much better than anything I even imagined when I first opened up.” She stopped looking up into Brad’s eyes. “And I owe that to you”

      “Most of this was you.”

      She shook her head. “Without you this would never have happened.”

      “Sure it would’ve,” he teased. “In just would’ve taken ten years.”

      She shuddered at the thought. “Thank you.”

      He shrugged lightly. “It’s what I do.”

      “Did. What are you doing now?”

      “You’ll see,“ he said lightly.

      She looked him in the eyes. “You’re not going to give me anymore hints are you?”

      “I’m a man of mystery,” he teased.

      “For now,” she said lightly. “But Elena’s is just about open. And then we’ll see.”

      “In more ways than one,” he said, his voice sending shivers down her spine.

      In more ways than one. She was no longer sure whether that was a threat or a promise. Right now it was a delicious torment thinking about what would happen when Elena’s was open.

      She opened the first crate and started pulling out pictures. She had more than she could ever display at one time. The question was which ones? Which best represented her work, the spirit of Elena’s?

      She picked a series of three she’d done on the forest. One included the one she’d been working on the day she met Brad. It was true that it was as much a picture of the Mother and her daughters enjoying a picnic in the forest as it was the forest but there was something about the light filtered through the trees, the pure joy on the children’s faces that made it more.

      She’d also gone through a portrait period but there weren’t any she felt were good enough to warrant gallery space. She really liked the nature ones she’d done best of all. She liked the beach series she’d done and she liked some of the florals.

      She liked the one she’d started on Dan. It showed character but it wasn’t finished yet and it was a departure from anything she’d done before. For now it would stay hidden from the world.

      That gave her easily more than twice the number of paintings she could display well in the small gallery. She’d rely on input from Brad and from Mary on which would be best. But right now Brad was busy helping Grant with something in the café area.

      “Which ones do you like best,” she asked Mary.

      “They’re all good,” Mary said.

      “I can’t hang all of them though. And I value your opinion.”

      “Oh, OK, “Mary looked seriously at the pictures as they were displayed along the sides of the wall. “I can’t believe your talent.”

      “I’ve always liked to draw,” she said simply. “And I got good training.”

      “I’ve seen stuff done by professional artists that looked like a dog threw up on it. This – this is amazing.”

      “I’m glad you like it,” Elena said, her face colouring slightly. She knew criticism was part of being an artist but for her, her pictures had always seemed a bit like her children to her. She had a hard time listening to anything negative about them.

      “I like that one,” Mary said, pointing to the picture of the family in the forest clearing.

      “Good, so do I.”

      “Probably putting a couple of the forest pictures on either side would be good. You don’t have very many people pictures do you?”

      “I have a series of portraits but my work wasn’t as good when I did them. I don’t feel comfortable displaying them in the gallery.”

      “Oh, OK. Well, they’re all good as far as I’m concerned.”

      Brad had made his way over to where they stood. “That’s the one you were working on the day I met you.”

      “It is,” she said, pleased he’d remembered.

      “I think you’ve got natural groupings going on already,” he said surveying the pictures that had been put out around the walls.

“You can do a forest section with the picnic as your centre one along with three or four of your ocean, beach ones and then a few of your floral portraits.

      “That’s what I thought too.”

      He smiled at her. “And from the research I’ve done landscapes and nature pictures sell better than portraits anyway.”

      “Really?”

      “Really. It’s one thing to have family portraits on your wall but most people would rather have a beach or sunset than portraits of total strangers.”

      “Then this works,” she said simply. “I don’t know what that says about the work I’ve just started on.”

      “You want my advice?”

      “Always,” she said lightly. “It doesn’t mean I have to follow it.”

      “I’d expect nothing less. Anyway for what it’s worth I think you’re a rare talent. Do what you want and someone will buy it.”

      She blinked back tears, touched by what he’d said. “Thank you. You know it’s that type of statement that blows your cover as a hard-hearted business man.”

      “Oh brother,” Mary said, “is this corny or what?”