Bring Me Fire (12 page)

"
I can’t recall if we’ve been formally introduced," Josh said, speaking in a jovial voice Sky hadn’t heard him use before. He held out his hand. "Joshua Davis."

Ashley stumbled over her own name, her face flushing, as she shook his hand.
"We have met before," she said. "Though it was a while ago. I didn’t realize that you and Sky knew each other."

"
Oh yes, we do. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must steal her away from you for the moment. You have my sincere apologies."

They left Ashley standing there, open-mouthed and speechless.

"
I’d really appreciate it if you’d stop
?" he whispered, repeating the last thing she’d said to Ashley before he’d come over, as they walked down the hallway. "I’d expect something a little more ballsy from you, kiddo. And I didn’t realize you had a boyfriend. Who is the lucky fellow?" He winked.

"
Sorry. That part just sort of came out."

"
Would you like me to be your boyfriend?"

Sky looked at him. He was easily the best-looking man she’d ever seen. And now that he was slowly coming out of his shell, she was realizing he was a lot of fun, too.
"Of course," she said. "But..."

"
It’s been awhile since I’ve last had a girlfriend. I might be a bit out of practice."

Sky laughed.
"I doubt that."

Chapter 22

The next day while they ate lunch, Conner grilled Sky for all the details about the party.
"Do you know how long I’ve wanted to go to one of Isabelle Cooper’s parties?" he hissed. "Those things are supposed to be
legendary
. I heard one year, everyone had a little too much to drink and things got a little wild."

Sky looked at him, eyebrows raised.
"Wild?" It was hard to imagine all those elegant, refined people she’d been around last night doing anything wild.

"
Yeah, you know - everyone started imitating the art? It might’ve stopped short of a wild orgy, but I wasn’t there, so I don’t know. But how was it? Was the art totally amazing?"

"
No orgy last night Conner. Disappointing, I know. But there were some incredibly interesting pieces there."

"
That’s her thing, you know. Isabelle Cooper’s. She has this gigantic erotic art collection, and she likes to travel around and commission artists no one’s ever heard of to do stuff for her so she can have these parties and then try to sell it for them. Crazy, isn’t it? Her own personal collection is huge. Like a museum. Can you imagine that? There’s no way to actually verify it, though, because hardly anyone has been in there to see it."

"
I see." Sky tried to imagine what Conner would say if he knew that just down the hall from them was another huge erotic art collection.

"
Well, you’re certainly lucky, sweetie, that you got to go to such a thing. And then the art auction’s coming up. I
will
be in attendance at that. Have you been to one before?"

"
No," Sky said, taking a bite of her sandwich. "Ashley went to a few when I was working at
Prelude
, but she never invited me."

Conner grinned.
"Girl, you are in for a treat, then. The Billingsgate Auction is one of the premier events. You’re going to see some art there you won’t even believe. It’s going to be a lot of fun."

"
Oh," Sky said, putting her sandwich down. "I forgot to mention that I happened to run into Ashley at the party."

"
You did?"

"
Yeah. Just as I was coming out of the bathroom, who should I open the door to find, but her. Ugh. It was pretty bad. I did tell her to stop talking shit."

"
Good for you! Did you slap her?"

Sky smiled.
"No."

"
I’m sure that would’ve been a first at an Isabelle Cooper party. How’d she look?"

"
Ashley?" Sky shrugged. "Not her best, actually. Like she was trying too hard or something."

"
That must be kind of gratifying. I love running into an ex when I look stellar and they look like absolute shit."

"
Okay, but Ashley is not my ex."

"
She’s your ex-boss."

"
Good point. You would’ve loved it though, as we’re standing there, Josh comes over, and the look on Ashley’s face was priceless - like she could just not believe that I was there with him."

"
Of course not. Not to mention that I’m sure she’s insanely jealous. And probably thinking that if she hadn’t fired you, you wouldn’t have gotten this job, and you wouldn’t be hanging out with Josh and suddenly traveling in the same circles that she is. It’s the perfect revenge. I love it."

"
I’m not really looking for revenge, though. I mean, I wouldn’t even have this job if it wasn’t for Aidan. I just want her to stop spreading those ridiculous rumors about me." Sky waved her hand. "But let’s not talk about it anymore. Do you think Josh is going to bid on anything?"
"Probably. But you never know. It might seem like he just goes out and bids on anything that he even remotely likes, but he’s actually pretty discriminating about that stuff. He definitely knows what he likes and doesn’t."

"
Well, I’m excited about going to the auction, whether or not he decides to buy anything," Sky said. "It’ll be fun just to be in that atmosphere."

"
Want to go check out the catalog? Josh usually gets them sent here, but I haven’t seen one for Billingsgate yet. The e-catalog is just as good though. Come on, let’s go ogle."

Sky followed Conner into the office and they sat next to each other in front of the computer desk.
"There’s a lot of 19
th
century European art at this one," Conner said musingly. "Look at that one." The painting depicted a beautiful young woman sitting on a settee, a man kneeling before her, head bowed, as he kissed her hand.

"
I bet Josh would like that one," Conner said. "What do you think?"

"
I think you’re right. It’s a gorgeous painting."

They browsed through several more pages when Sky saw an image that made her gasp.
"Stop!" she said. "Go back." She was certain that she hadn’t seen it right, but wanted to make sure.

Except when Conner scrolled back, it
was
in fact the painting Sky originally thought.

"
That’s a good one," Conner said. "I’m surprised they put that one in here. A bit risqué." He squinted and leaned forward to read the caption. "It’s called
A Well Spent Afternoon.
" He laughed. "I’d say."

Sky read the description of the painting, detailing it as an original by Seamus McManus.

"Are you familiar with his work?" Conner was asking her. "I bet Isabelle Cooper is. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything by him. But he’s
really
good."

That’s the exact same painting Josh has in his back room,
she wanted to say.
I'm sure that is the original.
The reserve price was not listed, but she knew that each painting would have one, and it would probably be a considerable amount. Conner looked at her.

"
Is something wrong?"

"
No, no," Sky said quickly. "Would you print that out for me, though?"

"
This one?"
"Yeah, just that page."

"
You thinking about making an art purchase?"
"I doubt I could even afford to pay a quarter of what that painting is going to go for."

"
Then why do you want it?"
"Well," Sky looked back to the computer screen. She couldn’t tell Conner the real reason without revealing to him the contents of Josh’s secret room, and she wasn’t going to do that. "He’s actually someone that I studied during college. One of my favorite painters, actually. He was a really good cartographer."

But Conner was already going through the rest of the catalog, and Sky could tell he was thinking about other things. She reached down and pulled the piece of paper from the printer and looked at it, the words
original painting
jumping out at her.

After Conner left to go run some errands in the city, Sky went and found Josh. He was sitting in the back library that overlooked the sloping backyard lawn and a grove of orange and lemon trees.

"Hi," she said as she entered the room. He had his laptop open and set it on the ottoman in front of him.

"
Hi there," he said. "How are you?"
His voice was gentle and Sky felt a warmth spread through her chest. It was still hard for her to believe that he’d look at her the way he was looking at her, that anyone would look at her like that.

"
I’m good," she said. "But there’s something I wanted to show you."

"
Yeah?"

She walked over and sat down on the couch next to him, glancing at the laptop screen as she did so. He was looking at the same e-catalog she and Conner had just been looking at.

"Oh," she said. "You’re looking at the Billingsgate Auction stuff."

"
I am. It looks like they’ve got some decent artwork up for grabs."

"
They do," Sky said. "But look at this." She held the printout to Josh. "It’s from the general auction next month, and they say they’ve got the original Seamus McManus painting,
Well Spent Afternoon
. But that’s your painting, isn’t it? Isn’t that the painting you’ve got in the back room?"
Josh glanced at the paper and shrugged. "I’d say they certainly don’t have the original, then." He went back to looking at the screen of his phone.

"
Shouldn’t someone say something? Or tell someone?"

"
People try to counterfeit art and pass it off as something else all the time."

"
It doesn’t bother you?"

"
It does, but if you’re going to be so ignorant as to buy a piece of art without authenticating it first, then you probably deserve what you get."

"
Some of the counterfeit art out there is really hard to detect. Nearly impossible unless you’ve got the right technology, which a lot of people wouldn’t."

"
So then I hope that they’d do their research first. And some people don’t care, is the other thing. Especially if it’s going to be that difficult to tell the difference between the original and the fake."

"
But what if you have a fake? What if the one you have is fake and the one they’re auctioning off is real?"

He looked at her, eyebrows raised.
"That painting was given to me. By Imogen McManus, Seamus’s great granddaughter."

"
Really? Wow, I didn’t realize. I didn’t realize that you knew them like that."

"
Imogen and I dated awhile back. And, like you, that painting is one of my favorites, and she gave it to me, so I am fairly certain that the painting I have is actually the real one."

Sky nodded slowly.
"And it doesn’t bother you that they’re going to be auctioning off a fake?"

Josh shrugged.
"Not really." He put his hand on her leg. "But we don’t need to talk about this anymore, do we? It doesn’t really matter to me either way if someone buys that painting. Maybe they don’t care that it’s a fake. Some people don’t, you know."

"
If they’re going to spend a ton of money on it, I bet they would. They might not care if they get it for super cheap, but this isn’t going to be super cheap."

"
Your concern is sweet," Josh said, pulling her toward him. He kissed her neck. "It is. But I’d just let it go. You’re not going to know who’s going to buy the painting, and you already know who’s got the original, so you don’t have to stress about it. Okay?"

She let her eyes fall closed as he kissed a trail down her neck to her collarbone, running his fingers along the contour of her jaw.

Chapter 23

On Saturday Sky slept in and then took her time getting up. She had to do laundry and stop by the grocery store, but other than that, she didn’t have much planned for the day. She was out of coffee, so she decided to go out and get a latte and maybe stop by a few stores and see if she could find a new outfit to wear to the auction.

Was it ridiculous to buy a new outfit just to go to an auction? It probably was, Sky decided, but she was excited about the opportunity to go, even if she still wasn’t sure whether or not she should say anything about the painting.

The problem, she realized, as she walked into the coffee shop, was the fact that she’d have to prove that it was a fake. Or at least give a reason as to why she was making such a claim. She wasn’t even sure who the proper person was to speak to about something like that.

She ordered her coffee and then sat down at one of the empty tables, absently flipping through a copy of the
Bay Guardian
that someone had left there. She looked over an ad for medical marijuana physician evaluations, examined the coupon that came with it. She was wondering exactly what kind of doctor would accept coupons when she became aware of someone standing next to the table. She glanced up. It was Aidan.

"
I thought I recognized you over here," he said. "Mind if I sit? Just out running a few errands but I needed some caffeine. How are you doing? How’s the job?"

"
Hi, Aidan," Sky said, smiling. "Of course you can sit. The job is wonderful. How are you?"

He took a sip of his coffee and then set the cup down.
"Things have been decent," he said. "Ashley’s been eager to make some changes at the gallery, so that’s always exciting. Though I’m not exactly sure about this new direction she wants to take things in."

"
Oh yeah?" Sky asked. She wondered if Ashley had mentioned to him that they’d run into each other at Isabelle Cooper’s party. "What direction is that?"

"
Well, you know, she says she wants to do something that’s going to distinguish us from the other galleries. Which I totally agree with, of course. I’m certainly not against it. But I think she and I have different ideas about how one should go about doing something like that. And she’s got the vision for it, she was the one who suggested it, so I’m just going to let her go with it."

Sky laughed.
"You’re kind of not making any sense. Or, you’re making a little sense, but I still have no idea what you’re talking about."

"
Are you going to be at the Billingsgate Auction?" he asked suddenly. "That’s what sort of started this whole thing. Or not the auction, but Ashley went to this party and then came home with all these ideas, and started telling me about the auction and saying she was going to go. She made me stay up half the night with her looking through the catalog. I don’t usually go to those things, but she’s determined to get this painting. I mean, she went through the catalog and made up her wish list, but there’s this one she seems especially taken with. It’s...it’s..." Aidan blushed a little. He leaned forward. "It’s an erotic painting," he said in a low voice, and Sky couldn’t help but smile a little at his discomfort.

"
It’s okay, Aidan," she said. "There’s a lot of really great erotic art out there."

"
We’ve never had anything like that at
Prelude
before," he said. "But she says she wants to try something different with the loft space. I mean, what do you think? Do you think it’s a bad idea? I’m not saying that I’m against change or anything like that, but I just don’t know how much of a draw it would have, it might offend some people."

Sky thought back to the party in Tiburon. Part of her wanted to tell Aidan about it, give him the specific details of just what kind of art was at this party, but she knew it would probably make him even more uncomfortable.
"I don’t think it would hurt to try," she said. "It’d be something different that not all the other galleries are doing. People like that, plus it could attract a whole new audience to the gallery. And if it doesn’t work out, just move on."

Aidan nodded.
"You’re right," he said. "There certainly isn’t anything wrong with trying something new. And she showed me a picture of the painting from the catalog; the artist was quite talented. I forget his name, something Scottish sounding, or Irish maybe"

"
Seamus McManus?" Sky asked.

"
Yes! How’d you know?"

"
Lucky guess."

"
Are you familiar with his work?"

"
A little. He was a very talented cartographer. We studied some of his stuff in school." Sky paused, wondering what the right thing would be to say about it. "That might not be the best painting to buy right now though."

Aidan looked at her, confused.
"But I thought you just said this was a good idea."

"
I think the general idea is. I just don’t know if that specific painting is a good choice."

"
Why not?"

Sky racked her brain, trying to come up with a reason that would sound believable without having to reveal how she knew the painting was a fake.
"I just have a feeling.""A feeling. What does that mean?" Aidan looked down at his coffee cup lid as though if he scrutinized hard enough the answer would appear.

"
I just don’t think it’d be the best choice, is all."

He shrugged.
"Well, you know how Ashley gets when she wants something. And I’d say she wants this pretty bad.
I’m
certainly not going to try to talk her out of it." He stood up. "I better get going, Sky. It was nice seeing you, though. Take care."

"
Bye, Aidan."

She watched him leave, and couldn’t help but feel like it was their most awkward interaction. It would’ve been easy enough to just come out and tell him about the painting. So why hadn’t she?