The Art of Forbidden Romance (Student x Teacher)

Chapter 29

I barely sat down before Mel started with questions.

"How was it? Did you guys do it finally? Did you stay there both nights?" She burst. I felt my face warm as she continued her onslaught of questions. I quickly answered just a few to appease her as we waited for class to start.

"When do I get to meet him?" She asked again. I sighed.

"I don't know Mel," I said. Chuck entered the classroom and I followed him with my eyes as he made his way to his podium.

"It's a little complicated," I told her, tearing my eyes away from Chuck.

"What, is he married?" She asked. I shook my head quickly.

"No not like that type of complicated," I said. "I'm not a home-wrecker."

"Then what is it?"

"It's just new that's all," I said. "I don't want to rush things."

"I get it," she said. "But it's been a couple months now."

"I know," I said. I felt bad keeping things from Mel, she was my best friend after all. But the situation between Chuck and I wasn't that shareable.

"I'll see when you can meet him," I whispered to her as class started. She smiled at me.

"Whenever you're ready," she said.

————

After our Art History class Mel and I went our separate ways as usual. I quickly beelined for my car to head to our site for plein-air that day. Chuck had set up for our class to paint at the Huntington Library and Botanical Garden. It was a bit of a drive to get there with traffic so I had to leave right away.

The entire drive I thought about Mel wanting to 'meet James'. Chuck and I had never had a conversation about whether or not we were dating - or exclusive. It just kind of happened. I realized I didn't know if he considered us exclusive or dating or whatever he was thinking. I groaned as I realized we would have to talk about it. I realized I had been treating our arrangement as if we were dating and exclusive but I didn't know if I should have been.

Pulling into the parking lot for the Huntington Library, my stomach was in anxious knots at the prospect of having the 'what are we?' conversation with Chuck. I grabbed my kit from my trunk and followed the clusters of students to the botanical garden. Chuck was already there and handed us our assignments for the day. He also passed out some maps of the garden grounds.

"Paint a scene that includes a building of sorts and at least 2 people," he said. "I'll come around and check on you as you work."

I opened the map of the garden and scanned the different areas to see what looked promising for a location. I noticed a lot of students decided to head towards the Japanese Gardens, so I opted for the Shakespeare Garden, hoping it would be less busy with students.

It was a bit of a walk from the parking lot, but I tried to use the time to clear my head from my thoughts on my drive up. Chuck and I would have to have that conversation eventually, but I couldn't be all worked up going into this painting. As I made my way through the garden I found a couple areas that would work well. I walked the whole area before deciding on a location near a more secluded path. I set up on a bench that overlooked the path. Beautiful blooming bushes of flowers bordered the path and the roof of a nearby building was visible through the trees. I decided to start with this scene and hopefully some people would come by soon.

I blocked everything in fairly quickly, my skills having improved through the semester so far. As I worked a few people walked through the garden, but none lingered long enough for me to add them in. Eventually a young couple set up a blanket in the grass just on the other side of the path and I worked them into the blocked out painting.