Picture Perfect

27.

~Samantha~

Kyler wakes up before me but doesn't inconvenience me by trying to get me up. He simply wraps his arm around me and provides me with a bit more warmth. This works for about an hour and then I feel him.

"Kyler?"

"Hmm?"

"You okay?" I ask him.

"Mhmm."

"You sure?" I laugh.

"I mean, I've got a little bit of an urgent situation going on, you trying to help me with it?"

I reach over and grab my water to hydrate and clean my mouth up a little bit before turning over to face him.

I pull the covers up and catch sight of him practically busting out of his briefs.

I giggle and cover my mouth in a coyish manner.

"Wow. Hmmm, I think you can manage on your own." I tease.

He laughs. And leans his body into mine.

"Mhmm. You wrong. Hey, this would be the perfect opportunity to make that baby we talked about last night I think. Or you know, try to seal the deal. Don't you think?" He kisses my neck and moves on top of me.

"Wow, now you wrong. But nope, get up. Look." I kiss his lips a few times and then push him off of me to get out of bed.

He makes little crying noises and then follows me back to the picture.

"Look." I repeat.

"I'm looking." He stands over me, practically about to poke me in the eye.

I bite my lip staring up at it.

"Damn, I want to put it in my mouth. But not right now. Look."

He widens his eyes and laughs.

"You are definitely... I really have no words for you. I've just never met anyone like you. You're cute, and weird, and sexy, and kind of crazy, and soft, but not really. You're just fucking...Samantha." He looks amazed.

"Thank you." I just smile at him and turn back to the painting.

He sits next to me and wraps an arm around me.

"You see this right?"

"I do."

"This is you. Well this was you. Everything you felt, thought, or did when you were with your ex. Do you feel any of these things now?" She asks.

I shake my head no.

"Nah, I don't even think of her really."

"So none of it has become you? None of it has stuck I mean?"

"No."

"Right. Now think of this as everything Garrison has said to me, done to me, tried to make me into, or make me believe about myself..." she moves her fingers to the corner of the canvas and pulls up the tab where the Saran Wrap starts. She pulls it off and balls it up which pushes some of the paint out and onto her hands. She gets up and grabs a towel to clean up the mess before sitting back down.

"Oooh." I look at the canvas and feel as though I understand exactly where she's going with this.

"Now look at the canvas, it looks untouched right. Practically still new?"

"Right."

"But that's not true. One this canvas is old as hell, two, it was painted on. But the paint just didn't stick. There's a history there that remains unseen because whatever damaging effects that history could've had, wasn't strong enough to leave its mark. The paint couldn't destroy the wrap to get to the canvas and stain. That's how I feel about Garrison. He was the paint, and I'm the canvas. I don't know what the wrap is but it's been there, maybe it's God, maybe it's been the fact that I've always known I was worth much more and deserving of so much better. Who knows, but it's protected me up until this point." She shrugs and shakes her head thinking. "I feel new, I feel untouched, by everything in my past. And now, I'm going to use my past to fix my present and all my problems will be gone." She speaks confidently.