The Babysitter

Chapter 20: Charcoal isn't for Cooking

"Rowan, pass me the charcoal please," Georgia told her. Rowan stood up from her couch and walked over to the kitchen island that had been turned into Georgia's storage for all of the artsy items that she had ordered. She scanned the table, looking for some chunky black rocks, but she didn't see any there.

"Uh...I don't see any,"

Georgia whipped her head around from her canvas, looking at the table before looking back at Rowan. "It's right next to your leg."

Rowan looked down and picked up the pack of black squares that were next to her leg labeled Compressed Charcoal. "This?" Rowan asked. "This isn't charcoal."

"What?" Georgia said, turning away from the canvas again. "Of course that's charcoal, it says it right there–"

She then trailed off when she looked at Rowan's face. "Rowan please don't tell me that you were looking for the stuff that you barbecue with..."

"What? No," Rowan lied. "Totally wasn't."

Georgia smirked at her as she walked over and handed her the charcoal. "Sure, Rowan," Georgia said before sighing. "What am I going to do with you?"

Rowan chuckled before walking back to the couch. She sat down and watched as Georgia worked—something that was very attractive by the way. She was dressed in old, worn clothing that made her look soft, and her hair was up in a messy bun. She was extremely focused on her project, a small crinkle on her forehead from her trying to get the beginning parts of her piece just right.

Her fingers were stained black from the materials that she was using, as whatever she was creating took a lot of 'shading and enhancement of shadows.'

Rowan had never seen Georgia so into something. It was like seeing another side of her. She was used to the prim, proper housewife, not this artist who now happened to have a smudge of charcoal on her cheek from subconsciously touching her face.

Georgia had arrived at her place at around 8:30 in the morning, right after dropping Adam off at work, getting to her house early because she didn't have to take the boys to school. Their grandparents dropped them off, thankfully.

She had been ready to work the second she walked through Rowan's door with a stack of boxes that were filled with her new supplies in her arms. She had apparently stayed up all night brainstorming and sketching ideas in one of the boys' notebooks while Adam slept. She had settled on one idea and was now vigorously working on it, an idea that she refused to show Rowan, stating that it was a surprise.

Rowan looked at what she currently had on the canvas. It looked like an outline of two people, but that was all she could make out at the moment. Her heart swelled as Georgia stood up on her tiptoes, trying to mark something that was on top of the huge canvas. She let out a huff as she gave up, looking around the room for something.

Rowan stood. "Need some help?"

Georgia looked up at her, opening her mouth to say something before stopping herself. "...No thanks, I just need a stool."

"Gia, if you stand on one of those stools, you will fall off and hurt yourself. I'm speaking from experience," Rowan told her, glancing over at the kitchen stool that she had fallen off of once while changing a bulb in the living room. It wasn't a fun memory. "Just let me help you. I promise that I won't mess up your masterpiece."

Georgia smiled. "Fine. I need a straight horizontal line near the top of the canvas."

Rowan took the weird pencil she was using and raised it near the top of the canvas with no problem. "Here?"