Afterglow

XVI. The Writer's Portrait

With her approval, the request I asked Theresa will now finally be in motion. I went to the place where she said I must go. Out of all the places in the world where she can reserve, it surprised me that she chose that old art room in our university. A place where a lot of memories were made.

Since it's still in the vacation period, there were few people inside the campus. Only the staff and some students. She chose the location herself and I don't know what got inside her head.

The place brought back a lot of memories during our times together. Those moments where I'm trying to catch a glimpse of her doing her artwork. Those scenarios where we spent some of our time together to hide ourselves from the judging eyes of others. I didn't expect that there would be a time that I would go back there, especially with Theresa.

As soon as I arrived at the room, everything was already ready. The stand, paintings, and even the chairs for the both of us. The room was even cleaned since I realized that all the materials were fixed in the corner of the room. As for the painter, she was just there sitting and waiting for me.

"Did I make you wait?", I curiously asked.

"Not really. It is my decision to go here half an hour early. I arranged the room first so that we can do this request of yours neatly."

"Can I ask why did you chose this place? There are a lot of places we can go to but out of all the choices, you decided to do it here. Why?", I asked again.

"Isn't this the best place to cease everything between us? We made a lot of memories here and I want to experience such feelings again. Just having our existence here inside the room feels great to me.", she replied.

As we talk to each other, there's something I noticed about her. It's not bad to wear a bucket hat and it looked great in her but there's something unusual in her forehead. I can't see it clearly since it is blocked by the hat and her hair but from my perspective, it was a scar that came from a wound.

"Theresa, what happened on your forehead? Is that a wound? You didn't have that the last time we met.", I asked.

"This mark? It's just a scratch. Remember my pet cat? I think she got annoyed when I tried to pet her last time. I just touched her then she jumped out and started to scratch me. I can't believe that I bled too much from that. Hahaha.", she replied as she removed her hat and showed it to me.

"May I ask when that incident happened? From the looks of it, I think it just happened recently."

"Yes. That happened almost four days ago. It was a little painful but I'm glad it didn't create more scratches in my head. I can't afford to have my face filled with scars with cat scratches.", she said.

"So, what are we waiting for? Just sit there and post steadily while I paint you. I'm not used to painting human faces so it will need a little more time. Let's make it quick so that we can settle this all up today.", she added.

Just like what she said, we instantly started the activity as soon we were ready. Our conversation continued while she was busy painting me. Since it will probably be the last time, we will meet each other since she'll go back to France at any moment, the chat we had was never as interesting as we had that day.