Picture Perfect

Chapter Twenty-Five - Tyler

Hi all - how's your week going? I'm excited to say that my top surgery has been confirmed for early January and I'm eagerly awaiting the boob removal services!

Also, relevant to the chapter below - if you ever get a chance to go to Venice, book a tour of Murano and a glass-blowing factory. It is incredible to watch and while swelteringly hot, genuinely so beautiful. I have a bowl made of Murano glass and it was an amazing experience. Burano is the lace-making island, which I also recommend, I did a combo tour of both.

Love, Cam

♡

Chapter Twenty-Five 

Tyler

"C'mon, you know you want to."

I glared at Sorcha. "I categorically do not want to. That's what I'm saying. I literally do not want to."

Sorcha blew out an exasperated breath. "Why, though?! It's so good!"

"Because firstly, they're my paintings and I can do what I want with them," I replied, folding my arms across my chest. "And secondly, we're supposed to be featuring local artists, not ourselves."

"That's not what you said when I decided to put up two of my sculptures," Sorcha raised an eyebrow.

"We don't have as many sculpture submissions," I reminded her. "You are filling space and also, your sculptures are very good."

"Aha," she said, as though she'd cracked the case. "You're just insecure that your paintings aren't very good, aren't you?"

"That's not some major revelation you've had," I told her flatly. "I've always been insecure that my paintings aren't very good. This is not news."

Sorcha groaned, just as the door to the gallery opened and Elliot walked in, looking windswept and beautiful as usual. I beamed at his arrival, not just because he was here for our date, but because Sorcha now had to stop her mission to get me to display my art in the gallery.

"Hi, love," I greeted him, and he leaned in to kiss me lightly.

"Hi," he replied, and hugged Sorcha. "What's all the groaning about?"

Sorcha looked as though she was about to physically pounce on Elliot and torture him for support, so I quickly interjected, "Sorcha wants me to display my art in the gallery, and I told her I would prefer to shove pointy things up my nose."

"Got it," Elliot chuckled, and then looked around the gallery. "It's looking good! You've got way more stuff in than you did on Monday."

It did look good; people had been dropping off their art this week in preparation for the big opening night event we'd planned. It was finally looking like a proper gallery. We had made sure the visible sections of the gallery from the window weren't covered in art, though; we didn't want people getting to see anything before opening night. The back part of the gallery was nicely filled, and I doubted we'd need any of my art to fill a spot.

"Damn, that's cool," Elliot whistled at the large sculpture. "Is that stained glass?"

Sorcha grinned. "Yep, it's one of my best."

"You did that?" Elliot asked, approaching the large piece. "It's gorgeous, Sorcha. Very eye-catching."

"Thanks," Sorcha looked pleased. She'd made it years ago, but it was one of the only pieces she'd ever actually kept, in storage. It was a phoenix, made completely from stained glass, warped and twisted into a beautiful shower of colours, emerging from 'ashes'. The ashes were more stained glass, blackened and cleverly twisted to look wispy and thin.