When you look at me I just can't lie

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Lena wasn’t sure why again she thought Zander was asking her for anything easy when it came to his art and she honestly didn’t think his new idea could be any harder to execute than the last.  Oh, how wrong she was.

It all started when he uttered these faithful words, “I need you to strip again.”

Lena’s eyebrows shot up with disbelief. “You have got to be kidding me. Can’t you come up with an idea that requires the model to wear actual clothes?”

“The point of the project is setting the scene without letting clothes dictate which is why my first idea used so much body paint. So like I said I don’t want to use the fallen angel series for a class project and got thinking on a new idea following some of the lines of the first one by using body paint.” Zander explained with a causal shrug of his shoulders. For him it was no big deal but for Lena she was freaking out. The first time had been mortifying enough and the thought of being in underwear again left her terrified. He noticed her hesitance. “I don’t have enough time to try and find another model. Plus when we do work on the angel series again you won’t be wearing much anyway.”

“You’re saying I might as well get used to it?”

“Yes. I don’t like anything in the picture that isn’t hand crafted to fit the scene.” His kaleidoscope of blues and green eyes looked at her outfit for affect.

With a sigh Lena asked, “Do you have a sketch of what exactly you want to do?” she thought that might help make up her mind. She didn’t want to be blindsided like their last session. she needed every single detail up front before she agreed.

“I do, actually.” He got up and left his dark room and went back into the in home studio. He was doing better with his limp, she noted as she followed his long stride. After some quick digging on his desk he found his sketchpad and turned it to the page necessary. “Here.”

 At first glance of the very detailed sketch Lena’s eyes widened as far as humanly possible. “You’re insane.”

“But a genius if I do say so myself. Admit it, it’s awesome.”

She looked down at the sketch and back up to his eyes. “You’re freaking insane.” He grinned and she fought back an urge to reach out and slap him. “I’m not doing this. From what I already know this would take the whole night maybe longer and I’m the one stuck with tons of paint that doesn’t come off!”

“Come on, don’t make me beg. I need your help and it literally hurts to say these words.”

Hmm, suddenly this was rather interesting. She liked bending Zander out of shape and making him feel uncomfortable for all the years he did the same to her. He might not think so but his words did hurt her feelings and so did his not so funny jokes. “This is a pretty big favor. I’m gonna need you to beg.”

He stared at her face for a moment before sighing. “You’re serious.”

“I’m the one who has to get nearly naked and suffer with cold paint and your annoying personality for hours upon hours. Yeah, I’m serious. Beg Picasso.”

Zander knew he was had and there was no real way out of this but to do exactly what she wanted. “You drive a hard bargain, princess. Fine, you win.” He inhaled deeply and forced his ego to take a backseat. “Will you please help me with my newest project?” he laid it on thick with a pout across his mouth and his eyes in perfect puppy mode.

Lena rolled her eyes as she thought for a quick millisecond that he was cute. Those thoughts were forbidden and she refused to entertain them even in her subconscious. “Ok, that was decent. I’ll help your annoying ass.” She passed him back the sketch. “After midnight I’m charging you overtime.”

Zander has a pretty good one liner for that involving Cinderella and a prostitute but he let his words drift off to the wayside as she reached for the bottom of her shirt and hauled it up over her head. From what he had seen so far Lena didn’t own any boring underwear. Her bra was white and tight, he could make out the exact shape of her breasts and the fullness. Next went her skirt and of course her panties matched the bra, white and tight, and little. Oh…he blinked and turned away when his lower half started to try and get in on the fun his eyes were having. Shit, he silent cursed. Lena was going to get him in trouble if they keep having sessions like this.

He jumped form his chair and gathered the different shades of paint he was going to need and there were many. He wasn’t just going to put words on her or even some wicked effects, she was going to have paint everywhere and that aspect it was good her underwear was white. He hoped she wasn’t too attached to them because by the end of this project they too were going to have paint on them. It would actually be easier if she was completely nude but that wasn’t a place he was willing to go and he was sure neither was she.

“Table again?” she asked form behind him.

“Yeah, hop on.” He walked over and dumped off the bottles next to her on the table. “I need brushes.” He turned back around.

“Are you chickening out? You look a little pale and sweaty.”

“I’m fine. My ribs are just on fire thanks to your asshole of a boyfriend fighting dirty.” The air in the room shifted from sexual tension back into awkward memories. Zander was ok with that, he could handle awkward much better. On his way back to the table he grabbed his sketch to use as a reference. “Let’s start from the bottom and work our way up.”

“Does al your art have this wounded kind of gothic feel?” It was an expected question considering he was getting ready to paint her to look like she was blending into the steel table. By the end of it the photo would look like a girl in the morgue fading into her final resting spot of the table. Again Lena’s eyes were going to be the big focal point as the only aspect with color in the image.

“Yeah, I like the darker stages of art and with these types of things the ideas are endless and the person looking at it feels much more. I don’t look at art to feel something warm and fuzzy.”

“Does anything make you feel warm and fuzzy?”

“What do you mean?”

“You crack a lot of jokes but you’re a pretty serious guy trying to hide from the real stuff by ignoring it or making light of it.”

His hands stilled around the paint bottle. Normally he was the one with the insightful knowledge inside her head. It felt funny to be this exposed and he didn’t like it. “I don’t run from the real stuff, I just leave it for the people I really care about.”

“Like Mel?”

“Yeah, exactly. She knows everything about me, the good the bad, the awkward and everything in between.” He never wanted to lie to Mel, even when he knew she was with another guy he still confessed his feelings because it was better to have everything out in the open than have lies festering and running their friendship. Sure he was pretty heartbroken but he never regretted telling her how he always wished they could’ve been more than just friends.

“Do you think you know her the same way or now with Tony in the picture she’s not as real with you?”

“Why the twenty questions?”

“I’m just wondering if a friendship changes when a romantic relationship enters the picture. I’ve never had a serious friendship like the one you have with my sister. All my friends are connected to my relationship and it feels like if there isn’t one there isn’t the other.” Lena wasn’t trying to be a bitch, she was surprisingly truthful about her curiosity and he found it interesting.

“A friend is a friend, with a relationship with another person or not. Now it makes sense why you’re here putting up with me. You need a friend.” Zander spoke as he mixed the grey and white paint to match the shade of his table.

“A real friend is pretty hard to find. It’s not easy to find someone who doesn’t care about the material stuff or status enough to just want to listen and not judge.”

“That’s what you’ve been doing with me.” He pointed out.

“Yeah. I’m pathetic.” She rolled her eyes and tried to make light of the situation. He wasn’t the only one who used humor to cover the real.

“You said it, I didn’t. Lay back and enjoy the ride princess.”