A Heart Worth Healing

Chapter 3

The next evening, Derek came to Kirsty's apartment promptly at eight o'clock. She was extremely nervous about seeing him again. She could not believe that she had accepted his dinner invitation. She had a difficult time deciding what to wear and finally chose a blue cocktail dress which matched her eyes. She did not have many nice clothes and she hoped she at least looked elegant, if nothing else.

 After she greeted Derek at the door, she invited him in.

"You look lovely," he said kindly, smiling at her.

"Thank you," she replied, blushing. "I'm almost ready. I just have to find my shoes."

"Take your time," he replied. "There's no rush."

As Kirsty went into her bedroom to find her shoes, Derek looked around her apartment. The sitting room was a large room and sparsely furnished. His eye was caught by  the beautiful paintings on the walls. One was of a seascape and another one was of a meadow. He had some knowledge of art work and could tell the paintings would be worth a great deal.

When Kirsty joined Derek a moment later, he asked her where the paintings had come from. He wondered how she could afford such expensive-looking art.

"My mother painted them," Kirsty replied, a note of pride in her voice. Kirsty remembered sitting quietly at her mother's side when she was a child, for what seemed like hours, while she created one of her landscapes. She had been captivated by her mother's swift brush strokes, her daring use of colour and light. Kirsty could easily imagine herself inside one of the scenes. Kirsty did not mention that she had also learned to paint, and her grandmother had told her that her talent was no less impressive than her mother's had been.

"Your mother was a great artist," Derek replied, still looking at the paintings. "Did she sell many of her paintings?"

"My mother never sold any of her paintings," Kirsty replied, suddenly feeling sad. "I will never sell them."

Derek heard the pain in her voice and he asked her quietly how old she was when her parents died.

"I was ten when my parents were killed in the boating accident. My father was a fisherman and my mom often went out with him. The storm hit before they could get back to shore."

"That must have been terrible for you," he said, his voice full of sympathy. "I'm sorry."

Kirsty shrugged and replied, "I still had my grandmother to take care of me. She just passed away a few years ago. I don't have any family left."

Derek did not try to soothe her with common platitudes. Instead, he grabbed her hand gently and said, "Yesterday, I promised you we would have fun and I meant it. Shall we go down to the car?" He spoke in a snobbish tone of voice, making Kirsty giggle. He took her arm and they went down to the lobby of her apartment building. Kirsty was determined not to let her sad mood spoil the evening.

                                                ***********

To her surprise, Kirsty enjoyed every minute of their dinner together. Derek took her to a very nice restaurant. It had a quiet and romantic atmosphere. Kirsty eventually realized that Derek was worldly and he was diminishing the fact that he was very wealthy so that she would not feel awkward. It did make her feel more comfortable to think of him as an equal. She found it easy to talk to him and they talked of many subjects. Derek adroitly kept the conversation on a mundane level. never mentioning anything personal about himself. Kirsty finally asked him what sort of business he was in.

"Well," Derek began, "my grandfather owned a steel mill and my father inherited it after my grandfather died. My father was not interested in the business, so he squandered most of my grandfather's money. When I was old enough to take control I invested what was left in several companies. I used the money I made to make more money, and so on. I now own several corporations and I spend most of my time managing them."