Blue Hour

Busted

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon and the truth - Buddha

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The next morning I stood humming in Alex's kitchen wearing one of his giant white tee's while making pancakes.

He had asked me to stay. To let the night fade away, sleeping in his arms, had completed this phenomenal experience. Hard sacrifice I know. Everyone else would have preferred the bland storage room with the air mattress.

 Remembering the toasty warm feeling I had woken up to, my grin grew never-ending.

Unlike most weekends I did not put in an extra daytime shift in the studio but joined Alex in his winter garden studio. 

He carved on a small piece of apple wood. So far I hadn't figured out what he made. Meanwhile I used some of his paper and painting equipment to draw some decorations for my room. I was no artist but drawing some trees and hills was manageable and would look nice.

Bzzz Bzzz my phone buzzed after a while.

"Cee are you working tonight?" Bee wrote me a cryptic message. Like I was always working? Ok, apart from the two nights I had missed for months. Still where else would I be?

"Sure. Y?" I tipped back.

"I have to ask you something. See you later." Was all she said and she had me utterly confused.

The day had been very productive. 

Alex had arranged another badge of the amazing Asian food that turned unsurprisingly out too be from one of his own restaurants. The remaining time I managed to make four basic woodland paintings. With one that showed bright yellow light filtering through trees I was particularly proud of. Not bad, Charlotte.

The "old" shirt Alex had lent me to put over my clothes had plenty of colour on it itself. Thankfully I had refrained myself from checking the label as I for sure would feel horrible about ruining it.

Alex came up behind me and embraced me with his arms. 

Holding in front of me he had three wooden vases out of different colours, shapes and sizes. The apple one I recognised from before, the others I hadn't seen. A couple of dried leaves and flowers that looked like the plants around us stood in them.

"For you" he said sounding a bit worried.

They were beautiful. Wow. Alone for the apple wooden one he had spent hours today. How long had he been working on them all?

"You made them for me? You are crazy!" I gasped searching for the right words to put my glee in.

"Yes?" Now he really sounded anxious.

Turning around I found him looking just like he sounded. Putting my hand up on his cheek I added smiling touched "They are beautiful! I love them. Thank you for making them!"

Relieved grinning, he explained "I wanted to test how you like something small, before making something bigger for your room."

"You are too smart. And I am way too predictable... Of course, I would never complain about a gift you made yourself! Whatever it is, I will cherish it." Touching the smooth surfaces of the vases I thanked him once again.

My eye fell on my work, and I had an idea. 

"Would you like one of my pictures? I would like to give you the one with the sunlight but you can have whichever one you like most." I pointed to the one I thought had turned out the best.