After the storm [Finished]

35- Lies

"Hurry up, Ryan!" I exclaimed jogging in the parking lot.

"Coming!" He quickly caught up with me.

We were on our way to an exposition at a local art gallery. Two weeks before, a friend from college called me asking me if I wanted to participate in an exposition she was planning and I obviously joined.

She asked me to collaborate with two or three pieces, and I just had one barely done. Therefore, I gave up on sleep and put sweat and tears into the other two paintings. The more I could show, the better.

I handed in the artwork a few days before but I never experienced having any work of mine in an exposition so I was more than excited.

The only downside of it was that I had to spend the whole morning and lunchtime at the gallery helping my ex-classmate so I couldn't spend much time with Ryan he had made everything to have the day free since it was Valentine's Day.

"Ryan said it was ok, but I felt bad anyway. I tried to compensate for it by arranging dinner at his favorite restaurant.

"Ah! I'm nervous!" I stopped at the main door.

"Are you going to enter?" Asked he, holding the door for me to pass.

"Well... yeah, but... Ah!! I started to walk in circles.

"Just think it's an exposition like the ones you had in college". Ryan said entertained by the view, I could tell by his face.

"Those weren't exposition. There were just some classmates showing their pieces to the professor".

"Think the people coming are your classmates and your professor... no, the professor is not coming".

"You don't understand. It's like your first photoshoot ever being published in a magazine for everyone to see". I tried to explain.

"Here". He offered his hand. I took it without thinking. "I'll help you with this". That being said, Ryan dragged me inside with no time for me to resist.

"You stop being sensitive at the wrong times". I complained.

"Says who?" I frowned. "I'm sorry". He squeezed my hand and pecked me. "But you would have been at least ten minutes outside before stepping in". He giggled.

"Alex, you're already here!" I turned around; it was Sarah, my ex-classmate.

"Yes, hi!" I greeted her. "I came a bit earlier. He's my boyfriend, Ryan".

I introduced the two of them before getting to work. We went to the office at the back, had a cup of coffee while we talked a little bit, and then we started the business.

"You don't have to stay with me the whole morning". I said to Ryan while we took our second walk through the gallery.

"I won't. I'll just stay for a while".

The concept of the exposition was black and white so every painting was monochrome. It didn't suit Ryan's taste; he liked colorful paintings so I wondered why he had stopped twice at the same painting while we wandered around. I decided to ask.

"Do you like it?" I asked. He was staring at it persistently.

"Not really". He answered after some thought.

"Why do you stare at so much then?"

"This painter... It was Alex's favorite artist". That answer got me with the guard down. To that day, he didn't mention him for quite a while.

"Alex". Sarah called me. I turned to her and she made a hand gesture to go with her.

"I have to go. Wait for me a bit". I hurried to Sarah who was calling me to introduce some of the other artists participating.

We all talked for a while but I just wanted to go back to Ryan. Every time he mentioned Alex, he made me feel dumbfounded and desperate. I felt like, somehow, I was losing him.

Regardless of what I wanted, I had to stay at the little meeting for a while. When the clock marked ten a.m, I hurried outside excusing myself because I was one of the people in charge of showing visitors around, and we opened the gallery at ten.

I found Ryan sitting in a corner with his phone in hand.

"Sorry to keep you waiting". I sat next to him.

"Don't worry. When are you done? I'll pick you up".

"At four". He nodded.

"Call me if you need something, ok? I'll probably be at home".

"Yeah, I'll. Thank you".

Ryan put his phone in his coat pocket and left without saying anything else.

I wondered, as many times before, if the attitude he had towards things related to Alex were normal. I wanted to suggest he see a psychologist a few times but I didn't dare to. He would certainly feel offended, wouldn't he?

Some people started to come in, so I shook my head in an attempt to clear my mind and concentrate on what I had to do at the moment.

The morning passed quickly even though there were not many people going into the gallery. The afternoons were usually more crowded, so I had it kind of easy that day.

Around 2 p.m., I was getting bored since the gallery was dead empty so I went to the back to prepare some coffee. I was on that when Kayla video-called me.

"Hey! What with this surprise?" I answered right away.

"I missed you so bad!" She said dramatically.

"Ridiculous". I rolled my eyes.

"Well, I call you because of something important. I don't want to ruin your day or anything but I thought you had to see this".

"Don't scare me". Kayla turned her camera and I saw Ryan's back. Somebody can say that I could have mistaken him, but I know my boyfriend's back and profile. He was with Britanny.

"Is she the one you were talking about the other day? She looks like it", asked Kayla lowering her voice.

"Yeah". I kept staring at the screen.

What was Ryan thinking? Kayla and I continued talking for some time to uncover that she was actually streaming them. The whole time, Britanny was shamelessly flirting with Ryan.

I don't know what she was saying but her body said everything. Was Ryan blind and deft? Or I was a bad judge of character and it happened he was actually slow?

The situation didn't annoy me at that point; it got me mad, really mad. The moment Kayla left the restaurant because she had to go back to work, I called Ryan.

"Hello! Are you done?" He asked.

"Hi! Not yet, but the gallery is empty".

"Oh, you call me because you're bored then".

"Where are you? I hear some noise".

"Oh... I'm having lunch out. I don't feel like cooking".

"Ah... did you go alone?"

"Yeah..." There was a pause. "Do you want me to get you something?"

"No, I'm fine, thank you".

"At four?"

"Yeah, see you later".

"See you". I hung off.

I was angry. Why did he lie? Was he actually cheating on me?