Broken Hearts Club

Chapter 26

For the first time since they knew each other, she never saw him acting like this. From behind his bulking shoulders, she pat his arm and said, "Steve, this is Clint Barton. My friend."

Clint outstretched his right hand to give him a handshake for a proper introduction,"Nice to meet you,"he said and Steve hesitantly gave him his hand in return.

"I'd better go, I promised the girls I'll take them shopping," he said quickly before saying his goodbyes to Nat and a nod at Steve.

"Your friend?" Steve asks, tilting his head to the side as her said friend walked out the door, his jaws tense and his stare intense.

"Well, I thought that if you went to see your friend then I can see my friend too. It seems fair to me," Natasha countered as he gave her a harsh look.

"Friends don't act like that," he replied.

"Are we seriously heading that direction? You know damn well I wouldn't do that to you, Steve."

"He was my best friend, we had something going on way back then but he moved here and he has a family now, you have nothing to worry about," she assured him as her previous words didn't seem to ease him up, leaning up to give him a kiss on his cheeks.

She's right, he thought, she would never do such thing.

"How about your friend? I don't think you've ever mentioned a friend from Paris," she asked lightly, sitting back down on the couch.

"She was my schoolmate back in high school," he said plopping down beside her.

"Does she have a name?"

"Yeah, you wouldn't know her even if I told you," he said, desperately wanting this conversation to end and not head towards unwanted directions that might arise certain conflicts and jealousy? "We should better go now, I need to do some rechecks on the exhibition."

It's a thing he always does, he needs to make sure that everything is just right. Can't let a spot disrupt the perfect aesthetic he continuously strives.

The thing with rechecks is that, Phil, his agent, and Steve would have relentless arguments on how the event would go and how it'd look like. Wanda thinks they look like an old married couple arguing like that, even a tiny slight bit of disagreement could lead to an hour-long city hall debate.

With that, Natasha sat on the couch the staff set up and stared at the paintings on the wall, covered with a white sheet of fabric. The minute hand on the clock keeps on ticking as she watched Steve and Phil argue in front of one exhibit.

"No, the light needs to come from below! Not from that side!"Steve argued, "Lighting makes a huge difference, Coulson!"

"I'm giving my opinion through the eyes of a potential buyer, the light from below only shines this part right here," he said touching the bottom part of the canvas as Steve slapped his hands away,"Now, shine it from the side and everything gets the light equally."

"Of course not but that's not my point!" Steve defended.

The loud voices of the argument fades away into the background as Wanda slipped beside her,"I'm craving for some Eclairs, you wanna come?"

Natasha glanced towards Steve direction and Wanda assured her, "We'll be back before he knows it. He's gonna take all the time in the world, trust me."

With that, they left. Walking down the stone sideways as they chatted. Visz occasionally went ahead of them to help them crossed the roads and open doors.

But that day, the wind blew strong.

###

Finally agreeing with Steve, the lights shone from the bottom, much to Coulson's dismay. Heaving a sigh of satisfaction as he take one final look at the setting, hoping everything goes as planned the following day. He walked back to the couch to find Natasha missing. Taking a look at his phone he found a text from Natasha, which somehow is still named 'DO NOT TRUST THIS WOMAN'. Clicking on the text, he quickly renames her to 'Nat'