Stories For The Hopeless Romantic

Six ~ Masterpiece

You're The Reason I Come ~ Ron Pope

Emily walked out of the elevator, a bag of groceries on her hip, her purse over her shoulder, and a travel mug in her free hand. She manoeuvred down the hallway of her apartment building, now balancing the thermos on top of the groceries as she rummaged around for her keys. When her fingers finally grasped the cool metal of the keyring, Emily had arrived at her door, with it's peephole framed by a piece of silver art Levi had done in a college metalworking class.

Emily got her key into the lock and turned it, pushing on the door with her available hip. "Hello!" She called out into the apartment, setting down her mug and purse in the entryway and kicking off her ankle boots, relief flooding her feet as they left the heels.

A tall, blond man, whose hair was never not spotted with paint, hurried into the entryway. "Em!" He said, a little loudly, before taking the groceries out of her hands. "How was your day?" He asked, rubbing the back of his neck and standing awkwardly a few feet from Emily.

"Fiiiine. How was yours?" Emily said, her brow furrowed as she watched her husband shift his weight between his feet.

"So, I did a thing. I was really stuck, creativity wise, and I just needed to do something of my own volition before I could start the commissioned piece so I just started painting, and I know that it probably wasn't the best choice, but please don't say anything until you've seen it, okay?" Levi said, words flying out his mouth.

"Okayyy." Emily said as Levi grabbed her arm and led her into their living room.

"So, um, this is what I did. And we can paint over it if you want, but I don't know, I kinda like it."

The living room was in slight disarray, with the couch pressed against the windows and in its a place was a large drop cloth covering most of the hardwood floor. Most of Levi's paint collection rested on the cloth, and a few brushes lay on paper towels.

On the back wall was a painting. It was filled with blues, purples, greens, oranges, pinks, yellows, and just about everything in between. Most of the wall was filled with colorful, wavy stripes flowing off of the main feature. That feature was a navy blue silhouette of a woman's face, the stripes mimicking her hair. The profile was facing right, a small smile on her face as she appeared windblown.

It was obviously Emily, even though it wasn't a portrait type photo. Every detail in the woman's face and smile was just like Emily's, and even if she didn't know that, there was a photo taped next to the painting as a kind of inspiration.The photo was from Emily and Levi's honeymoon, and it was taken while they were driving across the country in her dad's red mustang convertible, lent to them for the trip. Emily had been driving, going across the interstate with the top down, wind blowing her hair all the way behind her. Levi had taken a photo of her with their designated honeymoon polaroid camera. When she'd noticed out of the corner of her eye that he had the camera out, she'd smiled a little, eyes darting over to him for half a second.

The photo had come to life on the wall in a unique way, Emily's rainbow hair almost rippling from imaginary wind. Real-life Emily took her hair out of its bun, shaking it with her fingers and remembering when she'd never worn it up. She was mesmerized by the painting and stood there looking at it. "Em? Do you like it?" Levi asked, his voice laced with nervousness as she broke out of her reverie.

"I love it." She said quietly, then turned to him. "Levi, this is incredible. Beautiful. Astounding. And I'm not just saying that because it's me. You could sell this for hundreds of thousands if you wanted, babe. It's fantastic."

"Are you serious?!" Levi said, his face breaking into a huge grin as he ran his fingers through his floppy hair.

"Yes. Dead serious. You're a masterpiece maker, babe." Emily said, smiling at Levi's happy face. She looped her arms around his neck, and placed a quick kiss on his lips.

"Well, it is helpful that you're such a masterpiece." Levi said, his arms around Emily's waist as he looked down at her, her hair hanging around her face. Levi leaned in to kiss her again, smiling against Emily's mouth, before pulling away completely, walking into the kitchen.

"Right, so, dinner? What're we thinking