Charlotte

20 // stick around.

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20 // stick around.

I breathed in the weird smell of Demetri's cologne as he pulled me into his chest.

"Lesra or Lesra, I am so proud of you!" He rocked us back and forth. I awkwardly wrapped my arms around his back. "See, I knew saving you for something better like this would be a good idea. You exceeded my expectations," he rested his hands on my shoulders and held me back at arms length. 

I slowly nodded my head. After all this time, I still didn't know how to feel about the fact that my own boss had given me bogus websites to advertise my work on. For months I had waited and waited for a buyer and turned up with nothing. If I had known that it was false, I could have spared myself the extra time and hope.

"Thank you, Mr. Arnette. At first I wasn't sure about the offer, although you didn't really give me a choice to deny, but still I am thankful for the opportunity," I looked right above us at my four sided art work that was still hung high from last night. It took about a week for the maintenance guys to set it up there and it would take about the same time to take it down.

"I know what's best," he shrugged. "It was a major hit last night!" He buttoned the undone button on his suede suit, clearly pleased with himself and the new found attention his gallery was getting.

I smiled down at the wooden floors of the art gallery. I too was proud of myself. It felt like everything was slowly coming together. Noah and I had made up again, my mother was recovering, there was Wren, and to add on, many art investors from last night had promised to contact me through Demetri for future works of mine. The final questionable aspect of my life left was Shawna.

He dropped his hands from off of my shoulders and brushed at the thin hairs on his head. "You've really outdid yourself so it's only fair if I give you a break. You deserve it." 

"A break? I don't need a break," I laughed nervously. "If anything, i'm more motivated than ever to get started on some new ideas that have been floating in my mind."

"That's great," he replied. "But now that i'm offering you this break, you'll have more time to work on your upcoming ideas at home. All day, everyday."

"Thank you for the offer, Mr. Arnette, but i'm fine," I rounded the front counter and stuffed my bag in the drawer underneath the counter. Throwing my hair up into a ponytail, I clipped my name tag onto my stripped shirt.

"Speaking of," I began once I had finished the tasks. "Has any of the art investors from last night contacted you yet?" I was anxious and extremely excited to know.

"Art investors? Oh right, let me check," he hummed to himself as he pulled his blackberry from the inside jacket pocket of his suit. I watched as he sifted through emails. He looked back up at me, a quick smile appeared on his face. He quickly placed his phone back into its original spot. "Nope," he said, popping the 'p', no emails."

"Oh, really?" I gave him a questionable look. "They seemed so eager last night I thought at least one of them would have tried to contact me already."

Demetri shrugged. "It's the start of the week and it's still really early in the morning.  Or, they're probably busy."

"Yeah," I grabbed the glass cleaner and a roll of paper towels before making my way over to the glass showcases.

"Back to what I was saying before though," Demetri coughed as he followed behind me. 

I rolled my eyes since he wasn't looking. Why couldn't he just understand that a break was unnecessary?

"I'm giving you an early maternity leave, Lesra," he said in a tone that meant the decision was final.