The Bad Boy with a Heart of Gold

✖ After ✖

PART FIVE: THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE NEVER DID RUN SMOOTH

When people said that college could be a life altering experience, they weren't lying.

For one, the fact that I ended up going to one vastly different from what I'd intended was already a big change. I'd seen myself going to business school in Rollins, which would help me connect with the business world in Central Florida, maybe even find a boyfriend and future husband in that environment, and in the process take our family business from two shops to franchises all over the country.

Instead I moved to a different state. Like Mr. Davies suggested, I did a year of pure business and then I added a second major in arts. By that point, I had continued to build up on my portfolio and although I started my arts program lagging behind the other students, I soon made use of my characteristic stubbornness to catch up. And surpass them. By the time I was finishing college, I had an offer for an internship with a famous studio in Paris.

I often thought about how right Sawyer had been. At least for the most part.

While I learned and developed and grew my platform, he went onto the grueling process of physical therapy. I did make time to visit him when I returned to Orlando, once even defying his predictions that Ariel would consume all my visit time by bringing her with me. Seeing his princess at the end of the walkway always spurred him on harder. After a year of hard work, he was able to walk with the help of a crutch. His arm had healed a lot better than his leg and eventually he switched to a cane. Manny gave him a bejeweled one for his birthday, saying that Sawyer deserved something pimp-like that would help him catch the eye of all the ladies.

I didn't think Sawyer needed any help on the matter. With his hair growing back to the way he liked it and the now well groomed beard, he looked like a sex god conjured by the dreams of a hipster.

I didn't hear much from him after I left for Paris. The internship that was supposed to be six months long ended up extending into a full time position for a marketing company. I created art pieces that sold perfumes, vacations, exclusive memberships to clubs and more. It was fun and the pay was okay, but it wasn't fulfilling enough. I kept working on my own projects on the side until I had a decent enough body of work. I shopped around for art galleries and invested my savings into creating my very own exhibition. It was a complete disaster in the sense that I didn't sell enough paintings to break even on my investment, but I was proud of myself for daring to go ahead with it and so was my French boyfriend.

We posted pictures of the exhibit on social media, bragging as if I'd done something amazing. And then something truly amazing did happen.

Fellow Metropolitan High alumni, and now budding journalist Ellen Young retweeted my pictures and made them viral. My social media started exploding with new followers after that, and I wasn't dumb, okay? I carpe diem'ed it so hard that the free publicity turned into a new income stream.

When it became clear that I was earning more money for selling my paintings in the American market, I had the conversation with my boyfriend that as much as I wanted to be with him, life seemed to be pointing me in the direction of returning to my home country. To my surprise he agreed, packed up his bags and came with me.

We moved to New York, the hub of everything fine and grand. I started out as a small fish in a big pond, only making a living through online sales and a freelance marketing gig. Then, it was through one of the marketing side jobs that I met a big art connoisseur. He invited me and my boyfriend to his gallery. Turned out he was intrigued by my artistic vision and wanted to see if I'd be part of a project where he was showcasing up and coming talent.