Substance

Chpt. 2 You were always on my mind

He was rocking out to some indie music when the message came. In his lower level apartment with the bass blasting, he was in the zone, in the mode to paint, to use the elements as muses. Grasping the paintbrush in his hand, his broad brush strokes were in tune with the beat, the steady thump, thump, thump of the drum beat serving as his timer. Courtland was changing brushes when he saw the message pop up on the screen of his laptop.

He wiped his hands on a nearby rag then rolled over to his desk. It was an e-mail. Allowing his fingers to glide over the keyboard with as much dexterity as he had he signed into the e-mail account, opening up the message. He frowned when he looked at the address it was an unknown contact that he had never received anything from. The message read “so you mentioned something about an apology?”Courtland didn’t need anymore than a second to think on the identity of the sender. Veronica, the Latina from the speed dating night. She had been all that he thought about for a whole week straight. Just thinking about her made him want to turn the music up louder and send the paint flying onto the canvas.

He wasn’t expecting the interruption but didn’t mind it either, he decided that he needed a break anyhow and sent a reply message, “Yes. I apologize for being an ass.” Almost immediately, an instant messenger box popped up on his screen.

“I was thinking more like jackass, pompous jerk, etc…”

He sent a smiley face emoticon, “Yeah I was all those things. Should have known you were the real deal.”

“Real deal?”

“A woman on a mission. I thought you were one of those females that prowl around looking for guys to feed their vanity.”

Veronica in turn replied with her own angry emoticon, “Well I’m not!”

“I know that now. So what are you up to this evening,” Courtland asked after an awkward silence.

“Relaxing, I just got home from work not too long ago.”

“Oh you work too?”

“There goes that jackass thing again,” Veronica admonished.

“Sorry, force of habit.”

“Yes, for your information, I do work. I’m a manager at a boutique.”

“Ooohhh, cools. You get free stuff?”

“Only people’s attitudes,” Veronica replied.

“Tough day at work?”

“YES! I almost wanted to walk off the job.”

“See other people can be jackasses as well, not just me.”

“I agree wholeheartedly. What are you up to?” She replied.

“I was painting before I got your message.”

“You’re an artist?” Veronica typed. She was genuinely surprised that he was able to paint with his hands in the shape that they were.

“Something like that. I like to think I am but who knows. It’s all in the eye of the beholder.”

“So what’s with this real deal? You get a lot of females that do that sort of thing?” Veronica asked.

“Not many but enough. Users, players, they’re all the same to me. They only think about themselves, while stepping on the feelings of other people.”

“Yeah I know a few of those.”

Courtland continued typing, “They just think it’s all for fun, never realizing that they cause so much damage.”