Until Jinx - Happily Ever Alpha World

“Always a pleasure, never a chore. I think you’ll love them.”

Coming to a decision, I tapped the picture. “I want to put this on the project I’m working on. It’s not a commission, just something I’ve always wanted to try and make.”

He looked surprised at my willingness, but it quickly morphed into what I could only describe as satisfaction and happiness. Me opening up my work to include him meant something.

“That’s awesome.”

“The only problem is,” I started nervously in case he didn’t want to get that involved in the project. “I can’t do your kind of art, so I’d need you to help me with it.”

This time there was no surprise, just pure excitement mixed in with the happiness. “As you know, I’ve never worked with ceramics before, so I’ll need you to show me how it’s done. But, hell, yeah, I’ll do it.” He finished it by rubbing his hands together.

He hadn’t seen the size of the vase yet. This was going to be hilarious.

“Let me show you what it is…”

Five minutes later…

“Well?” I asked, watching him staring at it in shock. “What do you think? That design would look amazing on it, right?”

“Did you—“ His ability to speak stalled as he walked around the other side. “Did you do this to put Maddie in?”

Bursting out laughing, I rolled the vase closer to the bench with some of my small pots of paint on it. The only way I could safely get it to move was to keep it on a rolling platform, so I’d have to put the brakes on while we painted it. You only make that mistake once. Or twice.

“Yeah. I was thinking of marketing it as a life-sized—literally—vase, modeled on my best friend.”

“I can see that working. Just get her to stand next to it when you take the photos.”

Chuckling, I moved over to the shelves where the rest of my paints were kept and picked up a large pot with a turquoise shade inside of it. “This one’s close to what you used in the picture.”

Putting his hands on his hips, he looked from me back to the vase. “This is going to take a lot of work, Sienna. You sure you’re up for it?”

Like I even needed to think about the answer to the question. “Of course. I’d understand if you weren’t, though. I just don’t want to ruin your beautiful design by doing it myself.”

“Ruin my design?” he asked incredulously. “I’d think the bigger issue was ruining all of the time and work you put into making this.” He waved at the vase and then shook his head. “How long did it take you to make?”

“Uh, I managed to do it in a day. It was just after I moved back, and I couldn’t sleep, so I came out and started working on it. By the next night I’d managed to fix the problems I’d encountered with it, and then Maddie helped me move it so the clay could dry out enough to be fired. Admittedly that took longer than normal,” I muttered, more to myself than him. “After that, we put it into the kiln to fire it, and that’s all it really took.”

“You got her to move something that’s the same size and probably the same weight as her?”

The memory of how much she’d struggled and the things that’d come out of her mouth while we were doing it came flooding back, making me smile. “She had a lot to say about it.”

“I’ll bet. I don’t even want to think about how heavy it is.”

“Because I work with clay, it was pretty heavy before it was fired. Now it’s actually not too bad, but I keep it on the dolly because of its size.”

Crossing his arms over his chest, he glanced over at where the boys were asleep on the blanket I’d put in the corner of the workshop, then back at it. “Are they safe to have in here? What if they knock it over?”

“Then I hope they don’t hurt their paws on the broken pieces,” I shrugged. “It’s not that big a deal. Now that I’ve made it once and know the logistics of how to do it, I could probably make a second one more quickly. Just saying, though, most of my work takes time, so I’m used to it.”

“Count me in. I can put aside a couple of hours every day to help you paint it, and I’m free all day today because the shop’s closed while they fix the water pipe just outside the entrance.”

Last night, there’d been a slight drama in town when one of the water mains had burst. Fortunately, it hadn’t made its way into the tattoo shop, but there were a couple of businesses who’d be spending the next week drying out and fixing some of the damage they’d sustained as a result of it. It was bad news for Blazing Inx’s income, but great news for me right now.