“Come on. Let’s get you back to my place. I’ll get you set up, and then I’ll come back with another guy and start on some other things,” Bryan said.
“You sure there isn’t anything I could do to help?” I asked.
“Hailey, all I want you to do right now is rest. Let me do what I do best, so we can get you back in business, okay?”
I pressed a small kiss to his chest before I allowed him to lead me out to my car. I followed him back to his house, my mind swirling with a number of different things. Why would Max do something like this? What was he so angry about? By the way he talked, I was the only platform outside of the internet that was selling his paintings. Why would he go and destroy something like that?
But all those questions flew from my mind the moment Bryan tucked me back into his bed. He kissed my cheek before he smoothed the hair from my face, and I smiled up at him.
“Get some rest. I’ll be back this evening with dinner,” he said.
“Stay safe, okay?” I asked.
“Always,” he said. “I’ll always stay safe.”
Chapter 23
Bryan
I called up Drew and told him what happened. I enlisted his help to get the gallery cleaned up as best as I could and was settled with how quickly it came together. Drew brought some things from our company warehouse to use, saying we could write it off as a donation. I had him start on filling the hole and taking care of the indentations in the wall while I scraped the paint off the floor. Then, I set to fixing the counter before I threw the ruined paintings in the dumpster behind the gallery.
It made me sick to throw these things away, even though I knew they couldn’t be salvaged.
Drew and I worked through lunchtime, letting the filler to fix the holes dry so we could paint the walls. I pulled the door Drew had brought from the warehouse, making sure it would fit before I fixed the seal around it. It was almost three o’clock by the time I got the doorframe fixed and the door replaced, and by that time, Drew had opened up cans of the cream-colored paint Hailey had on the gallery walls.
“If we double-team this paint job, we can finish this sucker up tonight,” he said.
It sounded like a good enough idea to me, so I grabbed a roller and got to work.
Every once in a while, I texted Hailey. I could tell she was still upset, but more so because none of her paintings could be salvaged. She was relieved that she didn’t have to alert any of her outside artists that their paintings had been ruined, but I could feel the heaviness of her heart radiating through her text messages.
I wanted to get home to her as soon as possible.
“Why don’t you call her?” Drew asked. “I got this shit, man. Ten more minutes to let it dry, another coat, and this thing’ll be done.”
“You sure?” I asked.
“Yeah. Go. Call her, dude.”
I dialed Hailey’s number and was relieved when she picked up. She didn’t sound like she’d been crying or anything, and I smiled as my name rolled off her tongue.
“Hey, Bryan.”
“Hey there, beautiful. How’re you feeling?” I asked.
“Tired. Hungry. Want me to fix something?” she asked.
“Nope. I want you to stay in bed and rest. I’m driving by that Korean barbecue place to get us something to go.”
“The place where we had our first date,” she said.
“That’s the one.”
“How’s everything coming along?” she asked.
“That’s actually the good news. I got Drew over here to help me. In about ten minutes, we’re gonna slap one more coat of paint on the walls, and you should be back in business whenever you wanna be.”
“Wait, are you serious?” she asked.