“It’s okay,” he said, taking my hand and leading me up the steps. From his pocket, he produced a key. Man, he was really good at getting keys from people.
He unlocked the door then put his hands on my shoulders.
“Okay, close your eyes and wait here. I need a minute.”
I raised my eyebrows at him, but he looked really excited. Man, he’d done a lot of planning when he was supposed to be hanging out with his brother.
“In case you were wondering, I called Gil as soon as I could and asked him for a favor. He left the key with Lucah, and I’m hoping that everything is a go,” he said.
“Okay, okay.” I closed my eyes and listened as his footsteps moved away from me. It didn’t really matter if my eyes were closed, since it was so dark in there with only the light from the outside coming in through the windows.
I heard a lot of weird noises. I was a little worried and very tempted to open my eyes, but I kept them closed until Ryder approached me and took my hands.
“You’re not leading me into a trap, are you?” I asked as I slowly took one step after another.
“Nope. Just a surprise that I think you’re going to like.” I wasn’t so sure about that, but I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
“As long as you’re not leading me into a room with a video camera that’s streaming live to the internet, or you’re going to chop my head off, I think we’re good,” I said.
He laughed then stopped walking, and I almost crashed into him.
“Okay, open.”
We were in the back of the art gallery, and a lot of the pieces I’d seen in the show had been moved. The corner we were standing in was empty. Well, not exactly empty.
The area had been covered in plastic and giant sheets of paper. An overhead light revealed several buckets of paint and some brushes.
I put two and two together.
“You’re going to ask me to strip and roll around in the paint, aren’t you?” I said.
He beamed.
“Yup. But I’m doing it with you.” He took his jacket off and hung it up on a metal rack I hadn’t noticed at first. Then came his shirt.
“Unless you want to ruin your dress, but I’d rather you not,” he said.
I turned my back to him.
“Unzip me then,” I said, and he did. The dress dropped to the floor. I picked it up and hung it on the rack, and then did the same with my bra and panties. Of course, then I realized the windows were still open to the street, and if someone walked by, they would see everything.
“Uh, Ryder? That’s not exactly part of the plan,” I said, pointing at the windows.
“Shit, I knew I was going to forget something.” He ran to the windows and pulled the blinds down, even though he was mostly naked himself.
When he was done, we took off our shoes then stood next to the paper.
“I can’t say I’ve ever done this before,” I said. But I was more than up for it.
“Well, I wanted to create something with you. Something we could keep that would remind us of this time when we looked at it.”
I liked that.
“So, what color?” he asked me, pointing to the containers of paint.
“Blue,” I said without even thinking. There was a dark blue that reminded me of his eyes.
“You got it,” he said, popping the top off the pan and picking up a roller.