“You haven’t found out any more about him?”
“Nope, nothing. I guess he doesn’t like to reveal too much about his life.”
“You’re lying to us,” Rebecca said as she stopped and looked me in the eyes.
“What? There has been nothing to lie about. I don’t know anything about him.” I continued to bring my pictures out to Robert’s truck while behind me I heard Rebecca and Robert having a little bit of an argument. Robert was telling Rebecca to leave things alone and Rebecca was telling Robert that he didn’t know what he was talking about. It was actually very fun to listen to the two of them argue.
“Ok guys, I’ll tell you the truth. I fell down a mountain and he carried me home, we had sex. We had sex again just the other night. But I don’t know where he is at or what he’s doing now and I’m perfectly fine with that.”
Rebecca broke out in hysterical laughter. Her body was bent over and she held onto the table for support.
“Oh Katelyn, you are so funny. I love your sense of humor.”
Sometimes honesty is better than any lie you can tell. I knew Rebecca wouldn’t believe me. I knew that the idea of me sleeping with a stranger would not be something she could even comprehend. But to me, Chris wasn’t a stranger anymore. Sure, I did not know much information about him. I wasn’t too worried about it though, the man did live right next door. Sooner or later I would find out more about him, which was a natural thing that happened over time.
“Well, I’m glad my life is amusing to you,” I said with a smile.
“Seriously Katelyn, you should stay away from that guy. Whatever he’s doing it’s probably illegal. Only criminals like to keep their life so shrouded in mystery.” Robert said as he continued loading the artwork into his truck.
“I appreciate you both worrying about me so much.”
“Katelyn, he’s very handsome. Do you think you would consider dating a guy like that someday?”
I could tell what Rebecca was really trying to get at; it was if Chris looked like a guy that I would consider my type. If I said yes, then surely Rebecca would have a date lined up with a guy that she thought looked a lot like Chris. If I said no, the date would be with someone exactly opposite of Chris. There really was no way for me to win.
“I don’t know. He is very handsome.”
“I think you two should stop talking about how handsome this guy is,” Robert laughed.
“Oh darling, you are much better looking,” Rebecca said as she hugged her husband.
Both Robert and I laughed. He certainly had a good sense of humor, but handsome was not a trait I would use to describe Robert. His tall, thin frame looked like it barely kept him from falling over on a windy day. Although Robert did
go to the gym often, he didn’t appear to be making any progress on his goal to bulk up and get more muscle.
“When you are married someday, you will see your husband as the handsome model that he is in your eyes,” Rebecca said as she kissed Robert.
The two of them were such a sweet couple. It was encouraging to see them together and how they interacted with each other. Rebecca was more of the caretaker for the family and Robert was the provider, but they switched roles as necessary and took care of each other very well.
“I’m really excited about this photography show. I hope there are a lot of people there,” I said, trying to change the subject.
“Yes, I’m sure there will be. There have been flyers all over Kansas City and I think they said all the tickets for the event were sold out.”
I couldn’t help but smile. All the tickets being sold out was a big deal. That meant there would be over a thousand people at my show. All of them interested in seeing my art and possibly buying some of it. I would really love to sell a few pieces to help pay for the renovation to my family’s home.
“How many total pieces do you have?” Robert asked.
“I should have twenty-six. I’m not sure if they will be showing all of the pieces or picking twenty of their favorite.”
“This is big Katelyn. Like really big. People will come to your show and be talking about your photography in the newspapers and stuff. You might just end up being really famous.”
I couldn’t help but smile at Rebecca’s enthusiasm. She was always one of my biggest supporters and it made me feel so optimistic about my show. I had sold a few photos through friends and local people, plus I had sold several pictures online, but I had never had a real show. I had never put my work on display for people to critique and judge with me standing right there. It made me nervous even to think about it.
The thought of people picking apart my work or saying bad things about my photos, it made me feel pretty anxious. I really did hope that Chris could make it to the show and I wanted him to be able to walk around with me to be my protector from the critiques. His physical presences would make it hard for people to say too many bad things to me. At 6’2 and with all the muscles Chris had, no one was likely to be talking very poorly in front of him at least. They would be too afraid of him.
Chris wasn’t a scary guy, even if he looked like it on the outside. In reality, he was a very kind man who seemed to have a lot of demons in his past that he liked to keep protected. He always seemed to be protecting something. I did really want to get to the bottom of what he did for a living and why he was here. It seemed like there was quite the story there and I just wasn’t hearing it yet.
Chapter 23