Mason shrugged. “I’m all ears. If it’s something I can help with, I’m game to at least hear it out.”
David nodded slowly, took another drink…then another drink.Thenhe finally spoke up. “Could I draw you? Like, while we’re waiting? I found a sketchbook and I figured I would try to catalog the whole experience of getting the house redone. You and the crew are a part of that, but you know, you’re the one who’s here right now.” He nodded to the crew in the back. “The one who’s here who agreed to be on camera, obviously.”
It was Mason’s turn to get a burst of panic through his chest. “You want to draw me?”
“I don’t feel like I’ve captured you.” David put a book on the table and flicked through a few pages. “My main job at work today was making sure my chair didn’t float away, so I was drawing from memory.” He landed on a landscape drawing from up high. “I spend a good amount of time up on the rooftop deck area, so I could get the view of Puget Sound right, but I was never the best with remembering faces.”
He flipped another page…and there was Mason. Good or not at remembering faces, David had captured him well enough that even Mason could recognize himself, although it was certainly an idealized version. It was rough, to be certain, but Mason saw the sweep of his hair, fading away into nothing at the edges, and the point of his right ear—the left was round on top—and faint pencil lines that suggested his goatee. It was a new look he was trying out, with a nod from Eliza that it wouldn’t ruin the entire filming process, but it was apparently important enough to stick in David’s mind.
“You make me look good. I think I’m pretty well-captured here. Recognizable. You even put a good filter on me so you don’t notice all the flaws.”
“But it’s missing something.” David shook his head. “You’re absolutely within your rights to say no, but I usually do better with something to work from.” He gestured vaguely up above him. “I’m going to draw them too, but I feel like they’ll be easy.” He flipped over to a drawing that was clearly Ozzy and Evander, apparently caught in a private moment, their mouths hovering near each other as if about to kiss. “See, this was all from memory and it feels right. There’s thatsparkin here where I don’t feel like I need to keep going and trying over and over. But that one I showed you was my third attempt, and I still don’t feel like it’s good enough.”
“Well, maybe you need a little prettier subject matter.” Mason couldn’t hold his anxiety in anymore, and it spilled out of his mouth as self-deprecation, as per usual. He patted his midsection. “Not exactly working with the best materials, are you?”
David’s eyes sharpened. “It’s gonothingto do with that.”
The edge to his voice caught Mason aback. It was such a stark change. He sounded…not angry. Not exactly, anyway.
He sounded protective. But who was he protecting?
Knocking sounded at the door and Mason’s heart jumped up.Why am I so nervous? We weren’t doing anything. A peek through the little window in the meeting room door revealed Evander and Ozzy, which flared annoyance through Mason’s chest.
He sighed, swallowing that back, and looked at the sketchbook one more time. David had flipped to another drawing that was clearly Mason, surrounded by boxes and drawn in rougher lines. Lively, not as ethereal as the first one. It was frantic and fast, the pencil smudged in places that didn’t seem intentional. He reallywastrying to capture something, and apparently wasn’t happy with the results.Who am I to stand in the way of an artistic pursuit?“You want to draw me, feel free. But we’ve got less than two weeks left.” He walked over to the door, not quite able to make eye contact while saying all this. “So you better get to work.”
Mason opened the door and tried not to feel too weird about it. But that single moment kept playing over and over in his mind, even as they all started talking about the state of the condo.
David got protective when Mason started commenting about himself. So there was really only one person he could have been trying to defend.
Chapter ten
David
Intheend,Davidhad to say he was impressed with the results of the weird design program. It had been fun to go through and think about design elements, but he hadn’t exactly had high hopes for what it would spit out at the end of everything.
The collage had lots of jewel tones, all on a black background. Pictures of rooms with shafts of light falling on plush textures like faux fur and velvet. Highly polished wood in warm tones keeping the whole thing from feeling too unnatural or too cold and distant. Only tasteful touches of gold and very little other metal. Each of the individual elements was housed in a heptagonal frame, which David was particularly pleased with. It was a tiny touch, but using a seven-sided figure instead of a regular hexagon made the whole thing feel just a touch livelier,a smidgen less conventional. David longed to live somewhere unconventional.
That was not the only source of pleasure, though. Seemingly out of nowhere, Mason had agreed to be sketched. David honestly thought he was getting rebuffed, but apparently something had clicked into place. He knew enough to not question it, and he knew to strike while the iron was hot. Once they finished their meeting and Ozzy and Evander had left, huddled together looking at Evander’s phone and apparently discussing the job, David stopped. “So, are you busy?”
Mason straightened up. “Not really. We’re in a bit of a holding pattern right now until everything can get closed back up at the condo. I think the estimate is three days? Assuming they don’t find anything scarier than expected. Although I’m sure Evander’s going to have about twelve-dozen things he wants me to order by tomorrow morning.”
“But you’re free now? I could try to draw you properly?”
Mason’s eyes widened. His cheeks dusted pink, but he nodded. “I guess I should have seen that one coming. Do you mind if I change into something a little nicer than this?”
David waved that away. “You don’t need to.” He gestured to the door with the corner of his sketch book. “I’ll treat you to dinner after.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
Mason turned away at that. Ostensibly, he was stuffing his laptop back in the bag and checking over the room to make sure nothing had been left. Completely reasonable. But David didn’t miss the subtext. A suggestion of dinner and Mason had distanced himself. It could have been an attempt at holding professional boundaries, if they hadn’t already crossed those when he agreed to model for David.
David had a sneaking suspicion he knew what was up, but that was not a topic for him to broach. He had a thing for Mason, nodoubt about that. There was something about him that captured David’s attention, and he knew himself well enough to realize it wasn’t purely an artistic pursuit. None of that made bringing up more serious topics a good idea.
Once Mason finally turned back around, David held open the door for him. “Your place or mine?”
“No offense, but I’d really rather get my computer and everything tucked back away as soon as I can.”
“Scandalous, inviting me up to your hotel room.”
