After spending a couple of hours talking with Alex about ideas, she’s started making changes around the gallery already and wants to do a launch, but then we realized the artist would need to be present which kind of blows the anonymity thing right out of the water. So instead, she’s just going to get the place ready and we’ll open for business and have signage on the street. Alex is hoping for a week from today and she wants me to get some new pieces in the gallery too, to fill it up a little more.

Seeing as the band doesn’t have much on this week, I’ll spend it all at the gallery in the back studio painting. But for now, I’m heading home. It’s been a long night and day and I just need to relax and go to bed.

Matt’s already home when I walk inside and he’s making his way through another tub of Ben and Jerry’s.

“Dude, you’re gonna get fat, and Whisper won’t be happy either,” I say.

He smirks. “So, was Zaria your present?”

Shaking my head, I pout. “No, Alex was.”

He furrows his brows. “Alex?”

“Mmm… Alex is… well, interesting.”

“Who the fuck is Alex?”

“Ria thought hiring me a manager slash curator was a good idea so she sent me Alex.”

“But no Ria?”

“No Ria.” I shake my head.

“Bummer, but you can reach out to her now, right? Say thank you for this interesting Alex character?”

“No. Apparently Ria is doing Alex a favor and that’s all it is. It’s nothing to do with me.”

“Double bummer… I’m sorry, bro.”

Shrugging, I start to head up the stairs. “Lay off the damn ice cream.”

Matt’s chuckles echo from below as I walk to the bathroom to wash away the pain in my chest.

 

ONE WEEK LATER

 

I’ve been busy the last week in my studio painting madly. Alex has been great, giving me helpful tips and leaving me when I’m in the zone. She’s opened the gallery right up, so light shines in from all angles. It looks amazing and everything’s ready for today’s opening.

I got to say I’m more than a little nervous.

What if we’re open all day and no one comes in?

We purposely haven’t advertised excessively, only doing a small letterbox drop and sign posts in the area for the opening. So we’re not expecting many people, if any to be honest, I didn’t want a fanfare instead opting for a natural growth gallery.

I’m out the back in the studio while Alex is preparing for the opening, I’m putting some finishing strokes on a canvas when a gust of wind blows in from the window. It takes hold of the cloth covering a canvas and lifts it, exposing the almost finished dove I was painting for Ria. The one I was going to gift her.

It immediately makes me think about how Ria should be here today to share in this moment.

The door swings open and Alex rushes in. “I’m about to open the doors, I thought you might wanna be there when I do that for the first time?” she asks and then looks at the dove that’s previously been covered every other time she’s come in here. “Oh my God, Nate, that’s amazing. That needs to go on sale.”

“It’s not for sale,” I snap and she opens her eyes wide and looks at me tilting her stature.

“Okay sassy pants… not for sale… got it. But recreate it and sell a second one ‘cause that fucker’s awesome, Nate. No shit. Now get off your ass, it’s openin’ time!” She leans up on her toes and rushes back out into the gallery.

I stand up and cover Ria’s dove back over and walk out into the gallery. It looks great, she’s done a fantastic job with everything. Alex walks up to the front door and turns the sign from closed to open, unlocks the door and pulls it opens. I watch as she stands back and jumps on her toes.

“Ooh… ooh… someone’s coming. Act cool, Nate,” she whispers.

I grin watching her as she straightens out her outfit, which is actually quite formal compared to the rest of her appearance. She looks from me back to whoever is coming and she grins.

“Whoa dude, this is trippy,” she says.

I furrow my brows wondering what she means until I notice Matt walk through the door.

Alex gushes smiling brightly and pushes a flyer into his face. “Welcome to the gallery of Artist Anonymous. We hope you enjoy your time here today. I’m the curator, Alex. If you have any questions please feel free to ask,” she says.

Matt looks at her taking the flyer and gazing at her like he’s in a state of shock.

“You’re Alex?” he asks.

She nods. “Mm-hmm.”

He shakes his head. “But you’re not a dude?”

She chuckles as I furrow my brows watching him. “Um… nope.” She places her hands on her tits squeezing them and nods. “Yep, definitely not a dude.”

Matt scoffs and shakes his head. “Nate, you said Alex was a dude.”

I jolt back. “What? No, I didn’t.”

Matt shakes his head. “No, you’re right. I guess I just assumed from the name. How did I not know you were a chick? Dude, Ria sent you a chick… no wonder you knew it was over for good.”

“Gee, thanks.” I slump my body.

Alex keeps looking from Matt to me and back to Matt. “Wow! It’s astounding,” she says, and I roll my eyes as Matt looks at her and raises an eyebrow.

“What?” he asks.

“Well, you look so alike at first glance. But really you’re nothing alike. There’s so many subtle differences,” she says, and Matt and I both tilt our heads in unison.

“Really? People always have such a hard time telling us apart,” Matt says.

“Pffft, nah… I’d be able to tell you two apart easily. The first sign is that little bit of gold you have in your eyes that’s different to Nate’s, his are just blue whereas yours turn more to a golden green. Plus, you have more of a subtle freckle pattern just under your right eye. Nate doesn’t have that.”

“Wow! Your attention to detail is really quite… um… scary,” Matt says as I chuckle.

“That’s what makes me good at art, I see the beauty in everything.”

“Even a dipshit like Nate.” Matt chuckles to himself as I roll my eyes.

“Well, come in, have a look around… I think you’ll see Nate is actually pretty damn good.”

Matt raises his eyebrow looking at Alex as she defends me and he nods walking in. “I can’t believe I’ve never been here before.”

“It’s not like you knew about it, though. You know in your defense.”

“True. Now I know where you used to disappear to.” He smiles over at me. “I’m proud of you, bro. Learning to read, Funging your Shui, opening a gallery, you’re really stepping it up. I like this new you.”

“I couldn’t have done it without Ria, she pushed me to be better. I wish she could see this… I miss her, you know?”

Alex winces then looks to the street. “Shit! People are actually coming. Quick go away… like now,” she murmurs gesturing with her hands for us to shoo. I laugh along with Matt as we walk off to another wall looking at one of my paintings as if we were interested in buying it, as a group of people walk in. Alex gets right to work, as I tense up and chew on my bottom lip.

“Stop looking around, you’re being obvious,” Matt says.

“I’m nervous. What if they hate everything? What if they’re critics and they review everything really badly?”

“Dude, you’ve been open five minutes. You need to calm down, do I need to get Whisper in here to calm down your ass?”

“No, I don’t need him in here rearranging. Let’s go out the back, I can’t handle watching.”

Matt chuckles. “Pussy.”

We walk out to the studio and Matt looks around taking in all my half-finished pieces of work. “Wow! Dude, this is really amazing.”

“Nah, it’s just something I needed when we were not touring or rehearsing.”

We sit for what seems like hours discussing life in general. How I miss Ria. I show him the dove and how it’s unfinished, and he tells me I should finish it and send it to her as a ‘thank you’ for Alex. I stew on that thought for a while and figure it’s probably a good idea, I might actually do that.

Eventually, Alex comes in and smiles so beamingly that I take a second to admire her features.

“Okay, you want the good news or the bad news?”

I sit up a little taller. “Um… in that order I suppose.”

“Okay, good news is we sold your first painting.”

I look to Matt, my eyes wide open and let out an excited “whoop whoop,” as he high fives me!

“Yes, good going, bro. I knew you could do it.”

Alex keeps smiling, but I remember there was bad news and I furrow my brows. “Wait, what’s the bad news?”

She grins wider bending down slightly for emphasis and opens her eyes wide like she is about to tell a huge secret. “We sold all the paintings in the gallery, Nate.” She lets out a small squeal at the end as she jumps in the air like a lunatic.

My head swirls as I almost fall off my seat reaching out to the wall to steady myself.

“Um… what? Sorry, what?”

“The collection sold out,” Alex says.

“That’s good, right?” Matt asks.

Alex laughs. “It’s great. Amazing even. But he now he needs to paint a whole new collection.”

Shaking my head, I exhale and run my hand through my hair. “Who bought them all?”

“A heap of people, they’ve been streaming in.”

“Fuck! What if I can’t keep up? I only have a couple of dozen finished paintings back here.”

“Well, the band doesn’t have anything happening at the moment. So be here, paint, put your love of art and the misery of missing Ria on to the canvas and get your business up and running. Alex is obviously too good at her job, so you need to get ahead before we need to take off again.” He gives me a wide smile. “Be here… paint, Nate. I’ll keep tabs on the Recoil side of things while you get lost in acrylic or whatever it is you paint with.”

“Thanks, Matt, this means a lot.”

“I know it does, that’s why I’m supporting you. I will always support you, Nate.”