I Want You To Want Me. Kathy Love

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      “You will get the pieces done, and they will be a huge hit. And you will gather rich patrons galore.”

      Erika laughed at her friend’s certain optimism. “We can only hope.”

      “You will,” Maggie assured her, with an encouraging smile.

      Erika, with her artist’s eye, assessed her friend. Maggie had always been cute—cuter than she ever gave herself credit for. But now, Erika studied her friend’s profile as she’d just done her sculpture, but unlike her creation, she found her friend truly lovely.

      Maybe it was the way her loose curls framed her face, accenting the softness of her cheeks and the delicate point of her chin. Or maybe it was the new style she’d embraced, clothes that displayed her rounded curves. Or maybe it was the happiness in her eyes, making them practically dance with unbridled joy.

      “So where is Ren taking you this week?” Erika asked, knowing he was the one from where much of that joy stemmed.

      Maggie’s eyes brightened, glimmering happily in the lamplight. “I have no idea. It’s a surprise.”

      “No hints?”

      Maggie sighed. “Not even a tiny one. And believe me, I’ve tried every tactic imaginable to get him to slip.” Then Maggie’s cheeks reddened, giving Erika a pretty good indication what those tactics may have been.

      Erika opened her mouth to tease her, when a knock stopped her. Before she could call for the person to come in, Ren strolled through the door from the glassed-in sun porch.

      “You’re back early,” Maggie said, rising to greet him. He walked straight to her, pressing a lingering kiss on his wife’s upraised lips. “Is everything set with work? Is your stand-in okay?”

      Ren nodded. “Not me, but he’ll do.”

      “Egotist,” Maggie chided with a fond smile. Ren kissed her again.

      Erika watched, a pang of envy tightening her chest. Not that she begrudged her friend the happiness she’d found. Maggie deserved it. Erika just wished she could find her own love interest. Her soul mate.

      Maggie broke off the kiss, but didn’t pull out of Ren’s hold. Instead, they just gazed at each other for a moment. Watching the adoring looks on both their faces, Erika was struck by the need to capture that feeling, both in her art and in her life.

      She quickly reached over to the end table that she’d painted cobalt blue and caught the strap of her digital camera. Before the couple realized she’d moved, she pointed and clicked.

      Maggie made a small startled noise, while Ren turned to blink at Erika.

      “You never know,” Erika said, snapping another shot, “I may want to sculpt you two.”

      Maggie actually blushed. “I would hardly be a good subject.”

      Ren snorted, the sound somehow attractive rather than impolite. “You are a perfect subject.”

      Erika smiled at the conviction in his voice. Ren was thoroughly besotted.

      “I, however,” he added, “could never be an angel of any sort, fallen or otherwise.”

      “Well, I’m not sculpting just angels. I’m sculpting whatever strikes me. And you two did.” Erika snapped another shot for good measure. “Maybe I want to capture true love. Or soul mates.”

      Ren smiled broadly at that, the curl of his lips giving him a slightly naughty and utterly charming look. “Well, I can accept that description.”

      He stole another kiss from Maggie.

      Erika breathed a sigh, masking the sound of discontent by setting her camera on the coffee table. She’d never doubted that one day, after already accumulating an abundance of frogs, she’d meet her prince. But lately, maybe because of a dry spell, even from the frogs, she was beginning to wonder.

      “Okay,” Ren said suddenly. “Are you ready to go?”

      Maggie smiled and shrugged. “As ready as I can be, given that I have no idea where I’m going. But then, I figured I didn’t need to pack much.”

      “You, darlin’, have a one track mind,” Ren said, shaking his head in feigned dismay. He looked at Erika. “I think you should have warned me about her.”

      Erika shrugged, taking no responsibility for his choices. Although she did feel a little responsible for Maggie taking the initiative to go after him.

      “You love it,” Maggie said, and Ren kissed her.

      “I love you,” he muttered, his voice rough with emotion.

      Another pang of longing pulsed in Erika’s chest. The scene could have easily struck her as nauseating, but between her happiness for Maggie and her own desire for those same emotions, Erika just…wanted. Big time.

      “Okay,” Ren said, linking his fingers with Maggie’s. “We’ll see you on Wednesday.”

      “Have fun,” Erika said as she walked them to the door. She remained at the window, watching them gather their luggage and cross the courtyard toward the door that led to the street. They really were the image of newly wedded bliss. Of real happiness.

      Erika didn’t bother to disguise her sigh this time, there was no one to hear it but her new roommate, a big black cat she’d named Boris. And he wasn’t paying any attention, curled in his usual spot on the back of her overstuffed chair, looking sullen. His usual expression. His only expression, really. Even in his sleep.

      She gazed out into the shadowy courtyard for a few moments longer, then turned back to her apartment. Aside from the lopsided sculpture and the necessary mess of wet clay and bits of polymer and caked tools, the place was neat. Well, organized chaos anyway.

      She, on the other hand, was another story. Her jeans were smeared with clay, her fingernails caked, her hair knotted back in an untidy and clay-spattered ponytail.

      “And I wonder why I only have you for male companionship,” she said, moving to stroke Boris’s black fur. He opened one golden eye, then shut it again, obviously unmoved.

      She supposed she should try to fix her sculpture, but she’d been working on this angel for nearly five days, and the poor thing was getting worse with each progressive attempt. Maggie was right. They both needed a rest.

      “Although this is what you should be stressing about,” she muttered to herself, inspecting the sculpture again. “Not your lack of a love life.”

      Erika knew that. Intellectually, she did. But emotionally, she craved what Maggie had found in Ren. And for some reason, she couldn’t shake that longing, even with all the exciting changes in her life. Maybe because she was seeing her friend’s happiness on a daily basis. Or maybe because so many other things had fallen into place lately. Wasn’t it time for love to join in?

      “Does life always have to be one thing or another?” she wondered to the bored Boris. “A trade-off. My career is going well, so now I have to go without a love life?”

      Erika СКАЧАТЬ