Canvas of Dreams

creative and charming

"What's so urgent Marky boy?" Trevor calls out as he nears the table at which Mark is seated.

"You're never gonna believe what happened man. What'll you have?" Mark says as he gets up to greet his friend.

"Well, I can't if you don't tell. And make it a Heineken." Trevor answers as he drops down onto the seat across the table. "By the way, thanks for getting me out of the office."

"Yes well, wait before you thank me just yet," Mark says, raising his hand in signal for a waiter to come and take their drink orders. "So my house got broken into last night while I was at the hotel and my sketch was stolen." He tells Trevor.

"s**t man, why are you only telling me now?"

"Everything was just so mixed man, I left the gallery without even telling Cheryl. But that's not all, this morning, I swear my sketch walked into the hotel."

"You're not making a hint of sense now bro. Did the ass who stole it walk in with it?" He asks as the waiter arrives to take their order. "Two Heinekens," Trevor tells the waiter before he could ask.

"No," Mark said. "This morning I met a girl who is a spitting image of the sketch. Kathrine Hardy. She is new in town."

"What, is that supposed to be some sort of karma thing?" Trevor replies trying to hide his humor. "You know, you're way too gullible for all that sappy shit." He mocks.

"Wait until you meet her tonight. That brings me to my motive. I offered her a job at your dad's." Mark replies as he takes his beer from the waiter who just arrived.

"You did what?" Trevor asks in shock. "There are no open positions at Mondane."

"There is a temporary personal assistant to the marketing director position that just opened up today," Mark replies as he brings the beer up for a swig. "God this goes down hard today."

"Oh man, now I have to babysit your chick?" Trevor asks. "How are we going to play this one out? My dad is going to castrate us both."

"Relax. I will talk to your dad. What I need is for you to keep her employed, on my account, until I can make a space for her at Miller's. Then you end her contract and I offer her the new position." Mark replies, beaming with confidence in the success of his plan.

"I don't know whether to kick you in the nuts or applaud your brilliance at this moment, man. But if it means you're going to stop hiding from the world if this works, well then I'm balls deep in it with you." Trevor comments, gulping down his beer and then signalling for another round.

"I knew you would be in bro, So, you're meeting her tonight at the auction," Mark says, trying to hide his childish grin behind his beer as he also chugs it down.

"If you were not like a brother to me, I swear..."

"Oh s**t. I almost forgot." Mark says in a hurry as he jumps to his feet. "I have something I need Cheryl to do for me too. I'm just going to make a call real quick bro."

"Careful with your head so far up in the clouds bro. I hear air traffic is quite busy today." Trevor mocks as Mark heads outside to make his call.

After the two finish their drinks they part ways to meet up again later in the evening as Mark has planned.

He and Kat will arrive first at around 8 pm and stroll through the gallery while Mark engages with the crowd as is expected of him at these events. Trevor will arrive roughly half an hour later. When he joins the two he will start complaining to Mark about how he is struggling without his assistant at work while she is on maternity, Mark will then drop the hint that Kat is looking for work and then leave the two to hopefully sort out the details of employment while he goes and collects a round of drinks which will take him around 15 minutes.

Pacing around in his living room Mark keeps fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. "What if this backfires?" He keeps asking himself but the voice on his shoulder keeps urging him on. "It's not going to fail. You've got this."

6:50 pm Mark got into his car having decided not to make use of a driver as Cheryl usually sends out to him during events.

7:20 pm Mark pulls up to the address Kat gave him, having gone over the speed limit once or twice as his excitement and anxiety got hold of him. "Get a grip, Mark, this is not even a date yet." He scorns himself.

Looking at the state of the apartment building from the outside, Mark finds a slight bit of hope in his plan's success.

The apartment building needs some maintenance. The plaster has lots of visible cracks and the paint is very weathered. The main door and visible wooden trims have a lot of water damage. Mark can only imagine the condition of the inside, not that he believes Kat to be slobbish, no, not in the way she carries herself and her appearance this morning was immaculate.

Five minutes after he let her know that he has arrived she appears through the main door of the building. Her beautiful form-fitting strapless plum dress with a narrow rose motif pink waistband and pink heels causes his heart rate to pick up and each step she takes closer to him only increases the beat.

"Sorry for the wait." She tells him as he opens the door for her, leaning in and giving him a friendly hug before she gets into the car.

"It was definitely worth it." He remarks with a smile. "Are you ready to be bored out of your mind?" He jokes, trying to get a hold of his shattered nerves.

Mark recalls the way he felt when, as a teenager, he first met Emily and that does not come close to what he feels now. It is not just that he only fell hard for this girl does not know anything about yet, there is something else. Something he has never felt before.

"Creative and charming, but I truly doubt boring." She says again with a smile as he gently closes the door and walks around to get in.

The drive to the hotel took around ten minutes but to Mark, it felt like a lifetime as the stress of his plan possibly failing keeps hitting him.

As they came to a stop in front of the hotel they were waited in by the valet and the doorman who, tonight, played the additional role of escorting guests from their cars to the door instead of just waiting for them to approach and welcoming them in. When he notices Kat he smiles his brilliant smile and cracks a small joke. "Don't worry miss. The receptionist won't chase you this evening."

A short giggle escapes her throat as she and Mark are led into the building.

The lobby is much more crowded now than it was this morning with people who came for the art and others who are staying and just want to catch a quick chat from within the masses. A waiter who spotted Mark and her quickly appeared from within the crowd and led them further on towards the elevators, all the while praising Mark on some of his work which the young man is familiar with.

The two of them are equally silent, only passing smiles as their glances meet up at the top until the elevator doors open and Mark holds out his arm for her to take hold of. "Shall we get on with the formalities?" He asks as she hooks in her hand.

"Lead the way." She replies.

They start the route from the entrance slowly making their way towards the back then back around to the front. Stopping and chatting with anyone who takes the time to study a piece they seem interested in.

When they reached the three special pieces Kat couldn't help but notice that the painting she adores was wrapped in brown paper and the label was removed from the wooden frame below it. "Did you withdraw it from the auction?" She asks.

"No, this one has been sold. Shortly after we left this morning." He replies.

"Oh. That was fast, I thought it would only be made available during the auction?" She says surprised.

"It was special circumstances. Someone was very interested in it and Cheryl couldn't turn down the offer. It will be shipped in the morning." He replied again.

"Marky boy!" Trevor's voice suddenly cracks from behind. "Hoped to find you here." He says.

"Where else would I be bro?" Mark replies, trying to sound surprised by his appearance.

"Man I just needed to get out of that office, Im having a hell of a time without my assistant. I keep getting my notes scrambled and times mixed." Trevor plays phase one.

"Didn't you get someone for the temp spot yet?" Mark asks. Phase two is in progress.

"No man. Doesn't look like anyone's interested." He replies, trying to sound exasperated.

Before Mark could play his next part Kathrine interjects. "I am looking for a job at the moment, I can send you a copy of my resume."

"Uhm. Well. Sure, I guess. Can you type, take notes, arrange schedules and make coffee?" Trevor stumbles and recovers. Mark nearly chokes on his breath.

"Trevor, this is Katherine Hardy. I have been meaning to talk to you about her for that position." Mark quickly adds.

Kat smiles at Mark, somewhat embarrassed about jumping into their conversation. "Yes, I have done similar work to that before." She tells Trevor.

"Well, seems my bro here already vouches for you and I trust his judgement more than some resume anyway. Start on Monday?" He asks.

"Oh! Thank you very much. I don't know how to repay you for this." She tells Mark. Pulling him in by his arm and kissing him on his cheek out of excitement leaving both of them blushing.

"Well that settles that, I believe we have something worth celebrating once we're done here." Mark comments as he leads the party through the rest of the evening. Thankful that it all worked out even though it did not go quite as planned. Now it's just to get a permanent solution organised for her at the mill and for that, he already has something planned.