My Love From The Canvas

Chapter 6: Tell me about yourself

Patrick’s POV

After an hour of wandering around I make my way to Jamie’s room and sit down. About five minutes after I sit down Jamie’s family come out of the room looking relieved. I take that as my que to go in. I enter the room and go straight to Jamie’s side , I sit on the edge of the bed and look her in the eye, steeling myself for the conversation to come then I say “Fire away.”

Her questions aren’t as scrutinizing as I thought they’d be. And I’m able to answer them all easily. The hardest part is finding the wording for example describing how I got here. I have no idea how I got out all I know is that something in me told me to push and so I did. But I’m still not sure how I got out. Because I can get out does that mean others can too? Now I’m the one with unanswered questions.

When she asks how long I plan to stay I start to worry I’ll become a burden to her but I decide to tell her the truth anyway. When she breathes out a sigh I can’t help but think I was right but then the ends of her mouth turn up into a shy smile and a slight blush coats her cheeks. 

When I tell her that I want to stay with her for as long as I possibly can, her whole face lights up like the fourth of July. Not only do her cheeks turn a bright red but the blush spreads to her ears. Suddenly she seems to shake herself out of whatever trance she’s in and says “If you want to stay you need some more clothes. We can go after I get discharged.” I knew she was generous but I didn’t expect her to want to help me so readily.

Then she continues “I have some money saved up for a rainy day, you know should I lose my job or should any wayward paintings come to life and need clothes.” I can’t help but laugh at her joke. Jamie’s sense of humour has always been one of the things I love most about her. Then as I am laughing her stomach makes a loud growling sound, then she covers her beautiful face with her dainty hands and I can’t stop myself from laughing. Once I can get a hold of myself I reach forward and pull her hands from her face and relish in the softness of hers in the roughness of mine. A chuckle escapes as I say “Before you think about getting discharged maybe we should feed the beast in your belly.” 

As I continue laughing I notice that I still have a hold on Jamie’s hands. I can see her looking at them feeling embarrassed thinking I’ve made her uncomfortable. I drop them and take a step back. One hand goes into my pocket while the other scratches the back of my neck. When I look back at Jamie through my eyelashes she’s looking right at me with a smile on her lips and her eyes sparkling. Wanting to shift the attention away from me I decide to take her down to the cafeteria I saw while I was wandering. Still feeling a little embarrassed I tell Jamie “Go and sit down, I'll get you something to eat.” 

I walk up to the stretch of food glad to see that some of Jamie’s favorite foods are there. I gather them and make my way towards where Jamie is seated. I put the tray down and say “Here I got all your favorites: Ham and cheese toastie, apple tango, sour cream and chive chips and cheesecake; strawberry for dessert.” I look up at Jamie and she is staring at the tray with an odd look on her face. “What? What’s wrong?”

“You really have been paying attention all these years haven’t you?” My lips form a small smile. “Does that creep you out? Are you going to go running for the hills?” I become genuinely worried that it’ll scare her off. Until she assures me by saying “No that doesn’t creep me out and if I was going to run for the hills I would have done it already.”

The worry I feel melts away and becomes overwhelming happiness “That’s good I don’t know what I would have done if you left me. I promise I’m not a stalker, it's just that when you live in a painting you don’t exactly have any other option but to people watch and you were the most interesting thing around.” I tell Jamie the truth albeit a partial one because the whole truth is that after the first day I saw her in the museum I never wanted to look at anyone else ever again.

Wanting to make sure Jamie gets fed I shift the conversation  back to the original issue “Anyway time for you to feed the beast. Eat up.” I put my hands on the table then rest my chin on my hands then just look at Jamie. I notice that she is just staring at the food on the tray then she asks “Didn’t you get anything for yourself? Aren’t you hungry?” I never thought about that. I don’t think so but I have hardly any guidelines for these things.

“I don’t know. What does hungry feel like?” I had to ask I mean I might be starving and I would never even know. “It feels like an emptiness in the bottom of your stomach when you’re really hungry but when you just feel snacky it’s just kind of a dull gnawing feel.” I don’t feel anything like that but feelings are subjective. Specific and unique to each individual person.

“I don’t feel anything like that but I’ve also never eaten before. What does food taste like?” I can tell this is another hard question for her as she crinkles up her nose in the most adorable way. “Well different foods elicit different responses in people which is why some people don’t like certain foods. Take me for example I love ham and cheese toasties but my step father hates them. Here try it.” She tears off a piece of the sandwich and hands it to me. I put it in my mouth and chew it. It’s warm and crunchy. It tastes salty and a little sweet. I swallow, then look up at Jamie. “Wow. I like that.”

“Here try this too.” She uses her fork and cuts a piece of cheesecake and puts it to my lips. I open my mouth and pull the fork into my mouth. The new texture feels weird, it's a lot softer and colder than the last thing she gave me. It’s sweet and fluffy with a little bit of crunch. “That was so soft, but it tasted really sweet. I like it.” 

Jamie seems pleased with my answer. “Good because I make it a point not to befriend people who don’t like cheesecake. That’s my deal breaker. Last but certainly not least sour cream and chive chips.” I take a bite and the amount of crunchiness startles me. I don’t like these. I can’t pinpoint what makes these taste so bad. I think it’s a lot of little things that just equal really bad food. I shake my head and say “Nope I definitely do not like these. How can you eat them.” Right after I say that Jamie bites her lip drawing my attention. Then she bursts out laughing and I want to record it so I can play it back on loop. And I would if that wasn’t an incredibly creepy thing to do.