Chapter 22
Jia
Six months later…
I finished up the last strokes on the oil painting I’d done of the beach in Tuscany.
It looked just as I’d remembered it and I was happy with the work I’d done.
It was one of the places my parents used to take me on vacation when I was little. We had some happy memories there on the beach.
We’d spent hours on the beach just enjoying the way everything looked. It was there that I’d first decided I was going to be an artist. I was nine and I was so happy that I’d found my thing in life that I’d wanted to do.
I went back with Xander twice in the last few months. The first time was just for the sake of going back and to show him one of the places I treasured. We stayed in the beach house I always stayed at with my family. While I hadn’t been back in years I fell in love with the house and the place all over again. Just like the first time Pa took Ma and me there. The place reminded me of some kind of fairytale. Or a dream.
The next time Xander and I went was his doing.
The man never ceased to amaze me. It was for my birthday. A birthday trip that turned into something that healed me because I realized I had him. I really did.
For my birthday, Xander bought the house and asked me to move in with him.
That was what he did.
That was last month. When we got back I decided I’d do this painting. I was taking my time with it.
Like always painting provided the escape I needed whenever my thoughts were unsettled. The last few months had been beautiful for Xander and me but they were also hard.
“Is there anything else I can do before I go?” Anya asked pulling me from my thoughts.
My best friend had been my rock for the last six months. She’d barely left my side.Barely, and only when Xander was around. It was only then that she’d take her leave and honestly he was just as bad.
She’d come by to spend the day with me.
“I’ll be fine Anya. Go have fun with Tim.” I turned away from my easel and gave her a mischievous smile. She’d gone outside to talk with him over an hour ago. That was why I thought I’d spend the time painting.
She started blushing and ran a hand through her hair.
“Oh my gosh. I didn’t mean to be gone for so long.”
“It’s okay. You didn’t have to break away from your phone sex to come check on little old me.” I giggled. That was me trying to be me.
“We weren’t having phone sex.” She shook her head and came over to sit on the little wooden chair next to me.
“Weren’t you?”
“Not just now.” She smiled wide.
She and Tim, who were very serious about each other had a date last night and I knew she felt guilty for not seeing me. I wished she wouldn’t though. I knew she was meant to be going somewhere with him today but rearranged so she could see me.
Xander was doing some stuff with Wes and Jack so I would have had the house to myself. It wasn’t a bad thing. Everyone however had decided that leaving me alone was off the table. I understood why.
I literally fell apart after Pa died.
For months I wasn’t myself. there was rarely a minute that saw me without tears in my eyes. Every day was hard. It was only in the last few months… maybe the last two months that I started to resemble something like myself.
Anya turned and grabbed the bowl of candy she’d shared out earlier when she got here. It was one of those party sized serving bowls. Earlier it was full, now it had gone down to more than half.
I rolled my eyes at myself and reached in for a tootsie roll.
