Okay. Miles snaps his attention back to them.
“I’m going to go over and call them out,” Gabby mumbles. “The girls on the other side of the fire have been eyeing Calvin like vultures.”
Before he realizes what’s going on, Gabby puts a hand on his arm and moves him sideways until he’s right in front of Calvin—likely blocking him from the view of the girls. Calvin seems as caught off-guard as he is, and they stare at each other for a long, stunned moment. Awkwardly, Miles smiles, and he returns it weakly.
“Say the word, and I’ll tell them off!” Gabby grins. It’s astonishing how easily she speaks to him. “It’s rude of them to disturb your time off.”
Miles, who had accidentally yelled his presence the other day, cringes. “Shit, people like that suck,” he says, as nonchalantly as possible.
That earns him a soft laugh from Calvin. Oh. He has dimples. Up this close, Miles can see them.
“So annoying, really. Anyway, Miles, didn’t you mention you finished a commission right before coming to Ridgeford? You haven’t shown me.”
“I did a piece for a newly opened coffee shop. It’s nothing much.”
“I want to see,” Calvin says, and Miles jolts in surprise.Oh.
He scrolls through his phone and shows them the screen. He mostly does watercolor paintings with bright warm tones and enjoysworking on everyday scenes. This painting was the interior of the cafe, with the tables all occupied and baristas taking orders by the counter. It’s an everyday scene with people simply going on about their day.
Honestly, even he’s not sure why his work’s quite popular. For him, his art is… basic.
“This is great,” Gabby says, genuinely. “… no, seriously, this is amazing.”
“It’s not—” He stops when he sees Gabby leveling a glare at him. “I mean… thanks.”
He’s not even trying to be humble about it. Miles truly doesn’t think his art is all that great. Everything until this point—the clients, the awards he got in university, the way his works sell out at the gallery—was all out of pure luck. He’s always been good with people, and they helped connect him with who he needed to meet to jumpstart his career. Even the cover he did for Cloverlily was probably because of pure luck. Their recording studio was in the same city as his university. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to think a connection had given his name in passing.
Perhaps his art was so mainstream that it was easily appreciated. That’s all.
At the corner of his eyes, he notices the group of women have circled around the bonfire and are slowly approaching. They’re becoming more excited by the second, and slowly inching closer. Because of their ruckus, a few more people are looking over. He’s pretty sure a man closer to the bonfire is pointing his phone camera at Calvin.
“Oh no,” Gabby whispers. One woman approaches, and Calvin’s grip tightens on his beer bottle.
“Hi! Can I get your autograph?” she asks, cheeks red and swollen. Behind her, her friends giggle, as if they’ve dared her to do this. The woman hopefully holds out a marker to him. Where she even got it, Miles can only guess.
He nods and takes the marker from her, hand hovering in the air. “Do you have something I can sign, or…?”
Miles’s eyes almost bug out of their sockets when the woman giggles and leans down toward Calvin. She pulls her top down slightly and gestures at the spot right under her collarbone. Gabby makes a face.
“…Ah. Okay,” Calvin says. He signs on the spot she’s pointing at. The girl gigglesagain,and she leans more into his space to show off her cleavage.
“Would you like to join us?” she asks, standing up straight again. Glancing over at the rest of the group, she adds, “Would you all like to join us?”
“No, thank you,” Gabby says, straight to the point.
“I’m good here, thanks,” Calvin says.
To her credit, the woman’s able to take a hint. She thanks him once more and heads off back to her group.
“Does that happen often… people asking you to sign on their bodies?” Gabby asks Calvin.
“More often than I care for,” Calvin admits. He looks as if he has more to say, but then he retreats into himself again and takes a sip of his beer.
“Do you want to leave?” Miles asks.
Before Calvin’s able to answer, Gabby’s phone chirps. Frowning, she reads a text message. “Shit.Ineed to leave. There’s a lady by the front desk who’s not happy about how she didn’t get the king beds she requested. The trainee doesn’t know how to change the rooms in the system.”
Miles frowns. “Didn’t your shift literally just end?”
