“Do you have more?” Samantha asked.
“I’m afraid I may be moving my collection soon,” Adrian said.
Both Jan and Samantha made faces of disappointment.
“Take my card,” Jan said, pulling one from his wallet and handing it to Adrian. “Next time you have a show, give us a call and we’ll come.” He looked at Caroline. “Are you an artist too?”
“No,” said Caroline. “I’m a business student.”
Jan gave her a card anyway before leading his reluctant wife to a table on the other side of the restaurant. They were still in line of sight. Adrian didn’t immediately speak after they left, feeling drained by the brief interaction. He probably should have tried harder to impress theMayers. Told them about his works in progress, performed a little salesmanship. Nora had always complained that he didn’t engage enough with the potential customers.What, like you’re shy?
Caroline, though, had perked up, energized by her brush with the bloody commerce of professional art. She’d been so stiff and nervous throughout the entire symphony, and he’d worried that she was not enjoying herself, but now she was bright-eyed.
“So,” she said. “You really are an artist.”
“You didn’t look me up before we met?” Adrian asked. He hadn’t looked her up, but he supposed she was much less likely to kidnap him than the other way around.
“I saw your gallery page, but anyone can put anything on the Internet,” she said. “Those people put your art in their living room!” Her tone made it into a career-capping achievement that he had styled the Natick bungalow of a hedge fund vice president.
He couldn’t respond without either rejecting her praise or agreeing with her premise, so he sat there and squirmed instead.
“Can we go see your art at your gallery?” she asked.
“I don’t know if any of it is up right now,” he evaded, imagining the scene if he brought Caroline into Nora’s workplace.
Caroline pressed her lips together speculatively as she followed up: “Or at the museum?”
That was enough to startle him out of his funk and make him laugh. “I’m not in any museums. Yet.”
She cocked her head, undeterred. “How do you get your work into museums, then?”
“Die young—or in an interesting way,” he suggested.
Caroline wrinkled her tip-tilted nose. “Well, don’t dothat, even if it’s interesting. I liked the painting in your profile picture. Where are the other ones like that?”
Adrian shrugged. “That was a long time ago—it’s in my friend’s apartment. An engagement gift to him and his ex-wife. The pictures on my gallery page are more representative of my current practice.”
“Oh,” she said, thinking about that. “I liked the old one better.”
Of course she did. It was pretty and sentimental and full of color. Adrian sighed. “For future reference, painters aren’t like rock bands. You don’t win any points for saying you liked their old stuff better.”
Caroline grinned unrepentantly at him. “As if you know anything about rock bands,” she said.
“I like all kinds of music,” he objected. “Not just classical.”
She got a teasing look on her face. “Okay, Renaissance man, what’s your favorite band?”
“I only get one?”
“Yes,” she said, beaming at him. “This is a test.” She brushed her hair back from soft, round cheeks, unselfconsciously lovely again.
Smiling despite himself, he said, “The Beatles.”
“The Beatles is cheating,” she retorted, leaning in. “That’s what you say if you just want to make sure nobody can say anything bad about your fave.Cheater.You’re supposed to fess up to the sappy, embarrassing one with bad hair and vague lyrics that you’re embarrassed to have the T-shirt for. My oldest sister says she likes the Beatles. What sheactuallylikes is Dave Matthews Band.”
“I still like the Beatles,” Adrian said, something tugging in his chest at the challenging glint in her eye, because this part was dimly familiar: elbows on the table at acheap restaurant, talking about music, laughing even if you weren’t sure it was a joke. “Does it help that ‘Rocky Raccoon’ is the only song I can play on the guitar?”
Caroline stroked her chin, pretending to consider his answer. “A little. I’ll allow the Beatles. I guess we all like the stuff that was popular while we were in high school.”
