Our eyes met, and her skin turned an interesting shade of pink. I held back a smile and looked away.
A beat passed while she got control of herself, then she tapped her fingers on the book. “What did you bring me?”
“A peek inside my mind.”
With a sharp intake of breath, she swept her hand over the cover. “Bold move. Are you sure you want to go there?”
“It’s only fair after what you shared.”
Sadie slid me a glance, her hand stilling. “Was it too much?”
I held her gaze. “There’s no such thing as too much with me. You can tell me anything.”
She nodded thoughtfully, a vague smile hovering. “Can I open it?”
“That was the whole point of bringing it here.”
Sadie huffed out a laugh and flipped the cover open carefully, smoothing her palm over the first page. Her humour died as her eyes flicked from one detail to the next, and she pored over three more pages before she spoke again. “They’re so detailed,” she said, her tone reverent. “Did these eventually become tattoos?”
“Some.” I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I wanted to drink in every emotion and see each change in her expression.
“Dragons? Faeries?” She turned another page and gave me a surprised glance. “Faces. Wow, theemotionin the faces. Is there anything you can’t draw?”
“You think they’re good?”
She locked eyes with me, pushing aside her discomfort. “You see things so many people miss. Whether it’s skill or talent, your work is incredible.” Her voice changed, turning softer, more careful. “I’m sorry you can’t do it in your shop anymore.”
My heart crashed against my ribs, and I struggled to answer. No one really understood how driven I was to share this part of me, to interact with people, hear their stories, and know my art was out there in the world. “Me, too,” I said.
With a slight smile, she went back to perusing my book, so caught up in each drawing that she seemed to forget about me. Her fingertip traced some of the sketches, then she lifted the book to examine others up close. I’d never seen anyone pay this much attention to my work.
I relaxed into the couch and stared at the TV while she finished flipping pages, watching stories from around the world that changed as much as they stayed the same—depressing shit I couldn’t focus on while she was beside me.
“Thanks for sharing this with me,” she said a long while later, turning the last page of the book. “It's nice having you here.”
I smiled. “Why’d you ask me to come over?”
Sadie left my sketchbook on the arm of the couch and turned on her side. She grabbed a cushion and propped it beneath her cheek, shifting a little. “I was texting with my sister. She stopped answering, so I needed a distraction.”
“Where is she?”
“In America. Georgia.”
At least I knew now why she was so preoccupied with news from overseas. “Shit. I had no idea. How long for?”
Sadie tucked her hair behind her ear. “A few months before the pandemic started, so… a year now. She’s waiting to be assigned a flight back home. It’s supposed to be some time in the next few days.”
A hell of a lot could change in that time, including planes being grounded for good, but I didn’t need to tell her that. “You must be thinking about her all the time.” When she hummed in agreement, I added, “Why don’t you show me some pictures of her?”
It didn’t take much to convince her. She grabbed her phone and scrolled through her gallery for a bit, then stopped. “This is Ava,” she said. “She’s two years younger than I am.”
I leaned closer and took in the image of an attractive brunette with vivid green eyes and hair down to her waist. She wore a backwards cap and a basketball jersey, with baggy jeans sitting low on her hips. The glint in her eyes told me she had the potential to be a handful, but her smirk suggested everyone around her would find it entertaining.
“She looks nothing like you,” I said, staring at the photo, then at her.
“She takes after our dad. I’m more like our mum.” Sadie put her phone down and rested her head close to my shoulder, not quite touching.
“My sister’s five years older than me—Mia,” I said. “My niece is Ruby. She’s nine. We have dance battles a few times a week. You may have heard them through the wall.”
