“I wanted the painting, and I paid what it was worth,” I say, a little smugly. “I'm not the only one who thinks so. Her show completely sold out.”
Beau lets out a low whistle. “Damn. Well, good for her. I might not know much about art, but I know enough to know she's the real fucking deal.”
“Actually, I wanted to float something by James before I asked Maura,” Luke says. “Twisted Devil is releasing a newsmall batch line, ultra delicious, ultra exclusive. I wanted to do something special with the bottles, and after seeing Maura’s show—well, any chance she’d be remotely interested in a collab?”
I glance at my cards—an ace and a ten, off-suite. A nice start.
“Ask her,” I suggest. “I’m not sure how many commissions she has now, but I’m sure she’d be interested if there’s room in her schedule.”
I throw in double the big blind and wait to see if anyone bites. Ryan and Nate do.
“What if I pay the cost of materials?” Beau offers as he discards.
“That’ll be higher than you think. She uses rare stones in her work, grinds them up to put in the paint. It can get pricey.”
“What do you mean, real stones? Like unobtanium?” Ryan asks.
Luke swats his arm. “That’s fromAvatar.”
Nate turns over the flop. There’s a jack, which brings me toward a straight. The odds are bad enough that I don’t raise.
“Think more like Greek porphyry and Spessartine garnet.”
Nate raises a brow. “That’s awfully specific.”
I shrug. They also took me a long time to learn to pronounce. Maura tends to scribble down mineral names on the edges of the papers she leaves scattered everywhere. I’ve started taking note of them while I organize those papers into neat stacks.
“Let me guess, you’re going to spend your honeymoon at the bottom of a cave somewhere, chipping away with a tiny pickaxe,” Beau says.
“Hey!” Ryan elbows him. “James would have a big, manly pickaxe. I'm looking out for you, bro.”
“Thanks, but we’re not having a honeymoon.” Maura and I never discussed it, but what was there to discuss? We didn't have a traditional wedding, and I have far too much work to take offjust to lie on a beach. With Maura's high-necked clothing, I can't imagine she yearns to put on a bikini, either.
Beau frowns. “Wait a minute. You have to have a honeymoon.”
“You remember this is a contract marriage, right?” Nate points out. “It's not like Maura and James sit around whispering sweet nothings to each other. It's not about romance.”
“Well, maybe it should be.” Beau crosses his arms. “Just because a relationship starts one way doesn't mean that's the way it has to end. Maura’s beautiful and talented and really cool. It’s not like spending a few days enjoying her company somewhere exotic would be torture. It might even befun.”
“James doesn’t like fun,” Ryan says.
“I like fun,” I grumble.
The next card is an eight, giving me no chance at a straight. When Ryan raises, I fold and watch him and Nate battle it out.
Beau does have a point. Maura won't expect a honeymoon, but I could still take her on a trip. Somewhere she could source some of her rarer stones. I could even combine it with a business trip, so I wouldn't fall too behind at work.
Sequel is about to start filming one of our biggest shows,Annie in Athens, in a month. The Greek tourism board, which funds half of the show, has been inviting me out to take meetings about creating more spinoffs. Maura and I could jet off to the Greek islands for a few days. She could get her porphyry, and she can spend her days in art museums in Athens while I meet with the bigwigs.
“Beau, you might be right,” I admit.
He cups his hand around his ear. “Excuse me? Could you say that again?”
I ignore him. “I’ve got business in Athens next week. I could take Maura to Paros to get her stones on the way.”
“How romantic,” Nate says dryly.
“You take your wife on business trips constantly.”
