“HOLY SHIT, THEO. YOU’RE FUCKING LIGHTM4ST3R?” Violet pointed at his scar and angrily wiped her tears away. “Is this why you don’t do graffiti work anymore? Why you disappeared for almost a year? WAIT.”
She ran her hands frantically through her hair, making it swirl wildly with static and pushing her bangs up to practically stand on end. “OH MY GOD THE SCULPTURE WAS ABOUT YOUR ACCIDENT. Holy fuck, Theo, the photos were the most incredible thing I have ever seen. Can you get me access to see it in person? Do you know the billionaire who bought it? Surely he’ll let you visit. Maybe if we all wear masks, can I see it? Or wait—wait wait wait, what about any of your past sculptures? Or any that you haven’t shown?”
Violet finally looked around at the rest of the ones behind his newest, and Audrey could have sworn her legs nearly gave out. They shook and buckled, and Violet had to grab onto the edge of a table to hold herself upright.
“Holy fuck, I’m in Lightm4st3r’s studio right now.” Violet seemed to be having trouble breathing and looked like she was on the verge of hyperventilating. She patted the top of the worn wooden table as if she couldn’t believe it was real. “There’s shit in here no one has ever seen, oh my god.” She whirled around and faced him again. “Over my dead body would I rat you out.” Madness gleamed in her eyes. “But you are never getting rid of me now. I am gonna be down here constantly, creeping on you while you work.”
Theo’s smile might have stretched into a grimace. “That…might make it a little hard to actually do the work, Vi,” he said, gently resting his hand on her shoulder. “I don’t like attention, remember? Neither identity of mine does.”
“Oh. Right, right.” She nodded sagely. Her face fell a little.
“But you can take a look at my progress whenever you come over. I’m happy to let you have sneak peeks.”
That perked her right up.
“Brilliant. I’ll take it!” She bounced on her heels and pointed back to his newest work. “All right, fine: what’s she called? I’ll need to know. I want all the dirt, and I want it before you release any of it publicly. I signed my life away in blood to keep your secrets, so you’d better fucking make it worth my while now.”
Theo chuckled. “Well…I don’t know for sure yet.”
He glanced down at Audrey.
“But I’m thinking the working title for Instagram might bethe sun can’t touch you if you burn yourself.”
It was thebest evening Audrey had had with Violet in a long time.
After Imogen left, they spent what must have been hours in the studio, but the time flew by. Theo answered as many questions as he could until he and Violet were both blue in the face before they made their way back upstairs to his office, where he got to share all the articles and newspaper clippings and screenshots with her.
It was fun, watching her best friend be so filled with joy.
It was fun, sharing another secret between them.
Audrey hadn’t liked keeping that one.
After dinner, Theo called Violet an Uber, and as soon as she was safely tucked into a five-star luxury ride, he flopped back onto the couch next to Audrey, blowing his dark hair out of his eyes with an exhausted puff of air.
“My god,” he whispered. “I knew that would be a lot, but—”
“But you loved it too, didn’t you?” Audrey grinned when Theoheld out an arm and she snuggled up close, curling into his chest and closing her eyes.
“Yeah. Yeah, I did,” he said, softly running his fingers through her hair. They’d turned on his fireplace while they’d waited for their food delivery, and they both quieted and watched the shadows of the flickering flames dance across the exposed brick walls. “I forgot how much I love talking about my art. It really sucks that I can’t with most people, even though that’s my own fault.”
Audrey cupped his right cheek, tilting his face toward her own. She swept her thumb across his scar, and his lips spread up into another slow, soft smile at her touch.
“I know. I’m not exactly the best at keeping track of all the art world stuff. I like it, but Violet lives for it. She’s sointense.”
Theo nodded sagely. “That she is. And at least she seems to like what she does, according to Ali, even if it’s not yet the entire dream. He says she’s good at it. And that she’sterrifying. Sounds like she regularly threatens to eat him for lunch.”
Audrey raised an eyebrow and tilted her head up to meet Theo’s gaze. “Oh? Isthatwhat Alastair says?”
He bounced his brows right back at her. “Uh-huh. He can’t shut up about her, whether he’s ranting about whatever she did to him most recently, or about how wonderful she is. He thinks he sounds begrudging, but I’m fairly certain he’s been in love with her for months now. At least that’s the subtext.” He frowned slightly and tapped a finger to his lips. “Or supertext, maybe? Is that what you call something that’sso fucking obviousit doesn’t even count as subtext anymore?”
She snorted and snuggled even closer into his side. His arm tightened around her. “Well, don’t tell that to Violet. She’s still convinced she hates him, not that she thinks or talks about him constantly, or even that tall, lanky gingers are exactly her type and havebeen since at least middle school. I didn’t even know Jersey had that big of an Irish population, but apparently they do.”
“What? Oh my god, what a revelation.” Theo didn’t even attempt to properly feign surprise. “Violet might like Alastair? He might be exactly her type? This is news to me. Absolutely earth-shattering information.”
She snorted. “Don’t youdarepretend to be an expert in these things, Theodore Henry Sullivan. You couldn’t even tell that I had the biggest, most awkward crush on you when you were coming to the coffee shop and that waspretty fucking obviousif you ask me.” She tugged his ear. “If you remember, I had to ask you out first.”
“Oh?” he purred, leaning in even closer to whisper against her lips. “Did you now?” He slid his left hand up her neck and buried his fingers in her hair, stroking hard and pulling it in just the right way to make her shiver. “I’m pretty sure I was pining for you much earlier than you were for me, but perhaps I’m wrong.”
