"If I'd known you were going to be here," Ida cooed at me, "I would have brought all the old girls with me and worn my fan T-shirt."
"T-shirt?" Mike asked.
"Ida is the president of my fan club," I bragged.
"You have a fan club?" Mike said incredulously.
"I'm very popular in Harrogate," I replied.
"He's the cat's meow," Ida said. "There's a petition going around to have Hazel quit her job drawing puppies and start drawing porn."
"You're posing nude?" Mike asked, incredulous. "Does Greg know about this?"
Ida turned to Hazel. "I bet you'd make a lot of money off of him."
"Excuse her, please," Olivia said to us. "She's been morning drinking."
"Pregaming for the art fair," Ida said with an exaggerated wink.
"The art fair already started, Ms. Ida," I said.
"So it has." She peered around. "Would you like some, Mr. Svensson?" she asked, shaking the thermos at Mike.
"No, ma'am, thank you," Mike replied. Ida shrugged and took a swig from the thermos.
"Thank you for helping us on the rendering," Mike said to Hazel. Tristan and Eli chose that moment to saunter up. They seemed a little too excited to see Hazel and her pretty friends.
"What painting?" Ida slurred. "You doing nudes without me?"
"She is really deep in the sauce," I commented. "And it's only"—I lifted my wrist to look at my watch— "nine thirty a.m."
"You shouldn't be doing nudes without me," Ida said, wavering slightly on her stool.
"What is in that cocktail?" Mike asked.
Olivia took the thermos and tasted it. "I don't think it's a mixed drink. I think it's just a bottle of liquor she dumped into a thermos."
"Are you part of the art retreat?" Tristan asked, looking too long at Hazel for my taste. I grabbed him by the collar and shook him. "Behave."
"You know if you need a model," Eli said, waggling his eyebrows, "I'm available."
Olivia couldn't contain herself anymore and started laughing.
"Eli, Tristan," I barked. "Stop it. That's rude, and ineffective." I flicked Eli's ear.
"Ow!"
Tristan laughed.
"Don't bring your dumb college behavior here," I warned them. "You know better than that."
"I'll paint you," Ida said, leaning forward in her seat. Hazel snickered. Eli and Tristan looked a little apprehensive at Olivia's grandmother's offer.
"Um, no, Grandma, no. He's like fifteen," Olivia said with a snort.
"I'm not!" Eli retorted and puffed out his chest. "I'm an adult."
"He's barely old enough to drink," I said. "Barely."
