Trying not to laugh, I shook my head. “You just make more sense than you think.”
Disbelief flashed over his face before he got it under control and smiled politely. “Thank you…um…yes…nothing else. Just thank you.”
The only part of our date he was struggling with was not calling me Master.
“First, the art thing. I understand that anything you ask is coming from a place of support and worrying about me. I bet if you were to ask me about money it would be because you wanted to make sure I could take care of myself.” A tiny nod said I hadgood aim when it came to his worries. “I think if you were to ask about art it would be asking what kind of pieces people buy or how I got into it.”
Another head jerk said I was still on the right track but he was still nervous. “Yes…just yes.”
We had to fix that.
I was pretty sure his brain needed something else to use as an honorific, so we were going to come up with some options he could use in public.
“My grandmother’s estate was bigger than I expected so that’s helped me be financially secure.” I could almost hear him quoting a lawyer or financial advisor, but I kept my expression neutral as I nodded. “I’ve read books with artists in them and I’ve seen documentaries about artists that are real. Most of the time the only ones that are financially secure are the fictional ones.”
I could see that.
“I’m not offended because you want to make sure your partner isn’t worried about money.” I had similar questions but we’d get to that eventually. “I will admit I might’ve been prickly about that question when I was in my early twenties, but I’ve grown up quite a bit since then.”
His barely suppressed snicker as he reached for a breadstick said he was feeling lighter about the conversation. “I can’t imagine you being a little porcupine.”
I’d been abigporcupine.
“I’ve been working on my art since I was a teenager. My parents were very supportive even though they didn’t really understand it. They just kind of took the approach that it wascheaper than what our neighbors were paying for travel baseball and counted their blessings.” It’d turned out to be a good decision in the end.
“Oh. I hadn’t thought of it that way.” His cute frown made me want to lean across the table and kiss him, but we had to behave, so I kept my ass in my seat. “I watched a documentary on that. It’s…well…I have questions on the money in that setup.”
Based on what Fred’s parents used to tell mine, I did too.
“But they treated it like a hobby all of their friends’ kids were doing and took me to different shows and helped me enter contests.” They’d actually done a good job without realizing it. “It let them complain about how hard it was to have a teenager and it gave me exposure most kids might not get.”
The goal at that point had been to talk about how often we were traveling for my activities so they’d kept me insanely busy without realizing the effect it would have on my art.
“That basically put me ahead of my peers and gave me a leg up when it came to transitioning my passion into a career.” Seeing what I needed to do to become a full-time artist had made it all seem like a much more reasonable goal than most people would’ve assumed. “I’ve had almost 25 years of working on my art at this point, so it’s given me plenty of time to make it work as my job as well as what I love to do.”
Thank goodness because it’d been easy to see I was not meant for working customer service anything.
“That’s good.” Relaxing back in his seat, he let out a long breath. “I wasn’t sure what I needed to worry about because you really like shopping.”
Brat.
“I’m going to ignore that.” Even if he wasn’t exactly wrong. “But I will promise to show my monthly budget if you need to see it to feel more comfortable.”
And his thinking frown was back.
“The internet said we’re not supposed to do that until we’re serious and talks of marriage are on the table. Then if we haven’t done it by then we’re morons.” The way his brows pulled together made me wonder what else he’d seen about relationships and money. “I’m not sure where we cross the line from being private to morons, though.”
I could see the internet giving him conflicting advice on that.
“Were you looking at articles or advice from regular vanilla couples or people in the lifestyle?” And that had the frown disappearing in a flash.
“Vanilla.” Sighing out the answer, he smiled. “That’s the problem.”
“Different timelines for different types of relationships.” And for people who knew they were going to be together versus regular dating around kind of people. “We’re going to talk about money just like we do everything else, with limits and good communication. We’ll just have to figure out what our limits look like.”
That seemed to strike a chord with him because he leaned closer to the table and rested his elbows on it. “What will our limits look like?”
I should’ve expected that.
