That was Conrad's solution for fixing the date. Dominick straightened his shoulders, put the same smile on his face that he'd been forcing all night, and walked towardHarmony.
She played with the phone in her hands, and glanced through the windows of the building. "It looks like the class already started. We should probably goinside."
Dominick nodded and opened the door. Harmony hesitated for the briefest moment before walking inside. She was right, the class had started. The two of them grabbed their seats as quickly as possible and listened as the instructor beganspeaking.
"Now that everyone is here, let's begin." The woman, who appeared to be in her mid-thirties, looked at Dominick. Her thick glasses only enhanced the irritation in her dark eyes. “My name is Janice, and I’m your teacher for thisevening.”
Janice started going through the "rules" of the class. Everyone's attention was on the different brushes the instructor held up as she gave them all names like “the tall, skinny brush” or “the bigbalooza.”
Dominick couldn't decide if he was grateful that Janice’s stern instructions let him off the hook of saying something clever, or if he was irritated with the woman for droning on endlessly about brushes during precious minutes he could be using to rectify thingsbetweenthem.
After explaining the basics of the class, Janice added, "And if you brought beer or wine, feel free to sit back, start drinking, and enjoy theclass."
Harmony's gaze shifted from the woman in front of the room to Dominick. Her brows lifted. "Did you bringanything?"
He thought of the bottle he grabbed on the way to the restaurant earlier that evening. "I have a bottle of merlot inthecar."
Her face scrunched up. "I almost brought a couple of bottles of coffee stout.Ohwell…"
Dominick just barely contained the sigh that wanted to escape his lips. He tipped his head toward the parking lot and asked, "Should Igrabit?"
Harmony did sigh. "I'm good, but I don't care if you want to get it foryourself."
"I got it for you." Dominick had begged Conrad to help him pick something out for the evening. He didn't know the difference between merlot, cabernet, or any other kind of wine. He only wanted to get a bottle for Harmony. Had he realized she liked beer, he might have been more comfortable. After all, Dominick did enjoy a pale ale every once in awhile.
Harmony eyed him for what felt like an eternity. Dominick swore he could feel the weight of her gaze on his face. Finally, she opened her mouth. "Fine. Let's live it up. Let's open thatbottle."
Dominick raced out to his car to grab the bottle, wine opener, and plastic glasses. He brought everything in and started pouring glasses for both Harmony and himself. Dominick might not know anything about wine, but he felt so anxious over this evening, a slight buzz would be a welcomedistraction.
"I thought you said you got it for me," Harmony said as he poured a generous glass for himself and tookasip.
He shrugged. "When in Rome,right?"
Harmony smiled in response, but it didn't reach her eyes. Thankfully, the instructor was talking again and drawing their attention back to the front of the room. "The very first thing we're going to do is paint the top of the canvas blue. Please take your large paintbrush andfollowme."
Janice started painting the top of her canvas, just as she said. Everyone in the class followed along. Dominick dipped his own brush in the blob of blue paint that had been provided for him and gottowork.
Dominick couldn't remember the last time he painted. Was it in elementary school? Maybe middle school? He could draw a decent stick figure on his best days, a lumpy looking circle on his worst. But putting blue paint on the top part of a canvas? Thatwaseasy.
He glided the paintbrush against the canvas, careful to watch what the teacher was doing. He did his best to stay within the parameters given and was strangely proud of himself when he looked around the room and saw that his painting looked exactly like everyone else's. It was only the first step, but he hadn't blownityet.
Smallvictories.
Harmony took a sip of her wine and smiled atDominick.
"Okay, everyone. Now I want you to dip that same brush into the white paint and start painting over the bottom of the blue down to about two-thirds of the canvas." Dominick put his brush into the water cup provided to clean the blue paint offofit.
"Without cleaning the brush off," Janicecontinued.
That would have been helpful about two seconds sooner, Dominick thought to himself. He dipped the paintbrush into the blue, and then into the white, causing Harmony to lift her browsathim.
He wanted to open his mouth and explain what had happened—to tell her he messed up and was only trying to recover so that his painting wasn't the worst in the class. But one word popped into his mind:confidence.
He grinned at her and shrugged. And Harmony surprised him bylaughing.
The two of them, along with the rest of the class, continued step by step through the process of painting. With each new instruction—and each sip of wine—Dominick grew more comfortable with theclass.
His painting looked similar to everyone else's and he was having fun letting his creative juices flow. Maybe painting wasn't as bad as he thought itwouldbe.
