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Chapter 41

Sloan

♪It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You) | The 1975

Three months later

Do you want me to meet you at the cemetery, Sloan?”

Kristen was worried about me.

“No, I’m not going today,” I said, sitting back to take one final look at the painting that had been drying for the last two weeks on my easel.

I gave it a soft smile. It was beautiful. It looked like a photograph.

It was the fifth one I’d finished over the last three months. Another addition to the collection in the gallery that had picked me up. I’d completed the commission I’d started in Ely, the little girl on the swing, and shipped that two months ago. Three more had sold, and this one in front of me was leaving today.

“You’re not going to the cemetery?” she asked. “It’s the anniversary of the day you met Brandon.”

I picked up the remote to turn off my crime show. “How do you remember this stuff?”

“I have reminders in my phone.”

I laughed, collecting my brushes. “Are you serious?”

“Uh, yeah, I’m serious. I have to watch you like a hawk.”

I slid off my stool. “I’m fine. I’m just finishing up some work before the thing.”

“Are you sure you’re up for this? I mean the dude’s hot as fuck, but we can skip this double date. It’s not a big deal.”

Josh’s cousin Adrian was in town from St. Paul. He was a lawyer, single, and, according to Kristen, the perfect rebound for me. He lived out of state and was only here for a few days. I think she thought it would be distracting or boost my shattered self-esteem or something.

“I don’t know what you expect me to do with him,” I said. “I don’t even kiss on the first date.”

“You need someone prescreened to tell you you’re pretty and hand you free drinks. And he’s got all the things you like. He’s tall, he’s bearded, and he’s from Minnesota.”

I rolled my eyes. “Ha ha.”

“Seriously, Sloan, we can call it off if we need to. I mean, he’s excited to meet you but Josh can just take him out instead. I figured you might need to hit something with a bat today so I made a piñata full of mini alcohol bottles and Starbucks gift cards. I could be there in a half an hour.”

I rinsed my brushes in the sink. “Nope,” I said, tapping the water off them. “I’m fine. It’ll be fun.”

It would not be fun.

“Look at it this way,” Kristen said. “If you guys hit it off, you’ll end up a Copeland. Then our kids would be related. And, what if Josh’s enormous penis is hereditary? I’m just sayin’.”

I snorted. “God, I do not want to think about Josh’s penis, thank you very much.”

There was a pause on the other end. “You’re sure you’re okay?”

I nodded. “I really am fine. I’ll visit Brandon on his birthday from now on, and that’s it. It’s time I stop living my life in the past. It’s what he’d want.”

Another pause. “And the other thing going on today?”

I took a deep breath. “It’s time I move on from that too.”

Jason was in town. He was playing the Forum in LA tonight.