Muse

She opened her mouth to ask what when the mothers descended like two chattering birds. ‘There you are! There’s our coffee!’

Chapter 3 (#u35f8981b-9a28-530a-b419-2c3ac3048b25)

They didn’t get a chance to talk again until the clothing exchange was over. The mothers took over, dragging them along to look at the wares, and Clara kept up a constant chatter, asking Dani a million questions.

When time was called and Dani had packed her chosen items and her mom’s in two separate bags, Chris helped her take the remaining clothes she’d brought that no one had taken and put them in the donation pile by the door. You had a choice: you could take your remaining stuff home or donate to the local clothing drive charity. Dani opted for the second, not wanting to haul the stuff home.

‘Those were some nice clothes,’ he said, eyeing the bags.

‘I’m kind of going for a Feng Shui kind of thing. If I don’t wear it, haven’t worn it in a year, or it doesn’t make me happy, I’m clearing it out. I’d rather they be put to good use.’

Clara and Helen had drifted out to wait in the parking lot, still catching up.

‘Sounds like you know more about yourself than you think,’ Chris said.

‘So tell me!’ she blurted. ‘Tell me what you have in mind. I’m dying to know but with Thelma and Louise hovering we couldn’t talk.’

He chuckled, reached out a hand and brushed a stray piece of hair from her eyes. ‘I told you I teach a night class.’

‘Yes.’ She drew the word out to show her growing impatience. ‘You don’t want me to paint, do you? Because, trust me, I’d be your first failure. I’d make you tear your hair out.’

He shook his head. ‘Nope. I need a model.’

She stood there, unsure of what to do or what to say. ‘A model?’

‘A nude model.’

‘A nude model!’

He pushed his hand over her mouth, laughing. ‘Don’t shout, Dani.’

When she inhaled she could smell the scent of him. It went right to her head like a drug. Chris somehow always managed to smell good. Even in the dreggy, soupy climate of an August in Maryland he’d always smelled good. Nothing had changed.

He looped his arm through hers and tugged her along toward the entrance. But they didn’t go out lest they be set upon by the mothers. That was how Dani was starting to think of them: the mothers. Almost like a horror-movie title. She giggled nervously.

‘Are you insane?’ she hissed by the door as the last of the attendees straggled past.

‘Nope. I’m perfectly sane. Look, you want to do something you’d never do. I need a beautiful model for my students to do a series of poses. It’s perfect. And it pays. You can use the money to restock your closet.’ He winked.

‘I … can’t. I mean … I couldn’t. That would be crazy.’ Her pulse pounded in her throat and she felt like her heart had lodged there.

‘No? See, I think you could.’

‘I …’

‘Just think about it,’ he said. ‘Give me your phone.’

Dani dug it out of her purse and handed it over without comment. He dialled a number and the phone in his pocket rang. He silenced it and then handed hers back.

‘There. Now you’re in my phone and I’m in yours. Just think about it. We can talk if you want. I can explain more.’

‘Christ,’ she said. ‘I’m thirty-two.’

‘You say that like it’s bad,’ he said, shaking his head. Those blue eyes bored into her and she felt naked right then. Was that what it would be like to shed her clothes in front of a bunch of strangers?

‘It’s not young.’

‘It’s not old.’

‘I’m probably not what you’re looking for.’

‘I wouldn’t have asked if that were true. I think not only do you know more about yourself than you think,’ he said, touching her elbow. ‘I think you’re more beautiful than you realise.’

‘Christopher!’

Dani and Chris turned, as if caught misbehaving, to see Clara in the doorway. ‘Let’s go. I told Virginia I’d be there at four. We have to go!’

He rolled his eyes so only Dani could see. Then he leaned in, gave her a quick, warm peck on the cheek and said in her ear. ‘Call me.’

Goosebumps sprang up along her neck from his warm breath and she nodded. It had been her first instinct to turn him down flat, right then, right there. But instead she said nothing. What the hell did that mean? Was she honestly considering standing nude in front of a classroom full of people?

In the car her mother was rummaging through a trash bag of clothing. ‘You should see this sweater I found. Amazing. It’s cashmere.’

‘Goat,’ Dani said, laughing.

‘Don’t be crass.’

‘It is goat!’

‘But cashmere sounds so much nicer, don’t you think?’ Her mother finally located her prize and pulled it out. A medium shade grey sweater with dark-dark red trim at the collar, cuffs and hem.

‘Doesn’t look like something you’d wear,’ Dani said. She turned the car back out onto the main road.

‘It’s not. Good Lord. I got it for you.’ Helen shoved the sweater into her lap as she drove.

‘Thanks for the goat sweater, Mom.’ She tried not to laugh, pressing her lips together in a tight line.

‘Let’s go eat. I’m starving.’

‘Where to?’

‘Bradley’s? I’d like a crab cake. Maybe two. Shopping for bargains makes me hungry.’

‘Too bad you couldn’t find an angora sweater,’ Dani said. ‘Then we’d have goat and rabbit.’ This time she failed to suppress her laughter.

Her mother swatted Dani’s arm. ‘Well, speaking of farm animals, did you see the cow eyes Christopher was giving you?’

Some foreign feeling that Dani couldn’t quite pin down flooded her system. Her ears buzzed slightly and she remembered him brushing that stray wisp of hair back. ‘Mom, Chris and I are just friends. You’re mistaken.’