5 January<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was a long queue. Lots of jokes about shots of whiskey in the coffee. She got five names wrong, on purpose. Only those who were rude. Jack (ass) was particularly annoyed. She said it indicated \u2018assorted syrups.\u2019 He left in a huff. The next customer giggled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s rare to see a man giggle, but he did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Black coffee,\u2019 he said. \u2018Please.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She wanted to be annoyed because people who don\u2019t say americano usually just try to be \u2018anti pretentious,\u2019 but he\u2019d giggled so…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Sure,\u2019 she said. \u2018Next.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The shift went by quickly. Nice to have a busy day when your brain is incapable of busying itself with anything other than living plants. She grabbed a black coffee to go. Pretentious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her studio was freezing cold, and dark and gloomy and all those other things that would linger long into spring. But the painting was as golden as always.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Hello,\u2019 she said. He stared back at her, engulfed in an ocean of swirling orange and yellow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Don\u2019t you look happy,\u2019 she said. He did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018They\u2019re still alive,\u2019 she said as she fastened the belt of her apron. \u2018War lilies more like.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She started with his hands, a layer of black so thin you could still clearly see the outline underneath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Someone giggled at my rude joke today,\u2019 she said. \u2018Jackass. Not original, but satisfactory.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She stopped her brush mid stroke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018I\u2019m not erasing you; I\u2019m refining you.\u2019\u2019 She continued the brush stroke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mozart climbed out of the speakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Too stressy,\u2019 he always said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018You\u2019re with me, aren\u2019t you?\u2019 she replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Yes, but I can change your composition whenever I want.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a little creepy, but it was true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She stopped when the whole painting had a thin layer of black draped over it. It made her sad, and regretful. \u2018I don\u2019t think I refined you,\u2019 she said and wiped a sleeve across the canvass. Some of the paint rubbed off, most didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018I\u2019m sorry I couldn\u2019t change your composition,\u2019 she said. He was silent. His mouth had disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She washed up and put her coat on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018They say hi,\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chapter 2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-posts","category-serial-book-january-june"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherryblossomhouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherryblossomhouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherryblossomhouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherryblossomhouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherryblossomhouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=730"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cherryblossomhouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":731,"href":"https:\/\/cherryblossomhouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730\/revisions\/731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherryblossomhouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherryblossomhouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherryblossomhouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherryblossomhouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}