Chapter Eight
When Lily told her that she’d found someone to go with them tonight to the art gallery, Pamelia felt happy she wouldn’t be a third wheel in the party. But when she found out it was Jeremy who would be going with them, Pamelia went into panic mode. She remembered the response that Lily gave her when she asked if she was sure that this would be all right.
“Why do you ask that?”
“Because I mean, well, you know?”
“No, I don’t know,”
“He’s my boss Lily. I would be going out with my boss.”
“No, you wouldn’t be,” Lily laughed her comment but stopped when she saw how serious Pamelia looked. “We are all friends here.”
“But you and Tyler are married and me and him are both single so yeah, it would be considered a date.”
“It’s not a date, now if it was a date, then I wouldn’t be asking you to go with Tyler and me to this thing. I would get Jeremy to take you there by yourself. So, don’t worry about it and just put on something nice when you get home and we’ll pick you up.”
Now, here she was getting herself ready for what to her…was a date. What else could it be but a date? She grabbed the royal blue wrap dress she decided to wear tonight. Gazing at herself in the mirror, Pamelia looked from one side to the other, making sure that it was straight as she adjusted her bra when she saw that it was showing a bit on the side. She grabbed the gold heart shaped locket from off her dresser to put on and then a pair of gold studded earrings. She decided to wear her hair up tonight since she was used to wearing it down during the day. It felt good to get it off her neck for a change while she spritzed some perfume. When she went to put on her mascara, the phone rang and she grabbed it from off the dock. “Hello?”
“Hey there, how are you doing?” asked her sister.
“Trying to get ready here, let me put you on speaker.” She pressed the button and asked, “Can you hear me?”
“Yeah, I hear you fine, where are you going?”
“Oh, to this art exhibit with my bosses.”
“Your bosses,”
“I know. My boss wanted to know if I wanted to go with her, her husband and her brother in law to this art exhibit. At first, I told her that I didn’t have anyone to go with, so she invited her brother in law to go with us.”
“Sounds like it will be fun.”
“I hope so, never been to one of these things, so this should be interesting. Besides, it will be nice to be out with other people in town. I only get the chance to meet people at the shop and then I come home.”
“I hear you there. But I’m glad. It’s about time you made some friends and meet new people. Maybe even a man.”
Pamelia shook her head. “Yeah whatever,” She continued with her mascara until it looked just right then put on some lipstick to complete her look.
“I’m serious. You never know what or who you could meet up with at these places. I’ll let you go and finish getting ready. Call me tomorrow and let me know how it goes.”
“I will, take care.” Pamelia put it back on the hook, then grabbed a pair of pumps the same color as her dress to put them on when she got into the living room. Glancing at the clock, she realized that they would be here in about five minutes and she completely forgot to grab her purse.
~* * * *~
“So how long has your friend been doing art?” Jeremy questioned Lily.
“She’s been doing it for about fifteen years now. I’ve seen some of her stuff and she really is good. This is like her third exhibit she’s done but this is my first time ever going to one, even though she invites me to them all the time.” Lily exclaimed then quickly prompted her husband, “Make a left right here Tyler.”
His brother immediately did and they slowly drove down along the street.
“We should be coming up on it soon.”
“What’s the number of the place?” Tyler asked, looking towards the left side of the street.
“Four twenty seven.”
“It’s probably on your side then sweetheart,” he replied.
“Oh, there it is hon, I see it.” Lily pointed towards the house, a cute little blue bungalow with white shutters. When they stopped in front of it, Lily said, “Go on and get her Jeremy.”
“Why don’t you go and get her Lily?”
“What will it look like, just me going to the door? Just get your butt out and go and get her.”
He rolled his eyes at her. Getting out of the backseat of the truck, Jeremy walked up to the porch as its boards creaked underneath his feet. He pressed the doorbell and waited for her to come to the door. Soon, he heard footsteps coming and the door slowly opened. The first thing Jeremy saw was a pair of very shapely legs wearing a pair of beautiful blue pumps. His eyes went up along the Royal blue dress that hugged her hips as it wrapped around a nice waist and even nicer breasts which made him really take notice of the golden heart shaped locket. His entranced gaze moved up to her face, those delicate cheeks, sparkling smile and those eyes. Honestly, he couldn’t help but melt. She was too beautiful for him not to stare. “Wow,” he uttered with a raised brow.
She smiled shyly while closing the door behind her. “I was about to say the same thing to you, you sure clean up good.”
He chuckled. “I was about to say how gorgeous you look but of course, you always look beautiful in anything you wear.” Boy Jeremy that sounded lame.
Once she locked the door, she faced him again. “Are you ready?”
“After you,” He motioned for her to walk in front and he knew he was bad to watch her as she walked towards the car but he couldn’t resist.
“You look great,” Pamelia greeted Lily while she stood by the car.
“Thank you, I love your dress too, it’s stunning. Come on, we’ll sit in the back seat while the guys are in the front.”
Jeremy opened the door for them to get in and once they did, he got into the passenger side.
On the drive Lily told Pamelia how this unique part of town came to be. There were a few buildings that used to be part of a factory that burned down over fifty years ago. A man by the name of Phil ‘Dozer’ Gold who was a local resident as well as the noted ‘town eccentric’ decided to buy the land, renovating the buildings to where there were not only studios for local artist to come and work on their craft but also a place for people to live. Over the years, some of the residents who lived there planted an organic vegetable garden as well as having some of their sculptures displayed within the small park they’d designed with Mr. Gold’s blessing. It turned out to be a lovely place and eventually, a small restaurant that catered to those who were vegetarians or those that weren’t and wanted to try it out anyway.
Jeremy shook his head. “Wow, Lily, that was quite a story and to think I never paid any attention to what went on in these parts.”
Lilly rolled her eyes.” If you ever decided to leave the hive Mr. Bee Charmer, you might find a lot of surprising events could happen in your life.”
Tyler laughed beside him as he drove while shaking his head at his wife’s audacity.
Jeremy laughed too, and he secretly agreed. He intended for Pamelia to be one of those events.
When the couples arrived, a valet helped open the doors for them as they all got out and Tyler got the ticket for the truck.
“Wow, Stacy really outdid herself tonight!” Lily exclaimed.
“Just follow the candle lit sidewalk, it will show you the way to the studio.” The valet pointed out to them.
They made their way down along the sidewalk. Tyler and Lily walked in front while Jeremy and Pamelia were behind them.
“So, is this really your first time going to an exhibit?” Pamelia asked.
“Yes, it is actually. How about you?”
“First time too. Well, at least we can say that this will be a first time together then, huh?” Her eyes looked luminous in the candlelight when she smiled over at him.
When they walked towards the door to the
studio, there were two attendants on either side of the door and both ladies were holding trays with glasses of what looked like champagne in them.
Jeremy watched as Tyler grabbed one for him as well as Lily and he followed suit, getting a glass for them both, he turned to hand it to Pamelia.
“Thank you.” She smiled.
“Why don’t we find Stacy, so I can introduce you all to her?” Lily announced.
The foursome made their way through the many people that were either talking or looking at the artwork on the brick walls.
“This is a great turn out. She’ll probably end up getting a lot of people buying her art work.” Pamelia replied.
Lily went over to a woman wearing nothing but a long black form fitting dress, her skin was so white it was the color of snow and her chocolate brown hair was up in a French roll, showing off a long slender neck. When she saw Lily, her eyes grew big along with her smile. “Oh, my Goodness, I finally got you here.” Her little arms went around Lily as she giggled.
“We just made it in, you already know Tyler and this is my brother in law Jeremy and this is our friend Pamelia Stewart.”
“Nice to meet you all, please make sure to look around, enjoy the champagne and food. If you like anything and want to buy, please let me. The prices are on all of the artwork.”
“Would you like to go this way?” Jeremy asked as he motioned his head toward the right.
~* * * *~
Pamelia nodded and he showed her the way. They began exploring their surroundings and during their time together, Jeremy introduced her to some of his friends.
While he’d been talking with some people, Pamelia stepped away to look at a beautiful painting, depicting a lone woman standing in the middle of a field of wild flowers. You couldn’t see her face for her back was facing Pamelia but her hair, which was long flowing and black, seemed to flutter in the wind along with the beautiful yellow dress she was wearing. What made it so interesting was the fact that the woman in the picture was black. She could see off in the distance there was a house. It was as if she could smell the flowers in the field herself, the picture was that realistic to her.
“Do you like it?” a female voice asked from behind her.
She turned around.
Lisa stood there. She smiled with a glass of champagne in hand.
“It’s beautiful, it seems so realistic.”
“Why thank you, actually this picture has an interesting story to it. I’d been going into town and I would often run into this lady. She was an elderly black woman but she didn’t look very old. Actually, the woman looked regal almost with her hair in a bun and a beautiful pearl earrings and a necklace.”
Pamelia couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The only person she knew who wore pearls and had her hair up in a bun was her Aunt Marlene. “Was her name Marlene?”
“Why yes, do you know her?”
“She was my Aunt.” Pamelia smiled sadly. “She passed away and I got her home and now I’m living here in Oak Glen.”
“Wow that is simply amazing. I have to say your Aunt was quite a character. After the fourth time we ran into each other, she came up to me and said, ‘Would you like to have some tea?’ I thought she was crazy but when I looked in her eyes, I saw something there. We went to a restaurant, had tea and talked. The stories she told me were amazing. After about a month, she invited me over to her house and I would invite some of my friends because she told me I could. We would sit and talk and she would tell us all these stories about her life and when she was growing up and all. She would show us pictures of her when she was young and I saw this one picture right here. It was in black and white but she told me that her cousin had taken the picture of her when she was in her twenties,” Lisa paused and looked up at the painting again.
Pamelia felt tears in her eyes.
“They’d gone to visit some family in Alabama and they lived out in this big open field. She said it was the only place she knew of that made her feel safe and sound. They would play in the flowers, sometimes picking them or just lying in the fields and looking up in the sky. Well, her cousin took this photo here and she told me that she’d been wearing a yellow dress her mom made and she took her hair down to let it breathe. I asked her could I take the photo because I wanted to make a painting of it. Well once she gave it to me, I started on it but then I kind of stopped,”
Pamelia felt puzzled. “Why did you do that?”
By then Jeremy stood by the two ladies.
“Well, for me, I have a bad habit of starting something and then not completing it. This is what happened when I was dealing with the painting. It wasn’t until I heard about your Aunt passing that I went back and started it back up again. You know it usually takes me a couple of weeks to almost a little over a month to finish up something this big. But this one took me only two weeks. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. My friends would come and tell me that I needed to take a break which I did, for about five minutes and then I’d come right back to it again. No one has seen this until tonight but I have to say it’s in my top five of my favorites.”
Pamelia was awestruck with the fact that her Aunt had touched so many people’s lives. She’d already heard stories from several people in town and even those that came to the gift shop.
“Did you find something you liked?” Jeremy asked.
“I was looking at this painting and found out that the lady in it was my Aunt.”
“Wow, that’s amazing and it is a beautiful painting. Are you going to get it?”
“I don’t know, how much is it?”
“Well it’s actually five hundred dollars but since you are Marlene’s niece, I’ll give it to you for just two hundred but don’t tell everyone I did this, because they’ll all end up asking for discounts and I’ll never be able to make any profit.” Lisa giggled.
Pamelia felt so excited that she gave her a hug. “I can’t believe it and now that I look at it, I know exactly where I can put it too, over the fireplace in the living room. It will make a great conversation piece.”
“Well, that’s great,” Lisa told her. “But you’ll have to have someone come and get it for you since it’s so big. The guy I normally use to deliver stuff, well he was totally unreliable and I got complaints about him.”
“No worries, I’ll come by tomorrow and pick it up for you Pamelia, if that’s all right with you.”
Pamelia looked over at Jeremy in shock, “Well, that sounds fine. I mean if it’s okay with you?”
“I don’t mind at all, I have a truck big enough to hold it.”
“Wonderful, well we are all set, oh yeah where do I pay for it?
“Paula, oh Paula,” Lisa shouted towards a woman who was talking with a group of people.
She also was wearing black from head to toe but her hair was done in one of those short blonde bobs. “Yes, Lisa?”
“We got one sold and I need for you to take Pamelia here to pay for it.”
“Come and follow me ma’am.” The two ladies moved over to a table that sat just a few feet away.
Lisa moved on to talk to a couple in the crowd.
“Hey there, what’s going on?” Lily asked, walking over towards Jeremy with Tyler not too far behind her.
“Pamelia bought this painting here. She said that the lady in the picture was her Aunt.”
“Really,” They both looked it over.
Pamelia and the girl came back over and they all watched the woman put a sticker that said ‘SOLD’ on the corner of it. “Congrats on buying the painting by the way Ms. Stewart,”
“Thank you.” Pamelia gave the lady a handshake before looking back at them with a smile. “Can you believe I bought a painting?”
“It’s beautiful, where will you put it at?” Tyler asked.
“Oh, it’s going over my fireplace. I really can’t believe that I was able to find this here. I know my Aunt would be overwhelmed to know that she was immortalized in a painting like this. Were you able to find anything
you liked too?”
“Oh no, we’re still looking around. I was just wondering what you guys were up to and I saw you over here.” Lily replied, sipping on her champagne. “When are they going to bring it to you?”
“Well, Jeremy offered to bring it over, since they don’t have anyone to bring it for me. He’s going to deliver it tomorrow for me.” Pamelia told them, gazing over at Jeremy.
He grinned at the group, almost to the point where she could have sworn he was blushing.
“That was nice of you bro, he’s into that handy work and all, so he’ll help you out for sure.”
“You need to come over to the buffet table, they have some really good food there,” Lily told Pamelia.
The women walked away from the two brothers.
Chapter Nine
“So are you going to ask her?” Tyler asked.
“Ask who out, Pamelia? I don’t know.”
“You know you like her man, why are you playing hard to get? Everyone on the farm knows that you like her.”
Jeremy stared at him as if he were crazy.
“Don’t look at me like that because it’s true. Mom and Lily talk about you every single day. How you come into the shop to ask how she is and stuff. How you are constantly eyeballing her even when you don’t talk to her. It’s obvious that you have the hots for her, why not ask her out on an actual date and tomorrow, would be the perfect moment for you to ask her out, little brother. Bring her some flowers and maybe something to eat for lunch or better yet, take her out to lunch and then BAM ask her out.”
Jeremy couldn’t believe he was having this conversation with his brother but he was right though. He’d been making a complete fool out of himself and he needed to remedy this problem right away.
~* * * *~
Jeremy arrived at her house around noon to bring the portrait.
He went along the same familiar road that would take him to the cute, little baby blue bungalow. He thought about last night when he had walked her to her door.
The Bee Charmer (Sweet Treat Series Book 2) Page 7