Her Lips My Touch ✓

Chapter Twenty | Magical Art

From the start of the day Ember was not nearly as planned as she would have liked. She first made sure all the food and the open bar was going to be there and ready.

Holland had left early to go shopping with her sister who was apparently very nervous about tonight.

Ember did everything she could to make sure the process was easy on Venus.

Ember didn't want her to have to worry about anything. It was a big step showing and even selling her art. Ember knew there was some artist out there who wouldn't let anyone see their work let alone sell it for any number.

However, by the time nightfall rolled around and everything had been done Ember was relieved.

Holland took her and Venus out for a quick dinner before they all headed out to the event. The place was on the way and the sound of food after not eating anything more than a small bag of chips was music to her ears.

"I think it would be around here-ah here it is," Holland looked up from her phone and pointed to the place. It was a sushi joint on the corner. It was one of Carmon's favorites.

"Beautiful," Venus commented.

It was one of the nicer places in the area. The colorful lights and cheerful atmosphere made it unique to the other places. That and this was a legit place to eat, they wouldn't have to worry about getting sick like some of the higher up places.

They all took a seat at the bar. Under the counter lights slowly blinked in all different colors. They were greeted and handed their menus followed by being asked what drinks they wanted.

Venus and Holland got Japanese sodas both flavored strawberry. Ember will admit the bottles were cool. You had to pop a marble inside to open them. It was funny watching Holland struggle with it for a moment.

"I literally want to order one of everything," Venus muttered before setting down her menu.

They ordered and while they waited, Venus and Ember got a small bowl of miso soup and a small salad. Holland's meal didn't come with one so she just sipped at her drink until she offered Holland her tomatoes.

Ember was never much of a tomato fan unless they were cooked or covered in batter. Holland, on the other hand, was the type that would eat a tomato like an apple.

It didn't even take long for the sushi to come out. One after the other. For Ember's, she had a spicy mix of salmon and yellowtail fish or at least that's what she thought it was.

She just read spicy and picked that one.

Like the ladies they were, they inhaled all their food in the time an anime character like Goku or Vegeta would have.

Basically, like a hungry Super Saiyan.

"I think I am going to explode," Holland muttered while walking to the event.

Venus was way ahead of them and Holland was walking slowly. Ember wasn't sure why she was so full, she had seen the girl eat a whole large pizza herself without a problem.

"So I kinda wanted to give you this earlier but you know your whole mother kidnapped you for money thing happened so I refrained. There is no time like the present," Holland spoke stopping them.

She pulled out a necklace in her pocket. It was silver with a small heart in the center.

"I know it's not much but it was cute and I had to buy it," she grinned.

Ember kissed her before pulling back her green hair as Holland put it around her neck.

For the rest of the walk, they ran farther than walked. The time they stopped set them back and they had to catch up to Venus.

When they arrived the place was just starting to get people going in. It was nice to see the smile on Venus' face when she saw all her paintings all nearly put up onto the white walls.

Carmon came over and hugged Ember.

"There you are. I figured I get here early since I wanted first dibs," she smiled, taking a sip of her martini.

'This is the artist,' she signed to Carmon. 'Venus.'

"Oh, well pleasure is all mine. I'm Carmon Matos by the way, can I buy the artist a drink?" she smiled.

"Sure," Venus smiled before following her to the bar.

Carmon clearly had a bit of a crush on Venus and Ember smiled at how obvious she made it seem.

The places filled up over the hour and Ember helped put sold on the paintings to help out the woman behind the table.

The way it went was people would tell the woman the number of the painting and she was handed a ticket, then the painting was marked as sold. On their way out they handed her their ticket and bought the painting.

Ember might have bought one portrait of a certain blonde.

Overall there were just as many as Ember thought. It actually looked like more when they were all hung up onto the walls.

They were in order of style. All the abstracts were together, all the black and white ones were all hung together, and all the portraits were together.

Everything was going well.

Carmon had made it her mission to help Venus by greeting everyone.

"They would be cute together," Holland muttered.

'She is a bit crazy, I chuckled. But she does treat her girlfriends nicely so it outweighs the crazy.'

Holland smiled warmly before she remembered what she wanted to tell Ember. "Oh, Karter and your dad are here by the way."

'Where?'

"I think Karter pulled him over-" She paused looking around. "There," she smiled.

They were both looking at one of the sea paintings which for Karter was not surprising. He loved sea creatures. He liked a lot of the odd fish no one knew existed. The way he looked at the painting made Ember want to smile.

Ryan said something to him before leaning down and kissing him lightly and walking towards the bathroom and just as he was out of Karter's view he walked over to the buyers' table.

"They seem happy," Holland commented.

Ember turned her focus on her and smiled back. 'Yeah.'

After Ember cleared up a few things with some of the buyers she was able to walk over to Karter. He waved to her while Ember was telling one of the workers which painting was to be taken down. She only could smile in response since she had a clipboard in hand. It was an easy enough way to communicate with people who didn't know ASL.

'Glad you showed,' she signed.

Ember knew things would be a bit awkward for her, however, she was trying to ignore that part of her brain that told her that.

"Yeah, I didn't think she was this good of an artist when you mentioned it."

Ember nodded. 'Right? I think tonight's going well, but I have to go.'

Ember apologized for cutting the conversation short but she was more there for work rather than her being a guest.

Soon Ember was making sure all the paintings that were sold were wrapped up. They left them there for as long as they could but when the night started to come to an end they had to start taking them out and giving them to the new owners.

She didn't get a chance to greet too many people but was able to see a few before they all left for the night.

Holland wrapped her arms around Ember and smiled.

"I think my sister just left with Carmon," she giggled.

'Oh, no.' Ember signed with a smile.

Things were either going to go really well with that or really bad, who knew with Carmon.