If Ever (COMPLETED - EDITING)

Chapter 76 - Ella/Kai

Ella

Kai's show was tonight and I was so nervous. I was shaking from the second I woke up in his arms; Kai had given me an SOS. Because I was finding it very hard to calm down. He had a million things to do but he kept asking me to breathe and he was here and I was ok. I kept apologing and it only irritated him. He left before me to get to the gallery, he had to sort things out. He said Evans would pick me up, I said ok. He asked me to be there at 7:30. I said I would and kissed him so long wishing him luck, he smiled kissing me back. He asked if I needed anything more for the stress, he meant sex, I had laughed and asked if he was offering.

He was and it was heaven. I felt better after going with him twice. He didn't even rush me. I hadn't seen him all day because I said I needed to go to the salon, I left at 11. He'd left the house around 2 in the afternoon for his set up. He had a specific vision of how he wanted the gallery to look. When I asked what, he'd said, "You'll see." I had groaned and whined his name... He laughed, kissing me. He said my SOS was in his pocket and not to worry.

He was in black denims and a white button-down shirt, un-tucked rolled up to his elbows with his sneakers on. He looked so fucking hot, I almost melted just at the sight of him. He asked me to shave off the beard: and trim and cut his hair because it was at an awkward phase. I had done that too. 

His eyes stood out without the beard I noticed. So did his jaw and cheek bones. Oh man, I hadn't realised how much I missed this, he looked so fucking perfect. The Kai I had fallen in love with, the second I'd seen the drunken smile from the bon fire. Had it really been almost a year? Fuck. His surgical scar was so prominent. But there was nothing to do about it. Save him wearing a cap, and I couldn't cover it with makeup, but he didn't want to. I said he looked yum, like a very spicy wing. He laughed.

I hadn't colored my hair green, but I had gotten a slight trim and she had cut and styled it in a loose U and I'd had my black roots touched up to my scalp to the same white, my hair was still at my bottom, it just looked better and had some shape and she had blown it out in waves instead of curls. Kai seemed to love the white, so I'd keep it till he got sick of it. 

There was even a painting of my braid in his show. He really was nuts. But I said nothing. And one of me under the moon, the night I'd sat out in the field. And one of me on the beach and in the water. He'd worked on a few more since we'd been back from Norway. So it was 20 pieces now.

It was a weird neo-cubist- expressionistic mix. The technique was amazing. But I knew what all of them were. I was really very flattered, it had surprised the shit out of me to know that 90% of them were already sold, even before the show. I'd gotten him an impromptu gift for the success of his show. I'd thought about it for a while, since, we'd been back from our second trip there but I wasn't sure if he would like it? I was stressed about it. But that was on me not on him.

There were going to be about 200 hundred people there, owners of the art, buyers and clients and other artists and people from school and faculty and critics, media and what not. I just might have fainted. And we couldn't just leave when we wanted to because this was his show. And there was no way I wasn't going because I knew it would break his heart if I missed it.

I really did have to pull myself together. We had bought a tiny landlocked island and he was building me a fucking house in Norway for fuck's sake. He was leaving all of this behind for me.

I had to be ok with this. Then I'd never have to think about it till his next one. I sighed. It had taken Rob and I, a whole 2 weeks and hours of hunting to find a dress that matched his eyes. I finally had, a weird emerald and sap dress. I was half tempted to get it custom made. But Rob had spotted it at a Balenciaga store. It was proper couture.