Presto

Jeanne had not been to one of Mal’s openings since they were no longer a thing, but she was invited to by him and Karys and had to go to the latest to write it up for her latest article.

She had been his muse, but now Karys was his muse. With his long hair up in a bun, and a retro suit Mal stood next to Karys who was done up like the Lady of Sorrows. Her look was reminiscent of retro Dolce and Gabbana from a few years ago, and Mal to complement her had tears painted on his face very retro sixties. Karys had an anatomically correct heart on her t-shirt with seven arrows representing the seven sorrows of Mary, and a long-flowing skirt that was black but red in the creases and looked like she was bleeding as she walked. Mal held her hand tightly, and people kept coming up to them for photographs.

Karys pressed her face to Mal’s shoulder, when too many people surrounded them. It was the biggest opening he had ever had as far as Jeanne could remember, and it would be the most memorable to her.

Jeanne was taking a glass of wine from one of the servers, when Karys and Mal appeared as if presto before her. She smiled, and raised her glass to them.

“This is your best show ever Mal,” she said and leaned in to kiss his cheek. They looked at each other for a long moment, before she kissed Karys. “I think it is you that is making all of the difference as his muse, you made this show so filled with love.”
She exchanged a long look with Karys as well, and took her hand and squeezed it.

Holding her friend’s hand made it all the more surreal, this situation…seeing her ex and her best friend that she considered her sister together was weird. She spent a lot of time with her actual sister now talking about all of this, and that was weird enough because she was dating her sister’s ex.

Jeanne sighed.

“Do you want to have drinks with us after?” They asked in unison.

After continued to be surreal, sitting with them and the skirt that Karys wore still looking she was bleeding every time she crossed her long legs. The love between then was so evident, and Jeanne felt forlorn. Terrence was on another business trip, and she had reached the point where she started to wonder if there was something else going on why he was always away? Was he seeing someone else, did he not want to be with her? Was everything going too quickly, and he wanted to be away from her?

Karys had a huge smile on her face, and looked just above her. Jeanne turned around, and there was Terrence.

He was panting softly, and a little breathless.

Jeanne stood up, and practically adhesived herself to him, as she looked up into his eyes.

“I just came from the opening, and they told me that you would most likely be here,” he said. “I was going to surprise you, and then the surprise was on me because you were not at my place! But I found you—surprise!”

He pressed himself to her, and kissed her so hard he took her breath away until she panted like he had.

Jeanne pressed her hand to his chest, and no longer felt like the Lady of Sorrows…