Page 45 - In Five Years

Oliander, the owner, wanted to sell the place and came to her. She used her trust
fund to buy it. She paints less than she used to, but I like that she has some
stability in her life. The gallery has meant that she can’t disappear anymore—at
least not for weeks at a time.

“We nearly sold out the Depreche show,” she says. “I’m so bummed you
missed it. It was spectacular. My favorite by far.” Bella says that about every

single artist she shows. It’s always the best, the greatest, the most fun she’s ever
had. Life is an upward escalator. “Business is so good I’m thinking about hiring
another Chloe.”
Chloe has been her assistant for the last three years, and runs the logistics at

Oliander. She’s kissed Bella twice, which has not seemed to complicate their
business relationship.

“You should do it.”
“Might give me time to actually sculpt or paint again. It has been months.”
“Sometimes you have to sacrifice to achieve your dreams.”

She smiles sideways at me. The coffee comes. I pour some creamer into it,
and take a slow, heady sip.
When I look up, she’s still smiling at me. “What?” I ask.

“Nothing. You’re just so . . . ‘sacrifice to achieve your dreams.’ Who talks
like that?”
“Business leaders. Heads of companies. CEOs.”

Bella rolls her eyes. “When did you get like this?”
“Do you ever remember my being any different?”
Bella puts her hand to her chin. She looks straight at me. “I don’t know,” she

says.
I know what she means, what I never really want to talk about it. Was I
different as a child? Before my brother died? Was I spontaneous, carefree? Did I

begin to plan my life so that no one would ever show up at my door and throw
the whole thing off a cliff? Probably. But there isn’t much to be done about it
now. I am who I am.

The waiter circles back to us, and Bella raises her eyebrows at me as if to ask
you ready?
“You order,” I say.