Chapter 76: Nick Smokes
The room suddenly became quiet.
Nick’s hand which was pressed against his temple momentarily lurched and he looked up at her.
After Victoria finished, she seemed to think it was not right to be alone in a room with a man, and would be misleading others, so she laughed and said, “I’m just saying it casually.”
Nick looked at her and really wondered if her husband knew about all this when she was being so forthcoming with other men on the outside.
Dropping his eyes, his tone became even more unfriendly.
“Get out.”
Victoria just assumed he was uncomfortable with contact with the opposite sex and wanted to wait for Claire Rodriguez.
“I didn’t mean anything by it, Mr. Andrews. so you can take a good rest.”
She really didn’t mean anything by it, she just saw her client drunk and couldn’t help but want to offer help and gain favor.
Nick had made no suggestions on her sketches so far.
Though she was always confident in her work, the fact that Nick didn’t say a word about it was starting to make her a little unsure.
Victoria went back to her room and after changing her clothes, she put the paint-stained shirt in the basin and rubbed it a few times. She washed it twice more with water and made sure all the stains were gone, before hanging it by the window to dry.
Once that was done, she went back to where she’d just been and washed her brushes and paint trays and re-blended the colors.
Then she went back to the white wall and to finish the rest of the painting.
Inspiration was something that, once it came, had to be seized upon quickly, or she wasn’t sure if she’d get up after a night’s sleep and suddenly not feel anything.
Victoria drew carefully, and the lights of the night attracted a few moths besides which everything seemed silent.
At three in the morning, she rubbed her eyes sleepily, intending to go wash her face to clear her head.
As she walked through the rounded archway over the adjoining washbasin, ahe saw from a distance a slender, upright figure leaning against a column on the courtyard veranda, probably unable to sleep, with a cigarette between his fingers.
The man’s demeanor was full of laziness and loosening, but carried its own intimidating distance.
She could not remember if she had ever seen him smoking. She only felt that this scene, with the surrounding pavilions, the moon in the middle of the sky, and the water of the pond under the porch was so bright, it was so good that she could not bear to break it.
Nick flicked the ash from his fingertips and casually looked at the flowing water and the rockery in the courtyard.
After all these years of living a self-disciplined life, he was surprised to lose sleep tonight.
Hearing footsteps over the archway, he couldn’t help but look over, only to see a back disappearing around the corner.
Nick raised an eyebrow softly, twisted the cigarette out of his fingertips and walked over.
Victoria had returned to the white wall, she had meant to use the cold water to wake herself up. But turning on the tap inevitably made a noise, and the slightest sound could disturb Nick, but for the moment the raging sleepiness seemed to have faded instantly.
She smiled a little and drew faster.
It would be finished in another half hour. She had just put the brush head in the paint tray again when she heard a sudden voice in her ear.
“They invited you?”Exclusive © material by Nô(/v)elDrama.Org.
Being caught off guard, Victoria whipped her head around and caught a glimpse of Nick less than a meter away.
“Mr. Andrews, do you realize that this will scare people to death?”
Probably because he had been smoking, he had a very light smell of cigarette smoke, mixed with the smell of pine and cypress, which seemed to attach itself to his skin with the blowing wind and could not be wiped off.
Nick did not approach, but looked at the painting on the white wall, a flash of appreciation crossing his eyes.
He had never seen her draw before. He had only seen her design things, and didn’t realize she had this kind of skill.
The man raised an eyebrow, “You’re so good at drawing, how come you didn’t continue after graduation.”
Victoria bowed her head slightly and paused in her pigment mixing, “Didn’t you hear it for yourself last time?”
“Because of that?”
Because of that?
The words were light and fluffy, as if they were a soft needle, stabbing into her heart, not painful but not negligible either.
Nick had been the son of heaven since he was born, unattainable. Of course he would not know how terrible it was when an ordinary person was denigrated, abused and suffered from the blank stares around him.
“Well, just because of that.”
She turned her back and continued what she was doing in her own hands, with so much self-deprecation in her tone.
Nick was standing right behind her, and his gaze couldn’t help but fall to her waist.