Page 93 of By Rude Strength

“There he is!” Brandon shouted, cutting through the throng of people to greet him. “Everybody! Hey!” He put his hand on LA’s shoulder, declaring, “This is the artist you’ve all been waiting to meet. My friend, LA Holmes!”

Everyone cheered and another round of applause ensued.

LA smiled politely, asking out of the side of his mouth, “What the fuck is happening?”

“Georgina told a bunch of her art friends about you,” Brandon replied in a hushed voice. “They all love your stuff, man! It’s been nuts!” He grinned at Cass. “Oh. Is this him?”

“Yes.” LA waved between them. “Cass Imp, meet Brandon Hanson. Brandon, this is Cass.”

“An absolute pleasure!” Cass gushed, offering his hand out to Brandon.

“Hey, the pleasure is mine, dude. It’s great to meet you!” Brandon glanced at the painting. “Oh! You got one more? Cool! Hey, come right this way. Let’s get it hung up!”

LA reached for Cass’s hand, following Brandon over to the gallery wall. Although he’d seen the pictures of it that Brandon had sent him, seeing it in person was surreal. He felt a bit lightheaded, watching strangers ogling his work and pointing at various bits.

Fuck, this was weird.

Brandon guided them over to the end of the gallery, where a few extra nails were haphazardly sticking out. “Here, just pick one!”

Cass eyed the nails and then carefully raised the canvas up to find one that would hold it without bumping any of the other pictures. “Ah! Perfection!”

LA smiled shyly. “You really think so?”

“I know so.” Cass kissed his cheek.

“Does that one need a price tag?” Brandon asked. “I got everything else marked up.”

LA stared. “Yeah, I see that. And these aredoublewhat we talked about.”

Brandon shrugged. “If they don’t sell tonight, we can lower them.”

“You should lower them now. Nobody’s gonna buy these—”

“Can I get you guys anything to drink?” Brandon smirked at LA, clearly ignoring him. “Dr Pepper and rum, right?”

LA grunted in frustration. He could see Brandon wasn’t going to change his mind, so he just sighed and asked, “Rum, huh? Thought this was a coffee place?”

“Hey, I got my liquor license too, thank you. We only serve wine and beer, but uh, I did happen to get a bottle of somebody’s favorite pirate just for tonight.”

Cass nudged him. “Go on, Elly. I can drive if you’d like.”

LA grinned. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

A drink sounded pretty damn good right now and LA nodded. “Okay. Thank you.”

Brandon looked to Cass. “What about you? What can I get you?”

“Oh, just a water would be lovely!” Cass said cheerfully. “Thank you so much.”

“Okay! I’ll be right back. Kevin is around here somewhere. If I see him, I’ll send him your way.” Brandon headed over to the counter, though he paused to look back at LA and catch his eye.

LA stared, mouthing, “What?”

Brandon gave Cass a once-over and then looked back at LA, mouthing back, “He’s hot!”

LA snorted out a laugh and shook his head, though he did cuddle a little closer to Cass’s side.