Page 32 of Total Creative Control

“Do you collect art?” he asked Charlie as they walked through the gallery.

Lewis shot him a horrified look, making a slashing gesture across his throat.

Too late.

“Oh!” Charlie beamed as he whirled to face them. “Do you like them? They’re my heart paintings. The paintings of my heart.” He gestured to one garish splash of orange, green and purple. “It helps me get in touch with my creative heart. Mils taught me the technique. You just pick up the brush, close your eyes, and… paint. Paint your heart. I call this oneAd Meliora.”

Lewis scowled. “I call it—”

“Fascinating!” Aaron said, channelling his amusement into a broad smile. “So you paint with your... eyes shut?”

Charlie tapped his chest. “Eyes shut, heart open, Andy. Heart open.”

“Amazing,” Aaron said, grinning. Charlie would be a great character to use in a fic—he could just imagine what Skye Jäger would have to say about ‘heart painting’.

“Self-indulgent bollocks,” Lewis muttered under his breath, and Aaron buried a laugh.

Exactly.

“This way!” Charlie said from up front, leading them out of the gallery and into a corridor that had been modernised and looked rather hotel-like, with carpet and several doors leading off on either side.

“Lewis, you’re inSpirit,” Charlie said, opening the first door. The word ‘Spirit’ had been painted in an elegant script across the door in a pretty shade of duck-egg blue. “It will soothe your soul, my friend.”

Lewis grunted but said nothing as Charlie led them into the room.

It was gorgeous. Decorated in blues and creams, with a large four-poster bed, an en suite bathroom, and an elegant three-piece suite arranged around the pretty leaded windows overlooking Safehaven’s grounds.

Which were, objectively, green and beautiful. A formal garden close to the house led on to a wilderness, beyond which rose a wooded hillside. In the distance, Aaron glimpsed the sparkle of the sea, and his heart lifted like it had as a child when he and his family made their annual summer pilgrimage to the seaside. Not far from here, in fact.

“I’ve Feng-Shuied the shit out of the place,” Charlie said happily. “We even dowsed for geopathic stress, so it has great energy.Spiritis designed to help your yin chi flow cleanly. It’s a really restful space, Lewis. One night here and you’ll wake up with your chakras open and ready.” He squeezed Lewis’s shoulder. “Which I think will help.”

“Help what?” Lewis said, with the look of a man about to dive out of the window and bolt.

Charlie rubbed his arm. “Well,this,” he said. “You’re tied up in knots, my friend. I’m not surprised you're so resistant to evolvingLeeches. Your energy is obviously blocked.”

Lewis’s jaw clenched, eyes narrowing, his whole body stiffening as he pulled away from Charlie’s hand. His touchpaper had been lit; the countdown began.

“Wow, what a view!” Aaron said, abandoning Toni’s case and pushing himself between Charlie and Lewis as he headed for the window. “Is that the sea, Charlie?”

“What? Oh yes.” Thankfully, Charlie left Lewis and followed Aaron to the window, squinting against the bright sky. “That’s Swanage over there. Bit of a tacky tourist trap, I’m afraid.”

“We went to Swanage on holiday every year when I was a kid,” Aaron said, smiling at the memory. “I loved it.”

“Did you?” Charlie gazed at him curiously. “I suppose it must have been nourishing for you to escape the Big Smoke and reconnect with nature. Even in a limited way. Staycations can be quite special.”

Escape the Big Smoke? Aaron looked at him, half affronted and half amused. “I grew up in Guildford, so… not really smoky. Or big. And it’s not a staycation if you go to the seaside. It’s a holiday. Staycations are when you stay at home.”

Charlie shook his head. “I don’t think so. Staying at home isn’t any kind of holiday, is it?”

Behind them, Lewis muttered, “For fuck’s sake…”

Toni said, “Am I next door, Charlie? I’ll just pop my things inside and—”

“No!” Charlie spun away from the window. “No, darling, I’ve put you down at the end, inHeart. Next door to Milly. She always stays inSoul. They’re both very female-centred spaces. Come on, let me show you.”

He was halfway out the door when Lewis said, “What about Aaron? Where’s his room?”

“Oh, upstairs.” Charlie waved toward the ceiling. “We have guest rooms for visiting staff. Billy will show him.”