Chapter 2
Standing in a deserted hallway up on the fourth floor of the museum Laura stared hard at one of the paintings. It was an old work by Egbert Lievensz van der Poel, from about 1650. A beautiful depiction of a flaming windmill being put out in the night by villagers, she loved Lievensz, but there was something about this painting that didn't sit well with her. It had come in that saturday, to one of her colleagues in the department and she'd spent the last five of her lunch breaks staring into the depths of the paint, trying to figure out why it unsettled her so much. Her watch beeped. She sighed 'Why have I been sighing so much recently' she thought to herself, "maybe its Gavin's fault" she voiced aloud, simply to see if saying it would make it easier to stomach.
"So who's Gavin then?"
Laura jump. Nearly out of her skin from the feel of it. She'd never been one to spook easily, but no one ever came into the hall. Ever. Whipping around she registered a smear of black before losing her balance and tipping sideways. A strong arm snaked around her waist haulting her fall in an almost perfect french dip. Laura gasped, eyes opening again, body tensed from an impact that never came. Heart still beating a mile a minute, she glanced up her dark eyes meeting intense, piercing, see-into-your-soul green ones. Tearing her eyes away from the captivating stare, she took in the rest of the face, pale, a slight blush coloring her cheeks, a faint white scar traveling half way up her left jaw, dark, expressive eyebrows, hella eyebrow game. A slight redness across the bridge of her nose suggested that she probably wore glasses some of the time. 'How do I even know something like that' thought Laura angrily. Her eyes followed the gentle curve of the mysterious womans nose to her lips. Lauras stomach flipped, against her will. The womans lips followed a similar elegance to her eye brows, all sharp angles but soft underneath, perfectly formed, one corner quirked up in a comical smirk, blood red. Captivating. This entire process, which felt to Laura like an entire lifetime, though it only actually spanned two seconds and the younger woman holding her cleared her throat, winked and lifted a stunned Laura back up onto her feet as if she weighed nothing. The girl smiled, and Lauras stomach gave another pleasantly unpleasant flip.
"Easy there, it usually takes much more than that for me to sweep a girl off her feet" The girl smiled, shaking gently curled black bangs out of her eyes. Her voice was deep. Really deep, and enticing. The kind of voice you want whispering secrets in your ear in the middle of the night. 'Laura what the heck are you thinking? Snap out of it!' She was angry at herself. Mostly because her heart would not stop pounding and she could feel the blush on her cheeks.
"I. Um wow I'm really sorry, yeah. I– I'm just not used to people.. Up here.. you know?" Laura stuttered and blushed even deeper, kicking herself internally for making a complete fool of herself in front of this girl. 'Why do I even care what she thinks' was probably what she would have been thinking had the girl had not let out a charming, heart stopping laugh, tipping her head back and grinning widely.
It was in that moment that Laura decided that she wanted to be the cause of the smile for the rest of her life. This decision was followed immediately by another "what the hell?" moment, but the girl was staring intently so she decided she should probably do something. She opened her mouth but the dark haired girl beat her to it.
"You're cute all flustered like that, Cupcake."
Laura blushed, opened her mouth a few more times and then let out a frustrated breath. Her watch beeped again.
"Shit, I've got to go, I, oh my goodness I'm so rude," She extended a hand "Laura Hollis, I'm a curator here at the museum." The girl took her hand, a spark of electricity jumped across her skin, goosebumps erupting from the point of contact between their hands.
"Miss Hollis, a pleasure to meet you. I must say, you're even more beautiful up close as you are from afar."
If it was possible for the shorter woman to blush any deeper, she did. The taller girl dropped her hand, winked, and sauntered away. Hips swaying, every curve highlighted by the dark pinstriped skinny jeans, and black leather jacket. She walked silently, even in black buckled combat boots and a black and red messenger bag littered with clasps. Her hair was tied up effortlessly into a messy bun, dark, with a nice wave to it. As she walked away, the spell over Laura broke and she dragged her eyes away from those incredible hips.
"Wait!"
The mysterious woman turned back "What can I do for you Creampuff?" all smooth and sultry, her voice like liquid sex.
"I dont even know your name!" Laura insisted, blushing again
"Mm you don't need too. You'll figure it out" She turned and began to saunter away once more. "Oh, and you were right about that painting," she called over her shoulder, "It's a fake."
And with that she was gone, rounding the corner to the staircase.
Laura stood stunned for a moment before whirling around to the painting once more. Quickly lifting it from the wall, she checked the back, sure enough the panel it had been painted on was oak with a beautiful lacquer finish. No Dutch artist in the 17th century would have had access to that kind of lacquer. The painting was a brilliant work of art, but a fake none the less. She sighed, and hung the painting back up on the wall. She turned to walk back towards the lab when she caught herself smiling. 'Thats odd, I haven't smiled at nothing in years. Not since I started dating Gavin.' And with that thought, she took off running, down the stairs through the labyrinth of hallways in the museum in a desperate attempt to get to her locker. Flying past Stephan at the security station, she wrenched the door to her lab open and grabbed her coat, not bothering to take anything else she burst through the doors of the museum, arms waving frantically in an attempt to hail a cab. She needed to get home. She needed to tell him it was over. He had never made her smile at nothing and now, it was over.
