When I'm With You

I look over at Dani with a sad smile. “It was hanging on the molding in the doorway to my kitchen. I accidentally brought it in there with the groceries and just decided to leave it there.” Even though I’ve come to terms with what I lost in the fire, it still hurts. My studio being the biggest of heartaches. But everything besides that room that had meant something to me was salvageable, so I need to focus on that and not on what I lost.

“Damn, sorry, Em,” Dani mumbles.

“It’s okay. Things are coming along with the construction, according to my dad. I’ve slowly started to rebuild my supplies, so I’ll be fine.”

“And luckily she kept a lot of her overflow in the guest room, so not all was lost, right Em?”

I smile at my sister and nod my head.

“That’s good. You should take over a place here,” Dani contemplates out loud.

It isn’t something I haven’t thought about, but I don’t want to take over Nate’s space with my stuff. He has a bonus room upstairs that has so much natural lighting and a huge picture window overlooking his backyard. When I first walked into the room, something that he had been using for a man cave type game room, I couldn’t help but think of what a perfect space it would be to set up my easel and get lost.

His property is set away from the road, gated and secluded. When you stand in that room and look out the window, all you can see is the beautiful woods, the small creek, and the birds flying around. The trees aren’t heavy back there, not like they are around the sides and front of his property, so the sun just gives a shadowed grayness to the land.

I’ve already decided that I would be painting it soon. My phone was quickly filling up with various angles and images from his woods and property in general.

“I’m here!”

All three of us turn when Stella comes bursting into the kitchen, where we have currently set up command central to get me ready for the show tonight. She rushes into the room and I notice that she’s empty-handed, making what nerves I had been able to settle pick back up.

“Uh,” I start.

“It’s coming. I had a tagalong that I just couldn’t shake when it was discovered where I was headed.”

That’s when I notice the heavy clicks of heels against the floor. There is only one person I know who takes that heavy of a step when in heels.

Sway.

Or Dilbert ‘Sway’ Harrison III.

He’s not only one-half of Stella’s fathers, as in plural, but he also owns the very popular salon, Sway’s, that my sister, Dani, and Stella work at. He’s gotten a lot of hype after the reality show aired a few years ago, Sway All the Way, and things just keep getting bigger and bigger for him and the girls at the salon.

But more importantly, he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to fashion. I’ve known him my whole life and never thought anything but the best of the man who rocked designer fashions better than anyone else did. I’ve seen pictures of him from before all of our parents had kids, and this has always been him. Back then, he was always rocking a long blond wig, but these days, he has it shaped into a shoulder-length stylized mess of wavy curls.

Just because he’s a gay man who prefers the tight clothing from the women’s section doesn’t mean he can’t pull off jeans and a tee shirt from his husband’s closet too. He just has it all.

“Looking good, Sway,” Dani calls over my shoulder, and she isn’t wrong.

He has on some tight flare-legged black pants with a white button-down shirt tucked into his trim waist. He used to be a little overweight, but nowadays, he’s trimmed up and put on some muscle. Instead of his normal blond locks, though, he has his natural shaved black hair on display, something I know that even though he usually has covered up, he takes great pains to make sure his grays don’t ever show.