Half-Finished Wine Glasses

Who knew that achieving your dreams could be so lonely? Certainly not Olivia Reedy. She’d been working towards this moment her entire life and, even then, this was only the beginning of what she wanted to do.

A solo art exhibition, however small, in New York was not something to be disappointed with. She knew that. She was genuinely happy that she’d made it this far this young and still had so much more that she could do next.

But something was missing. She felt lonely. The more she looked at her art, the more it seemed to taunt her; her paintings had each other, but she had no one. That didn’t make sense, though, because she had her family, her friends, her fellow artists – she wasn’t really alone. Just single.

Nearly everyone she knew or had ever known had been to her opening night tonight. Her extended family, her friends, co-workers, even old friends from high school dropped by to say congratulations. But, she guessed, none of them had stayed. And now I’m spending the last hour of it all by myself.

With the evening almost over, her parents had just said goodbye to go check-in to their hotel a few blocks away from her apartment. They wanted to go to bed early so they could catch the Phantom matinee (for the 40th time) tomorrow morning. Olivia was still looking for a way out of it.

You’d think that with a city as big as New York they’d want to do something – anything – else when they visited her after they’d seen it the first time, but her parents were creatures of habit. Ever since her mom had played Christine that one time in college, she felt it her solemn duty to review every other Christine’s performance and rank them. The woman must have a thousand playbills by now.

Olivia chuckled to herself. She looked back around at the almost empty gallery and wondered, what she should do next?

Her friends that had stopped by – Elise, Addison, and Kaden – had left hours ago for a celebratory drink on Olivia’s behalf. Or maybe there was a show they wanted to see? She couldn’t remember. Should she text them and see where they are? Celebrate with them? It was a better option than just going home to be alone.

“Impressive.”

A deep voice full of something familiar startled her from behind. Olivia swung around to see her good friend Liam Schmitt smiling at her and holding two, full wine glasses containing deep red potions.

“I like the way you painted the fire.” Liam sauntered towards her, grinning from ear to ear. She wasn’t expecting to see him, and he could tell. He loved that he’d been able to surprise her.

“Thank you, but I thought you couldn’t get off work to come see my show?” Olivia was so surprised, in fact, that she didn’t even see the wine glass he’d extended towards her. He raised the glass to her face and tapped the tip of her nose with it to get her attention.

“It’s red, your favorite. I got the last two glasses before they took them back to the kitchen.” He grinned at his good fortune.

“It’s merlot,” she corrected, smirking back. “I thought you’d planned to come tomorrow morning? Don’t you have a restaurant to run?”

“I do, you’re right. But you said this was a big deal so I got another sous-chef to cover the rest of my shift tonight.”

“And how does your work wife feel about that?” Olivia coyly took a sip of her wine at the same time she asked, having the perfect excuse to avert his eyes when she did.

Liam turned full face to admire her art. “She was actually the one who offered to take the rest of my shift.”

“Oh?” Olivia also turned to face the gallery wall. For whatever reason, it seemed easier to talk together that way.

“Yeah,” he said casually, “she told me to ‘treat important things like they’re important.’ Plus, I deserve a night off.”

Olivia smiled to herself as Liam took a quick peek at her to see her reaction. Perfectly timed, he caught it right before it disappeared into Olivia’s wine glass. She needed a moment to think because her first response to his comment was ‘Glad to know my show is important to you,’ but that was way too serious. She needed something else.

“What do you think of this one?” She gestured towards her painting in front of them by toasting it. The pair stood close together, with a friendly distance of course, and took it in.

It was an oil painting of a centaur and a sphinx lounging with other mythical creatures around a hearth fire at what looked to be a party. They each had flowers dotting their hair, fur, mane, and neck. A jug of spilled wine ran like a river between the two and it looked as if it had just been knocked over by the centaur who was rearing, ready to run and clutching at his chest. A thin, shimmery arrow had struck him there. The sphinx looked as if she were about to hurl with her back arched like a Halloween cat and her wings puffed up and ready for flight. She also had a thin, shimmery arrow sticking through her chest that matched the centaur’s. They both wore a furiously blushing look of absolute horror. The piece was titled: An Immovable Object Meets an Unstoppable Force.

“I like it. Lots of Greek mythology vibes and not a lot of modern artists paint in this style so it’s fun to see it come back. The arrows look like they’re from Cupid since they were both able to hit the centaur and the sphinx in the middle of a party without anybody else noticing. The spilled wine next to the fire feels important but I’m not sure how yet. Your framing is dynamic, it feels like you’re telling a story and I want to know more.” He swallowed another taste of his own wine as he continued to admire her work. “Centaurs are so cool. You did such a great job with his anatomy which is why I'm sad that I don’t see more horse cock.”

Liam beamed at his own joke and looked back at her, expecting a witty retort or at least a laugh. But he found only Olivia’s large eyes taking him in.

His first instinct was to look away, but something told him not to. His second instinct was to be offended since she looked like she didn’t know him, but she actually looked shocked, impressed even, with a hint of blush creeping up her neck. His third instinct, and the one he listened to, was to just look at her and wait.

Olivia wanted to answer but found herself just staring at him. How long had he been into art?

Suddenly, she caught herself thinking about how nice it was to spend time with him. How long they had been friends and how much she trusted him. She knew his career was incredibly important to him and he took off work to make sure that he could come see her opening night. Then she thought about how long she’d just been staring at him without saying anything.

Maybe it was the wine she’d had, or maybe thinking too hard about being lonely earlier – maybe some mystical, divine inspiration possessed her.

Whatever it was, Olivia decided to be brave.

“Would you like to go out on a date? With me?”

She could feel how stupid the blush on her face probably looked as it spread across to her ears, but she could barely breathe let alone be self-conscious as she waited for his response. He looked at her as if he was seeing something too good to be true.

Liam downed more merlot and placed his half-finished wine glass on a table nearby. It looked like he was making her wait for an answer, but he just needed a moment so he didn’t say anything stupid.

“What kind of a date are you thinking?” he quipped.

Hope started to fill Olivia’s eyes as anxiety drained from her face. She smiled at him, but not too big that it would be goofy. Just big enough that she would be really pretty.

“Maybe dinner? You could show me somewhere new – I’ve never had deep dish pizza before,” she offered.

“Really, Reedy? You’ve never had deep dish pizza and you’ve lived in Chicago? That’s just sad, I don’t know if I can fix that for you.”

“I only lived there during a summer internship! Cut me some slack.”

She playfully whapped him on the shoulder as they laughed and somehow the two of them ended up standing closer together. Olivia noticed. She thought about stepping away to be respectful, but instead –

“What sort of date are you thinking, then? Assuming you say yes.”

She quickly hid her face in her wine, taking a big swig to make sure she didn’t say anything else that stupid. Her head started to spin. He hadn’t really said yes to her. Was he going to say no if she didn’t have any ideas for a first date? Should she have stipulated that she wanted it to be a romantic date?

“I’ve never been to the opening night of an art gallery before. That would be a great first date.” Liam’s face was almost unreadable as he said it, which confused Olivia even more.

“But you came to mine tonight? That counts.”

Liam smirked at her reply, frustratingly charming. Olivia could tell there was some game afoot and it peeved her that she couldn’t figure it out.

“And I’m so glad I did. Great art, great wine, great conversation…” he trailed off.

He looked at her hoping she’d put together all his hints. Unfortunately, she was still so worried he’d say no, that her face started twisting up into what could only be described as a bemused grimace. Terrifying inspiration struck Liam as he looked at her and he suddenly realized what he had to do next.

He took a deep breath and decided to be brave.

“Maybe, Olivia, right now is our first date. Maybe I could take you out to dinner once this is over? And that could be our second date.”

Olivia’s face turned so completely red she began to blend in with the forgotten wine still in her hands. Her goofy smile came out, unable to be held back anymore – she was just too giddy.

Liam saw the wine and gently took it out of her hands. He turned, quickly placed her glass next to his on the lonely table and whipped around hoping to see more of her goofy smile. The goofy had been tamed but a smile and her unruly blush remained. The two stood even closer together than before.

“So?” he asked breathlessly.

“I would love that,” she beamed.

Before either of them could think any more, Liam grabbed Olivia and Olivia wrapped her arms around Liam; they held each other in a way that felt like coming home.

And although they couldn’t see it, they both had huge, stupid grins on their faces.