Fire and Sweets (Book 3 of Wolves of Milano)

5. Paintings

Half an hour after she came home, Kara is regretting the decision to do this exhibition at all. How does she choose among her paintings? Which deserves to go and which doesn’t? What is good enough for this anyway? Suddenly she can find flaws in everything. The colours, the compositions, the way she inserted her signature. She can’t do this! What was she thinking? She’s an amateur, she has no business to play with the pross.  

“Kara! I need your help!” Teo barges into her room. He is all disheveled and panicked. She raises an eyebrow at his looks, but she is not too worried about it.

“What happened? Did you get into a fight?” She asks him. It’s not like her little brother to be in trouble at all. The little nerd is universally loved by all his classmates.

“No. I forgot to read a book and the assignment is due tomorrow.” Teo looks at her in panic. One small thing threw him off his cool game so much? That is hard to believe, so she smiles gently and thinks this will be good. Not to be gleeful at his predicament, but the perfect child is just human and he proved it to her.

“Stop panicking! It doesn’t look good on you.” She smiles at him. “Which book?”

“The Divine Comedy.”He tells her.

“Ah. I see. Even an all night reading can’t save you there.” Kara smirks. She has an idea on how to help him, and he can help her in return, but she can draw out the suspense a bit. To annoy him. Suits him right. The nerd has forgotten something for school? Never happened before. Is the family drama catching up with him?

“Please do something.” Teo begs her. Begging? Nice touch, she thinks to herself.

“Here’s the deal.” She winks. “You choose five of my paintings to go on display at the gallery and I will give you my old literature assignments folder. Just be good and copy it, it has to be your handwriting. Maybe you even leave out a few lines?”

“You’re a lifesaver. All your paintings are good, but if you need five, I can single those out in a minute.” Teo smiles brightly. She likes to see him in a good mood. 

“Pick out your favourites.” Kara tells him and hands over her folder.

“Where will the display be? What made you decide to finally do it?” He inquires while he selects five of her paintings. She has a nice stash of those just leaning against the wall. All her work, just waiting to be handed out as presents. Making some money for new supplies might be a new thing for her, but it comes welcomed. She has a good paycheck from Rialto, but her art is costly. She needs new brushes and canvases. She will take the earnings and splurge in her favourite art shop.

“Galleria d'Arte Moderna. I promised Ilona’s mother to help them out. One of her friends canceled and the opening is on Thursday.” Kara explains. “I’m nervous as hell. I thought she was talking about one of those small private galleries and she drops the bomb on me with this!”

“Don’t worry. You’re good. You’re Kara ‘freaking’ Tottzi! You can do anything. You are The Queen of Milano.” Teo laughs. “Just be you.”

She looks at her brother and she knows she must seem ridiculous right now. Her mouth hanging open and gapping, she is at a loss for words. What is the kid talking about? She is a nobody, hiding in her mother’s kitchen. Did she miss something? Is her brother coming down with something? Is he ill? He looks all right, so it’s not something she can see. She doesn’t feel anything, either. Her wolf would alert her if there was something wrong with Teo. So what is this all about? She? A queen? 

“What are you talking about?” Kara asks. Her confusion must be plainly visible.

“You never check your own social media? Not one of your friends said anything to you?” Teo looks surprised. “Not even Andrea?”

“Tell me what?” She wonders. She never looks at her f*******: or i********:. Teo is the moderator for both. She never even uploaded a picture.

“You were crowned The queen of Sweets. All of Italy is talking about it. Haven’t you seen an influx of reservations at Rialto? No new catering requests?” Teo smiles. “It’s all over the internet.”

“I wondered about the catering, but I haven’t seen anything out of order. You know I don’t do the floor. I hate to be seen out front.” Kara shrugs. “I can live with the title if the restaurant does better because of it.”

“You are funny, sis.” Teo laughs. “You have to check your social media sometimes. You might be surprised. People love you. You have over a million followers on i********:. I have no idea how you walk around Milano and nobody talks to you. Maybe I should stop touching up your photos? Leave a few unedited and maybe people will recognise you on the street?”

“What are you talking about? Show me.” Kara caves in. Her curiosity got the better of her after all. She wants to know. 

“Take out your phone, you have everything. You just never use it.” Teo nudges her. “Open the app and look at what I set up. There are a few others that follow your new creations and post what they had at Rialto. I get most of the pictures from you or Andrea, but there are so many others.” Teo explains to her. 

“But it’s mostly sweets.” She says and scrolls through her profile. It feels weird to look at herself online. “Where did you get those pictures? I don’t look like that in real life.”

“That’s what photoshop is for. I edit and play with colours.” Teo smiles. “Admit it. You look good.”

“I do. Maybe you deserve a raise?” Kara laughs. She might give him something extra for all his trouble.

“Nah. It’s fine. I love you. And you gave me your literature folder. This will be amazing. I might even get some sleep this year. Who thought High school would be so demanding?” Teo winks at her.

“Oh? You can’t just breeze through?” Kara inquires.

“I can. Most of the time. It’s all the extras I thought would be fun. I might have to cut back on a few things.” Teo shrugs. “We’ll see. I hate to spoil my average.”

She smiles at that. He doesn’t have an average, he has straight A’s. The little nerd has never gotten any other grade in his life. It must be devastating to him to experience a forgotten assignment.  A bad grade would mean the end of his world. She knows he is not spending most of his time actually learning. He is gifted with a photographic memory, he only needs to read or hear something once to know it. His games are an escape from the real world, just as her painting is. Coming back to paintings, she thinks about marketing. What to do and how to help? 

“Maybe I should ask Devana and Mattias if they would welcome a post about the exhibition. Do you think that would be OK? Letting people know that I paint?” Kara asks him. She might help expose the exhibition to the public, but is that really a good idea? How do you market something like this? Do you show the paintings online? 

“You have no idea about marketing? Ask first.” Teo smiles. “Who is Mattias? What does he do?”

“He is an art appraiser from Switzerland. He works on the exhibition with Devana.” Kara shrugs. She wonders why this is relevant, but she can’t understand how her brother’s mind works. His thinking is completely different than hers.

“So, he does the marketing!” Teo exclaims. “When do you see him? Tell him about your social pages and set up something to post. Where, when, who, those are the things you need. I can do everything else, but he has to give you those.”

“Ugh! Can you just get in touch with him? You can find him at Galleria d'Arte Moderna every day. I have too much to think about with the restaurant.” Kara grunts. For some reason she can’t shake, she is keen on avoiding Mattias. There is something about that man that disturbs her peace of mind.

“Sure. After school.” Teo shrugs.

“Which paintings did you choose?” She asks her brother.

“These.” Teo smiles and sets five of her favorites aside. “I think your works are great, but somehow these few stand out. For me, at least. I hope I helped you? Now I have to go copy the assignment. Thanks for this.” 

“Did you eat? Did you see mom today?” Kara inquires before he has an opportunity to escape her.

“I warmed up some leftovers. I guess mom was in the kitchen sometime in between, because there was fresh food on the stove. I hope she stops sullking and deals with this thing.” Teo nods at her.

“Me too.” Kara tells him. “But I have a bad feeling.”

She wraps up her paintings one by one. It would be bad to damage one now. She trusts her brother. The kid has impeccable taste, he was raised in the kitchen. He has lived with art since birth. It doesn’t matter what it is, he lets everyone know what he thinks. He is honest to a fault. 

‘He never said anything bad about your art.’ Her wolf comments.

‘No. But he is a critic of my sweets. He always tells when he thinks something won’t work.’ Kara answers. 

‘True. He’s a special one.’ The wolf muses.

Kara makes a request with her favourite courier service for an early morning pick up. She doesn’t want to transport the paintings with her catering van. She doesn’t have anything to fix them with. The van has slots for trays and stands, it’s not fit for paintings. She knows it’s a cowardly move to not go with them, but she can make excuses later. She is still responsible for Rialto, she can’t just abandon the restaurant for this new project.

Thinking about Rialto in the evening is not productive. She better start her yoga routine to calm down. She needs to sleep to function. A professional kitchen is not a good place to be if you are sleepy. Accidents are prone to happen and she tries to avoid them as much as possible. She might heal faster, because she is a shifter, but most of her kitchen crew are humans. Some of them know about shifters, but most don’t. Explaining things is not her forte. And some of the people there are not to be trusted with such a big secret. The blabber mouths would tell the whole world.

Getting a steaming hot shower and emptying her mind is her prefered way to relax. Fast on track with the breathing exercises, she says good night to her wolf and falls into bed. She is happy how the day turned out and grateful for this new opportunity in life. Devana could not come back to Milano at a better time.