Everyone gazed around the room, speechless. After a moment, people gravitated toward the paintings and the conversation was soon as loud as the music.
I walked around the room with the gang, looking at all the art. I made comments about the portraits I’d seen Nikolos working on at his house. They all looked amazing and had lots of character. But my favorite was still his portrait of Spiridon, maybe because I knew Spiridon so well and the portrait practically breathed when I looked at it.
As for Spiridon’s landscapes, I’d seen some of them before, but not all. In any case, I’d never seen them properly lit in a gallery. They glowed from their frames like portals to another reality. You could feel the breeze on your face or the sun in your eyes. Amazing.
“These paintings are incredible,” Kamiko said. “It’s almost like I can smell the ocean breeze in Spiridon’s art like I’m right there. It’s unreal.”
“I know, right?” I said, in total agreement.
“She’s just smelling my farts,” Romeo joked.
“Romeo,” Kamiko’s face pinched into a grimace, “your farts smell nothing like an ocean breeze. Believe me, I know.”
I threw my head back and laughed.
We finally worked our way through the crowd to Christos’ paintings. We’d all seen the female nudes before in the studio. But none of the gang had seen the LOVE portrait of me and Christos.
“I can see your boobies!” Romeo said.
I blushed instantly. This is what I was worried about.
“Don’t worry, Sam,” Madison said. “Half the planet has boobies, and the other half has seen them before.”
I rolled my eyes. I hoped nobody recognized me. I’d forgotten to bring a disguise. Oh well. Maybe there was too much chaos in the gallery for anyone to notice I was the naked girl in the life size painting hanging on the wall under a spotlight.
Some older guy beside me in a tux was glancing between my face and the painting, back and forth.
“Yeah,” Romeo said to the guy, “that’s her.”
I rolled my eyes, “Thanks, Romeo,” I hissed sarcastically.
“Any time,” he giggled.
The older guy said, “It’s an amazing likeness. That’s Christos with you in the portrait, isn’t it?”
I nodded.
“I’ve never seen an artist do a self portrait with a woman beside him,” the man said.
“She’s his girlfriend,” Romeo said, “That’s why the painting is called LOVE.”
“That’s wonderful,” the man smiled, then turned to a woman with silver hair who was obviously his wife. She smiled at me before the two of them examined the portrait in detail.
“Romeo,” I asked, “how do you know so much about Christos’ paintings?”
Romeo said, “Oh, uh…”
“What the fuck!” Kamiko literally shouted. She was several paces ahead of us. “I can’t believe it!”
“What!” Mads said, pulling Jake along as she moved to see what Kamiko was talking about.
I followed them until we all stood before a huge portrait. Of Romeo. Jumping in the air exactly like Mario from Donkey Kong. Romeo was dressed in his traditional black steampunk attire. His monocle hung suspended in the air on the S curve of the monocle string. Romeo too was suspended in mid flight, his arms thrust down with his fingers splayed, his jacket billowing out around him, his knees flung forward and back like he was hurdling over something. He had the largest open mouthed smiled I’d ever seen. The painting was beautiful.
“What’s it say on the card?” Kamiko asked. “What’s the title?”
Madison leaned down and read it. “It just says, ‘Romeo’.”
Romeo grinned, “Because that’s all it needs to say.”
Christos squeezed through the crowd. “What do you think?” he asked me.
“I love it!” I smiled. “When did you do it? I had no idea you were working on this.”
He cocked his eyebrow, “Whenever you were working at my dad’s house.”
“It’s so good, Christos,” Madison said.
“Thanks,” he smiled. “Hey Jake, I’m loving the tux.”
Jake glanced down at his T shirt tux. “Seriously?”
Christos gave Jake a thumbs up. ‘Only you, bro.”
Jake grinned and nodded while they bumped fists.
At that moment, I happened to notice that two paintings between Christos’ other paintings still had black silk over them. One of them was really big. “What’s up with the two covered paintings?”
“It’s a surprise,” he flashed his dimpled grin at me.
“Oh really?”
“You’re going to love it.”
“Like I love the LOVE painting?”
He nodded, “Yeah.”
“I can’t wait!”
“Well, I’ve got to keep circling,” Christos said. “People are asking questions a mile a minute.”
“Okay,” I waved as he was swallowed by the crowd.
He wasn’t exaggerating. Everyone wanted to talk to him. They all looked up at him with sparkling eyes, in awe of the rockstar artist. I was so proud of him.
At one point, the gang had wandered off to look at more art. I stood talking to Spiridon and Nikolos in front of one of Spiridon’s large landscapes.
Brandon suddenly squeezed through the crowd and stuck a red dot on the landscape. “Another one sold,” he smiled at Spiridon.
“How many is that?” Spiridon asked him.
“Nine, and more on the way,” Brandon smiled.
“Hey, Brandon” Nikolos said, “who’s selling more, me or dad?”
“Right now, Spiridon has you by two.”
Spiridon clapped Nikolos on the back, “I told you I’ve still got it.”
“Yeah,” Nikolos said to him, “but Brandon says I’m catching up. Brandon, go sell more of my paintings.”
Brandon grinned and shook his head, “They’re all selling.”
Nikolos chuckled, “Well, just make sure more of mine sell. Can’t let the old man show me up.”
Spiridon rolled his eyes. “Ahh, youth,” he grinned.
“So,” Brandon said to Spiridon, “tell me something. I’ve been trying to get you to sell these landscapes for years.” He motioned to the paintings on the walls. “But you said you wouldn’t because they meant too much to you. You even turned down Stanford Wentworth’s offer for the lot a few months ago. Why’d you change your mind now?”
Spiridon shrugged his shoulders. “You yourself told Christos he needed more paintings on the wall if he wanted a successful show. I wanted my grandson to have a successful show. It’s that simple. Seeing him succeed means more to me than keeping these old paintings.”
Nikolos nodded agreement. “The more the merrier, right?”
Brandon nodded. “I can’t thank you both enough for agreeing to do this. And thank you, Nikolos, for suggesting it. I’m so glad Christos agreed to it. And you, too, Spiridon.”
“It’s the least we could do,” Spiridon said, “for family.”
Nikolos nodded.
“Well, thank you,” Brandon said. “This is truly a historic event.”
“Yes it is,” Spiridon said reverently.
Everyone was in such a good mood, it was contagious.
Brandon smiled, “I need to get back to it. People are waiting for me because they want to buy more art,” He raised both eyebrows and smiled before withdrawing into the ocean of people in tuxes and black dresses.
I glanced at the placard on Spiridon’s painting. The price tag read, $475,000. Jesus Christ, the Manos family made money like crazy when it came to selling their art.
“Where did you paint this one, Spiridon?” I asked, motioning toward the landscape. It was a gorgeous painting of sun breaking through clouds over a huge mountain valley.