The hidden painting chapter 13

Cindy decides to keep her head down after the visit to Fleming Place and the near kiss with Jasper…for the sake of Melina. She doesn’t like her, thinking her a gold digger, but she also refuses to be ‘the other woman’ in Jaspers life!

As she continues to contemplate whether to tell Jasper about the painting or not, she tries to put it towards the back of her mind, in a compartment which locks with a metaphorical key!

Cindy tries to do her best to keep Jasper on track for his deadline with his publisher! It’s a hard task, but someone has to do it! She finds that she is entering more information into the program Jasper wrote for the project, but notices that he’s not even reading it!

She decides to keep gathering the information, and even contemplates writing the bloody thing for him!

New questions hit her at strange times of the day, which she writes down, and when there are a few of them clustered together in ‘the bible’, which has grown into two notebooks now, she rings the ever helpful Julius.

Julius, being such a lovely man, begins to start ringing her on a regular basis also, usually when things crop up in his mind that he thinks are pertinent. These are things that she would have never considered asking as he was the one who knew Arthur the best. He nursed him through the short time he had left on earth, and when he studied the layout for the fifth book, Julius emailed it to Cindy, highlighting the details he thought to be interesting, writing little notes beside the passages. He asks her to read it and consider the impact the last book would have had in comparison to the strange haste the last two chapters were dictated to him by his uncle.

Cindy begins to get the impression that Julius, who is as invested in the biography as herself and Jasper, is beginning to like hearing her voice!

Cindy asks Jasper, even with Melina there, constantly demanding his attention, to have a meeting about Arthur on a daily basis. Jasper agrees, the deadline looming closer each day which seems to bother Cindy more than it bothers him.

She notices Jasper is torn between Arthur and Melina, who to Cindy, seems to be buying a lot of high end products. She overhears a discussion between them, on her way to get some coffee, where Melina asks for her own credit card, one with her name on it. She hears Jasper cave and, inhales loudly unexpectantly, alerting them that she is approaching. She sees him glance in her direction as she enters the kitchen, rolling his eyes, presuming she had overheard as Melina isn’t one to converse in any other way but loudly. She thinks her Latin heritage is the culprit!

 

After the daily meeting the next Saturday, Jasper announces that he is having a dinner party. ‘It’s just going to be some close friends, but I’d love for you to attend!’

Cindy is taken aback by the offer and accepts, saying, ‘I’ll be there with bells on!’ all the while wondering what she is going to wear. She has no other clothes but those few items she bought in the discount store, which are certainly not cut out to be dinner party attire!

Touched by the sentiment, she takes some of the cash her mother left her and goes out to purchase a nice dress, shoes, and a Wonderbra for the occasion. She is hoping that there might be someone nice there who she gets along with, and possibly get laid!

Not having anyone in an intimate setting since before poor Mr Godfree died, Mike no help when she moved in, she yearns to be touched and caressed in a way that gets her blood boiling again! She is always living in the hope that it is Jasper who does it, but she is so desperate that anyone will do…well as long as she feels chemistry between them!

 

That night, she arrives downstairs after spending an hour getting ready, in a tight red dress, and matching red high heels, her legs shaved along with everywhere else, and presents herself to Jasper. He doesn’t seem to be able to get over how good she looks. This makes her feel beautiful, but she continuously has to remind herself that he is with Melina!

As the dinner party is underway, Melina spends most of her time talking Spanish to her friend, Franco, who, in Cindy’s mind, is being inappropriate with her, touching her whenever he gets the chance. Thankfully, Jasper is oblivious as he has five more friends to converse with, not including Cindy!

By the end of the night, Cindy feels like she dressed up for no reason as she and Jasper are the only two left. Melina, who is usually constantly by Jaspers side, offered to drive Franco, who drank a little more wine than she did, to his cousins house across town where he is staying. This surprises Cindy, but not to the point where she feels the need to warn Jasper that she thinks a break up might be on the horizon!

Cindy and Jasper decide that they might as well wash up after all the guests, and Melina, leave. Neither of them sees the point of coming down to a dirty kitchen the next morning. They do rock, paper, scissors, to see who washes and who dries. Cindy wins, even best out of three and she decides to dry whilst he washes, the pair of them moving like a well oiled machine!

‘So,’ Cindy probes, ‘how are you and Melina getting along?’

‘Well…’ Jasper starts, wincing as he informs Cindy, ‘…I’m going to propose to her on her birthday!’

Cindy feels like the wind has been knocked out of her. ‘What?’ she says, with more surprise in her tone than she meant.

‘Yea!’ he smiles, ‘a ring is better than a Bentley!’

‘That’s why you’re getting married?’ Cindy says to herself. All she shows outwardly is genuine concern for a man she is desperately falling in love with. She then wonders, ‘am I just thinking this way because I want him? He could love this woman more than air and want to marry her because he wants her to have his children and them to grow old together. He might want to, one day, play with their grandchildren together, and that they are actually very good for each other in a way she’s not seeing threw her tinted lenses!’

‘That’s great!’ she chokes down as she puts the last plate away.

‘Yea, but it’s a surprise so…mums the word!’ he says putting his right index finger to his nose.

Cindy imitates him, putting her finger to her nose as well, all the while thinking, ‘I wish you would propose to me!’

As she fakes a yawn, Cindy apologises and turns to head to bed. Just as Jasper’s phone begins to ring, he puts his finger up indicating he wants her to stay.

‘What do you mean you had a bottle of tequila?’ Jasper says, his brow furrowed.

Cindy guesses its Melina on the line.

‘You’re staying there overnight?’ he says with surprise, obviously noticing Franco’s advances on his soon to be wife!

‘Well OK then!’ he says and looks at Cindy worriedly.

‘Hello!’ he says into the phone, looking at the screen to see if Melina is still on the line. She obviously isn’t because he begins to shake his head in disbelief.

Jasper asks Cindy, ‘do you fancy a night cap?’

Cindy is torn. She knows Jasper, her friend, needs her. But also, Jasper, the guy she has chemistry with, is asking her to drink with him…alone!

Cindy decides to be a friend and answers, ‘you took the words right out of my mind!’ praying that, even though, she didn’t like Melina, didn’t think her good enough for Jasper, that she please keep that creep Franco’s hands off her!

 

As they sit on the back porch, Cindy feeling tipsy, Jasper downing Melina’s ‘secret’ stash of tequila like it’s about to turn bad, words begin to fly out of her mouth! She opens the box that she put the information about the painting in with the metaphorical key and divulges everything to him. The painting, the attic…everything!

As Cindy braces herself for Jasper to flip and kick her out there and then, instead he looks stunned! There is no anger in his face, or betrayal, he just looks…surprised.

‘So you came here to fulfil your mothers dying wish?’ he asks, taking yet another gulp of the soon to be empty tequila bottle.

‘Yes!’ Cindy answers, her face wincing, still expecting the anger to come.

‘I can understand that!’ he says, surprising Cindy so much that her jaw drops. Jasper notices her reaction! ‘I suppose you were afraid to tell me in case I’d be mad at you!’ he asks, to which she nods.

‘Family is an important thing!’ he states. ‘Had my mother been in that very same situation, of course she would like me to gain financial stability and fulfil her wish!’

Cindy nods again, chugging on the tequila bottle which is going down like water!

Jasper chuckles, ‘don’t look so surprised!’ he says putting his hand on his chest, ‘I don’t have your painting, and, if I did, I would happily give it back to you!’

Cindy touches his cheek with her index finger to make sure she isn’t dreaming. ‘How can you be so understanding?’ she asks, certain that this is indeed the ‘real’ Jasper talking!

‘Do you know what its worth?’ he asks, looking at her, knowing her financial struggles.

‘Enough!’ she simply replies.

‘Do you think your father might have found it? After all, he was a bit of a gambler!’

Cindy begins to tell Jasper about Lois, ‘she informed me that he had made ten times more money than could be counted!’

‘Did you get any of it?’ Jasper enquires, his eyebrows raised.

‘I didn’t even know the man was dead!’ Cindy divulges, ‘not until Lois informed me!’

Jasper opens his eyes widely and whistles, ‘wow!’ he whispers, taking the bottle from Cindy and chugging on it himself!

The pair begin to talk about where the painting might be. They discuss her father, Jasper telling her things she knew nothing about!

‘I knew he had a kid, but I was told she died!’ he informs her.

‘I guess to him…I was dead!’ she answers reaching for the empty tequila bottle.

Jasper looks at her and smiles. ‘I am going to do everything in my power to help you find your painting Cindy Spencer!’ he says and winks at her. ‘But first, I must get you to bed!’

‘Me too!’ Cindy slurs, stumbling into the patio furniture as she gets up, Jasper catching her.

Jasper tries to help the very drunk Cindy up the stairs, but as the second step comes, she feels him lift her and carry her the rest of the way!

 

As the alarm goes off on Sunday morning, Cindy hits it with gusto, the beeping going through her head like a searing hot poker. She notices she is still in the tight red dress, and is laying on her side, a pillow behind her back, a bin on the ground in front of her! She wonders, ‘how did I get to bed?’

Not a second later, her body jolts upright as she remembers telling jasper about the painting! She puts her hands to her mouth and runs towards the ensuite, vomiting violently into the toilet, praying he took her explanation well!