Post by perri alexis baines on Mar 31, 2020 10:49:14 GMT -5
This night was going to be one of the most awkward in Perri’s life. Typically, an Orion exhibition saw her in a nice dress, playing the role of a mysterious art fan who simply hovered, enjoyed the champagne, and who eventually slipped away when no one was looking to handle the business side of her night. Sometimes it was straightforward, other times there were multiple people fighting for the pieces and she had to make decisions as to whether she wanted to raise the price – as her manager loved – or if she would just say it belonged to whoever had wanted it first. Art wasn’t about the money for Perri. She just had to paint, and her success was simply a way of ensuring her studio wasn’t something out of hoarders. During her whole secret lifestyle, she had never considered that she might date someone who was a fan of Orion. When Wilder revealed his love for the artwork, Perri managed to eventually shrug it off; it wasn’t like Orion wandered the streets of New York and made friends. She still felt uncomfortable knowing how much money Wilder must have spent on those pieces – money that was now sitting pretty in a bank account – when she played the role of common bartender in New York City. She had never wanted her two lives to collide, but when Wilder produced tickets to the art exhibition, she could hardly say no. He knew she had been an art student, that she still doodled on napkins when O’Malley’s was quiet. There wasn’t a good enough excuse to say no and turn down his offer of a date.
She had explained all of this to a stressed-out Victor, who insisted that Perri started making his life easier, not harder. He’d been her agent from the start; one of only two people who knew that she was Orion (with the other being his most trusted assistant). Perri had arrived at the gallery in the afternoon, did all of her checks and run throughs with Victor early before racing home to change for her date and pretend like she hadn’t seen any of this evening in the morning. This was going to be difficult, but Perri enjoyed a challenge. She brushed her hair out straight, slipped into a scarlet dress that cost a little more than she would normally spend on a date outfit, but this was a weird date for Perri. She was mixing her normal world with her art world and that meant things were going to be a little out of the ordinary for her. She wanted to focus on Wilder tonight, to enjoy him appreciating the art she had made in a tiny studio in downtown Brooklyn. She didn’t, however, want him to pay an exuberant amount for another Orion piece for his apartment. It felt weird knowing someone who had actually purchased some of her work. They had always been strangers, names on bits of paper before now.
Perri slipped her feet into the fancy heels reserved for exhibition nights. They were a ridiculously expense pair of black Jimmy Choo’s, but they went with every fancy dress she owned. If she was at the gallery she wanted to blend in, and that often meant overpriced outfits she’d never wear on her day to day. Perri was happy in old running shoes, worn in boots, and band shirts that were starting to fade under one of her usual denim jackets. This version of herself was the one she never wanted to become the daily reality. She had money, yes, could afford a lot more than she let on, but Perri didn’t want to. She was happy the way she was and that was one of the reasons why she worked under a mysterious alias in the art world.
She told Wilder she’d meet him downstairs when he arrived. Perri had a fear that if he made it through her front door she might try to entice him into staying home tonight. If she did that her phone would blow up with angry messages and voicemails. This way made it easier to get this weird evening started. As soon as her phone pinged with his message she left, saying goodbye to Pan as she locked up and took one last deep breath to steady herself for what lay ahead. She greeted Wilder with a smile and a kiss. “Have you been to one of these shows before?” She had never seen him, and she felt like she would have noticed him amongst everyone else. However, Perri was forgetting that she was playing invisible at almost all of her previous shows.
• • •
TAGGED! Wilder Ezra Bishop
WORDS! 779!
LYRICS! You and I - - - PVRIS
NOTES! <3
