Welcome to Gaia! ::

“So you finally got the balls to give him a call hm?” Imara smirked as she followed her friend to the address Sonia had been given. After showing her the drawing, Imara would have to admit that she might have been taunting the girl to call the man. Heck, he gave her his number and was good with his hands.

Enough of a reason.

Sonia had not given her enough of a reason not to go. So, Imara agreed to escort her. Just to make sure the man wasn’t a creep after all. Even without her bow and arrows the girl could still put up a fight. “Sure this is the right place?”

With a roll of her eyes and a rather undignified half snort half laugh sound, Sonia passed her phone to Imara so she could see the screen. ”According to Google Maps it is.” Not that the app had never been wrong before, but at least her Android was far more reliable than the iPhone in terms of giving directions.

“Should I call and let him know we’re here or do you want to just go up and ring the bell?” It would save them the embarrassment of knocking on the wrong studio door. Plus, he could be one of those creepers looking to lure two beautiful women into his place just to do weird things to them… That particular train of thought cause a burst of laughter to erupt from the young Spaniard. Yeah, no… worst case scenario between the two of them, they could handle themselves.

“No time like the present.” And Imara walked in and headed for the door number she thought she had seen on Sonia’s screen. Counting as she walked, she looked over her shoulder. “What’s so funny?”

And then she knocked, more like beat, the door.

The brunet shook her head, though the grin remained in place. “Nothing, don’t worry about it. So what are you going to say if he asks to draw you hmm?” Sure Imara was a bit rough around the edges but she was still an attractive woman.

Sonia shifted the bag’s strap over some so it didn’t give her a knot in her shoulder from resting in the same place for too long.

Mathias had been expecting the knock. He had been surprised by Sonia’s call, having kind of expected it to be a wash. After all, she probably thought he was either hitting on her (which wasn’t entirely inaccurate), or creeping on her (which he hoped was not the case). The third and most unlikely option was that she actually thought it had been a legitimate offer (which also wasn’t entirely inaccurate). The “studio” was actually an apartment. Located on the bottom floor of the complex. It was where, for lack of proper space aside from the school campus, Mathias did his work. He was thankful for his two bedroom one-and-a-half bathroom apartment. While he was technically unemployed, he had been making a living selling what art he could, and getting a quarterly injection of money from his mother. Well he had been, at any rate. He’d found a much better, if not as steady source of income in his art and other activities, which more than paid for his rent half the time. Still, his focus now was his art.

He had gone to great pains to clean the apartment, not that it was by any means a sty. Mathias had a bad habit of cleaning if he got bored, and he was bored often as of late. It had taken him a remarkably short time to clean his apartment to a level he found fitting. He’d unlocked the door to his “studio” and had opened the door, and then closed his bedroom door. At the knock, Mathias rose from the couch over to the door. Pulling it open, he smiled.

“Ah, I’ve been-”

His eyes met with Imara’s and he could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He managed, by some act of divine providence to keep from swearing vocally, but he did stall for just a moment before his eyes drifted over to Sonia.

Oh, for f@cks sake.

“-expecting you.” He said, pulling the door open fully and stepping aside. “Please, come in, come in!” He waved them inside.

“Can I get you ladies anything? Something to drink?” He said, moving over to the kitchen that sat just to the right of the door when they entered.

The apartment had a fairly open floor plan. To their left was the living area, with decently plush brown carpet, a couch and smaller love seat. In front of the couch was coffee table with various art books and supplies. A remote to the T.V. and Cable box sat there as well. The T.V. was a 40” flat screen. It sat on a tv stand on the far left wall of the room. Straight ahead of them was two doors, both were closed. One presumably lead to his bedroom, the other to the half-bath.

the kitchen took up only a corner of the room to their right, separated by only a breakfast island. it was an alright size, given the apartment’s square footage. It was tiled, and the countertops were laminate. Slightly past the kitchen stood an open door, inside was a very visible stand easel and canvases stacked against the wall. Art supplies were arranged in neat stacks on a multitude of racks and containers. That was Mathias’ studio.

Imara was just about to open her mouth to question Sonia when she heard the click of a door lock. Turning her attention back to the door, she did not get a single word out when it was opened. However, she did not miss the pause.

Her brows furrowed as she followed his eyes towards Sonia and back to herself. Well this was getting interesting.

Entering first, her eyes quickly scanned the room. It was clean. Too clean for a single, straight male. She did after all have five brothers. She had seen the mess one could make. This surprised her. Either he was gay, had a girlfriend, had a maid, or was gunning for something.

A twisted smile played over her face as she looked back at Sonia. This was going to be fun.

“Nice to meet ya.” Imara offered their host a friendly smile. “I tagged along to see your work. Name’s Imara.” She offered quickly trying to break any tension left over from his shock seeing her. “What do you have in the fridge?”

And she slipped over towards the couch to plop herself down. Turning one of the art books, she looked at the cover.

“Wow…” Sonia remained in the doorway for several seconds as she watched Imara in disbelief. “Way to make yourself at home.” A wide amused grin soon spread across her face. Shaking her head she entered Mathias’ home and offered him an apologetic look.

In all honesty she shouldn’t have been all too surprised by her friends entrance considering she had done something similar to her the first the teal haired woman had visited.

“Water would be great please.” If they thought last weekend was hot at the boardwalk, today was just a bit worse with the added humidity.

“It’s fine, whatever makes you ladies comfortable,” Mathias said, waving the whole thing off. Frankly he honestly didn’t care so long as Imara didn’t trash the place. He’d kept anything particularly sensitive or hard to explain in his bedroom, which was closed. Not locked because he didn’t favor the prospect of spending two minutes with a jewel screwdriver unlocking it later.

This was a business first sort of transaction, though, Mathias was not going to deny that having two attractive women in his apartment was somewhat surreal. Granted he knew one to a degree but she was yet unaware of that, and the other he’d met only a week before. Still though, the fact that those two were friends made him want to either thank God or curse fate.

Both probably, he concluded.

“I have water,” he said to Sonia, popping open the fridge to grab a cold bottle of it and put it on the counter. “I also have Gatorade, Beer, various hard liquor and… I think I have wine floating around here somewhere…” He’d gotten it as a gift a month or so ago, he was fairly certain it was unopened. “Is any of that to your liking, Imara?”

The books that lay before the red eyed woman were actually pretty eclectic. There was a book of classic landscapes, one of the collected works of H.R. Geiger, and one other that was a collection of WWII era pin-ups.

Flipping the book of H.R. Giger towards her, Imara scanned the front page. “What time is it?” She half asked, half smirked as she opened the book.”As long as it isn’t some light beer, I’m going to steal one of those.”

But her attention turned to Sonia as she looked at the woman. “What? Standing around in the hallway is awkward. “ Not that there was much of a hallway but the point was mute. Looking back down at the book, she shook her head. “Shame he died.”

The young woman, with eyes the color of sunset, crossed the living space to take a seat beside Imara on the plush couch. After setting her side bag down, Sonia leaned over to take out the reason the two of them were here in the first place.

“So I took the picture you drew to Anne’s Custom Framing just a few blocks off the boulevard near 8th. I’m not sure if you’ve been there or not but they’re fairly decently priced and have good customer service.” For a few moments, while she waited for him to join them in his living room, she set the art on Mathias’ coffee table then leaned back to sit more comfortably.

Recessed into the one inch thick bronze colored wooden frame, carefully placed behind a sheet of glass and salmon colored matboard; it was clear whoever assembled the artwork had taken good care of the piece he had drawn.

At Imara’s request he nodded an assent and grabbed a beer for her, he himself had nothing. He wasn’t thirsty for one, and for two - he wasn’t about to be drinking during a business discussion that was bad form in his opinion. Not for the client they could do whatever, but he as an artist… He needed to be sober.

“Yes, a damn shame, he’s one of my inspirations actually,” Mathias said with a sigh. “I prefer the surreal and the abstract over the traditional but I believe an artist should not limit himself to only a single style or medium. I may not be a master of them all, but better than just a master of one that will fade out of popularity over time.”

He walked back over and handed Imara her beer, then moved to the loveseat and sat down. Looking over the artwork he smiled. “Well they did a good job.” He said quietly, somewhat proud of how well his work was displayed.

“Now,” Mathias said turning to look at her. “Were you thinking a double portrait?” He asked, looking between the two women. “Because I could do some really great juxtaposition with the two of you…” They were both lovely in their particular ways, but they both had really easy to spot differences and in Mathias’s mind that would make for great art.

It also gave him a reason to stare at two pretty women for like… an hour or more. A win in his book.

Taking the beer, Imara popped it open. Just as the liquid came to her mouth, his words rang in her ears. Air and liquid caught in her throat making her choke.

Coughing it up, her fist hit the center of her chest as she tried to clear her windpipe. Even so, she was looking from Mathias to Sonia and back. Finally she landed on Sonia with an exasperated facial expression.

“What did you tell him?”

With a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders, Sonia twisted the lid off the water bottle and took a sip to bide her time so she could gather her thoughts before replying. “Oh you know, the usual. You’re easy going, super friendly, and are smoking hot if he could manage to get you into a swimsuit.” Lies, except the last part but that was a pretty decent size if.

One delicate eyebrow raised in an amused fashion as a wide grin started spread across her face unbidden. Lips pursed together in a failed attempt not to smile as she tried not to laugh. “You know exactly what I told him, you were with me when I called…Plus, it’s likely he overheard me ask you that question in the hall.” All eyes on Imara now awaiting her reply. Sonia already had her picture drawn so obviously she didn’t mind, which is why she waited for her friend to decide.

“She told me she had interest in my services again,” Mathias said with a slightly amused chuckle. Okay, he liked Sonia, that was not hard to admit. She seemed to have an innate ability to take the wind right out Imara’s sails and stop her cold. That could be useful. He wondered…

No, no, dangerous territory at that. Leave this to civilian business for now, if Sonia proved to have the same steel and mettle as Imara, then perhaps he could convince himself to… Have them meet Leucite at a later date. But right now it was purely business. Even if he was quite pleased to have two very attractive women on his couch. This was veering dangerously into adult movie country he had to admit. But he already knew the odds of that were slim, if not nonexistent.

With his luck they were dating - each other - and so.

“I’m not too bad at pin-ups,” He said with a slight smirk. “But I don’t see any changes of clothes, and I don’t keep a stock of swimsuits so…” He shrugged. “That lovely opportunity might have to way for another day.” Okay, so he liked to get a rise out of Imara as Mathias too aparently.

Ugh, this could be problematic later.

“I am down for whatever, to be honest,” He said finally leaning back against the loveseat. “you are both lovely, and it would be an honor and a privilege to paint either of you… or both.”

“Oh Jees…” Imara threw her hands up, be careful not to send beer behind her. “You two are both horrible. No, I’m only here to see that you don’t try anything stupid and to give Sonia an alibi in case she had to defend herself.” Imara looked at Sonia with a sigh. This was going to be a long afternoon.

“Sonia is the only one here to get art. What she wants, well that’s anyones guess. I would rather not be sitting around for hours having someone draw me.” Her eyes flickered back to Mathias. Never let these two in the same room.

“Last thing I need is anything of me as a pin-up. My brothers and their friends are bad enough.” She looked back at Sonia. “You know how long it took to get them to stop bringing up that Ren Fest outfit…”

“What I want hmm?” Sonia sat back in the seat and crossed one leg over the other. Oh she was going to have way too much fun with this. “What if what I want is a nude picture of you laying across his couch? Could I get that?” Her eyes flicked over to where Matthias was currently to see his reaction to all of this.

“Well if that is what the client wants…” Mathias said, trying to keep his tone as neutral as possible but he was already cracking a smile. No, this was bad. He was losing his professional edge. STOP brain, stop mouth, do not pass go do not collect $200s. But no, Sonia had punctured what small bubble of professional intent Mathias had been able to muster for this meeting. The real, not at all appropriate Mathias was starting to come into the fore.
Sonia, you do not know what you have wrought.

“Of course, as an artist, I have to say that the piece would be better if you were both in it…” His voice maintained the “professional tone” but his eyes were darting between the two, and the smirk on his face was as devilish as could be.

“It wouldn’t be fair to subject poor Imara to a nude piece alone, it would imbalance the image. She has a lot of cool colors, with a little bit of warm in her eyes… I would need to juxtapose that with your warmer colors, Sonia.” He said with a completely serious nod. “No, no, it has to be a couple piece, it just wouldn’t do otherwise.”

Oh, please, please let her not be joking… and PLEASE, PLEASE let her buy this line.

“I AM NOT GETTING NAKED ON THE COUCH OF A STRANGER.” Imara nearly shooted as she jumped up, glaring straight at Sonia. “You have no idea if you are sitting on a place where he might have masterbated twenty minutes ago or not!”

Finally she looked down and shook her head. Fine. She wasn’t going to when this one she could see that and she was not enjoying the comments from the peanut gallery sitting across from them. Honestly she was holding back from throwing the beer straight at his face. Sonia she could take. Him...not so much.

“This place is already too clean for a straight man anyway. If he’s gay, that’s another thing. But seriously, do you really want to chance anything?” So she was talking as if he wasn’t there. Oops. “And anyway,” huffing as she sank back into the couch. “what would you do with a picture of me that way? Your mother does not want that for her birthday.”

Had it of been physically possible, Sonia’s eyebrows would have pulled a houdini and disappeared into her hairline at Imara’s response. Her mouth fell into a perfect ‘o’ as she side glanced over to their current host.

Slapping a hand over her mouth she tried her damndest not to laugh, a useless endeavor but at least she tried. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry.”

Looking back over to Imara she had to, just had to, get one last poke in. “Just because my mom wouldn’t want it doesn’t mean Anton wouldn’t enjoy it as a wallpaper for his computer.” Both girls knew he had a bit of a crush on the teal haired women.

Well there went any and all pretense to be professional out the window. Good bye professional facade, it was nice while it lasted. We’ll always have the first five minutes of this meeting! At Imara’s comment, and Sonia’s attempt to possible placate him from being insulted by her friend, he just, he just could not keep it in any longer.

He laughed. It was a joyous, loud noise, warm and pleasant. He was enjoying this far too much for his own damn good. These girls were a veritable riot and he was only disappointed that he’d not met them both sooner. Slapping his knee hard with a hand, he rested his forehead in his hand in an attempt to stop the laughter, curbing it in a few moments down to a few fits of giggles before finally lifting his head and running a hand over the top of his head, through his hair. He’d need to get a haircut soon, he realized.

“Well for starters, I’m not gay,” Mathias said, humor still bubbling in his voice. “Secondly, I don’t masterbate on my couch, that would be awful for the upholstery and besides, it’s more fun to do with someone else than alone…” He grinned. “That being said, I’m quite thankful I have two, very attractive women in my house, who both have lovely senses of humor.” Realizing that might sound a bit on the creeper side, he raised a hand and amended.

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t do anything unless it was clear that there was interest,” He said with a nod. “I’m a gentleman… Well I TRY to be one at any rate, doesn’t always work out.” At that, he dropped the matter, looking between the two of them.

“Whatever you ladies would like to do, as far as portraits and what have you, I am comfortable with doing. You’ve seen my work, and it pleases you, so whatever it is you desire, I’ll do it.”

In between his fits of laughter, Imara was sending dark glances back at Sonia. But finally she gave a sigh and could only shake her head. “Look, he already admitted I gave him his first hard on. I do not need him masterbating to an image of me. Then he might think I like him and then I have to break him.”

“As for YOU” Her voice rose as she looked back at Mathias. “She’s your client. Not me. And I’m not stripping.”Red eyes shot between both of them. Sonia was too good a friend and she already found the male annoying.

Not a turn on.

But that did give her ideas how to screw with her brother later on.

“No killing my brother.”

For as fun as it had been to poke fun at Imara, it was clear the time for joking was at an end. For now at least… Oh man, talk about an ice breaker though… Questioning the sexuality of their host… smooth Imara, real smooth at least it took it with a fair amount of humor.

“Anywho,” back to business sadly. “I haven’t had a chance to speak to him yet, but I’m interested in getting a portrait of my brother done so I could give them to my mother for her birthday next month.” Something more artistic for her to hang in their hallway next to their other relatives.

Mathias nodded slowly, turning his attention to Sonia now. Imara’s outburst had been entertaining, almost as entertaining as her last one. Thankfully she’d not bruised his hand badly in that or he’d of had some interesting explaining to do. Small blessings, that.

“I see, that’s easily enough done,” Mathias chuckled. “Not quite the subject I was hoping for, but as the lady wishes,” He nodded to Sonia. “Seeing as said brother isn’t here, unless you managed to somehow stuff him in your bag…”

“Were you wanting to set up another appointment for a sitting with him, or do you have a picture that I can use? The sitting would be a better quality, but will take time and he will NEED to be still, so if he’s not capable of that…” He shrugged. “An image of him will do, preferably via email and of decent resolution, I’m going to have to enlarge it to get the finer details down.”

“I can get that to you later today or tomorrow if that’s alright.” She might have to sneak a photo of Anton with her phone to get it but that’s details to work out when she got home.

Leaning forward, Sonia set her water bottle down on the table and picked up the picture to pass on to Mathias “I wanted to get your approval on the framing job before I wrap it up to give as a gift.” If he had some suggestions to give her, she’d consider making a few changes so long as it didn’t cost an arm and a leg. That was, afterall, the whole reason they showed up right?

Eh, not entirely true. He was definitely a nice piece of eye candy to look at and they had to sedate Imara’s curiosity regarding his ‘talents’.

A wave of relief washed over Imara as the direction of the conversation shifted to the point. She sat back and watched the pair in their exchange as she sipped her beer.

Sonia knew how to push her buttons. The two had become fast friends when they first met and Sonia had come to see how much it annoyed Imara when people questioned her sexuality. Just because she was a tom-boy did not mean she was a lesbian…

Mathias nodded and took the framed picture, looking it over he hummed momentarily. “They did good work… I’ll keep them in mind as a place to suggest getting stuff framed.” He really didn’t see anything wrong with their work. Handing the painting back to Sonia he smiled. “I assume for your brother you’d like a full portrait done? It’ll probably be oil paint and that’ll take some time to dry. Do you have an email I can send you work in progress images to?”

He wanted her to approve of the work after all.

“Yeah, one moment.” Digging around her bag she produced a pen and small pad of sticky notes to which she scribbled down her g-mail then handed it over to him. “This one is linked to my phone so I should get a notification if you send me anything.” The only other e-mail she had was her school one which was used exclusively for classmates and school work.

Carefully stowing the portrait away, Sonia glanced over at Imara with a ‘shall we?’ expression. The two of them still had a few errands to run and according to her brother, there was a soccer game being held down town around five which would make finding parking next to impossible. If anything it would be nice if they could make it back near campus before rush hour hit..

Imara made no comment with the facial expression. Rising to her feet, she spun the empty beer bottle between her fingers. “Trash?” She asked looking towards the kitchen as Sonia began to pack it up. Otherwise she remained quite. Until one thing made her look back at her friend.

“So use that if you want to ask her for dinner.” She winked at Sonia, ignoring their ‘host’ almost all together.

“Just on the other side of the island there, or you can just leave it on the counter, I can clean up once ya’ll head out…” Mathias chuckled a bit, before blinking and looking at Imara and then Sonia.

Was she… trying to hook her friend up? He wouldn’t say no either way so…

“I might just do that…” He smirked.

“Or better yet… Ms. Sonia are you free later this week? I’d like to take you out to dinner sometime.”

Sonia froze, eyes darting between the two before narrowing on Imara. Seemed payback was a b***h and she was looking right at her. Honestly, she should have known the teal haired woman would have gotten her punch in before they left for teasing her earlier. Oh well, such is life. Can’t say I didn’t have it coming.

Turning her attention back on Mathias, quick to seize the opportunity, she mused.

With a slight pink tint to her cheeks from having been unexpectedly been put on the spot so abruptly, Sonia grinned then nodded her head. At least he’s cute... “I’m free either Friday or Sunday.” With it being summer, Saturdays had been booked rather quickly.


“Friday then, I can pick you up at 7?” Mathias said with a small grin. “Anything in particular you prefer as far as food? I know a few places…”

To be fair, some were on the pricey side but that was less than an issue now since he had a nice steady supply of cash from his side-work.

“I’m pretty easy to work with so…”

“Seven’s fine. I’ll text you my address later today if that’s okay.”

“As for places to eat; so long as it isn’t americanized ethnic food I’m good with just about anything.” Didn’t need to be a high end restaurant, there are plenty of small ma and pop places around that had really good food.

“She means don’t take her to a chain.” Imara chimed in as the bottle thumped into the trash. “This one has grown up with traditional Spanish food so she has a pretty well versed tongue.”

Walking back around, the teal hair woman only smiled. “Might be best to do Italian and play it safe.” She added with a shrug. “Otherwise she might just end up in a debate with the wait staff again over the fact that was not salsa.”

Ok… gloves were coming off. “Uh huh,” Sonia crossed her arms over her chest. “Says the woman who got into a heated argument over what was it?” she paused as if the incident was on the tip of her tongue. “Ah, that’s right. Because the meat tasted processed instead of fresh. I’m fairly certain that person quit their job.” To which she turned her attention back to Mathias “At least I won’t require you to go hunt dinner…” True the meat did taste better but that was besides the point...

“One, they claimed that was fresh venison and it clearly had been frozen from last season. There is a huge different in taste there. Not to mention price! I am not paying the price for fresh deer meat when you give me the leftovers.” Imara pointed out calmly but with a sharp eye. “And second, what’s wrong with hunting for your dinner? Builds character.”

She looked away mumbling something about how that waiter had been a baby.

Unable to contain her laughter, Sonia covered her mouth with one hand and just shook her head for several seconds. “Calm down, calm down. I never said anything was wrong with it. All I’m saying is I’m far easier to please when most restaurants carry sub par meats when compared to something that had just been grazing an hour prior.”

Sunset eyes settled on Mathias and she half wondered if he regretted his offer after being subjected to their bickering. “Friday at seven?” If there were ever a time for him to change his mind, this would be it.

“Friday at seven,” Mathias said, grinning from ear-to-ear. Quite the contrary, he found their bickering and banter amusing as all hell. It was nice to see two women who were friendly enough to argue and not go immediately for the eyes. Moving to Sonia, he took her hand and kissed her knuckles. “I will see you then…” He smiled before letting the hand drop.

He looked at Imara, slightly amused now, more than flustered as he’d been earlier. If only she knew that she was standing in the same room as the guy she’d watch kill another man. Well she’d taken the money and police presence hadn’t increased in the area, so she’d been honest about keeping it quiet.

Ah well.

“I hope your friend doesn’t stay a stranger either, she’s fun.”

“She really is.” Sonia agreed. Their friendship was a strange one to onlookers but all that mattered was it worked for them.

After giving his hand a gentle squeeze, she withdrew her hand from his then leaned over to pick her bag up and sling it over her shoulder; mindful of the frame inside of course.

The look Imara shot him was one he would have seen before, though she would not have known. It rang loud in clear of ‘yea right’ as she walked towards the door. “Thanks for the beer. If your date goes well and Sonia brings you out again, I’ll buy you around.”

She laughed, not looking back at her friend before opening the door and walking out with a grin.

“Aaand that’s my queue. Hasta pronto Mathias.” With that brief farewell Sonia followed her friend out into the hallway, and closed the door behind her.

Wow… just… Wow…

Once the door closed he sank down onto his couch with a small chuckle to himself. Well it hadn’t gone like he had expected it to go, but it had been fun. The ladies were pretty and fun, so he couldn’t go wrong with that.

And he’d scored a date - so - not bad in that regard.

Bit of a shame they didn’t come as a matched set though, that’d be something to scratch off the bucket list.

Ah well, who knew what might happen.

He stretched and moved to his studio, getting everything set up for work later. Once he got the image from Sonia, it would be a long time working…