darkness, but despite my tiredness, I couldn’t fall back asleep.
After an hour of trying to fall asleep I gave up. Instead I put on some relaxing piano music on Spotify and stared at the Peter in my painting. I wasn’t sure when, but finally I did fall back asleep.
I woke up after what felt like five minutes. I had been looking at him for what felt like a long time. I was happy I had painted him, I was happy I had that memory. Even if it wasn’t the real thing.
I felt as tired as the day before. The area under my eyes had gone from puffy to darker circles. Probably from lack of sleep and heavy emotions. I forced myself up and got ready for work. I used extra highlighter concealer around the eye area, covering up most of my tired look and pinched my cheeks to get some blood flow to them so I wouldn’t look so pale. I remembered as I stood there that I was meeting Dave later. Maybe it could be a short date. Even if I hadn’t been feeling so emotional, I would have reconsidered cancelling because I was so tired but I knew I had to get on with my life. Maybe he’d reconsider his attraction to me when he saw me looking this run down. I gave a snort of a laugh.
Christine gave me an odd look as I had walked through the door of the gallery. I reassured her that I wasn’t ill and that I simply hadn’t slept. I looked at her again, I rarely looked at her straight in the eyes because she always looked away as she was talking to you. But I was looking at her now.
“Christine, have you done something to your hair or makeup?”
She looked a little embarrassed.