I first met Alyssa my third day in Santa fe and we became fast friends. Her art studio was next to mine on the second floor of the gallery building sandwiched between the exhibition gallery and reception areas on the first floor and the resident artist's living apartments on the third floor.
Aly, as she liked to be called, was an impressionist painter and her work was really beautiful. She gave me a tour of her studio and I showed her around my chaotic space describing in great and ultimately indecisive detail how I planned to lay everything out once I got settled.
She had arrived about a week before me and had already met the other three resident artists. It was through Aly that I met everyone else.
"So everyone's getting together in Brian's studio tonight around eight. You should come and let me introduce you." She was facing my studio window and her arms were outstretched pushing my curtains aside. The bright midday sun streamed into the room silhouetting her figure in the light making it impossible not to notice her seemingly perfect hour glass waist line.
"That sounds great." I unlocked my eyes from her figure to meet her eyes as she spun back around with a smile.
"Perfect! Brian's studio is just down the hall second door from the end on the left. I'll let you get back to work, but I'll see you tonight." She bounced out the door with a smile and disappeared into the hallway. "8pm!"
It was three in the afternoon when Aly left the studio and I managed to get a lot of work done in the studio before noticing I'd lost complete track of time.
It was already eight twenty when I knocked on Brian's half open studio door. An eclectic mix of music energized the room and there was a wide assortment of art scattered throughout the studio that included sculptures, paintings and works in other mediums. It would appear that Brian was a bit of a renaissance man.
"Jamie!" came Aly's excited voice as she jumped up from a sofa, climbing over the seated knees of others with her drink in hand and throwing her arms around my neck excitedly. "I'm maybe a little tipsy; Brian and I started early. What would you like to drink?"
"Um, I don't know. I'll have what you're having." I followed her over to a table filled with various bottles spread out over its surface. It was impossible not to like Aly, she just had one of these personalities that wouldn't allow for anything else. Plus she was gorgeous with an infectious smile and long wavy brunette hair that curled around her shoulders when it wasn't tied in a knot on the top of her head.
"Here." she handed me a red plastic cup.
"What is it?" I raised the cup to my nose and then to my lips.
"Just try it, it's good. Come one I'll make with the introductions." She pivoted where she stood and I followed her over to the part of the room where everyone was seated together. Suddenly I felt very self conscious and worried that I wouldn't fit in. I worried that somehow, for some reason, they would sense that I wasn't one of them. It was a mild social anxiety that I'd always experienced from very early on and while most of the time I didn't let it bother me it was in moments like these where I hoped to fit in that the butterflies fluttered in my stomach.
"Everybody this is Jamie. Jamie that's Mike in the green shirt. Sarah with her feet curled under her on the couch, and Brian in the chair with the whiskey."
"Hi." I said smiling and feeling everyone's eyes on me. "This is a really great space."
"Thanks. Pull up a chair." Brian's voice was warm and low. He reached behind him and pulled around a wide, plush chair repositioning it in the circle with the others.
I sank into the chair and Aly took up her old seat on the couch between Mike and Sarah who both looked to be in their late twenties to early thirties. I had already learned that Aly and I were both the same age, twenty-two, and with birthdays only two months apart to the day. It was Brian who seemed the odd man out. He looked to be at least thirty eight, maybe even a little older. The program wasn't age specific but I guess I just hadn't really considered that anyone that far out of school would have applied. Brian had a very calm, almost commanding presence about him. Handsome and relaxed in his well worn jeans and navy blue fitted dress shirt with the cuffs of his sleeves unbuttoned and loosely rolled up over his forearms. It was no secret seeing him leaned back in his chair with his arms outstretched on the armrests holding a glass half full of amber whiskey in one hand that he stayed in excellent physical shape. His casual clothes draped over his form in a way that most men only achieve with a finely tailored suit. His full head of hair was dark with only the slightest bit of gray beginning to appear at the temples. He wore his shirt with the top two buttons unfastened which allowed the fabric to relax open making the tan skin just under his collar bones visible to the eye.
Sarah looked to have some asian ancestry, was very pretty and seemed wholly incapable of withholding laughter from even the lamest of jokes. She was chatty too and quick to share an anecdote about almost anything relevant to the conversation at hand. She was cute with a lean figure yet somehow managed to have a round ass and curvy hips. She was clearly comfortable in her own body wearing skin hugging yoga pants and a form fitting tank that clung to her in a way that showed off her flat tummy and her chest - which looked to be B cups yet very full in shape. She wore her straight jet black hair pulled back in a pony tail.
