Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

" W hy the glum face, bella ?"

Ariel summoned a smile for Sofia, knowing it fell short of her usual grin when the woman's dark eyes filled with concern.

"My muse is being stubborn," Ariel said, fiddling with the dimmer switch on the gallery lights, wanting to get the ambience just right before opening the doors to the public in ten minutes for Chelsea's show.

Sofia tapped her upper lip with a manicured, crimson fingernail. "Are you sure it's just your muse being stubborn?"

"What do you mean?" Ariel stepped back and studied the vibrant oil landscape in front of her, pleased with the vivid colours dancing beneath a soft spotlight.

"Maybe that delicious man has you in a spin and you're holding out on him? Santo cielo , what a dish that one is." Sofia kissed her fingertips and waved them heavenward—holy sky indeed.

Ariel smiled, her first genuine smile since her confrontation with Cooper yesterday. "That kind of dish gives me indigestion so I'd rather not talk about him."

She should've known not to deny anything too vehemently with Sofia. It only served to inflame her curiosity.

"Ahh…a lover's quarrel, perhaps?" Sofia's eyes sparkled with intrigue. "All great love affairs need drama and I think you have this with your young man, no?"

"No. And he's not my young man."

Ariel moved onto her next task, making sure the cheese platters were arranged just right and interspersed with the exotic dips and crackers, wishing a small, traitorous part of her soul didn't wish he was.

"Life does not have to be so tough all the time. What will be will be." Concern laced Sofia's words but Ariel mentally disagreed.

Life was tough. Hers always had been and she didn't know any better. Losing the gallery would be yet another example of it. A sad, heart-breaking example, as she lost the one thing that symbolised hope to her: hope for a better life, hope that good things could come out of bad, hope that she could be the type of person Barb would've wanted her to be. The type of person she wanted to be: successful, proud and independent. Qualities guys like Cooper took for granted.

Well, she'd show him.

If she could rustle up a cool million or so, that is.

"If there is anything I can do to help…" Sofia trailed off, quirking a stencilled eyebrow while draping a plump arm across her shoulders.

"I'll be fine," Ariel said, submitting to a quick hug before shrugging out of Sofia's embrace, wondering if the lie sounded as hollow to Sofia as it did to her.

She wouldn't be fine, considering the council had confirmed her greatest fear this morning: they were selling the land the gallery stood on. Like most councils around Melbourne, they were strapped for cash and in desperate need of more schools and health care facilities, so selling off the last piece of prime real estate in Brunswick Street was a no-brainer.

Of course, they'd given her an option. Come up with the cash herself or lose the gallery.

Some option. For a person struggling to meet the monthly rent, they may as well have handed her an eviction notice.

"Hey, you guys. Do you think everything looks okay?" Chelsea bounded up to them, red hair gelled into fearsome spikes, a funky beige leather ensemble draping her lithe body.

Ariel pasted a smile on her face and shot Sofia a pointed look to change the subject. "Relax, Chelsea. Your paintings look great and this showing is going to be a hit."

Chelsea's confident grin waned. "What if no one turns up?"

"Do not worry, bambina . I have told the whole of Melbourne. Everyone will come." Sofia flung her arms wide and Chelsea straightened, her confidence restored.

Grateful for Sofia's reassurance, Ariel wished her problems could be solved as easily. "Chelsea, why don't you make sure the inventory list and red sale dots are in order while Sofia checks on the wine?"

While she scooted out the back to brace herself for Cooper's appearance. Surely he wouldn't attend? He'd probably been trying to intimidate her yet again by saying he'd come to Chelsea's showing, wanting to up the pressure, turn the screws a little tighter.

Well, she had news for him. If he did show his sorry face here tonight, she'd be the only one doing any screwing over. She'd thought long and hard about her options all afternoon while preparing the gallery and as much as Cooper's offer seemed her only chance at getting a fresh start elsewhere, she couldn't do it. Taking his money would be selling out on her dream, selling out on her promise to Barb, and she wouldn't let that happen. She couldn't.

She would fight this with every weapon in her limited arsenal. She planned on approaching the National Trust, the Arts Council, the Victorian Grants Committee. Whatever it took, she would do it.

People depended on her, people like Chelsea who would never have a chance at discovery if it wasn't for the gallery, Barb's legacy, and as Ariel watched the young woman flit around the gallery one last time to ensure everything was in order, she knew there was no other choice.

She could never sell out and if Cooper or the local council wanted this piece of land, they would have to drag her screaming from it after she'd exhausted every avenue.

"Ariel, there's a crowd outside." Chelsea's hushed tone alerted Ariel to just how nervous the young woman was, because Chelsea never spoke in anything below a dull roar. "Shall I open the door?"

"Go ahead. It's your moment to shine." Ariel gave Chelsea's arm a reassuring squeeze, fervently hoping this wouldn't be the girl's first and last showing at Colour by Dreams .