Her Dad My Daddy ✓

Chapter Forty-One | Art Show

"Black or slightly darker black," Karter asked, holding up both shirts. Tonight they were headed to an art show. Karter had never been to one in his life unless he counted the time he went to the Crayola Factory as a kid.

And he had no idea why he would.

"Left one," Ryan said as he slipped his shoes on.

Ryan was dressed and ready to leave while Karter was still in his Beetlejuice boxer-briefs. There was not a thing he owned that he liked on himself. Karter debated just throwing everything in the fuck-it-bucket and wearing a hoodie.

"Just wear the darkest one with your black pants, you will be fine," he said trying to calm his boyfriend down.

This was also the first time Ember would see them, together as a couple and not some strangers to one another. To say the least his nerves were very high.

Karter sighed and quickly put his clothes on.

It wasn't as fancy looking as Ryan's custom-fit suit and shoes as expensive as Karter's tuition-okay not that expensive.

Ryan grabbed his keys and Karter followed him out the door and to the parking garage. The event wasn't all that far away and Karter was both grateful and disappointed both because of nerves.

Though when they got inside Karter felt a bit better. The place had a decent turnout of people all wandering around the giant white room covered in different kinds of paintings.

There were colorful ones and ones in all black and white. There were ones as small as his hand and ones bigger than his ego. Overall there seemed to be a great collection, Karter just couldn't believe one person could make so many paintings.

When they walked Karter saw Carmon talking to only who he could assume to be Holland's sister. Karter remembered overhearing once that Holland was the creation of a one night kind of thing. So while her sister had a darker complexion than her they both still shared a lot of facial similarities.

Venus was over near the bar area talking to the hourglass figure. Carmon was sipping at her martini and talking to Venus as if they were long lost friends, to Karter's knowledge they didn't know each other until tonight.

"You made it!" Holland walked over to Ryan and Karter. She was wearing a yellow, nearly gold dress. It was the right amount of casual and formal all at once. It seemed to go well with her sunshiny personality too.

"Glad to see it turned out so well," Ryan spoke.

Karter was grateful, he was much more of the guy who nodded and would make one-word comments about things. Though when he was in the safety of Ryan's apartment or his dorm he wouldn't shut up about things.

There was simply no in-between.

Holland showed them around a bit and as they talked he looked at all the artwork with amazement. All the paintings were great-Karter even liked the colorful ones a lot, but there was one painting that his eyes couldn't help but fall upon. Karter wasn't sure what drew him to it but it was simple and gorgeous.

Karter tugged on Ryan's sleeve and he followed his boyfriend's gaze.

"Well, I'll let you two look around," Holland smiled and went to greet some other people who were just joining in.

Once Karter could, he pulled Ryan to the painting.

It was the deep sea.

All different kinds of sea creatures roamed around in the vibrant blue water. Sure it wasn't all that realistic sea creature wise, but the unique fish and monster-like creatures were bound to catch Karter's eyes at some point.