WANT (Complete ✔️)

Chapter Thirty Eight

Lia

"Yeah, no, go for this one." Xavier points to the typeface Cooper STD.

I'm designing a poster for an assignment based on self-love for my graphic design class. I've made a lot of sketches in my sketchbook and now I'm creating my favorite one on Illustrator. With the help of Xavier.

We went to get fast food after his basketball practice finished and we've been in my bedroom, back at the apartment I share with my girls, eating and talking, and me designing my poster.

Xavier looked through my sketchbooks and was in awe at how my pages are structured. I draw a lot, with pencil and I also don't leave any white space so all my pages look full with reference images, collaging, drawings, fonts—all that sunshine. I'm proud of my sketchbook work.

"Okay," I mumble as I delete all the other fonts that weren't sadly chosen, "But I need to alter the kerning, it's annoying me."

Xavier looks at me with an adorable smile.

"I don't know what that means."

I giggle, ruffling his hair.

"The space between each letter." I explain and he nods.

Xavier tilts his head—he's lying down on my bed—to watch me change the kerning. I'm so picky with my style of work, it's actually pathetic. I use way too much pink and a lot sans serif, heavyweight typefaces, and the imagery I use has to be aesthetically pleasing and has a hint of inspiration from the 2000s.

"What made you wanna do graphic design?" Xavier breaks the silence.

"Popeye magazine." I self-consciously smile.

He props himself up on his elbows and looks at me, completely intrigued.

"What?"

"Popeye is a Japanese men's fashion magazine. I know that's weird. But it's the thorough design aspects within it that I love. Like how they combine photography with typography or style guides with little illustrations. And I love how they use a different type of paper for a mini-comic in every issue. It's so refreshing and unique," I fiddle with my hair strand, "So that made me want to create these simplistic yet pretty designs that use hand-drawn fonts and lots of colors and oh, photography and I love collaging and making layouts. Sounds nerdy, right?"

"No," Xavier smiles so genuinely empathetic, "It sounds like you're passionate about what you love to do."

I blush from his words and Xavier chuckles before grabbing the back of my neck and pressing his lips to mine in a soft kiss. When I break the kiss, I smile at him in adoration before going back to my poster design.

Xavier gets off the bed and saunters over to my bookshelf that is overwhelmed with a gazillion books. I need another one.

I buy too many books but it's funny because I only buy paperbacks of the books I like. I'll read them on my kindle and if I like them enough, I'll purchase the paperback. I don't like buying every single book because if I end up hating it, it's like my money has gone to waste and I hate overconsumption in general.

Plus, books are so expensive.

"You really love books, huh?" Xavier's question breaks me out of my thoughts.

"Yup," I beam at him, "They're the best."

He scrutinizes the books on the white shelf.

"What are you reading right now?"

"Nightfall."

"It's not here."

"It's on my kindle."