“What about this one, my love?”
Olivia looked up, pulling herself out of her thoughts, and spotted the picture of her dad photographed in front of one of his paintings, a giant grin on his face while her small, child-self had her arms wrapped around his leg.
“Is that the one sold to the auction house?”
"For charity, yes.”
Her father had always been a humble man, never going into the fine arts industry looking to make money. It had been all about the craft for him, and if people decided they liked his work, then that’s what made it worth it to him.
He’d made decent money by selling his work to private collectors and occasionally giving them to be auctioned off for local charities. It was the part of her dad she missed the most. His passionate nature and the drive to always create something that made others happy.
It had been one of the driving forces for her own career. Getting involved in the entertainment business in order to showcase the same kind of talent that would otherwise fall under the radar due to nepotism, gatekeeping, and everything else that was wrong with the art world.
Next to her, her phone buzzed on the table, making the dish of glitter next to her hand vibrate.
Olivia picked it up and tapped the screen before pressing it against her ear.
“This is Olivia.”
“Hi, Olivia. This is Blake Harrington calling about the episode we were supposed to shoot tomorrow.”
She straightened up her spine, the professional veil falling over her immediately.
“Hi, Blake. Yes, we’re scheduled at 8:00 a.m. Does that time still work for you?”
“Actually…”
She felt her heart sink at his tone.
“There’s been a few things that have come up. So I’m not going to be able to make it tomorrow, unfortunately.”
“Oh.”
Olivia quickly grabbed one of the stray pieces of paper left forgotten next to the sheet she’d been working on and a marker with the cap missing.
“What time works best for you to reschedule?”
“Actually … about that…”
She frowned. “What’s wrong?”
Blake cleared his throat. “Well, to tell you the truth, I’ve actually gotten a sponsor since the last time I spoke to you.”
She blinked. “Congratulations, Blake. But I’m a little confused as to why that affects our shoot tomorrow.”
“Well, he’s actually more like a patron too. He basically heard about me doing the podcast tomorrow and told me that he’d rather wait for me to debut publicly. Until he gets everything in order, that is.”
Olivia felt her eyes narrow. She tapped the end of the marker against the blank sheet.
“Okay … so is he also your manager …? Or …?”
“Kind of. I guess. Look, this is all really new to me, so I’m basically a fish out of water at this point. But he wanted me to cancel for tomorrow and express that he’d be contacting you to reschedule at a later date.”
“Which is?”
“I’m not sure.”
She sighed and rubbed the end of the marker against the bridge of her brow.