Jia worked full time as an artist, some liked to call her a painter. She didn’t mind either because she did both anyways. There are times when she painted to add into her own collection (after two years, she was still working hard towards having her own solo exhibition) but she also did a lot of painting requests for the commercial part of her job. As a part time university lecturer, she also had some of her students coming over sometimes for consultation or simply to help out with her projects.

Today was one of the days when she hired some of her students to help with a large scale painting she was making for a hotel lobby. There were two boys and two girls working on the painting together. They had been working on it since the morning and it was past two o’ clock now. On the other hand, Fei had been out since early morning for a job interview. Jia would have loved it if Fei would start painting again because she was one of the best students during their university years, but Jia supported her anyways that Fei chose to do office works instead.

“The weather is too hot these days!” One of Jia’s students plopped onto the sofa, fanning herself with her hand.

“I always have ice in my fridge. Feel free to help yourself with cold drinks.” Jia replied with a smile.

“Make some for us too.” Another student chided.

“But I’m too lazy to wash my hands!” The girl showed them her paint-tainted hands.

“You are hopeless!”

It was always fun to see her students exchanged childish, playful banter like that. As they laughed and having fun, Fei returned home with a smile on her face.

“Hey, Fei. Welcome home. How did the interview goes?” Jia asked from the top of a ladder. She was working on the upper part of the painting and had to climb onto a ladder for that.

Fei sighed. “I don’t know. Everything went well, but they’ll let me know next week.”

Jia nodded in acknowledgement.

“I heard you guys need cold drinks?” Fei asked.

Jia laughed. “The weather is too hot. These guys are about to die but no one is doing anything about it!”

“But you’re the owner of the house. You’re the one who should be serving drinks for us, Miss Meng.” One of the male students suggested with a mischievous grin.

“Are you telling your lecturer to make drinks for you? You punk!” Jia playfully hit the head of the boy. Laughters erupted in the house.

“It’s okay, let me take care of that,” Fei offered as she made her way towards the kitchen. The university students let out a scream of triumph. Fei prepared iced grape juice and brought the glass jug and glasses to the living room. She set the tray on the work table along the windows. She was pouring the drinks into the glass for them when one of the students accidentally elbowed her, causing her hands to slip from the jug. The glass ware fell to the floor and broke to thousands of pieces while the juice smeared a part of the painting.

“Oh, gosh!” Fei immediately crouched to pick up the shattered pieces of the glass. Her worried eyes darted back and forth between the mess on the floor and the painting which was poured by the juice.

“Fei, stop that! You’ll hurt yourself!” Jia rushed to Fei’s side, trying to stop Fei from picking up the broken glass but the latter insisted.

“I’m so sorry! The painting is ruined. This is all my fault. I’m really sorry.” Fei continued to babble. She continued to collect the broken glass in her palm.

“Fei, your palm is bleeding!” Jia warned. She shook Fei’s hand so the shattered glasses fell to the floor again. When she looked up, she saw tears in Fei’s eyes.

“Jia, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to... I’m sorry. I’ll do anything to fix this.”

“Fei, it’s okay. It’s okay, it’s just an accident. It’s not your fault.” Jia wiped away the tears that streamed down Fei’s cheeks and helped her up. Jia turned to her students and told them to take care of the mess and led Fei to her room.

“I’m always a trouble to everyone. I can never do anything right.” Fei cried as she sat on her bed, looking away from Jia in shame. Jia made Fei to look at her again, gently turning her face by the chin.

“That’s not true. It was just an accident. It can happen to anyone,” Jia replied, her voice gentle and soothing. “Was it him? Did he tell you that?” Jia asked, as subtle as she could as she referred to Fei’s ex-husband.

Fei nodded meekly. Unwanted memories rushed back into the surface, causing her to lose grip on her emotions. Tears dripped onto her lap. She wiped them away, hoping it would stop soon but it wasn not working. She was so used to being slapped and kicked for the smallest mistake. She would get hit for answering the wrong phone call. She would get hit for ignoring phone calls too. She had been made to believe that there was nothing she could do right for two years. It wasn’t easy to forgive herself everytime she made a mistake.

“No one can tell you that.” Jia told her with voice as soft as a feather. “I know you. You’re beautiful and smart and kind. There’s nothing wrong with making a mistake. Breaking a glass doesn’t make you worth any less. It’s fine. You’re totally fine, Fei. Please stop crying.” Jia wrapped her slim arms around the thin woman.

“What do I do without you?” Fei sobbed into Jia’s shoulder.

“That’s why I’m here, right?” Jia smiled even though she wouldn’t see it.

-

“Let’s do something fun, today. Just you and me.” Jia suggested when they were having breakfast together the next day.

“Something fun?”

“Girl stuffs. Manicure, shopping, check out that new cafe at the end of the street?”

“I’d rather put those on hold until I land a stable job first.” Fei awkwardly broke their eye contact.

Jia sighed and then whined, “You can pay me everything else later!”

Fei smiled. “I have other idea though.”

“What is it?” Her eyes lit up.

“Can I fix that painting that I ruined?”

“You want to fix that?”

“Well, I haven’t touched any canvas for years, so I’d understand if you don’t want me to.”

“No, no, no! Of course you can! I’d be glad if you’d do so!”

They agreed to spend the day to finish the painting instead after they finished their breakfast. Jia talked a lot about how she was planning on having her solo exhibition by the end of the year. She had been preparing a lot. She had been going around, meeting people and look for the perfect venue for an exhibition. Even though her boyfriend had been spending  alot of the time in Japan for his job, Jia had kept herself busy enough to not feel lonely without him. Fei loved listening to her talk. Jia was lawys adorably enthusiastic whenever she talked about art. Talking to her kept her mind off those bitter memories about her ex-husband.

After breakfast, Fei sat with Jia at the red sofa, looking at the large canvas. They discussed a little on how to fix the painting before Fei walked closer to inspect the little damage she did. When she was totally focused into the painting, Jia decided to do a little prank by dipping Fei’s hand into bright, thick, yellow paint. Fei took revenge by wiping off the paint on Jia’s face and clothes. Jia returned the favor, causing a little paint war to erupt.

Ding Dong.

“Oh, shoot!” Jia blurted, her head turned abruptly towards the door.

“What’s wrong?” Fei asked, wiping off the red paint over her eyes with the back of her hand.

“Just a sec,” Jia playfully stuck her tongue out and ran to the door.

“Hey, girlfriend!” Min chirped as soon as the door was opened. She looked into the house and saw Fei. Her eyes lit up. “Hey, Fei!”

“Hi, Min.” Fei waved at one of her college buddies.

“So,” Min turned back to Jia as they both made their way to the middle of the living room. “Are you ready for the photoshoot?”

“Uh, I forgot to tell you earlier that the painting is not finished yet.”

“No?” Min looked at the large canvas and the slightly messed up spot. Min was a professional photographer and had always been Jia’s favorite choice to snap the photos of her works so she could add it to her digital portfolio later.  

“Um, we’re about to finish it soon, though.” Fei added.

“Are you going to wait? Or you can come again later if you’re busy.” Jia suggested.

“Nah, I’ll just chill here. You guys seem to be having fun.” Min stated as she seated herself at the red sofa,

“We are.” Jia laughed, exchanging looks with Fei. The two of them were smeared with multiple colours from head to toe. They had nothing to explain other than giving sheepish smiles to Min.

“Go ahead and continued what you guys are doing. It’s okay for me to take pictures, right?”

“Of us?” Fei pointed to herself.

“Yeah. It’s going to be fun.” Min picked up her DSLR camera and grinned.

Jia and Fei continued to work on the painting while having fun banter and paint smearing on each other. The painting was finished a few hours later, and then Jia asked Min a special favor. She requested for Min to take pictures of her and Fei in that condition, but in a high-fashion, magazine spread style; for fun!

The large painting was temporarily turned into the backdrop for the photoshoot though the lighting was a little off. However, Min assured them that she could easily work on that on the computer. Fei was a little awkward with the poses, but Jia and Min helped out a lot by giving her directions and encouraging words. Further into the photoshoot session, Fei gained more confidence and was able to come out with her own pose. Jia purposely left Fei alone in the middle of the session. Fei complained that she didn’t want to take pictures alone but Jia convinced her that she would have her own solo photoshoot soon after. Jia continued to show her moral support through her words and gestures, encouraging Fei to gain more confidence for herself. Fei seemed to be having a lot of fun soon enough. It was the first time for Jia to play around like this too. Jia was glad that she agreed with Fei to just spend the day at home. It had been a great day.