I came back to groggy wakefulness as small hands slapped my chest several times. “Ugh.”

“Wakey wakey, Uncle Damon!” Crystal said. “Teddy's coming for you!”

I opened my eyes just in time to see her tip Teddy over towards me. He had been propped up on my lap and his snout hit my chin. “Teddy! No kissing!” I exclaimed and tried to turn my head away as Crystal laughed and laughed.

“I think he's up now, Crystal.” Nat said with a chuckle. “Do you want cereal or eggs and toast?”

“Cereal!” Crystal said. She grabbed Teddy's arm and ran to the kitchen as she dragged him behind her. Nat propped him up in a chair and then retrieved the cereal from the cupboard and the milk from the refrigerator. “Damon, any preference?”

“Whatever you're having.” I said and sat up.

I looked down at the coffee table and saw that the pendant was still there. I picked it up and tucked it into my jogging pants pocket without even bothering to store it. I stood up and stretched to work out the few little kinks I had gained from sleeping so awkwardly on the couch.

I really need to be more careful of how I lay down. I thought and walked over to the hall closet. I pretended to dig out a t-shirt and slipped it on, then went to the kitchen to see what Nat was having. She poured out a cup of coffee for herself and then poured one out for me. I glanced at the wall and saw that we had plenty of time to get ready for Crystal to go to school.

I didn't ask why she was only having coffee and it didn't really matter. If she wasn't a big breakfast eater, it wasn't going to bother me in the least. We finished breakfast and cleaned up to change into proper clothes to leave the apartment. I helped Crystal get her things for school and then she dragged Teddy to the door.

“Remember our deal.” I said and Crystal nodded.

We left the apartment and rode the elevator down to the ground floor. When we reached the front door of the building, Crystal handed Teddy over without a fuss and I carried him over to the parking garage.

“I'm not sure how this is going to work.” Nat said and looked at the backseat of the car and at Teddy.

“As long as you don't mind sharing the backseat with him, it should be fine.” I said and she gave me a look. “Hey, I think I qualify for the carpool lane.”

Nat shook her head and put Crystal in the front seat and sat down in the back. I unceremoniously shoved Teddy into the backseat and over Nat, which turned him enough to hit Nat slightly in the face with the lower part of it.

“Pfft!” Nat pretended to spit. “Hey! You just shoved a bear's butt in my face!”

Crystal giggled. “Nat kissed Teddy's BUTT!”

I laughed and turned him around to the proper spot for Crystal to imagine that he was looking at her. “I'm sorry about that, Nat.” I said and touched her shoulder briefly, then I went to the driver's seat and sat down. I drove Crystal to school and parked in a spot that was close enough that she could still see Teddy in the car from her classroom if she looked out the window.

“Bye, Teddy!” Crystal said as I unhooked her seat belt and she turned to kiss him on the snout.

I helped Nat get out of the backseat and the three of us walked to the school. I showed Nat what classroom it was and introduced her to the teacher, then we went to the school's office and I asked to meet with the principal if it was possible. She was busy, so I asked the secretary to make an appointment for the next day, because I wanted to add Nat to the 'approved for pick-up' list.

We left the school after that and drove back downtown and I stored Teddy, just because I didn't have to worry about how he was positioned this time. Nat had searched for a good arts supplies store online and we had to go and check it out. She was delighted by the selection and quickly loaded up my arms with what she wanted. I didn't even ask her if the items were essential to her work, because when you pretty much had an unlimited budget to buy things, what wouldn't you buy?

Nat's face was almost glowing as she piled the things up on top of me. “My face is getting sore from smiling so much!” She said happily and added more paints and brushes, cans of turpentine, and a few other things. “They have large canvases!” She exclaimed when we finally reached the back of the store.

“I cannot carry anything else in my arms.” I reminded her and she turned to look at me. She saw my eyes behind the pile of items in my arms and she laughed.

“I hope they deliver or you've got a big truck or a van or something and we can come back.” Nat said and led me to the front of the store and the cash registers there. “Hi!” She said to the young woman at the counter. “I want six of the eight footers and ten of the six.”

The young woman looked a bit dumbfounded.

“I didn't mean to overwhelm you.” Nat chuckled. “I hope you can tell me that you have delivery.”

“We do.” The young woman said.

“Then grab that price scanner thingy and come with me.” Nat said and took her hand. The young woman jumped slightly and her face went a little red as she grabbed the portable scanner. I tried not to laugh as she was dragged in a similar fashion to Crystal dragging Teddy around.

I carefully put the things in my arms down onto the counter, careful of knocking things over or spilling something, because I was pretty sure that Nat would be upset if I messed anything up on her. There were sketch pads, charcoal pencils, huge erasers, sets of every kind of paint that I had seen, and brushes of all different sizes. She even had a t-square and several large items that were only used for straight lines.

I was a bit relieved that she knew what she was doing, because I didn't have the first clue to how to use most of the things. An artist I was not, so I stood there and waited for nearly ten minutes and then saw Nat almost skipping as she brought the blushing young woman back to the front counter.

“You are not going to believe this! They actually had a ten foot by twelve foot canvas!” Nat gushed. “I can't wait to see what I can paint on it!”

I chuckled and motioned to the young woman. “You might want to let her hand go, so she can finish ringing your purchases through.”

“Huh?” Nat looked down at their clasped hands and laughed. “I'm so sorry, cutie.” She said and let the hand go to give her a brief hug. “I was just so excited to see all this great stuff!”

“N-no problem.” The young woman said, her face still red, and she went back behind the counter and scanned in all of the things in the pile. “Are you stocking an art studio or something?”

“That is exactly what I'm doing.” Nat said and gave her a sexy smile.

The young woman paused for a moment. “You forgot drop cloths and different paint mixing palettes.”

Nat's eyes went over the pile and gasped. “Oh, my god! I did! I'll be right back!” She exclaimed and took off at a run. This time I did laugh and the young woman behind the counter did, too.

“She can be a little hard to handle sometimes.” I said.

The young woman smiled. “How long have you been dating?”

I smiled back. “We're just friends and I can honestly say that is never going to change.”

Nat came back with her arms full and she had three packs of drop cloths, six different styles of paint palettes, a box of rubber gloves, two large bags of cotton balls for some reason, and a paintbrush rack.

“You know, we can come back to finish emptying out the store to get anything you might have missed.” I joked and Nat and the young woman laughed.

“Don't tempt me.” Nat said and carefully added the things to the pile.

The young woman scanned everything in and added them to bags and handed them to me. They were a lot easier to carry in bags and I took them easily. When she rang up the total, she gave Nat an apologetic look and told her the amount.

“Is that all?” Nat asked and the young woman looked surprised. “That's with the extra canvasses too?”

The young woman nodded and Nat took out her debit card.

“I will definitely be back for more.” Nat said and completed the transaction.

“Can I have your name and number?” The young woman asked, hope clear on her face. “I can call you when there's a restock on the odd-sized canvasses.”

Both Nat and I knew that was just a convenient excuse.

“I think I would like that.” Nat said.

I handed her a piece of paper and a pen. She wrote out her name and her cell phone number, then something else. She folded the paper and handed it to the young woman, who unfolded it and nodded.

“Thanks a lot for your help today.” Nat said.

“You're welcome.” The young woman beamed a smile at her and she smiled right back.

Nat and I left the store and went to the car. I pretended to put the bags into the trunk and stored them instead, then I started to drive us back home.

“Do you mind if I ask you what else you wrote on the note?” I asked.

“I told her that she didn't have to wait for a restock to call.” Nat gave me a sly smile.

“That's a pretty slick response to such a slick way to ask for your number.” I said and she chuckled.

“I think she's more dazzled than enamoured.” Nat said. “I really know my stuff and showed off a little.”

“I'm sure you did.” I chuckled. “Are you going to ask her to model for you?”

“The artist and model trick doesn't always work.” Nat said and I glanced at her, then we both laughed.

We went back to my place and checked on Diane's old apartment. The moving men were just starting to pack the things up, so I went into Crystal's room and stored everything. We could sort through it later. I did a quick Detect spell for Crystal's possessions and then stored anything that showed up.

Nat and I went up to my apartment and I took out the bags of things she had bought. She dug through them to get out a sketch pad with some charcoal and pencils, then we sat down at the kitchen table to discuss what I was going to do with the designs on the pendants. Or if they would even have a design. Would it be on them or should the pendants have a specific shape? Do we mass produce them with a stamped or printed image or do them individually by hand?

It was a lot to talk through. I took out several handfuls of them to show her that they were all identical and were just a basic round shape. As we talked, she sketched absently, as if her hand wasn't paying attention to what the rest of her body was doing or what her mouth was saying. It was pretty neat to see and a little unnerving.

Nat saw me glance down at her drawing hand for the umpteenth time and chuckled. “It's like a typist when they learn to type on a keyboard without having to look at the keys to spell the words.”

“Ohhhh.” I said. “You're even more talented than I thought you were.”

“I'm glad you know that you're getting your money's worth out of me.” Nat joked.

“I'm getting a lot more than that.” I responded. “In fact...”

Nat's cell phone rang and I nodded. She took it out and answered. “Hello?” She looked at me. “Thank you very much for calling.” She said with a smile. “Yes, of course. I'll be right down.”

“Let me guess.” I said with a grin. “She came with the delivery.”

“She wants to go for lunch.” Nat said smugly and we both stood up. “Hey, dad! Can I borrow the car?”

I laughed and handed her the keys. “We can go shopping again tomorrow to get you one.”

“Thanks, dad!” Nat said loudly and gave me a hug.

“All right, all right. Let's get down there before she thinks you're going to stand her up.” I said and we went down in the service elevator. When it opened up, a large delivery truck was there and it already had several wrapped canvasses out of the truck.

“Thanks for bringing it all over and making us take a break from work.” Nat said to the young woman.

“I didn't mean to interrupt.” She said and looked slightly worried.

“We needed to stop and eat anyway.” Nat said and dangled my keys in front of her. “I've got the keys to a car that I'm not registered to.”

“You better not scratch up my favorite car.” I said a bit sternly as I held the service elevator doors open for the workers to load all of the canvasses into the large interior.

“You didn't even ask me if I had a license!” Nat said loudly, grabbed the young woman's hand, and they took off at a jog. Their laughter echoed through the alleyway as they disappeared from sight.

“Damn kids.” I said with a shake of my head and it was the two workers who laughed this time.