Oceans

"For that whole time I'd saved some of the drawings that Legs had made for me. They were beautiful and showed his talent even then. Some of the messages that Tammy gave me told me about how he loved art and how he drew really well and did his best work when he did things for me. Then the notes started to get more serious and he started asking me questions that I didn't understand. The happiest day of my life was when I ran into him at the mall the year before we started high school. He gave me his phone number and I gave him ours. I called him as soon as I got home. He was so shy on the phone. It took a while for him to open up, so I just went ahead and started asking him all of the things I'd wanted to know. After all we were both about 15 then and had been in love with each other for nearly ten years. You can laugh about it and call it puppy love or whatever, but I knew what I felt. When all of my other classmates and friends were talking about a different boy each week, I was still stuck on the same boy I'd met on my first day of school." She smiled at me and then looked straight into her father's eyes.

"Listen up daddy," she said. "I'm about to clear up one of the great mysteries of life for you. That night on the phone, I went ahead and told Legs how I felt about him. I told him that he was the only boy for me and he always had been. He stopped talking and hung up the phone on me. I called him right back. He told me that I shouldn't tell him lies if I wanted to be his friend. I asked him what I'd lied about. He told me how he'd sent me his phone number at least three times and Tammy told him that I'd said I didn't want it. I got pissed Daddy. The he asked me, if I liked him so much why I never said anything about all of the pictures and paintings he'd done for me. He asked me how I liked the one he'd sent me just the last week. It had been the first painting he'd done using oil paint and he'd made sure to wrap it so Tammy wouldn't ruin it before she gave it to me."

"Daddy, do you remember how I supposedly snapped when I was 15? Now you know why. I hung up the phone and went across the street and beat the living shit out of Tammy. I remember it as clearly as if it had happened yesterday. I knocked on the door and Tammy's mom must have confused me with one of her other friends. I'd been in their house lots of times but Tammy never let me in her fucking room. Tammy wasn't home yet, but I told her mother I'd left something in her room. She opened the door for me and I saw them. There were all kinds of pictures and drawings and sketches and even a few paintings arranged in the room. I recognized his work even then."

Kerri had to sit down before she could continue. "Tammy's mom looked at me and smiled. She told me that Tammy's boyfriend was always drawing and painting things for her. I just smiled back at her and we heard the door open. Tammy came running up the stairs and I just snapped, Daddy. I jumped on her and started punching her over and over again. Tammy's mother tried to pull me off of her but I was just irate. Luckily for Tammy, her big brother got home and together they pulled me off of Tammy because I'd started slamming her head into the floor. I'm sure I'd have killed her. You know the rest, Daddy. Tammy had to go to the hospital, they called the police and I ended up in that high school for troubled kids with a Juvie record for assault. That was the first time that I disappointed you Daddy, remember it. Well now you know why."

Dan's mouth opened. "I never knew any of this," he said.

"Because we never talked Daddy," said Kerri. "Anyway, that little bitch never did give me any of my paintings back. After she found that Legs and I were going together she destroyed all of them. My God they'd be so fucking valuable now. Anyway my outburst hurt me more than it did Tammy. I got sent to a school for troubled kids, most of whom were just slow. Legs ended up in the school of fine arts, so we were separated again. We ended up together finally in college. We insisted on going to the same college right at home in New York. Legs went into their art program and I couldn't draw a fucking line with a ruler so I ended up majoring in art history. You had to submit a catalog of work for admittance in the art program and I had none. I figured that hanging out with Legs a lot would teach me about art. I hoped that maybe some of his talent would rub off on me or I could absorb it through osmosis. It is very important for you to understand that for all of this time neither Legs or I had done anything sexual with anyone. There was no hurry. Even when we turned 18, we didn't just jump up and start fucking. There was no need for it. We both loved each other very deeply and I think that even then we knew that we'd always be together. We were more interested in securing our future so we wouldn't be apart again."

"We'd already figured out that we'd be artists. We also knew that it was a rough life. Legs was amazing even then. His professors were awed by him. He excelled in everything he touched. He wasn't just the best painter in the program, or the best at sculpture, though he was the best at both, which is rare. He was simply the best artist there, period. They were trying to arrange shows for him in local galleries even before he graduated. We thought it was funny. He wasn't even out of school and they were already trying to make money off of him."

"Our first time having sex just happened. It was two days before my twentieth birthday. Legs was painting something and he kept doing it over and over again. He was trying to capture something in the painting that I couldn't understand. I think that was when I realized that he had a gear that most people simply didn't possess. I realized then that someday I might become an artist but I was NEVER going to be in his league and I wanted to so badly. We were both frustrated but by different things. As usual we sought to comfort each other and we ended up hugging like we always did, then the hugs became kisses. The kisses got more intense and the next thing I realized my panties were very wet. I thought I'd peed on myself. Legs had given me my first non-self generated orgasm just by kissing me and rubbing my pussy through my clothes."

"It felt so good that I didn't know what to do. My body was tingling all over. I started taking my clothes off and Legs did the same. His body was beautiful and I wanted nothing more than to lie there with him next to me. We started kissing again and he rubbed my breasts or at least what I had. My nipples were so hard I could cut diamonds with them. I started rubbing my pussy against him and he rubbed back against me."

"We both knew what was going to happen next. I'd known what to expect from hearing about my friends' first times but there was no way I could have stopped."

"Are you sure we're ready for this?" he asked. I couldn't even talk so I just nodded my head. Legs started rubbing the tip of his dick just inside my pussy. By then I was so wet that he could probably have just slammed it home and got it over with, but he wasn't that kind of man. He very slowly eased it into me, stopping every so often to make sure he wasn't hurting me."

"Finally, I just grabbed him by his ass cheeks and pulled him into me. I felt so full and he felt so hot that my head spun for a while. I don't know what came over me after that. I started to hump myself on him like some kind of slut. I just couldn't get enough of him."

"It felt like there was a bubble expanding inside of me and all of a sudden it just popped. When it did, I lost consciousness for a few seconds. When I regained my senses, Legs was there stroking my hair and looking down on me."

"Looking into his eyes, I knew what love was. We'd been together for nearly all of our lives, but all of a sudden things just became more intense. It was like a new dimension had been added to our relationship."

"Over the next few days, I became even more obsessed with Legs if that was possible. I skipped a few of my classes and did a few other really silly things until he sat me down and had a talk with me."

"He told me that we needed to keep our eyes on the prize. It was the endgame that was the most important thing. We needed to graduate so we could set the art world on fire. Reluctantly, I returned to my classes but every moment I wasn't in class I was with him. We had sex constantly and it affected him as well as it did me."

"He said it made his painting even more intense. All I know was that it became even more important to me that we stay together. There were, of course, a few incidents with some of his female classmates. None of them were as bad as the Tammy situation, but one or two were close."

"The results of those actions manifested in two things. The first was that Legs' female classmates left him alone. And secondly, the day before his art class final, when I least expected it, my life changed."

"I was about to graduate as well, but I was more worried about Legs' finals. The way I looked at it. I still had far more school to go through. I had applied for the same art school that Legs had just completed. I wasn't sure that my paintings were very good, but I'd submitted a couple."

"I guess the problem was that I compared my work to the paintings that Legs did, so I didn't think they were very good. My fears were confirmed though because my application was rejected. For about twenty minutes, I was the most depressed woman on earth. I dragged my sad ass back to the apartment I shared with Legs."

"I intended to drink myself to death or as close as I could come. I was ruining all of the plans we made with my lack of talent. It would be hard for us to conquer the art world together when only one of us was an artist. Realizing this was what first alerted me to the missing pieces of me. What I thought was missing was the piece of my soul that gave me that special perspective that artists all have. If I could only bring those pieces back, I'd be a great artist. I'd be whole again. As soon as I stepped into the apartment my plans changed."

"The first thing I noticed was that Legs had sprinkled rose petals all over the floor until they formed a little path around our living room. He'd arranged three or four of his canvasses around our apartment. It smelled so wonderful that I just dropped my liquor bottle on the floor. Forget about drinking myself out of my depression. I decided then and there that I'd fuck myself out of it."

"I followed the path that Legs had laid out for me. I went to his first canvas. It was a painting of me that I'd never seen. I was lying on some pillows in the painting. The image was so lifelike that I could swear I saw myself breathing in the painting. And the expression that he'd captured. I looked so satisfied and so happy. I had never seen that expression on my face before. I had to ask him about it."

"For some reason, that painting always makes me horny. I found out why later."

"I followed the trail to the next canvas. It was even more incredible. It was a city-scape. It was huge and very detailed. I'd seen the outline of this painting before but I'd never seen the completed work. Besides the buildings that were beautifully rendered, you could see people walking the streets engaged in all manner of activities. It was one of those things that you could look at forever and never see the same thing twice. I think I must have stood there in front of it for a long time."

"After looking at the painting for a long time, I went to the last canvas. It was blank except for a card in front of it that read, "The future." I looked at it carefully because I didn't understand what it meant. Then I noticed a string hanging from the top of the easel that supported the canvass."

"I pulled the string gently and it came up. I pulled more and found a beautiful ring attached to it. Legs came out from the next room and smiled at me."

"Is this for me?" I asked. He just nodded and smiled at me.

"Legs, you don't have to give me a ring just to get me to go to bed with you, dummy," I smirked, beginning to open my blouse. "We're going to be together forever, moron."

"And that's why I want you to marry me," he said. When he said that, the top of my head exploded. I'd missed everything. But you have to understand that Legs was always surprising me and doing little romantic things for me. We didn't have much money, but he gave me all of his love and any time that he didn't spend working on his art."

"I started screaming and I couldn't shut up. Every thought of my rejection was forgotten. I grabbed him and took him right there on the floor. Later on he explained a few things to me."

"Legs explained why the canvas labeled the future was blank. He said it was because our future would be drawn by both us together. He didn't know what it would look like but he was sure it would be great. And it was."

"The other thing that he explained to me was the picture of me. He said it was the way I always looked, right after we'd made love. He loved looking at me then and when I slept afterwards. And he'd tried very hard to capture that look. No matter how many offers we got for that painting, we never sold it. It was always my favorite painting."

"Anyway, we got married and our wonderful life began. Legs almost immediately got a few pieces sold in a couple of local art shows. With the money he made with those pieces we were on our way. "

"I'm not going to say that we never had any problems, but they were very, very few and very minor. Legs worshipped me and I him. I remember I got a tattoo once. I got his name tattooed with a little heart on my left shoulder. As soon as I walked into the house he went crazy. He asked me what was wrong with my shoulder. I proudly showed him the tat and he looked as if he was going to cry. He told me that my body was far too perfect for me to mar or deface. He loved me just the way I was. I didn't need any marks on my body to call attention to me or make me beautiful because I already was. He told me that he thought tattoos just made women look like they belonged in the circus or that they were desperately crying out for attention. It took a lot of expensive laser treatment to get rid of that tattoo. That was one of our biggest problems until then."

"Legs immediately got the attraction of one of the biggest agents in New York. Word had already begun to spread about Legs. We deviated from the typical artist's path by taking commissions from a few wealthy collectors and even a few corporate clients."

"For a few years, Legs worked his way up the ladder of artistic success. He began to become known both for his sculptures and for his paintings. We always held back his best work for his annual show. "

"To avoid becoming overexposed, Legs only did one showing a year. His agent also began to market Legs as a personality. Legs' habit of dressing entirely in black and his Mustangs made him stand out from the typical artist. He also had a habit of carrying a sword around with him wherever he went. His eccentricity made him even more sought after."

"As he became more famous, he began to hang out with other famous people both in and out of the art world. It wasn't unusual for me to come home and find almost anyone in my living room. I still remember walking into my house one afternoon and seeing a tiny woman looking through Legs' latest works. She dressed like something out of a comic book. She had Legs' gift of matching colors that didn't seem to go together and making them look wonderful."

"As I watched, she went from painting to painting and back nodding her head at some and shaking her head at others. I still had that problem with jealousy. "

"Hello Kerri," she said when she saw me. "Her heavy French accent made me pause before I started in on her. Then I heard the sound of one of Legs' Mustangs, but it was louder than normal. I looked out through the doorway and saw Legs racing his car up our roadway followed very closely by another Mustang that I'd never seen before."

"Boys and their toys," said the woman. She was incredibly beautiful and even smaller than I am. I suddenly realized whose ass I was about to kick. The woman was one of the most famous artists in the world, Amanda Anderson."

"Amanda was from France but now lived in Florida with her husband and partner Raphe Jenkins. For most of my adult life I had idolized this woman and even now I copy her style, but there she was standing in my living room."

"She'd come to talk not only to Legs, but to me. It was Amanda who'd come up with the idea that I, not our current manager, Darren, should represent our business interests. She'd had dealings with Darren and his agency and no longer trusted him."

"I began to take a bigger interest in what was going on and eventually I did take over as Legs' manager. It was one of the best things I ever did, but also probably the biggest mistake I ever made. It was extremely fulfilling. Instead of simply staying on the sidelines as his wife, I became an important part of the team. It made me feel as if I was making a contribution instead of just being a spectator."

"At first I handled everything for Legs myself. I arranged his meetings and interviews and chose which places we'd go and which ones we wouldn't. I also helped him choose which corporate commissions we'd take and which we wouldn't. By that time, we'd been married for a while and were still crazily in love."

"The biggest problem was that I still didn't see us as equals the way I wanted us to be. Legs' star continued to rise and I was once again relegated to the background. I'd given up painting totally by then because I simply wasn't good enough."

"I began to obsess over the piece of my soul or maybe a few pieces that were missing. If I could only find those missing pieces then my artistic talent would come to the fore. Perhaps not as wildly as my husband's but there'd be something that I could do in a way that no one else could. I saw many different types of artists as we traveled and worked and I constantly sought something that might be my niche."

"I also constantly hung out with different types of artists to expose myself to different forms of art that might someday become my specialty."

"I suppose it was inevitable that other artists who wanted to ride the coat tails of my husband's success would begin to think that I was in some way responsible for it. Some of them began to think that if I could represent them, then maybe I could bring them a portion of his success."

"Legs was all for it, he always supported anything that I took a fancy to. Within six months, our lives had completely changed. By that time I was representing five or six other artists beside Legs. I started to get a big head about it and started to neglect Legs. I was so busy doing things for other people that we never spent any time with each other anymore."

"I guess that was when "she" came into the picture. At first I took no notice of her. After all she was plain and she was kind of fat. Who could be threatened by someone like that? It took a while but she just took over Legs' life."

"Everything involving the business aspects of his career and even his personal life she handled. There were several times when I had to remind her that I was his wife and she was only his assistant. I tried to fire her once or twice, but she told me that I couldn't fire her because I didn't hire her or sign her checks."

"She even told me once that she thought I was stupid for what I was doing. I explained to her that I represented the largest stable of artists in the United States so I knew very fucking well what I was doing."

"She shook her head and just laughed at me. She asked me how many of those artists were actually making any money. I just stared at her."