Michael, Justin, Gus and J.R. sat in a booth at the Liberty Dinner. Last month, Mel and Lindsay had decided to move home to Pittsburgh. They were out house hunting while Michael and Justin spent time with the kids.
Debbie wasn’t scheduled for the lunch shift today. This meant that everything in the diner from sitting, to ordering and getting their food, took a little bit longer. Knowing this would probably be the case without Debbie there, the two adults came prepared to occupy the kids.
Gus knelt on the seat, hunched above a white sheet of paper. He did best to sketch his favorite dinosaur. J.R. had a coloring book in front of her. Different Disney princesses and princes adorned the pages of the book her father had given her.
The little girl hadn’t reached the age where a child respected the lines of the characters they colored. Yet, Mikey tried to coach her anyway. “No J.R. you should stop when a new lines appears and not draw over it. Color inside the lines.”
Justin made a wave with his hand. “Let her be Michael, she is doing a great job for her age. Am I right Gus?”
When the boy heard his name he looked up. “Yeah.” He would agree to nearly everything his Justin asked of him.
The blond smiled. “Besides, sometimes it’s okay to color outside the lines. It’s part of the art.”
“I think Justin knows what he’s talking about. His art is selling faster than he can create it.” Brian arrived at the diner and gave his own two cents to the conversation. He bowed down and gave his son a kiss on the cheek and his partner a kiss on the lips. After the greetings were shared he sat down on the side of the booth Gus and Justin occupied, pushing his son into the middle.
“Can I use that for an Ad campaign?” asked Brian. When he saw the confused look on his Sunshine’s face he explained further. “The part about coloring outside the lines. It would be perfect for a new campaign I’m working on.”
The artist shrugged his shoulders. “Sure.”
Gus held his drawing up to his father and beamed a huge smile at Brian. “Look Daddy! I drew this for you.”
“Thanks, Sonny boy.” Brian looked closely at the sheet of paper. He questioned just what he was supposed to see in it. He looked at Michael across the table and kicked his shin bone softly to get his attention.
The comic shop owner made a motion with his hands and showed his teeth. He tried to imitate a dinosaur without Gus noticing him.
Brian had no clue what Michael was referring to. He smiled at his son; he hated to lie but also didn’t want to hurt his son’s feelings. So he just decided to make a guess. “This is really a big dog.” He saw Justin’s head flinch toward him and Mikey screwed up his face and shook his head. Brian realized he’d made a mistake.
“But Dad, this isn’t a dog, this is a Tyrannosaurus Rex.” With his index finger, Gus pointed at two parts of his sketch. “Didn’t you see his short arms and big teeth?”
Now Brian realized what Michael had tried to signal him. Gus definitely hadn’t gotten Lindsay’s artistic drawing genes. Justin’s influence also appeared not to have rubbed off on his son, at least not yet. “Sorry, next time I’ll take a closer look.” He ruffled his boy’s hair. “Why don’t you add a little more color?”
The child nodded. “Okay, Daddy.”
Unseen by two of the three adults the little girl had moved her drawing interest from the coloring book to one of her father’s comic books. It was far more interesting. She’d colored the villain in a different mix of bright crayon, and messily put red splotches over his eyes.
Justin had observed the whole thing but hadn’t said a word. He knew it wasn’t an important comic book and it was interesting to see which crayon J.R. picked. It really looked like the girl had an eye for color.
When Michael realized what had happened he scrunched his face but couldn’t be mad at his daughter. After all, he had put it on the table and J.R. didn’t know the difference between the coloring book and the comics because they looked so much alike to her. “No, J.R. this isn’t for you to draw on. This is Daddy’s comic.” He placed the coloring book in front of his daughter again.
For a moment it looked like she would throw a temper tantrum but they were all saved from her impending fury when Kiki arrived with the food.
Once everybody was busy chewing on their food, Brian took the comic book in his hands and flipped to the pages the little girl colored on. “Now it really looks like art,” he said with a slightly mean twinkle in his eyes. He just wanted to tease Mikey but to his surprise, Justin started to nod his head vehemently.
“That’s what I thought too.”
The two older men looked disbelieving at the blond.
“She did a really good job with picking the colors,” Justin said in amazement.
The Italian man pulled the comic out of Brian’s hands. “You really think so?” he asked Justin. He knew that this opinion came from a man who made a living with his art.
Justin nodded. “Sure.” He took a bite out of his burger.
A few seconds later it had sunken in and Michael looked up a bit startled. “Does this mean I should start saving up for PIFA?”
Brian and Justin could only laugh.