Chapter 3

Turning on the flood lights Elizabeth started to draw, she was pleased with how it was going so far. A woman, her arms high above her head shackled to a large ring, head hanging down, her hair covering her face, she wore a tunic that was high on the thigh, torn up one side. Her ankles were also shackled, legs spread wide as the chains from the shackles ran to rings set in the flooring, in the background a dragon sat watching, a look of contemplation on its face. Walking back to the kitchen, Elizabeth poured herself another cup of tea, leaning on the counter she looked at the canvas, hmmmmming to herself, she nibbled on a charcoal covered finger, she looked at it from one angle, then from another. "What do you think? Taipei, it needs something else, not sure what though," she took another sip of her tea and walked back over to the canvas, frowning. Taking down the canvas and setting it aside where she could look at it, she put up a clean one, then started to sketch quickly a basic outline. The woman was still chained to the pillar, in the same position, but this time standing just slightly to the side was a man, dressed as a warrior, his hands were at the front of her tunic ripping it down to her waist, the swell of one breast could be seen over the mans shoulder. Setting this canvas aside, she picked up the other and put it back on the easel, adding the ripped part of the tunic to the drawing.

Elizabeth smiled, pleased, telling Taipei it just might turn into a series of drawings, with a yawn she turned off the flood lights, washed her tea cup, set it in the drain board, fixed her coffee pot for the morning and went to bed. She woke up once as a flash of lightning and the booming crack of thunder light up the room, she glanced up, then went back to sleep with the deep purring sound from the night before filling her dreams.

Drinking her coffee while putting on her shoes, Elizabeth looked at Taipei and laughed "Taipei, I had the funniest dream last night, I woke up and you were standing looking at the last two sketch's I've been working on, it was the oddest thing, the lightning flashed and I could see you outlined in the light." Putting her cup in the skin, she chuckled to herself and gave Taipei's back a stroke, told him to be good and left for work. The week went by quickly, Elizabeth only had one problem, Frank constantly calling and leaving memo's and showing up downstairs ringing her buzzer off the wall. She simply ignored him, after calling him and telling him they're relationship was at an end, she would appreciate it if he would stop calling and coming over.

On Friday Karen reminded her about their double date, Elizabeth was in a good mood as she dressed for the date, it had been a long time since she had been on a double date, Karen was a fun person to be with, so Elizabeth didn't anticipate any problems, it the guy was a total loser, she would just take a taxi home and that would be it.

His name was Mike, he had a nice sense of humor, was not bad looking, he wore his hair rather long, Elizabeth thought but he had nice smiling eye's which to her was more important then length of hair, heck she just might enjoy getting used to it. Mike worked for a computer graphic's company, which of course brought the evenings conversation around to computer's. Karen grinned at Elizabeth then started to laugh, Karen told the men that if there was anyone who could break a computer just by touching it, it was Elizabeth. Karen explained the law firm had a computer repairman on retainer just to fix whatever Elizabeth broke, messed up, deleted and in general foobar'd, that it wasn't just the office computers, but the copier's, typewriters, the only thing she hadn't broken yet was the coffee machine.

Carl, Karen's boyfriend then launched the same conversation Elizabeth had heard a dozen times from him, how she could do some amazing art work on a computer, not to mention using the web to sell her art. Elizabeth nodded listening to him, she knew everything he said was very true, but she and mechanical or electronic machine's just didn't see eye to eye. Karen told Mike all about Elizabeth's art and mentioned some of the pieces she had sold. Mike looked at Elizabeth with even more interest, he had seen some of her art work on book covers and in fantasy magazines. After the evening was over, Elizabeth invited Karen, Carl and Mike up to her loft for a nightcap. Elizabeth didn't have much in the way of liqueur, so offered everyone their choice of beer, wine, coffee or tea. The three wandered around looking at her art work, Karen almost went orgasmic over the 3 latest works she had not seen yet, the woman and the serpent, and the chained woman sketches. Carl leered at Karen and offered to chain her up, they all laughed, Mike asked Elizabeth if her art was an expression of her own sexuality, she chuckled and looked at the last two sketches, then told him she didn't think bondage was her cup of tea, but one never really knew what was going on in their subconscious, maybe it was and she just hadn't figured it out yet.

Mike and Carl got into a major discussion about how a computer would enhance Elizabeth's designs, while Karen and Elizabeth went into the kitchen, of course she knew that Karen really didn't want another beer, Karen was more a scotch and soda type, but what she really wanted to do was find out what Elizabeth thought of Mike. Grinning Karen said "Well, what do you think of him?" Elizabeth smiled and told Karen that she thought Mike was a very nice person, and she had enjoyed the double date, Karen looked very pleased with herself and whispered "be sure and give him your phone number." Later Elizabeth thanked Mike for a nice evening, told him she would consider his suggestion of letting him teach her how to do her art on the computer, he asked for her number which she gave him with a smile. Karen and Carl were already waiting downstairs for him, and finally honked their car horn. Mike waved and left. Elizabeth washed up the few glasses, tossed the beer cans in the trash, turned off the flood lights, locked the front door and went upstairs to shower. After her shower Elizabeth came back downstairs, it was late but she wasn't tired enough to sleep yet. Fixing herself a glass of ice tea, she went to work on the first chained canvas filling in details, adding dimension and shading, taking a drink of her tea she stood back and looked at it and Mmmmmm'd pleased with how it was turning out. Turning on the music Elizabeth swayed to the sound of the music as she drew, the more she drew the more pleased she became, this is going to be a great series she told Taipei. She worked most of the night on the two pictures, stopping to make notes about idea's for additional drawings. Still pleased with how it was going, Elizabeth finally turned off the lights and crawled into bed, pulling up the covers over her head as the sun started to peek in the windows. She had blinds for the windows and skylights, but half the time she forgot to use them, muttering to herself she closed the blinds, then went back to bed.

An insistent buzzing woke Elizabeth up, she swore and rolled off the mattress, looking to see who it was, she groaned, it was Daryl. Grabbing her sweats she pulled them on then pressed the buzzer to let him in, unlocked the door and went to fix herself some coffee, glancing at the clock she was surprised it was already three in the afternoon. Daryl came in, gave her a half smile hello, getting a beer out of the frig, he bitched at her about the lack of decent booze in the place, frowning at him, she told him to make himself to home, not that he hadn't already, and went upstairs to dress.

Daryl was stretched out on her mattress, waiting for her, when she got back downstairs, at least today he wasn't wearing all his earrings, eyebrow, nose, etc rings. He was frowning into his beer, she sat down on the couch sipping her coffee, "What's wrong? Daryl, you usually don't go out in the light of day." she asked. Elizabeth wasn't surprised when Daryl launched into a tirade about his parents, his brother, how they didn't understand him, wouldn't even try and see his way of life, all they wanted was to see him in a three piece suit and work on wall street. Elizabeth was just about to reply, when the buzzer rang. Daryl hopped up, giving Elizabeth a grin he went and pressed the buzzer letting who ever it was in.

Daryl took the box into the kitchen grinning at her "now I'm gunna show you a decent drink." Elizabeth frowned as Daryl took bottle after bottle out of the box. She looked at him "You planning a party? or just thirsty?" Daryl laughed "how about both." Daryl started fixing drinks, every time Elizabeth would take a sip and make a face saying yuck, he would grab the glass toss out the contents, and fix another. The buzzer rang again and Elizabeth looked at Daryl "what did else did you order?" Daryl shrugged and they both went to look and see who was buzzing. There was a man in his late twenties standing at the downstairs entrance way, Elizabeth was about to walk away, when she saw the look on Daryl's face, "You know him?" she asked, Daryl took a big drink of whatever it was he had at that moment and nodded, then quietly said "that's Tom, my boyfriend." Elizabeth just looked at Daryl and replied "do you want to invite him up?" Daryl pressed the buzzer letting Tom in, then waited for him at the door while Elizabeth went back into the kitchen and took a big swig of her own drink, then made a face at it.

She could hear Daryl and Tom whispering by the door, she chuckled, talk about shock, and sampled another drink, and quickly spit it out. Walking up to Tom, she smiled and held out her hand, introducing herself, then told him to come in and help teach Daryl how to make a decent drink. Soon the three of them were in the kitchen, trying out different concoctions. They ordered in Chinese food for dinner, Daryl insisting the only thing to drink with that was warm dark ale, which had Elizabeth laughing, when Tom insisted it had to be saki, but since they didn't have any saki or warm dark ale, they settled for a glass of white wine. Tom loved Elizabeth's art, they had a wonderful time looking over her pictures, Elizabeth decided she liked Tom, he was friendly, intelligent, had a warped sense of humor which tickled her. Daryl finally found a drink that Elizabeth liked, it was called a brandy sour, he fixed her a large one and showed her how to make it, Tom was drinking some weird drink called a grasshopper.