21.

Alva splashed a bowl of paint onto the canvas she was working on, the blue of it staining the edge of her cloth, and she smiled, “this is going to get messy”. She picked up the next paint which was a red one and splashed it onto the surface too.

“Hey gently, it's not like you will clean it up when you're done…” she smiled at Jessie who walked in, the tray of chocolate drink in her hand looking tempting, “You're around,”

“Mm, I heard you humming when I walked in and knew you were here,”

“Oh,”

“What are you working on?”

She looked at the messy canvas she was yet to blend in and pointed, “A sunset landscape with flowers in the garden,”

She smiled, “That's going to look beautiful,”

“I know right,”

“Chocolate?”

She shook her head, “Not yet, let me get a head start on this, and I'll join you,”

“Okay,”

She picked up a brush that was on the chair and started blending the colors, the mixture of blue and red bringing out the color she wanted, a purple background with darker edges and a lighter