Sweethearts

My manager and friend, who I have worked with for so many years, throughly enjoys teasing me. One of her favorite jabs is to tease me about my choice to not date. She gets on my case more than my parents, who know the topic is taboo. A few years back I cleverly turned her teasing on her by saying, "Chris, the only girl for me in this world is your daughter, and I will have no one else". The reaction I got was great. She proceeded to tell me that I would never want her daughter for a wife, because she has ruined her daughter by spoiling her, and her husband will have the most spoiled wife in the world. I retorted, "Chris, who better to marry your daughter than myself? No one would spoil her more than I would." Mind, I am only joking with her, I'm closer to Chris's age than her daughter's, who was only fifteen. Admittedly, I like to tease her as well, and when ever I get the opportunity to tease Chris about her daughter I do, often referring to her daughter simply as 'my wifey'. Thus you can imagine I couldn't resist the opportunity to write a valentine for Sommer (Chris's daughter) when Chris brought a stack of cards into work on Valentine's Day. (The purpose of the cards was to give them to coworkers who were great teammates.) Chris likes to tease her kids too, so she gave it to her. A year later I wrote a short Valentine's Day poem for Sommer. It's become somewhat of a tradition, so for this year I decided that I would make her a valentine. Sommer is quite artistic, and honestly a better artist than myself, so I thought that she might appreciate a hand painted valentine. It's not my best work. I was trying to paint it rather quickly, after all, it is only a running joke.

"Sweethearts" 2012
Oil on Canvas
9x12"