How do you tell your friend that you burned a portrait he did of you? After a couple of martini's, wine and it goes a little like this:
Me: "Eric. Eric, I have to tell you something about that painting you gave me."
Eric: "You burned it."
Me: "Yes! How did you know?"
Eric: "Wait, what? You burned it???"
I had been wanting to tell him for over a year but how exactly do you begin that conversation? Drinks.
It was a snapshot he took of me before I was going in to work at a restaurant on Duval that I loathed working at. I was miserable counting down the minutes before having to go in. He captured it perfectly and did a portrait which he eventually gave to me. The title was "Friday"
At first, I loved it and thought it was an awesome gesture but then... Something about it just held this person I was no longer and it had a lot of pain in it. So I got the notion of releasing it, me, and that meant burning it. But who burns a friends painting? Me.
Surprisingly, Eric took it very well and as a compliment. He told me he was going to run with that and tell everyone.
As we told a few people at the bar what I did, they looked at me in disgust. I told him I didn't care about what anyone thought cause it needed to be done but I did care about him getting upset. Something told me he'd be ok with it and he was. He loved it in fact.
I swear I can't believe he can understand or put up with me. Must be why he was the first person I met in Key West, it was fate. You find those kind of friends exactly when you need them.
