As per his word, Derek stayed until the end of the gallery showing at the Aquatic Museum so he could help Eva take down her part of the exhibit and take her paintings back to her studio. Derek was intrigued by the young lady. Sure, she wasn't the most outgoing or downright stunning woman at the event, but she was clearly talented and smart, and Derek was a firm believer that almost all women have their own type of beauty, and that the problem is they don't recognize it. For that matter, Derek believed that all people had within them the capacity to create and do and be beautiful things, and as an arts instructor, a member of the Spring Court and a Muse, he took it as his duty to help people achieve that potential. Or, as in this case, to help this young woman recognize and accept her own beauty.
As he and Eva had prepared to pack up her artworks, he took off his jacket, removed his tie, unbuttoned the top two buttons and sleeves of his shirt and rolled up the sleeves. Helping someone out was one thing, but needlessly getting one's clothing ruined was quite another, and while Derek was well-paid for a teacher, his was still nonetheless a teacher's salary, and it was hard enough to afford Armani on a teacher's salary without having to replace things that were practically new. Nonetheless, he didn't let his concerns for his clothing keep him from jumping in and getting to work.
Derek let Eva direct things as far as how to stow the paintings for travel and pack them into her vehicle. Although Eva was shy, he could tell hers wasn't the sort of shy that would respond well to someone else taking charge in regard to something so personal to her as her paintings; instead, he read her as the sort of shy who could blossom if she got used to calling the shots for a bit and having someone respond well to that. He figured he'd have the opportunity to take the lead in other ways later.
Without his jacket, Derek's physique was more obvious. He was trim and muscular, not in the slabs-of-bulging-muscle manner of a weight lifter or bodybuilder, but rather in the toned, wiry manner common among martial artists, fencers and dancers; and Derek was, in fact, all of those things.
Once the packing-up was done, they headed to Eva's studio, with Derek taking his own car and following her. Once at her place, again he let her run the show, asking her where she wanted him to put what, whether to unpack the pieces or keep them packed and so forth. He checked out the studio while going about this work, but didn't ask Eva any questions or offer any comments yet, figuring having her tell him about her workspace later would give them a topic to talk about that would be relatively comfortable for her.
After the unpacking was finished, he leaned against a drawing table and, smiling, gestured for Eva to come near. ", So, Eva, are you happy with where everything is?" he asked.