Cancellation

Funny how some things can happen just in the nick of time and all you can do is accept it as meant to be and then move on from there.  This involves an art show I was supposed to do in a local café and was to open next week.  I had already informed a few people, not many, of the show, and was waiting for the agent to make up the invitation card with an image of one of my paintings and to send out invitations in the neighbourhood.  In the meantime today, just following dinner, I was starting to make up an e invitation to my art show.  I had already copied and pasted an image from my website of one of the paintings and just as I was about to proceed with the email I received an email from the agent informing me simply in these cryptic words "I regret to inform you that your art show has been cancelled!  Take care!"
     Don't ask me to explain his use of exclamation marks.  The lack of explanation is troubling which in my opinion also reflects poorly on his professionalism and this may be the reason for the cancellation.  This was going to be a third party show, which is to say there is a curator who acts as an agent for this café for finding artists to install monthly exhibitions of their art and the said curator receives a thirty percent commission for all sales.  I was also, myself, an art curator for a couple of years for a café in my neighbourhood.  I never asked for or expected a commission because to me this was a community service, for which reason there was no real need to put things in writing and contributing artists handled their own sales and benefited entirely from the proceeds.
     On further reflection I sent him an email last week specifying what I believed to be reasonable conditions for going on with the show: that the prices I am requesting, though a bit on the high side, should be honoured, that a contract with both our signatures be drawn up, and that if possible I could be present while sales of my art were being transacted.  He emailed me back a few days later to affirm that all my requests were reasonable and he would respect and honour them.  Then today, less than an hour ago I received this news of the cancellation.
     I had not yet sent out the invitations.  I have just been spared a good deal of embarrassment.  I may never know why my show was cancelled and perhaps it is not necessary that I find out.  I am also aware that by not doing this art show I have also been spared a potential conflict of interest.  This is a café that I visit with many of the clients I work with and it is essential that their anonymity and privacy be respected.  Even with permission from my boss I am aware that this would have, or could have, amounted to a compromising of professional boundaries because client confidentiality has been weakened.
     I will continue to bring my clients to this café for a cup of coffee and conversation.  The ambience is warm and inviting and the owner and staff are wonderful and this almost always has a pleasant impact on people who are wrestling with mental health issues.  And if this remains my only reason for being in this café, then I am less likely to be asked, under other auspices, embarrassing questions about me or my clients, as well as protecting me from committing the sin of telling lies.