‘We’ll see, shall we?’ He smirked and I sent a silent prayer that I hadn’t.
I pulled out the pics and in the first shot, I wasn’t giving Jake love-heart eyes.
It was much worse.
There was a photo of our backs to the camera again and we were holding hands.
After our conversation a few minutes ago, I knew that Sammie had seen us, but I didn’t realise she had photographic evidence.So sneaky!
‘Cute,’ Jake said.
‘Yeah.’ I didn’t bother denying it because it was.
And I liked the way he was looking at me.I couldn’t remember what we were talking about at that point but he seemed really engaged in whatever I was saying.
There were a few photos of us in various different places around the gardens that Sammie must’ve snapped and some photos of the back of me that Jake must’ve taken when I wasn’t looking.
‘I hope you didn’t mind me taking those photos from the back.I took them mainly for you.In case you wanted a memory of being there.But I made sure I didn’t show your face because I didn’t want you to feel uncomfortable.’
‘They’re great, thank you.I tried to take some photos just now of the views, but my phone is old, so the camera’s pretty shit.’
‘Want me to take some on mine?’ he asked.‘You don’t have to be in them.Unless you want to.Or I can take the back of you again?It’s up to you.’
‘O-okay,’ I said, feeling a bubble of excitement forming in my stomach.
‘I know this is a big deal for you so I’ll…’
‘Excuse me.’ A guy tapped Jake on the shoulder.‘Can I get a photo?’
‘Um…’ Jake paused and looked at me nervously.‘Sure.’ He flashed the man a smile.But it wasn’t like the smiles I’d become used to.It seemed stiffer.
‘Want me to take it?’ I offered.
‘You sure?’ Jake flashed me a look which saidthanks but you don’t have to.
‘Course!’ After the man gave me his phone, I took a few snaps.There was one where Jake’s eyes were closed so I quickly deleted that and another where he wasn’t quite ready for the photo.If he had to take a photo with a fan, I wanted to make sure that he looked his best.
‘There you go.’ I handed back his phone.
‘Thanks,’ he said.‘My wife isn’t gonna believe that I met you.She had the major hots for you before we started dating.What was up with that butter commercial, though dude?That blowed!’
The blood drained from Jake’s face and I instantly wanted to protect him from this man’s insults.Yeah, that ad wasn’t his finest moment.Even I was surprised when I saw him singing that cheesy song, but I kept my opinions to myself.Saying something hurtful like that to someone’s face wasn’t cool.
‘Just one of those things,’ Jake shrugged.He was pretending that it was no big deal, but I saw how stiff his shoulders were and his smile was so tense, his face could shatter any second.He was hating every moment of this.
‘Bet you went out and bought the butter though, right?’ I jumped in.
‘Yeah,’ the man laughed.‘My wife bought enough butter to make two hundred sandwiches!’
‘Then it worked!Just shows the power of a memorable advert, right?’
‘Right,’ the man nodded.‘Thanks for the photo.’ He walked off.
When the man was out of earshot, Jake exhaled.
‘Thanks for that,’ he said.‘You didn’t have to take the picture.’
‘It was nothing.And I sensed you were uncomfortable.’
