She stretched over me, and I caught the scent of her perfume mixed with the overly sharp smell of the hotel bar soap she must have used.
She frowned at the phone, swiped the screen and tapped it. She caught me watching and smiled.
I loved her. I would always love her. No matter how we lived our lives, no matter the choices we made, no matter what our futures might be.
She leaned into me, turning the phone around so I could see the screen. She pointed the device toward the chaos near the couch.
Abbi snickered against the cheap carpet. Hado was perched on top of Lorde’s back batting her ears, which made Lorde bark and spin, tail wagging.
“Press this circle.” Lula’s breath was sweetened with mint. “It will take a picture. You can press it more than once.”
Since I was down a hand, she held the phone for me. I did as she said, the phone making a softsnicking sound, imitating a camera click.
“Where does the photo come out?” I asked.
She raised an eyebrow because I may not have used modern technology much, but that didn’t mean I hadn’t observed her using it over the years.
“Here’s the gallery.” She tapped and thumbed and there it was. The gallery contained two photos, tiny copies of the menagerie across the room.
It was a wonderful reminder of what technology could do, but I was struck by a wave of sorrow. All these years, and I didn’t have a single picture of Lula.
I took the phone and fumbled my way back to the camera. I turned it and while Lu watched with a patient expression, I snapped her photo. More than once.
“I’m not even wearing anything nice,” she said.
She was wrong, of course. In the dark green tank top and jeans, with her red hair pulled into a braid over her shoulder and her pale skin pink and fresh from the shower, she looked like the goddess of summer come to lure mortal souls to an eternity of pleasures.
“You are always beautiful.”
“This shirt has a stain, and my jeans are ripped.”
“You don’t see yourself through my eyes,” I said.
She smiled, and it was real and whole. “Here.” She took the phone and leaned beside me, holding it at arm’s length. The screen now showed the both of us.
I was startled at how pale I was behind my tight, dark beard. Startled to see the bruised circles under my eyes. “Sheesh,” I said. “Look at that bed head. I should comb my hair.”
Her thumb tapped the circle.
“Your hair is perfect,” she said. “Messy. Alive. Just how I like you.”
I grinned. “Yeah? You like this?”
She rested her head on my shoulder and took one more picture. “I like this. Us.”
And oh, how my heart filled with joy.
Abbi and the beasts had finally settled down, Abbi on her back staring at the ceiling, Lorde resting her big head on Abbi’s stomach. Hado curled up by Abbi’s face.
“Are we going soon?” Abbi asked.
“We are,” I said.
“In a minute,” Lula said. “Brogan’s going to take a shower first.”
“Do I stink?”
“You smell good.”
