“This is what you’ve been filming, but how did you do it? I mean, with the pictures...?”
The film—and I was using the term loosely—had been a compilation of the pictures we’d taken together and all the footage I had shot of us taking the pictures. Plus, some random footage of us. I’d started with the footage and then inserted the still photos at the exact same angle—they’d been a huge pain to match. I’d layered the still images on top of each other, using some of our outtakes to blend the transitions between moving images and the final still photos, letting the background movie continue so that there was always movement.
Like us.
There wasn’t a story exactly from just the photos, but I’d created one from the additional pictures and videos I’d taken that he hadn’t known about. Thanks to a kindly janitor who happily opened a door for me, I’d even gotten some of the security footage from the recently installed cameras outside so I’d have footage of both of us arriving and leaving the apartment complex over and over again, showing unguarded expressions with each other and the opposite with everyone else.
It was a love story. Not romantic exactly, but the kind of love that maybe lasts beyond passion and heartache. It was a story of friendship, with all its possibilities laid out in front of it.
That was what Adam and I had.
I slid my hand free from his to eject the flash drive and close the laptop, because it felt like too much in the moment, touching him.
“I feel like my gift sucks now.”
My head snapped up. “Are you kidding? It’s the coolest thing I’ve ever owned.” No joke. I glanced at the gift that had been too big to wrap. Instead, Adam had stuck a giant gold ribbon on it.
It was an old director’s chair that he’d found at a yard sale and spent weeks restoring. It looked like it had come off the set of a movie from the ’50s. My heart swelled at the sight of it, but looking at Adam wasn’t any better.
“You’re gonna use this for your film program application, right? You have to.”
“I was thinking about it. It still needs work, but...you don’t mind?”
“Mind?” Adam glanced at the flash drive as I handed it to him. “You’re gonna make me famous.”
I laughed. “Merry early Christmas, Adam.”
“Merry early Christmas, Jo.”
IN BETWEEN
Jolene:
Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal.
Adam:
I know that one. Home Alone, right?
Jolene:
They only run it on TV for the entire month of December. Though technically it’s from the sequel.
Adam:
Merry Christmas to you, too.
Jolene:
I just ate a bag of Christmas candy corn. I’m gross.
Adam:
Oh, I finally found out about the movie critic in the building.
Jolene:
Sweet!
