“Do you like taking pictures of people?” I asked.
His gaze dropped to the floor. “I like finding the little things that people usually don’t notice.”
“Like when I watch the rain?”
“Yeah, although that one was almost too obvious. I mean this.” He lifted his camera toward me without moving any closer, forcing me to step in.
The small screen displayed a picture of a board member who was half drunk with his eyes rolled back and his face slack with boredom mid-sentence. Theo eyed me, his slender thumb hovering over the down button, waiting for me to give him the go-ahead to continue. I nodded. He clicked, producing a new image on the screen every few seconds. Like a couple from the fundraising committee clinking glasses while shooting matching glares at each other. Or the mayor standing just a little too close to a woman that wasn’t his wife, leaning in with a suspicious smirk. Each photo revealed a secret in plain sight.
“These…” I whispered. “They’d hate these.” But only because they were so full of truth that they would shock anyone who was caught in them.
“Most likely. They won’t be the ones going on the website. But they’re the ones I’m keeping.”
I let out a short, surprised laugh. I couldn’t help it.
He flipped to another photo of the gallery director picking spinach out of her teeth behind a pillar.
I snorted. “You always do that?”
“I promise you, I only send out the standard glossy stuff I get paid for. These are just for my own artistic kicks, you know? Although they’re nowhere near the quality ofyourpictures.”
“No, you don’t get to talk yourself down. These are astonishing. Nothing I could ever shoot.”
“Hard to believe.”
“It’s true. Why do you think I asked for someone else to take my portrait? I can’t shoot people well to save my life. Never found them interesting, although seeing your pictures might make me change my mind.”
“Says the guy who just opened his own exhibition, landed the cover of last month’sInternational Geographic,and is already being called the next shooting star of photography.”
“It’s true! I wish I could just learn how to take those kinds of pictures.”
“I could say the same about your storm chasing.” He made a face. “Honestly, I’d really love to tag along sometime. But I’m not going to ask if I can. You made it pretty clear in your interview withThe Ratio Aspectyesterday that you only shoot alone.”
“You heard that, huh?”
“I listened strictly for professional reasons, I swear.” He pushed himself off the wall. “It’s too bad. I would’ve offered to take you to the wedding, so you could practice finding the small stories in exchange for you taking me along once too.”
He fixed his eyes on me. His lips moved as if he were biting his tongue to stifle a grin.
“I see what you did there,” I said, glancing over my shoulder as if the press were already there, eavesdropping for the next scoop. Not that my agreeing to a professional tagalong would be newsworthy. “That was clever.”
“It was, wasn’t it?”
“You planned that?”
“No. I just took a chance when you gave me the opportunity.”
It would have been wiser to say no. Nothing was likely going to come of it. I went on my shoots alone for a reason. Not only are they boring as hell—because waiting on the weather can takeforever—but they also carry an inherent risk, especially when it comes to thunderstorms and tornadoes. Letting someone tag along meant I had to watch out for them, when watching out for myself was already hard enough.
And yet there was something about his offer that made me think twice: the chance to move beyond being just a one-night-stand kind of guy. It was an invitation to become something else. Acquaintances, maybe. Or friends. Not just fuckbuddies.
“When does your wedding start tomorrow?”
“Eight in the morning.”
“Already?”
“Told you, it was going to be a short night.”
