Tom looked from Daisy to Sophie and back again. This was what he wanted. He wanted Sophie to come here and speak tohim. Why did it suddenly feel like she was interrupting? He’d never felt like she interrupted anything before.
“God no,” Daisy laughed. Tom noted that it looked nothing like the laugh in his photo. “I can talk to this buffoon anytime,” she added, shoving him lightly. “He’s all yours.” He thought he saw her bottom lip quiver as she walked away.
Tom presumed she’d look around the exhibition again and perhaps wait until he was free, but she walked straight toward the door, handed her champagne glass to the waiter, took her coat and was gone. She was gone without even mentioning the photo of her. The biggest of them all.
“I’m so proud of you,” Sophie said as Tom pulled his gaze away from the door and waited a moment to refocus before he turned back to the face of his ex-girlfriend. The face he’d been longing to see for months. The face that inspired his greatest photos, that belonged to the woman he was going to marry.Stillwanted to marry, he corrected himself. She leaned in and wrapped her arms around him and there it was. Her familiar scent as she pressed her cheek against his. There were things he’d forgotten. The softness of her skin, or how much his body fizzed when she was close to him. Even now, after all this time.
“Thank you.”
“Nearly all sold?”
“Well it’s not about that,” he said, and she did her favorite smile that showed all her teeth, with the little gap between the front two.
“Knew you’d say that, and no, it isn’t, but it must be a good feeling anyway.”
He looked down at his shoes and back up. “I’m definitely glad people like them.”
“You look...” She scanned him, squinting. “Different. You’ve got a whole new look going on. Tom 2.0?”
“Something like that.” He nodded. “God. Anyway, sorry...it’s not about you, Tom.” He put the silly voice on, the one he did when he was nervous. “How are you?”
“I’m good. I’ve just got my dream part.”
“Soph, that’s amazing,” he said. “I’m delighted for you.” And he was. He always wanted the best for her. This was the news he used to wait for when they were together, but it never came. Why now? Maybe she was right and she hadn’t been able to concentrate on herself when she was with him. It certainly seemed that way, from what she was saying.
“Thank you, it’s just...” She took a deep breath in. “Now’s probably not the place.”
“What?” He reached out. Touched her arm. “Hey. It’s okay. You can tell me.” He felt like he already knew what she was going to say and he was ready for it. Wanted it almost. He felt his chest lightening as he waited. It might just be the closure he needed, after all this time. If Sophie’s life was better without him, then he wanted her to have that life, that’s how much he loved her.
“It didn’t feel amazing. The moment they called to tell me, all I wanted to do was tell you.”
He felt like the ground might crack open beneath him and he’d just start falling, lower and lower into it, that’s how light his head went. He couldn’t make sense of her words; his thoughts had taken him so far in the other direction.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying if there’s time, after this—” she signaled around the room with her arm “—I’d love to talk some more. All I want to do is talk to you. Well... notjusttalk... I mean. Argh. I’ll stop.”
He felt a rush thrum through his entire body.
“Tom,” a voice came from behind him and it was Kiki Lawrence, who’d managed to sweet talk everyone in the room before she approached him, dressed in a real skunk fur coat. Sophiehad always been jealous of Kiki, but had described it as having a “bad feeling” which Tom suspected was the same thing.
“Kiki,” he said, leaning forward to kiss her on the cheek. She moved her face at the last second so his lips landed on the edge of her mouth. Maybe Sophie’s bad feeling was right, after all.
“These photos are stunning. I want to buy them all. I won’t, but I want to.”
“Thank you so much, and thank you for coming.”
He waited for Sophie to say something, the way she might have when they were together. Instead she smiled at him.
“You do your thing. I’ll be here,” she said, nodding toward Laura, who was definitely making the most of a Martha-free night as she reached for another champagne.
“You suit this work, Tom,” Kiki said, looking around her. “But if you ever stop taking my photos I will fucking sue you.”
Tom leaned his head back, laughing. “I’ll always take photos of you, Kiki,” he replied. “I owe you my career. If it weren’t for you insisting on using me, there’s no way I’d have got the jobs I got.”
“Well that’s true. And I’m glad you remember, because...”
Out of the corner of his eye, as Kiki relayed to him the day they first met for the five hundredth time, he caught sight of Laura pointing her finger in Sophie’s face, saying something animated.
