“I’m sorry. The office is for employees only,” Aanya said.
“It’s okay. I’m an old friend.” Mia gave a quick tap on the door before letting herself inside. The office was packed to the edges with old banker boxes as though Ross had inherited at least a decade’s worth of paperwork from the previous owner. They lined the walls and surrounded his desk like a cardboard fortress.
“What the hell are you doing? You don’t belong here. And you may be an old friend, but you’re not necessarily a current one.” Ross’s voice was flat, edged by slight exasperation.
“Okay, I know I deserve that,” Mia replied to his back as he hunched over the sturdy, well-worn desk. His fingers worked on the mechanisms of a digital camera. She sank into the other office chair available after moving a box from it. She took a deep breath, sent a thought to her mom, and calmed herself. “Ross, I’m sorry.”
The words stopped his current activity, but he remained fixed in his position.
“What I said in the coffee shop… It was rude. I shouldn’t have said it, and I’m really sorry that I did.”
After an uncomfortable pause, Ross said, “Okay.”
“So, maybe we can try being friends? I promise to pick up your tab the next time you come in. Anything you want will be on me.”
“Thank you for apologizing, but I really need to get some work done.” He returned to his previous task with the camera.
Mia tried not to feel the sting of rejection. She couldn’t blame him. Why was she absurd enough to push it, asking him to be her friend as if they were still kids in high school? She came to apologize, not force the man into a friendship. She wasn’t here to make friends anyway. Her stay in Placerville was nothing but a short detour.
At the same time, this current situation didn’t feel satisfying enough. Her character was still in the negative and it didn’t seem quite fair. She was willing to forget about Ross cheating on his schoolwork behind her back. That was a long time ago and they were just kids. Life was now different for both of them. But leaving it like this, when Ross clearly didn’t like her, it made her feel unsettled. Not being able to fix this and being hated was a horrible punishment for Mia. Luckily, she had won over Ross Manasse before, and she could do it again. This time, though, she’d have to do it without her mother’s cookies.
“What are you working on?” she forced out in a bright tone.
He sighed, giving her a quick glance. “I let a customer trade his camera for an engagement ring. I might as well get some images for our website if I can figure out how to use it.”
“I thought you didn’t have a website.”
“We don’t. But my cousin is all for it, so I’m willing to try.”
There was a selection of jewelry laid across the desk’s wooden surface. A glitter of inspiration sparked her insides like a flame on a dynamite’s fuse line. This was Mia’sin, her wedding cookie. Ross may not want the friendship she offered, but he might be willing to accept her help instead. She could prove her value to him again and to herself. This type of help was what Mia was good at, the type she thought she’d be doing in the political world. “You’re not going to take pictures on your desk, are you?”
“I don’t know. I’m not there yet.”
“Can I see what kind of camera you have?”
A disapproval line formed between his eyebrows but, after a moment, he surrendered the camera to her grasp before crossing his arms. His grumpy barrier was as established as the old banker boxes stacked inside his office. Mia offered a smile as she took it, pushing her confidence to the forefront as if his emotional wall didn’t bother her. She grew up with the judge. Grouchiness didn’t scare her.
She turned the camera in her hands as if handling a rare jewel. For being a used camera, it was in near perfect shape. She would have loved to have this camera for herself, and it kindled an awakening to take the type of photos she always dreamed of. “It’s a Samsung NX1.”
“Great. Thanks for your help, but I alreadyreadthat for myself.”
Mia ignored the sarcasm and lifted the camera body to squint through the viewfinder. She then scrolled through the camera settings and menu options. “How much did the ring cost?”
“What ring?”
“The engagement ring, in exchange for the camera.”
“Five hundred.”
“You got the better end of the deal. Well, I don’t recommend taking the images here. There’s not enough light. You could crank up the ISO. Or use a wider aperture, but this might shorten your depth of field. That’s not a bad thing, especially for some interesting jewelry shots, but it may take a novice a little while to figure it out. I also don’t think you should use your desk as the background, because there’s not going to be enough contrast for the jewelry to stand out. Having a website isn’t going to matter if the visuals aren’t going to blow customers away. Were you planning on creating the website yourself?”
Ross’s eyes narrowed as he studied her. “Luna, my cousin, was going to work on it between her studies.”
“You guys might also want to consider e-commerce sites, such as Etsy, especially since your pieces are handcrafted and unique. You can probably get a lot more eyes on your jewelry and make some decent sales from that and social media, rather than solely relying on a traditional website.”
“I’m sure we’ll figure it out.”
“I can help,” Mia blurted.
