“If you mean purposely trying to get a photo, then you’re right. I told you I wanted a photo.” She raised the legs on her tripod, getting it in position. “Okay, go stand over there where we have the most space. And stand, so your profile is to the camera. Do me a favor and put your left hand on your right bicep.”
This was silly. Ross followed her directions with as muchgrudgeas was possible when doing something begrudgingly. A smart girl like Mia was sure to get the hint. If she was expecting him to smile for a lousy picture, she was going to be disappointed for the second time this evening.
“Yourotherleft hand, Ross. You need to flip sides.”
He sighed, switching to the correct position. How was Mia able to talk him into doing things he didn’t want to do? He was glad she used her powers of persuasion for good rather than evil. In the past, there had been, no doubt, people who would have considered Ross a bad influence. In a shocking twist of irony, Ross never had agency over a single person. And he wouldn’t mind having some, especially when it came to her.
“Can we just get this over with, please?” he asked, unable to keep the impatience from invading his question.
“You cooperate, and it’ll be over before you know it.” She peered through the viewfinder, adjusting the lens. “Okay, here’s what’s going to happen. Oh, you can put your hand down now. I just needed it to focus.” She walked to the display counter, and her fingers danced across the selection of jewelry before choosing a ring and slipping it on.
“I’m going to set the timer, and then come over to you to put my hand on your arm, so it’s, hopefully, the focus of the image.” She turned one of the metal lights around to shine on Ross, placing one of the lightbox panels in front to defuse it. Mia repeated this action on the opposite end with the second light. “We’ll be in the image, but slightly out of focus. I think as long as you don’t seem as grumpy as you look right now, it’ll turn out pretty good.”
“I’m not smiling.”
“As long as you cannotsmileandalso not look crabby, I’ll take it. The camera shutter will go off a few times because I have it on the setting where it’ll take a few images in quick succession. Got it?”
“Yeah, I got it. Let’s get it over with.”
Mia approached, and, in what was getting to be a bad habit, her fingers swept through Ross’s hair as though this would also sweep away the cobwebs surrounding his heart. Those dusty webs weren’t going anywhere but they may have swayed a fraction in the breeze. She then brushed the top of his shoulders as if to rid his gray sweater of invisible lint or wrinkles or whatever damn thing her eyes could see. Did it even matter when she had already stated he was going to beslightly out of focus.
“How about me? Do I look okay?” Mia’s body stilled, giving him the time to study her.
Ross did the one thing he’d wanted to do all evening. He released the lock of hair from behind her ear.
“Really? That’s it?”
“Yeah,” he said. To be honest, he didn’t know what he should have found wrong with her. Except for that one time she had been sprawled on the ground during her off-trail hike, he couldn’t remember a moment that she wasn’t adorably put together. And even at that moment, with a streak of dirt smudged across her chin, she still managed to be endearing.
Mia returned to the camera and pushed a few more buttons before saying, “Okay, ready, set, go,” before rushing toward him. Their bodies collided in her haste and she almost tipped over. On instinct, he wrapped his hand around her waist to catch her.
“Oops.” She braced herself by placing her hand flat on his chest. “Sorry about that.” She blushed but maintained her position, and he kept his hand at her waist. She put the jeweled hand on his right bicep, the spot she marked earlier.
“Are you sure you set the timer?” he asked.
“Sorry, it goes off in about thirty seconds. I always misjudge how long that actually is, which is why I raced over here, and now we get to stand here, awkwardly waiting for it to go off.”
He could sense her eyes on him.
“Ross, can you look at me?”
He didn’t want to. It would be a mistake. But Ross sucked in his courage, rotating his face to her. Somewhere in the background, the camera’s shutter clicked several times, but she didn’t move, and neither did he.
Besides the one or two “friend hugs” he’d received from her many years ago, she’d never been so close. It wasn’t as if sixteen-year-old Ross hadn’t craved this type of contact. It may have passed through his thoughts once, twice…or possibly a hundred times. He had lost count.
Her ever watchful gaze tracked the length of his face: his brow, eyes, nose, and mouth. It was as if she was studying for a future quiz. Mia appeared to be committing every detail of him to memory. Perhaps she was preparing for a situation where another ten years passed and needed to make sure her brain didn’t forget this time.
From his convenient vantage point, he was able to take his own notes on her features. This was, after all, Ross’s super strength: the visuals. He noticed the soft, faded vestige of freckles across her nose. The way her elegant brows came together. Her thick lashes framing her warm eyes behind glasses. And, yes, his eyes landed on the lines of her lips. It wouldn’t take much effort for him to—but it would be a mistake. He swallowed and returned to her eyes. But her lowered lids seemed to indicate she was also calculating the geometric angle and physical effort necessary to come closer.
“Mia?” he said.
“Hmm?”
“The camera went off.”
She blinked, snapping to sensibility. “What?” She pulled away, leaving a cold void in her place. “Sorry. It was a long day of working at the coffee shop and then doing this. I may have just fallen into a daze, and I-I was trying to find that gleam.”
She busied herself with the camera and packed her stuff.
