by Emma Quinn
“I’m not lying.”
“Mhm, sure.” She hid behind her oversized mug and sipped at the drink. I adored how cute she looked in her oversized sweater. Dianna looked warm and snug, safe beneath the soft fabric. “But anyways, yeah. That’s when I really got into photography. My grandfather gave me his old film camera. I was really excited when Mister Henderson started up a photography class.”
“I remember Mister Henderson. Last time I saw him, he was trying to grow out a moustache.”
Dianna giggled. “Yeah, he wound up shaving it off by the time he taught me. I think a bunch of parents were concerned he looked too sketchy with it.”
I chuckled. “Moustaches and working with kids, not the greatest idea optics-wise.”
“He was my favorite teacher, though. Regardless of what people say.”
“My favorite was Miss Terry,” I said, reminiscing. “She always took the extra time to help me with my homework.”
“She’s retired now, I think. She mentioned something about helping out with the Joslynville Soup Kitchen in her downtime.”
“I had no idea. I actually run that soup kitchen.”
Dianna looked at me quizzically. “What?”
“Well, I don’t run it. But me and a friend of mine, Matty… We organized the funds to get the place started a couple years back. Maybe I should drop by and pay a visit.”
“You run a charity?”
I nodded. “Growing up in Joslynville was rough for me. I like to give back where I can now that I can afford to.”
Dianna’s brilliant blue eyes sparkled. “That’s amazing,” she said. “Wow, that’s actually so sweet of you. My grandparents used to go there when money was tight. I should really be thanking you.”
“There’s really no need.”
“I’m serious. Let me buy you another coffee. It’s the least I can do. Do you want to maybe get out of here and go for a walk? I’ve got a thousand more questions for you.”
There was something about the way she smiled that made me want to smile, too.
“Okay,” I said. “A walk sounds nice.”
We weren’t too far away from the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The sidewalks were naturally very crowded with tourists, so Dianna and I had to walk fairly close together to weave around them. Not that I minded, of course. She’d bump up against me every now and then, and I’d catch a whiff of her vanilla and coconut shampoo.
“Apart from photography,” I began, “do you have any other interests?”
“You’re going to think it’s weird.”
“Try me.”
She sighed, smiling bashfully. “I have a weird fascination with snow globes.”
“Snow globes?”
Dianna nodded. “My apartment’s full of them. I get to travel a lot for my work, and I always make sure to bring home a snow globe from the places I visit. It’s been a while since I’ve had a proper vacation, though.”
“Where all have you been?”
“Oh, gosh. All the major fashion hubs, for sure. Paris, New York, Milan. I went to Japan last year to work with an up and coming J-Pop group. My company was really trying to help them break out into the American music industry. I’ve been to Vancouver, London, and even Perth. That was a long flight.”
I was amused that Dianna somehow rounded back to talk about her job. She must have really loved it. I could hear the passion in her words, the excitement almost contagious.
“I haven’t been assigned to any remote projects as of late, though, so that’s kind of lame.”
“Why not?”
Her expression faltered ever so slightly. “I, uh… It’s complicated.”
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
“No, it’s okay. I… I broke up with my boyfriend about a year ago.”
My ears perked up. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
Dianna shrugged her shoulders and tried to brush it off. “I was the one who ended it. But, uh… It left me in kind of a weird headspace. I didn’t have… I don’t have the energy right now, I guess. When I don’t have the energy, it shows in my work. Rachel, my boss –she’s also my friend from college– she’s been keeping me on more local projects.”
“It’s good that she’s looking out for you, at least.”
“Yeah. Rachel’s a sweetheart. I think you’d like her.”
We passed by a number of celebrity stars, walking around people too fascinated with the plaques imbedded in the cement to realize they were blocking the way. There were a number of street impersonators dressed up as famous actors lined up along the curb, waving tourists over for pictures. A very convincing Elvis Presley walked straight up to the two of us winked at Dianna.
“Hey there, little lady,” he said with a forced southern drawl. “Care for a picture with the King?” Elvis sidled up to her, even went so far as to snake an arm around her waist.
“Oh, I–” Her discomfort was almost palpable.
I didn’t know what came over me. I just didn’t like the guy putting his grimy hands on her. I stepped between them, blocking him of from her. Elvis glared at me.
“Oh, looks like I’ve got a big fan,” he said flatly. “Picture with the King of Rock, young fella? Only ten bucks.”
I furrowed my brows and said nothing. I didn’t like the look of the guy. Not to mention charging people for a photo of a pudgy, pimply version of Elvis was equal to highway robbery.
“Sure,” Dianna said chipperly, reaching into her hoodie’s front pocket to pull out her wallet and a ten-dollar bill. Before I could stop her, she handed it over.
Elvis snatched it from her fingers, grinning wide. “That’s the bee’s knees, little lady.”
Dianna reached into her backpack and pulled out a professional looking camera. I wasn’t an expert on camera equipment, but it looked expensive. I didn’t want to know how much the thing cost her.
She smiled up at me. “Can I take a picture of you, Nathan?”
“Me?” I shook my head. “No. I don’t–”
“Please? I’ve been dying to shoot you.”
“Really?”
“Have you seen your face? Of course, I want to. I’ve been staring at your cheekbones this whole time.”
I wasn’t the kind of man to blush, but Dianna’s compliment brought me pretty close. Still, I detested having my picture taken.
“I’m not photogenic.”
She clasped her hands together. “Pretty please?”
I wasn’t used to such a simple, and yet impossible request. The people in my life were always demanding things of me –new cars, fat checks, all sorts of extravagant things. But all Dianna wanted was a chance to take my picture, as ridiculous as that made me feel.
And yet I couldn’t bring myself to say no.
“Fine.”
A look of pure delight brightened her face as she immediately moved to look through her camera’s view finder. I didn’t know what to do with my hands. Was I supposed to look directly at the lens? Was I supposed to smile? Never in a million years did I think I was going to be caught dead taking a picture like this, especially with a half-baked Hollywood Walk of Fame impersonator.
“Say cheese!” she said in a singsong tone.
I could hear the shutter of her camera clicking again and again. I wasn’t sure if she was taking several pictures or just the one. Elvis Presley beside me ate up the attention, striking several poses.
Dianna grinned. “Okay, thank you, Mister Presley. I’m done.”
“You two have a rockin’ day!” he said as he sauntered off, making for a group of tourists just now rounding the corner.
“Show me,” I said to her.
Dianna laughed and clutched her camera close. “What? So you can delete them all. Heck no.”
“Just to see how they turned out,” I insisted. The thought of an unflattering picture of me floating around on the internet didn’t sit well with me. Nobody needed to see the CEO of Monteverde in an awful angle that made it look like I had
a double chin.
Dianna shook her head. “I’ll show them to you next time.”
The corner of my lip tugged up into a crooked smirk. “There’s going to be a next time?”
She nibbled on her bottom lip. I drank up the sight like a parched man in the desert. How was it possible for the woman to be so cute and sexy at the same time? It wasn’t fair.
“I’d hope there’s going to be a next time,” she said softly.
“I’d like it if there was.”
Dianna flashed me a grin. “Cool. Me, too.”
There was barely a foot of space between us. The urge to kiss her was so strong that it surprised me. It had been a long time since anyone had interested me as much as Dianna did. We’d just grazed the surface, but I desperately wanted to know more about her. It made me happy to know she felt the same way.
We continued to walk around, eventually making our way back to the café we met up at. Dianna insisted on taking picture of everything, looking very much like a child on Christmas day with a brand-new toy. She’d sometimes sneak another picture of me. Surprisingly, I let her.
We stopped next to my car, standing so close that I could almost feel the heat of her skin on mine. I peered down at her adorable face. She really was something special.
“Do you need a ride home?” I asked.
Dianna shook her head. “I live a couple of blocks from here. I can walk.”
It was getting late and the sun was starting to set beyond the horizon, panting the skies a splash of pink, orange, and gold. I didn’t like the thought of Dianna walking home by herself. We were still in a pretty high-traffic area with lots of people around, but muggings around these parts were common. A lone woman with expensive camera equipment would likely be an ideal target.
“Are you sure? It’s no trouble.”
“I’m sure,” she said. “We grew up in Joslynville. I know how to handle myself.”
I sighed. “If you’re sure.”
“Can I… Can I text you later?”
I wasn’t used to people asking for permission to contact me. Matty blew up my phone at the oddest hours without a care. Senior executives at the company sometimes sent me emails at two or three in the morning. I was a man of importance. When people needed to reach me, they just did. The fact that Dianna seemed so unsure and hopeful made me feel weirdly warm and needed.
“Of course,” I told her.
“Or, you know. You can text me, if you want.”
I chuckled lowly. “Sure. I think I will.”
“Great.”
“Excellent.”
“Fantastic.” Dianna giggled, cheeks a light dusting of pink. “Okay, okay. I should go.”
I watched her do exactly not that. “Okay. Get going, then.”
She drew in a deep breath, hands clenched at her side before she hopped up on her tiptoes and placed a kiss on my cheek. Dianna backed away quickly after that, leaving me no time to process what just happened.
“Okay-this-was-fun-bye!” she rushed through her words and skipped off quickly.
For the first time in years, I laughed so hard it brought tears to my eyes.
7
Dianna
T
ommy was a douchebag. I was glad that I dumped him when I did. I’d wasted almost four years on him, hoping he’d come to appreciate me as much as I appreciate him. It wasn’t until the last few months of our relationship that I realized things were starting to get pretty one-sided. Maybe things were always one-sided, but my rose-colored glasses prevented me from seeing the whole picture.
Maybe calling him a douchebag was too strong a term. Tommy really wasn’t a horrible guy. He was just unmotivated, and everything in his life seemed to be somebody else’s fault as opposed to his. When things didn’t go his way, he’d be sour and impossible to be around. Tommy moped around the apartment a lot. And when he moped, every tiny thing that bothered him somehow became my problem.
Why is our apartment so damn small?
Takeout again? That’s all we ever eat.
I wish we made enough so we didn’t have to live in this dump.
Being with Tommy was mentally exhausting. And it certainly didn’t help that he’d rather go out for beers with his friends rather than talk to me about how we could fix things. No matter how many times I asked him to talk to me, Tommy remained distant. In the last few months we were together, I only saw him in passing. I’d see him in the morning when I woke up to go to work, and I’d see him come home from his own job before going to sleep.
And then one night, he didn’t come home at all.
I must have called him a hundred times, sent him a thousand texts asking where he was. It wasn’t like him not to respond. I thought for sure he was dead in a ditch somewhere. I thought maybe a homeless person robbed him, shanked him, and left him in pain somewhere in a dark alley. Maybe he was involved in a car crash or something else terrible, and he was in a hospital all alone and afraid. My mind was spiraling. I was so sick with worry I wanted to puke.
He showed up the next morning smelling of booze. There were lipstick marks all over his shirt collar, his neck, cheeks, and smeared across his lips. Tommy tried to lie. Tried to tell me that this wasn’t what I thought, that I was being crazy.
I kicked him to the curb immediately after and I haven’t looked back since.
I was angry for a while. A long while. Moving on wasn’t a possibility. I kept wondering if things would have turned out different if I’d been better. If I’d only noticed how unhappy Tommy was, if I’d done more to be there for him, would we still be together? Was I not enough? Did I not give him enough attention and love and care?
Rachel was the one who told me to get my head out of my ass.
A good man, even if unhappy, would talk about their problems. The fact that he cheated on you, that’s on him. He’s at fault. You can’t blame yourself for his stupidity.
Even still, it was hard for me to get back out there after what Tommy did. Dating, my love life –it took a backseat to my work. And since I loved my work so much, it was easy to drown out the ache in my heart. I tried my best not to think about him, but it was hard. I knew it was lame to be hung up on a guy who treated me like trash. I knew I needed to be a strong, independent woman.
But sometimes it was just easier to cave in, to disappear into myself and not let anyone in.
I was perfectly content in my solitude. I learned to rely on myself better. Now that I was making my own money, paying my own bills, I felt like I was in control. As long as I looked out for number one, the promise that I’d be fine seemed attainable.
And then Nathan texted me, went out to coffee with me.
I liked him. It was genuinely nice to spend some time with Nathan. I liked his voice, deep and soothing. If he ever wanted to give up web development, he’d probably make a killing as a voice actor. Hell, he could be an A-list actor with those looks of his. He was a little quiet, sure, but he seemed humble. Everybody loved a humble actor.
I got home roughly fifteen minutes after parting ways with Nathan, my still spinning at the fact that I actually kissed him. He seemed as surprised as I was, and the roar of his laugh continued to ring in my ear. My heart sped up at the memory of his rough stubble brushing up against my chin. The blood turned to fire as I recalled the hardness of his chest when I leaned in against him. He smelled divine, like an earthy forest after a rainstorm.
Shutting the front door behind me, I leaned against it and let out a relieved sigh.
“There’s no place like home.”
I hooked my keychain on to plastic hook directly next to the door. There was another hook beside it with nothing on it. Tommy used to put his keys there.
I slipped out of my sneakers and shuffled over to the day bed, plopping my backpack down beside me to pull my camera out. With a few clicks, I accessed the camera’s memory and a stream of images cropped up on the digital screen. I scrolled through the pictures I’d taken that day, smiling at the singular pho
to of Nathan where he looked like he was just about to smile, but not quite.
I actually didn’t position the frame so that the Elvis impersonator was in focus. A tuft of his hair was in view, but that was about it. I just wanted an excuse to snap a picture of Nathan.
It was had to believe the guy was even real. He was hard in every sense of the word. His expression was stern, his jaw was always clenched, and he stood at attention like a soldier. He only ever seemed to soften up when he looked at me.
Buzz buzz.
My heart skipped a beat. I got my hopes up. Maybe it was Nathan texting.
Rachel – r u still alive? Where’s that picture? I’ll have an APB out on him stat!
I laughed. Since the pictures were on my camera and not on my phone, I couldn’t just send Rachel a copy. Not that I wanted to, anyways. I kind of wanted to keep Nathan all to myself. For a little while, at least. Just in case.
I remembered being so excited to have Tommy meet all of my friends. I introduced him to Rachel, a few of my colleagues, my grandparents. If I’d known we weren’t going to be forever, I wouldn’t have wasted their time. What if I accidentally jumped the gun with Nathan, too? No. I had to play things safe. I promised myself that I was going to be smarter this time around. I would get to know him better, feel things out.
I wouldn’t want a repeat of what happened with Tommy.
The embarrassment could kill me.
Dianna – No need to call the cops, I’m fine.
Rachel – Where r u?
Dianna – Home.
Rachel – Already!? Did he turn out to be a dud?
I sighed and tossed my head back against the several decorative pillows behind me. Nathan wasn’t a dud. He was a stud. But there was no way in hell I was going to tell her that. She was the one who forced my hand and made me go. Even though things worked out and I think we both had fun, it was still nerve wracking. I was going to keep Rachel in suspense for a little while longer. What was a little payback between best friends?
Dianna – Don’t worry about it. I’m tired, going to sleep soon.
Rachel – It’s only 7!
Dianna – So?