Part 28 (1/2)
With everything.
Had to start now.
She said, ”She told me she thinks she remembers not liking me.”
”I've been feeling like I'm not sure I like her,” he said. ”So just us?”
She nodded. ”Just us.”
The words felt familiar.
Just us.
Just them.
Against . . . the world?
What?
She said, ”I have something inside me, Lucas. Something I swallowed but of course I don't remember doing it. It's metal and oval. Turned up on the MRI.”
He touched her arm softly. ”Are you going to be okay?”
”Yes.” She nodded.
”Are you in pain?” he asked.
”No.”
Had he even thought about kissing her?
”So you're just . . . waiting?”
She nodded again.
”I have a tattoo,” he said. ”It's like a camera shutter.”
Click.
Say cheese.
Tried to picture what that would even look like, in ink.
”Where?”
He pointed.
Where he pointed.
Intimate.
All of this too intimate.
Showed her a picture on his phone.
Made her stomach flip.
”We're going to figure this out,” he said. ”So we'll go in the morning?”
”Yes.”
They lingered there a moment, and then he said, ”Can you take me somewhere now, actually? I don't have a car and-”
”Of course.” Thinking anywhere. ”Where?”
He said, ”I want to buy a camera.”
Lucas
He left her reading in the car and went into a large electronics store. They hadn't been able to find a proper camera shop close enough, so this would have to do.
He'd wanted her to come in with him.
He could tell her all about the book, already had.
But no, she wanted to read it herself, couldn't wait. Because what if only she could make the connection?