Charlie watched as Alex made his way back to his seat, snagging his tablet on the way.
‘Some help you are.’
‘What?’ Alex asked. ‘What’s the problem?’
‘I’m just not comfortable with having my photo on the blog.’
‘What’s wrong with my blog?’
‘What? Nothing! Nothing, at all. I just meant… well, I’m just not.’
‘He doesn’t like having his photo taken. So, the thought of having a picture of him somewhere that a tonne of people might see it is frightening the crap out of him. That about cover it?’ Alex asked.
Charlie gave him a look. ‘I’m not frightened. It’s a question of comfort level.’
‘Oh, Charlie, mate. You take a sickeningly good photo, and you’re flanked by two hot women. What’s there to be uncomfortable about?’
I saw Charlie waver.
‘Look. I’ll get the blog post ready and let you see it before it goes up. If you’re still not happy with the photo being out in the big wide world, and women drooling over their screens at our new photographer, then you can veto it and I’ll take it off.’
‘What are you taking off?’ Alex asked, suddenly drawn out of his sports magazine.
I rolled my eyes at him.
‘Behave. Or I’ll go and put one of those wedding dresses back on.’
He made a zipping motion with his mouth and settled back on the other sofa.
‘I want to fiddle a bit with these anyway,’ Charlie said, ‘but I can get them back to you later tomorrow, if that works?’
‘Yep. That’s fine. Amy’s got plans with Marcus and this one’s working,’ I said, pointing at Alex, ‘so I’ll probably be working anyway.’
‘OK.’
‘But don’t feel you have to rush, or anything. And don’t you dare delete that photo of the three of us!’
‘I promise.’ He held up his hands in resignation.
‘We’re going to get so many comments once they take a look at him, you know that, don’t you?’ Tilly said.
I grinned. Charlie’s horrified look was back in place.
‘Yep!’
‘I… err…’
‘Don’t worry, Charlie. Who knows? Maybe this mock wedding shoot might end up finding you a real bride after all.’ I did a Disney Princess hand clasp and rocked side to side, fluttering my fake eyelashes.
He gave me a tight smile, but I could see the humour in his eyes. ‘Smart arse.’
I pointed to myself, and did a wide-eyed ‘me?’ action.
Charlie raised his eyebrows, did a quick nod and pointed at me. ‘Did your previous photographer die of thirst, by the way?’
I took the hint, and headed out to the kitchen to boil the kettle. I’d just finished filling it when the doorbell rang.
‘Can someone get that for me, please?’ I called as I began pulling out mugs and spoons.
