Moving Pixel Films
Kalk Bay
Cape Town
———
Dear Leigh,
I’ll keep that in mind for the future!
Winky face? Winky face? Was that, was he . . .flirting with me? I took a long, slow sip of my Coke as I stared at the screen. We’d been chatting for almost a month already, but I’d noticed that in the last two weeks Maximillian and I had started talking more about non-shoot-related things. The emails had become much more casual and friendly, and I’d certainly noticed that when I was refreshing my emails I always looked for one from him. Perhaps more eagerly than I should.
I shook my head.Nope!Not happening. The last thing I needed right now was to be email flirting with some location-agency guy. Flirting always ended badly for me. Besides, I needed to get through this shoot, which was proving to be a nightmare, not to mention work on about a million treatments in the next week. Today alone I had two studio-lighting tests and a gear check, followed by a very long meeting with very difficult clients. God, I did need that margarita. I picked up my phone and dropped Sarah a quick message.
Ash:Hope you’re herding for Friday night? I’m in serious need of that drink. And sushi. Can we also have sushi please?
Sarah:Anything else your highness would like to request? What about foot massages while you eat the sushi?
Ash:That actually sounds great!
Sarah:K, see you tomorrow.
CHAPTER 5
Ash
I couldn’t get home soon enough that night if I tried. It was 7 p.m. when I’d finally finished work. I arrived back at my apartment building and, instead of going to my place, knocked on my neighbor’s door. Anushka opened for me.
“Long day?” she asked, and I nodded.
“Come in. Ayaan is about to dish up dinner, if you want some. Nothing fancy.”
“Oooh, would love some,” I said quickly, knowing that “nothing fancy” actually meant “really fancy,” since they were both such foodies. I walked in and Petal came running up to me meowing, rubbing up against my legs. I bent down and picked her up.
“Baby girl, how was your day?” I asked rhetorically as I gave her some head kisses.
I was so grateful that Anushka and Ayaan loved Petal as much as I did and allowed her in their home. Well, they didn’t have a choice in the matter, really. Very early on, Petal had figured out how to move from my balcony to theirs and back again. I’d found Petal on the side of the road and had brought her home. I’d taken her to the vet and told myself I would hand her over to theSPCAwhen she was well enough. With my lifestyle, out all day, often away on shoots, it would be cruel to keep a cat. But when I mentioned I was handing Petal over to theSPCA, Ayaan and Anushka were having none of it. Petal had already wormed her way into their hearts, and that’s how she had become a kind of sharing cat between neighbors. They had her during the day and during my shoots, and I got to cuddle with her at night. Everyone won. Especially Petal, who got more love from more people than any animal I know.
I sat down at their dining-room table and Petal jumped onto my lap to cuddle.
“How was your guys’ day?” I asked. Anushka and Ayaan both worked from home running a growing online jewelry company. They had met in college where they’d both studied jewelry design.
“Cool! We have to show you what this client wants us to make as an engagement ring.” Anushka jumped up and raced into their home workshop, emerging moments later with a printed drawing. I took it from her and then turned it this way and that until I figured out what I was looking at.
“Wait, is that Darth Vader?”
“Made of black diamonds.”
“A black diamond Darth Vader,” I mused.
“They love Star Wars. Apparently, they met at a Star Wars convention.” Ayaan walked up to the table and began laying bowls out.
“That’s really cute,” I said, feeling a little twinge of jealousy. I’d grown up being the biggest romantic. I’d had these huge romantic plans and notions for my future and since the age of ten knew exactly what I wanted my wedding to look like. Sometimes, I think that my younger self’s expectations had been set way too high. Teenage me had been naïve, way too idealistic when it came to matters of the heart, not to mention matters of that organ somewhat south of the heart. But, despite all the bad sex and bad dates, I still wanted that. I wanted someone to get down on one knee and present me with a black diamond Darth Vader ring because they were so in love with me and knew me so, so well that they knew that giving me a Darth Vader ring would be an absolute dream come true and that I would look down at that ring every single day and know how loved and special I was. Well, I wantedmyversion of a Darth Vader ring anyway, which in my case would probably be a block of yellow diamond cheese.
“Do you get yellow diamonds?” I heard myself asking out loud as I imagined this block of shiny cheese on my finger.
“You do, but they are very, very rare,” Ayaan said.
