“Once you’ve said your hellos, we’ll sit down and go over a few more things. I don’t want either of you to be uncomfortable at any point.” Sadie smiled and took a seat in the booth.
I held out my hand, still smiling. “Sam Tanksley. Pleasure to finally meet you.”
He slowly held out his hand and took mine. He released his lip and met my eyes. “Devon Richards. Nice to meet you, too.” His voice was quiet and his palm was a little sweaty, but he did give me another little smile.
I slid into the booth across from Sadie, and I stopped far enough away from the wall that he couldn’t get too far away from me. He was a little skittish and I wanted to break the ice right away so he could relax. He slid in a little awkwardly, then bumped my half empty glass of water, knocking it to the floor. “Oh, shit!” he exclaimed, grabbing some napkins and moving to try to clean it up, but he bumped his elbow on the table as he moved. “Ow.”
A waitress rushed over with a towel, shushing him and telling him it was fine. She took the cup and wiped the spill as he rubbed his elbow, apologizing to her repeatedly. “No worries!” she said, giving him a smile. She asked him if he wanted anything to eat or drink and he just shook his head and told her no thanks, his cheeks burning brightly.
Even though I wanted to giggle at the nervous awkwardness because it was completely endearing, I refrained because I didn’t want to embarrass him even more. He’d no doubt think I was laughingathim, not assume that I thought he was adorable. “I’m sorry,” he started, to Sadie and myself, but Sadie stopped him.
“Hey,” she said gently, obviously reading him already, “It’s ok. Accidents happen, it’s no big deal.”
“That was my fault,” I put in, “I shouldn’t have had it on the edge like that.” He managed a smile, but he kind of looked like he was ready to run away. Our legs were lightly touching because of the way I’d slid into the seat, and I gave his knee a pat. “It’s all good.”
He relaxed a little bit and Sadie started going over what we’d be doing. She wanted to start outside since it was almost sunset and she wanted to take advantage of the lighting. Being winter in Florida, it was chilly outside, but not cold enough to be uncomfortable. We’d do the courtyard first,then the pool area. Then she wanted to use the lobby and staircase. She mentioned that she had some props in her suite we might use later, too. We were her last session there, so she wanted it to be a good one.
It made me feel better to know that there had been other sessions, so she could have paired him with someone else if she thought we wouldn’t be a good match. I could feel him relaxing beside me, too, as she spoke happily and asked for our input here and there.
While she was explaining how long her editing process would be and letting us know how we could access the photos, I snuck a glance at him. He looked back. His smile was still a little nervous but genuine, his eyes lighting up a little bit. I had a feeling we were going to get some great pictures.
We took a few pictures in front of the fountain, holding hands and gazing at each other. He’d tripped on a chair on the way over there, but he’d laughed a little that time. His palms were still sweaty despite the cool air outside. My smile seemed to relax him every time he started chewing on that bottom lip, though. He’d stop, take a little breath, and smile.
“Ok, Devon,” Sadie said, holding her camera up, “Scoot a little closer and look up into Sam’s eyes.” The sun was making its descent, and Sadie seemed pleased with the photos she was getting. There were a few people outside, but no one was paying us any attention, and no one had gotten in the way.
Devon obeyed and scooted all the way up to me. I looked down into those eyes without instruction. They were beautiful, a greyish blue with flecks of green. The warmth of his body against mine was a stark contrast to the air that was continuously growing colder. He was trembling slightly, and I wasn’t sure if he was cold or it was nerves, but either way, I wanted to envelop him in my arms and protect him from it. He was shorter than me by a few inches, and I was sure the pose was going to be perfect.
Our hands were clasped between us as Sadie moved around snapping pictures. His cheeks turned slightly pink as we stared at each other. He was so adorable I wanted to kiss him. Without moving my lips much, I said, “Nothing like a few awkward poses right after meeting someone, huh?”
He huffed out a little laugh, but his smile spread and the camera snapped again. “Perfect,” Sadie said. “Ok, I want a toast at these tables with the sunset before we run out of time. Give me one second.”
“So,” I said to him as he stood beside me awkwardly while Sadie arranged some chairs and backed up, eying the angle, “Do you live around here, or are you just here for work?”
His teeth found his lip again and my own turned up into a smile. He was so shy I was surprised he’d actually signed up for a stranger photo shoot. “I’m just here for work. They put us up in the hotel. I work for a company that sends us everywhere. It’s pretty cool, but this one isn’t too far from home.”
He didn’t say where home was, but I said, “Well same. Kind of. I’m not too far from home, either, but I’m only here for the convention. We have to go to the seminars and some of them are early, so they put us up here. I have to go to more than the other guys from my department, since I’m the chief, and honestly this week has been mostly torture for me, until now.”
He laughed a little, but then paused.“Chief?”
I chuckled atthatbeing what he’d homed in on, and shrugged. “Yeah. I’ve been doing this for a while.” He was chewing on his lip again. I wasn’t sure if it was the small talk or the “Chief” part that had him nervous again. Maybe I should have left out my job title. “You don’t have to be nervous around me. The only reason I can say ‘mostly’ torture instead of ‘complete’ torture are because of the times I was watching a cute electrician working while I was here.” My smile turned into a smirk.
He let go of his lip because his mouth dropped open, and his cheeks turned bright red. He stuttered for a second, then said, “That makes me more nervous.” He hesitated but finally gave me a crooked smile and added, “If I’d seen you looking, I probably would’ve been electrocuted by now.”
I laughed and rubbed his upper back. “Well, for what it’s worth, I think you’re doing great and that these pictures are going to be amazing.” He didn’t catch his lip again, but his cheeks only lightened slightly in color.
We sat at the table Sadie had carefully prepared. We toasted champagne glasses full of water. He almost dropped his, but I caught his hand and saved it. We stared into each other’s eyes as she snapped photos, and it felt almost as intimate as if we were truly on a date. The sun had set and the sky was cast in a reddish glow, making our surroundings look almost surreal. “Ok,” she said, “You don’t have to, but a sunset kiss in front of the fountain would be amazing.”
I looked at him. “You up for it? Because I sure am.”
The confidence I had in my decision seemed to calm him somehow. His shoulders relaxed. “Oh. Yeah, alright. We can do that.”
We walked over to the fountain and he didn’t even trip over the chair that was in the way. We stopped and looked at each other, and he took a slightly shaky breath. I gave him a comforting smile as I leaned in. Sadie waited patiently with her camera. He moved forward to meet me. I noticed that his lips were soft. I noticed how warm they were in the cool evening. I noticed that his palms weren’t sweaty anymore. I didn’t notice the camera click and barely heard Sadie say, “Perfect.”
CHAPTER 03: DEVON
Sadie took a few photos in the pool area at twilight, because the lighting there was soft, but it was getting pretty cold, so we headed inside. Matt was watching us from the second floor landing when we made it to the lobby. He’d been more excited than I was about the photo session all afternoon and he hadn’t let me wimp out like I tried to right before it was time to go.
Matt’s eyebrows shot up when he saw that it was Sam walking with me. He started laughing in amazement as he watched us walk toward the stairs. I just flipped him off from behind Sam and Sadie. Still laughing, he mouthed, “Stay cool,” before he headed back to the room we were sharing. It was ridiculous of him to say becauseobviouslyI wasn’t staying cool since it was Sam.
