“It feels good,” she said instead. “The portrait work especially. I photographed Winnie last week. And Jan, Sally, Bryan in the kitchen.” She glanced at Bryan. “You kept forgetting I was there, which is exactly what I needed.”
Grant leaned forward. “What kind of portraits? Studio work?”
“No. In their spaces. Natural light, no posing. I just sit with people until they stop performing for the camera.” She paused. Talking about her process felt strange, like explaining how she breathed. “The good shots happen after they forget I’m there. Or after they decide they don’t care.”
“Winnie never performs for anything,” Emily said.
“No, she doesn’t.” Melissa looked across the courtyard at Winnie, who was watching the conversation with her tea held in both hands and an expression that gave away nothing. “That’s why her session was the easiest. And the best.”
The shrimp went around. The cornbread went around. Melissa ate and talked, and noticed with a small shock that she was doing both at the same time. Usually she picked one. Her hands kept reaching for a camera that wasn’t there, and each time they found only her own knee or the arm of the chair.
Bryan refilled drinks and circled back to the table. “So listen, Cassidy’s building a new website for the Sandpiper. About time, since the current one still has my dad’s hours on it and he retired years ago.”
“I’d barely call what they have a website.” Cassidy shook her head.
“The point is, we need photos. Menu shots, the kitchen, the deck at sunset, the whole thing.” He looked at Melissa. “You interested?”
The question sat there simply. A job. Someone asking her to do work she was qualified to do. Two months ago it would have sent her spiraling through every reason she shouldn’t point a camera at anything that mattered. Tonight it sat there, waiting for an answer.
“Yeah,” she said. “I can do that.”
“She’ll make your shrimp look like art,” Cassidy said.
“My shrimp already look like art.”
“Your shrimp look like shrimp, Bryan.”
“That’s what I said.” Bryan shrugged. “And Sally’s been talking about a website for Bayview General for months.” Bryan waved to Sally. “Hey, Sally, come over for a sec.”
Sally came over to join them.
“Melissa is going to take photos for the Sandpiper website,” Cassidy explained.
Sally’s eyes lit up. “Oh, could you do the same for Bayview?”
“I could if you wanted. The store, the displays.”
“And the honey jar wall. Can’t forget that,” Grant added.
“Seventeen varieties,” Emily said. “Right, Sally?”
“Keep selling out of some of them. I think I’m down to fourteen right now.”
“Still impressive. I’ll be sure to include them.”
“That sounds good. Stop by the store and we’ll talk out the details, and Cassidy, you’re still going to work on the website?”
“I sure will.”
“Okay, with my marketing life settled, I’m going to go over and chat with Winnie.” She crossed over and the two friends bent their heads close, deep in discussion within moments.
“So you’ve got the town site, the Sandpiper, and Sally’s store.” Cassidy was counting on her fingers. “Plus the portrait series. Plus festival documentation starting next month. You’re going to need a calendar.”
“I have a calendar.”
“You have a phone with a calendar app you’ve never opened. I’ve seen your planning system. It’s a sticky note on your laptop.”
That was accurate. Melissa didn’t argue.
