“Kyle,” Ren said when he spotted her, “I’d like you to meet Sarah. She’s going to be my assistant for this week.”
The man threw Sarah an assessing look, his eyebrows raised. “Freya couldn’t make it?”
Ren gave her a strange, nervous glance. “No, not this time.”
Kyle smirked at the two of them, revealing a dimple above his artfully scruffy jaw. If Sarah had missed any of the implications of the exchange, Kyle’s amusement and Ren’s embarrassment would have told her enough. Ren had been bringing a female assistant on his photo workshops, most likely a girlfriend, and Sarah was presumed to be the replacement.
“Sarah’s an old friend from undergrad and an excellent photographer,” Ren added.
Kyle turned at last and shook Sarah’s hand. “Of course she is. Nice to meet you. Kyle Allenby.”
Sarah felt frozen under his gaze. The effect of these two handsome men next to each other was almost anaesthetizing; she felt like she’d been hit by a brick for a moment. “I um…I was thinking of borrowing the car, picking up a few last odds and ends at the store,” she said to Ren after a moment.
“Sure,” Ren said. “Actually, can you pick up some food for the workshop? Everyone is supposed to have lunch before they get here, but a few of them always forget or don’t have time, so it’s helpful to have a few snacks.”
“Sure thing. I’ll get some options.”
Ren smiled and took the car keys and his wallet out. “Thanks. Any expenses,” he added as he handed her his credit card. “I appreciate it.”
He was looking at her warmly, but Sarah found herself eager to get away from Ren’s careful friendliness and Kyle’s amused gaze. As she drove Ren’s rental car down the mountain, she found herself taking the curves just a little too fast and had to take a deep breath and deliberately slow down.
Of course his ex was named Freya. Ren would never date someone named Kathy or Jen. And she had apparently broken up with him recently.
‘Nothing serious in that department,’ Ren had said. Not quite true, was it?
How soon afterwards had Ren decided that he needed a female replacement? How soon afterwards had he thought of Sarah, recently divorced and probably desperate to get back into photography? How could he not have told her any of this?
It was all soRen, she thought. No matter how well they were getting along, no matter how much he said he cared for her, Sarah still felt an echo of that hurt from school: that she was the last one picked after he had dated the prettier women first. Now she was the replacement because his girlfriend had left him or couldn’t come and he didn’t want to be alone. She should have seen it coming.
She had composed herself by the time she returned. Ren entered their hotel room just as she was sliding some drinks into the mini refrigerator.
“Hey,” he said. “Thanks for picking up some snacks. Kyle wants to do a quick location scout with me somewhere further down the coast, in case it rains this week, so I was going to head out with him for an hour or so, take some test shots. Nobody should need anything from me before we meet up in the conference room at three, but if they do, have them call my cell phone.”
“Sure thing,” Sarah said. “But your cell service isn’t reliable, right? You can give people my number, too.”
“The service is worse than I hoped,” he agreed. He paused, giving her a searching look. “I’m sorry about the shared room. I could probably stay with Kyle if you want. He and I have known each other for a few years, so he wouldn’t mind.”
“It’s fine, Ren,” she said, keeping her eyes on her task. “This is fine.”
He watched her for a moment like there was more to say, then nodded and left.
Sarah arriveda few minutes before three in the small hotel meeting room that Ren had reserved for their daily workshop classes, ready to do whatever he might need. He clearly had things well in hand, though: a polished presentation was being projected on a screen and there was a demonstration camera set up on a tripod.
He glanced up from his laptop as she entered. “Hey. The way I usually do this is I spend the beginning of the first day giving an overview of the whole schedule, and then I let people who already know how to do night photography take off until dinner, and the new folks stay for the classroom portion, since our first lesson is all basics.”
“Perfect,” she replied. “I’ll learn along with them while nodding like I’m an expert.”
Ren smiled, then gave her an oddly strained look, like he was working up to something. “Oh, so by the way,” he said with an artificial casualness, “this woman named Freya used to be my assistant, and she came along on a couple of my last workshops.”
“Okay,” Sarah said in what she hoped was a natural tone of voice. She waited for him to go on.
“So the thing is?—”
“Hey everyone! Are we interrupting?” A woman with a round, cheerful face poked her head in the door.
“Not at all, come on in,” Ren replied.
The woman was followed by several others, and Ren directed them to help themselves to snacks and drinks and to find seats around the table. As the ten workshop attendees entered and sat down, introducing themselves in turn, Sarah began to mentally categorize them into different groups. Five of them were single men, including Kyle, and several of the men seemed familiar with Ren from previous workshops. Two of them looked older, probably retired—those were Fred and Grisha—and the other three single men, Kyle, Jack, and Cole, were her age or a little younger.
