Page 16 of Not Mine To Love

He placed a kiss on her forehead and said, “Your mom’s going to flip out on me if you don’t cheer up and at least pretend to be excited.”

“There are too many people,” Ana said softly. “I hate crowds.”

I nodded. “But at least they’re friends, right?”

She laughed and I smiled, not sure of the joke.

“They’re my mom’s friends. Not mine. Definitely not mine.”

“Oh, I get it. At my engagement party, it was just my husband’s friends, and I puked the entire time.”

“So you’re married?” Julius asked in surprise, looking at my hand.

“Was. Was married. Long since divorced.”

Ana looked at me in surprise. “Seriously, but you must be like my age. How old were you when you got married—eighteen, nineteen?”

“Yep.”

“You poor thing,” Ana said, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“It wasn’t the best relationship to say the least.”

“Well, at least you’re out of it.”

“Yeah, it was one of the smartest decisions I ever made in my life.”

“Did you love him?” Ana asked.

I didn't know how to answer her. Had I loved Tom? I thought at the time that I had. Now I wasn’t too sure.

So I answered honestly. “I thought I did, when I said yes, but now I think I was just kind of lonely.”

“I know what that feels like.”

I didn’t know how to respond so I said nothing.

Julius, on the other hand, was prepared. He pulled her to his side, like a guardian angel, and they smiled at each other. The love between them was clear. I looked away, not wanting to interrupt a special moment, and then remembering that I was a photographer I stood up and said, “Sorry to interrupt, but hold that pose.”

I took the picture and smiled. It was a good one, even I knew that, and I was far from an experienced photographer. I mean I guess I was experienced... I took lots of pictures of cheating spouses. That must have counted for something.

“Ana!” I could hear someone calling from afar and quickly, they both moved to get their feet out of the fountain. That was too bad, I felt it would have made for a really cute picture that they would admire for years to come. Oh yeah, I didn’t want them to admire anything for years to come because it was my job to make sure they didn’t have a happily ever after.

It was a little old man. “Hi, Grandpa G,” Ana said, getting up with a real smile on her face. I took pictures as she crossed over to him. He took her hand and pulled her toward the party.

“Come on, you guys,” he said, giving us a warm smile. “Your uncle is about to do a toast, Ana.”

Ana and her grandfather walked ahead of us. Something he said made her laugh, and her laugh was contagious. I found myself smiling at the sound of it. She needed to laugh more.

They disappeared around the shrubs, and Julius and I followed behind them.

“So that’s Claire’s father?”

“No, he’s my grandfather.”

“Ohhhh...”

“My whole family adores Annie.”