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“Whatever,” I said under my breath and turned toward the kitchen. I could still feel them watching me.
“Stop it,” I said before I went back to taking care of my tables.
“Never,” Daisy called after me as she headed out the door.
****
“So,” Lacey said on her way out. “I’d love to do an interview with you, if you have the time? I’m only here for another week, and then I’m off to my next project.” My heart actually sank down to my feet. I mean, I should have known that she was going to be on her merry way, but to hear the words from her lips made them real. This sucked. I had just met her, but imagining her leaving felt like a horrible wound opening in my chest. What waswrongwith me?
She was still waiting for an answer from me. Oops.
“Oh, yeah, sure. When did you want to do it?” I cringed at how that sounded. I couldn't keep my mind off dirty things when she was around.
“Whenever you have time. I’m pretty much open.” Yeah, I definitely needed to get my mind out of the gutter, but I wasn’t sure if that was ever going to happen. At least not around Lacey. She made my mind go to dirty places with just her presence.
“Oh, yeah. I have some work to do tonight, but maybe I could bring my laptop and I could multitask?” It would help me be more professional if I could get myself into work mode when I was with her. That would be much better.
“Sounds good. I have some editing to do in the studio, so that would be great. How about around eight?” I nodded and she gave me another one of her smiles. I still hadn’t gotten used to my reaction when she smiled. Like the sun was coming out from behind the clouds and I was completely drunk at the same time. It was a strange feeling.
“Great!” I said, squeaking a little. I couldn’t seem to keep my cool around her. It was a real problem. Maybe it was good she was leaving in a week. Then I could get my feet back under me.
*^*^*
I showed up at the studio with my laptop and my professional face on. And then Lacey opened the door with Murder (the cat) in her arms and everything fell away.
“Hey,” I said, feeling the awful urge to giggle.
“Hey, come on in. I was just getting a few cuddles with this monster,” she said, setting the cat down. He immediately wound his way round my legs and purred so hard I thought he was going to hurt himself.
“Little monster,” Lacey said fondly.
“How does he do with all the traveling?” I asked as we headed over to the little office area to sit down. She already had some photos up on the huge desktop and was in the middle of editing.
“He loves it. I swear, he’s like a dog. He sits in the front seat and just purrs away. As long as I don’t take him on a plane, he’s fine. So my car has a lot of miles on it.” Huh, I hadn’t thought of that. A mobile lifestyle. Still couldn’t imagine it.
“That’s good,” I said, sitting down and pulling my laptop out of my bag. “What are you working on?”
She clicked a few things and brought up a seriously sexy picture of a woman wearing black lacy lingerie and laying on a bed, with light streaming through the window. In fact, that very bed was in the room over in a corner. I recognized other areas of the studio too.
“Amazing,” I said. The woman was totally gorgeous. All smoky eyes and red lips and a smile on her face as if she’d just gotten herself off.
“I think so,” she said, and clicked through a few more of the pictures. There were people of all shapes and sizes, femme and butch and everything in between. Lacey had the knack of bringing out the beauty in everyone and each shoot was completely unique and worked for that person.
“You’re really good at this,” I said, looking from the picture to her.
“I really appreciate that. It’s my life’s work to help people feel good about themselves.” Well, I’d say she was succeeding.
“I’ve always wanted to do something like that, but I didn’t have a reason. You know, most people get them taken for someone.” Like a husband or girlfriend or someone for Valentine’s Day. I didn’t have anyone like that in my life and hadn’t for a long time. I missed things like that.
“Why not do it for you?” she asked and I didn’t have a good answer.
“I guess I’m only going to be this young once.” Someday, I’d look back on this body and wish for it when I was old and saggy and sad.
“I mean, if you wanted to. I could take some for you.” I blushed so red that I had to look away from her. I couldn’t imagine being that vulnerable in front of Lacey, since I’d been developing a serious crush on her. She was going to be gone so soon, so letting that crush further crush me wasn’t the best idea.
“That’s okay,” I said, wishing my cheeks weren’t blazing. I looked down and coughed and Lacey closed the window on the computer.
“So, should we get to work?” she asked. I nodded and put my attention back on my laptop. Work. Right. The thing I was supposed to be doing right now.
