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For a split second, his expression grew serious, and she thought he might say something heavy. Then he rubbed his hands together and reached for hisphone.
“I better order that pizza before you decide to raid myfridge.”
Her eye caught on a stack of photos on the coffee table. “CanI…?”
She thought he might hold over her head the fact that she hadn’t let him see her pictures, but he just nodded. “Ofcourse.”
He tapped his phone, ordering via the city’s most popular online app while she picked up the stack of photos. The first one was a black-and-white image of an old woman, face deeply creased, hair covered with a scarf as she gazed out to sea beyond a rocky outcropping. It didn’t look likeAfrica.
“Are these from your last trip?” sheasked.
“They are,” he said, “although not all from Africa. I took a couple side trips. That one’s fromCroatia.”
“It’sbeautiful.”
She made her way slowly through the photographs, a mixture of portraits and landscapes depicting wild cliffs and rocky shorelines, old stone buildings lining cobblestone streets, and fortresses like Diocletian’s Palace in Split where Nina had gone with Jack during the second incarnation of theirrelationship.
She looked for a long time at a photo of stone steps leading to a structure made out of the same stone, studying the play of light and shadow, the treatment Liam had used in thedarkroom.
“This is my favorite so far,” shesaid.
He smiled. “Minetoo.”
She slipped it behind the others and stopped cold when she saw the next photograph: a woman in profile, hugging her bare knees, long hair blowing back from her face. Nina caught a flash of blue in the background, had the sense of sea and sky filling the space beyond thelens.
It was the blond woman from the photo Nina had seen online. She must have gone with Liam to Croatia, to wherever else he’d gone afterAfrica.
Liam reached for the photo and slipped it under a stack of magazines on the coffee table. “I’m sorry,” hesaid.
She took a breath and was surprised to find that it didn’t hurt. She turned to look at him. “I don’tcare.”
Shedidn’t.
He took the rest of the pictures from her lap, set them on the coffee table, pulled her back into his arms on the sofa. They sat there for a long time, Nina tucked into the crook of his arm, before he kissed herhead.
“You don’t think I’m going to let you lounge against me all night, do you?” heasked.
She looked up at him with a smile. “Are you putting me to work orsomething?”
“There’s no free lunch, baby.” He leaned forward, picked up the remote, and held it out to her. “Time to pick amovie.”
She laughed as she took it from hishand.
