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Every single time she’d looked at it, it had felt exactly like that. Like her lens had somehow captured her soul and put it on display for the rest of the world. But Katie had been here. She’d seen the photo, and she’d said nothing.
Well, not nothing, but nothing of relevance to whether or not a photo could be a declaration of love, which it seemed to be.
The three of them allowed her a minute to simply stare at the picture. They didn’t say anything—but what was there to say? Rea knew, Mariana knew, three complete strangers knew. The whole world knew. And what was left for Maggie to do but accept it?
She needed to talk to Mariana.
She shook her head and turned to the three people still watching her with amused curiosity.
“You should bring her to our commitment ceremony,” one said, smiling warmly. She was a Black woman, and the only one of the three wearing a pin stating that her pronouns were ‘she/her’.
Maggie’s head spun in a way that made her feel like she might fall over. The idea of bringing Katie as—what? Her date?—to an event they’d described as “like a wedding, but not. Something for us,” was impossible to wrap her head around.
The other two grinned at Maggie, and it took a moment for the penny to drop.
“Wait,” Maggie said when it finally did, staring at the woman. “Does that mean—?”
“Yes! I’m Danelis and we’d like to hire you as our photographer.” She grinned so widely that Maggie couldn’t help but smile back. “And you really can bring her to the ceremony.”
Maggie felt herself blushing and refused to look back up at the photo. “Oh, she’s a doctor and she works a lot, so she’s almost never free…”
Austin, the final member of the group, laughed and inclined their head at the photo. “Looks like she was free for whatever this event was.”
Maggie attempted to look at them, but her eyes couldn’t hold their gaze. She caught on tanned skin and long, black hair, a patterned shirt that looked like a ‘90s carpet. Anything but their eyes.
She cleared her throat. “It was… a… lucky one-off.”
It was almost true. Sure, she’d spent more than enough time with Katie outside of work, but on that particular night, she’d been certain Katie had to work. Katie had told her she had to work. It had all been a ploy to surprise Maggie, and it had worked incredibly well. Perhaps that was why this photo, more than any other, screamed of the way Maggie felt about her. There had been no time to prepare herself, to put her messy, complicated feelings away into their careful, tidy boxes. All Maggie had experienced was love, surprise, and more excitement than she’d have been able to explain.
“I’m sure it was,” Danelis said. “But, still, we’re holding an event celebrating our love and commitment to one another. You’re our photographer. You should come with your love.”
Maggie laughed, the sound more than a little awkward. “You do know photographers don’t usually get a plus one, right?”
She laughed. “You do know people typically claim weddings should have only two people getting married? This is us, doing things our way, and if we want to give our photographer a plus one, we will. So sue us.”
“I really don’t think that would be in my best interest.”
“Too right,” Austin said, giggling.
Maggie really wasn’t sure how she’d ended up here again. Well, she guessed she was, at least in this case, but she couldn’t help but wonder how long her feelings had been perfectly obvious to everyone around her but Katie, and why the world had taken it upon itself to suddenly push her, with maximum force, into confessing.
Did it really think she kept quiet because she thought it would go well?
“Does she know how you feel?” the blond with an undercut asked, leaning closer to the photo again. Something about the movement made Maggie want to pull them away. The picture was so full of Katie that it felt like she was in the room with them. As though, if they leaned too close, she’d hear the entire conversation.
All of the fight drained from Maggie and she felt lost. What was the use in pretending if everyone saw through her ruse anyway? She’d gone through the same thing with Mariana. Part of her had hoped it was simply because Mariana had known her so well, for so long. But, with these three, any such hopes had flown straight out the window.
She sagged, leaning against the wall beside the photo, unable to look at it. “I don’t know. A week ago, I’d have said no, but who knows now?” She shook her head, straightening up. She could have this conversation with Mariana later, not with her new clients—no matter how much they seemed to want to have it. “But, that’s completely irrelevant. Let’s get set up at the desk and we can go through exactly what you’re looking for.”
The three of them shared looks and Maggie knew exactly what they were thinking. If nothing else, those looks alone told her just how badly she needed to tell Katie what was going on.
Maybe it would go badly, but at least she’d know. At least she’d be able to move on. And she’d just have to hope that their friendship was strong enough to weather the storm, because she couldn’t keep doing this. Living in the whirlwind of wondering whether Katie knew, whether they were going to end up in a moment together again, wondering whether Katie felt the same way, and wondering whether every single person who so much as passed her in the street knew how she felt was exhausting. And that was going to ruin their friendship more than simply coming clean if the last few days were anything to go by.
She didn’t want a life without Katie in it and, as far as Maggie could see, that was the way she was heading. If coming clean prevented that, it would be worth it no matter the outcome. Even if Katie needed some time and the awkwardness took some serious work to get through, at least they’d both be working for the same thing, rather than keeping each other at a painful, impossible distance, with no idea what the other was thinking.
Chapter Nine
Katie stepped out of the elevator, ready to go home, curl up in bed, and curse every bad decision she’d ever made in her life. But, before she could do anything more than register the hospital lobby, two arms looped through her own and began marching her towards the door.
