He laughed and uncrossed his arms as he stepped toward me. “Of course. You end up meeting the most interesting people that way.”
“Is that right?” I moved away from him and down the aisle. My breath quickened and the warning bells in my head dinged louder. He seemed nice enough, but you just never knew these days.
“Only the best kind of people enjoy a good read.” He plucked a book from the shelf nearest him and grinned at it before returning it to its rightful place.
I smiled at his unconscious fiddling before our eyes caught. For a split second everything around us blurred out of existence once more. A raw, almost primal feeling overcame me and it felt as though all my secrets and scars were laid out in the open.
I broke our gaze and tucked my hair behind my ear.
“Listen, I wish I could stay and chat, but that was my brother on the phone and apparently he’s having a crisis that needs my attention,” he lamented, shrugging and rolling his eyes.
“Oh okay, well it was nice meeting you… Robert,” I said, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Maybe I’ll see you around town.”
“Maybe.” I did my best to keep my voice even.
“It was a pleasure meeting you, Violet.” He offered a slight bowing of his head, smiled and walked away.
He moved fluidly down the aisle and out of sight toward the front of the store. After a few moments I heard the jingle of the door and knew he was gone. I slumped against the bookshelf, finally able to breathe with him no longer nearby. He seemed like a perfectly normal guy but something about him left me feeling exposed and anxious. I took a deep breath and made my way to the front of the store to pay for my books.
“Just these today,” I said, putting the murder mystery and Walt Whitman on the counter.
“It’s already been taken care of, Miss Evans,” Frank said, looking up at me with a frown.
“What do you mean, taken care of?”
“The gentleman who just left gave me fifty dollars and told me it was for any books you decided to buy, and then he just left.”
“He what?”
My legs still shook from his gaze, but that anxiety quickly turned into anger. Truthfully, I didn’t know why I was angry. I wasn’t too keen on the idea of him paying for my things, but the anger building inside of me couldn’t be justified by his dropping a Grant on my behalf.
“I’m sorry, I thought the two of you knew each other,” Frank said, coughing into his hand to hide his embarrassment.
“That’s okay Frank. How much do I owe you?” I asked, still trying to decipher my emotions.
“But…”
I raised my hand to cut him off.
“Now, now, I don’t need some strange man paying for my books. You’ll take my money and do whatever you want with the cash he gave you,” I insisted.
Frank rung me up and took my money, though he didn’t look very happy about it.
“It was a nice gesture, Miss. Evans,” he offered.
“Nice maybe, but all the same I’d rather pay for my own things.”
As I walked backed to where I had left my bike, I thought about my encounter with Robert, trying to figure out what had just happened. I thought about the way our eyes caught and how naked I’d felt in that moment. A feeling of unease seeped into my chest the more I thought about him standing there, looking at me like I was some sort of puzzle he couldn’t quite figure out. There was definitely something different about him, something unique that I couldn’t put my finger on.
Lost in my own head, I reached my bike in what felt like in a matter of seconds. I decided to write the whole thing off and move on. I’d probably never see him again anyway, so there was no use in letting a stranger consume my thoughts. I shook the image of him from my mind, but couldn’t entirely shake off the feeling of vulnerability.
My ride to and from the coffee shop had renewed my strength. I felt like I could take on the world, or at least the bookkeeping I’d been neglecting. My studio was my second home, small but quaint, and I loved it. A few of my favorite pictures hung from the front office walls, two large desks easily filling the floor. The second desk was for my receptionist, Jessie, who would come in for a couple hours after school. Her parents wanted her to get a part time job to learn how to be responsible, so she came to work for me. It was nice having Jessie around to do some of the administrative tasks; it freed up a lot of my time so I could get out, take more pictures and spend more time in the dark room.
I sat down at my desk near the back of the room, put my iPod on shuffle, opened up the spreadsheet program on my computer and started working on the accounts receivable. I always worked better with a little music in the background. Even as a kid I always did my homework with the radio on.
The studio phone rang and I turned down the music before answering. “Good afternoon, this is Violet,” I said into the old-fashioned plastic receiver.
“Hi Violet, it’s Annabel. Thank god, I reached you.” Relief laced her voice as she paused to breathe. Annabel was Jake Maxwell’s Fiancé. There was only one more week until the wedding and we still needed to finalize the photo list.
“Hi Annabel, what’s up?”
“Are you going to be at the studio for a while?”
“Yeah, I’ll be here most of the day. Is everything alright?”
"You’re going to kill me," she laughed.
"We’re changing the list again, aren’t we?"
“My soon to be mother-in-law is driving me nuts. She wants to make a few changes to the group photos. Can I come by and go over the updated list with you?” she asked.
“Sure. You can e-mail it to me if you’d like.”
“No, that’s alright. I need to get out of the house for a little bit. I’ll be down in a few.”
“Okay, see you in a bit,” I said and hung up the phone.
I saved a few of the changes I had made to the accounts receivable and closed the program. I double-clicked on the file for Annabel’s photo list and it popped open on the screen.
The Maxwell estate was only about ten minutes away and Annabel would arrive soon, so I decided to check my messages real quick while I waited. I pressed the voicemail button on the bulky desk phone and listened to the first message. It was from a telemarketer telling me the warranty on my car had expired. The message was in Spanish. I laughed to myself and hit delete. The next was a message from my girlfriend Christy. The elementary school was having picture day soon and they wanted to schedule a day with me. It wasn’t Christy's job to call me, but since we knew each other, the school always had her coordinate on their behalf.
I called Christy back real quick, hoping she wouldn’t answer, otherwise I’d never get her off the phone before Annabel got here. Luck was on my side as her phone went straight to voicemail. I left her a quick message with a few dates I’d be available for picture day in the next couple months.
No more messages or immediate business concerns to occupy the next few minutes, I pulled up a game of solitaire and waited. I barely cycled through the deck once when the studio door opened. I closed the game and stood up to meet Annabel.
“That was fast,” I said, giving her a quick hug. Stressed as she was, she always looked amazing. She wore her shoulder-length blonde hair with delicate curls pinned to perfection.
“I had to get out of there. You have no idea how frustrating they can be. That whole family is so stubborn,” she said with a laugh, shaking her head.
“Do you want something to drink?” I asked as we walked back to my desk.
“No, I’m good. Thanks.”
“So what changed this time?” I steepled my fingers on the desk as I sat down, offering Annabel a patient, understanding smile.