Page 370 of Safe With You
Most of them didn’t mean anything to anybody but me.
I scrolled past a wedding from last month.
Family portraits.
A graduation.
Then—
Chapter & Charm Open Mic.
My hand stopped on the mouse.
I hadn’t opened that folder in a while, but I clicked it anyway.
The first few pictures were exactly what I expected. The storefront. Rows of chairs. People standing near the shelves. Maya behind the café counter and Naomi talking to somebody with one hand in the air.
I kept clicking until Luna filled the screen.
I stopped.
She was standing near the front of the store, turned slightly away from me. She wasn’t posing. She didn’t even know I was taking it. Her curls framed her face, and she was smiling at whoever was standing just outside the shot.
I remembered taking this one.
I remembered noticing her.
The next picture was Luna again, this time talking with one hand lifted and her eyes bright. A few shots later, she was laughing.
I sat back.
“Damn.”
I took a lot of pictures of this woman.
There were plenty that weren’t her. The crowd, the performers, people browsing between readings. But every few pictures, there she was again. At the counter. Near the stage. Talking to Naomi. Standing off to the side watching something I couldn’t remember now.
My camera kept finding her before I had any business looking for her.
I smiled and closed the folder before opening another from a later event at Chapter & Charm.
Mila appeared before Luna did.
She was sitting on the floor with a book open in front of her, her finger pressed against the page.
I clicked forward and found another one of Mila. In the next, Luna was in the background, crouched beside her and looking at whatever Mila was pointing to.
Neither one of them was looking at me.
I stared at the picture longer than I needed to before continuing.
Chapter & Charm. Mila. Luna. More pictures from that day.
Then all three of us appeared in the same frame, caught in the reflection of one of the store windows.
I almost passed it.
Then I went back.
