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I paid to get inside and showed my press pass to get the clearance needed to shoot and use photos in my article of this building’s interior.
With it being off-season, and during a freak storm where no one really knew how to drive except those visiting who were used to the snow, I was able to get almost completely free reign of the Pantheon replica. This allowed me to get experimental with the shots, even allowing me to get a good, zoomed in, steady photo of some of the detail on the ceiling from the floor.
After I had gotten my fill of the photography in the area, especially now that my footprints had ruined the pristine dusting of snow. The magic of the snow was somewhat lessened by my tracks. I figured I could return tomorrow when the snow had melted and try for some more photos in different lighting.
Gabe was nowhere to be found, but I figured he had found something to do.
I uploaded the photos to my computer, and as I was looking through which ones to send to my boss, there was a knock at the door.
I got up from the desk. When I opened the door, I found Gabe there with some hot cocoa and some freshly delivered (or picked up; I couldn’t tell for sure) pizza from a local place. He stood there awkwardly, frowning slightly.
“I thought I saw you return from your photography session. Did you get good photos?” His face relaxed as I gestured him inside.
Truthfully, I was just glad that he didn’t appear too upset with me for what I had told him earlier. As he sat down on the bed, he held the pizza box in his lap.
“Pizza in exchange for a first look?” I raised an eyebrow. “You drive a hard bargain, but I accept. Give me just a moment to finish sending this email.”
I sent the best photos to my boss, and just in time, too. I only had a few days before the deadline passed. Then, I pulled up the file with all the imported files and swapped the laptop for the pizza in Gabe’s lap.
He started to study each photograph.
“This one here… that looks like you caught something out of a movie. I like it.”
He turned the screen to face me as he spoke. It was the first photo I had captured today, which I had also sent to the boss.
“That’s why I took the picture in the first place. It looked so… peaceful.”
Chapter seventeen
Gabe
I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t admit that Grace simply brushing me off for the day hurt. However, deep down I knew she had a point. There was nothing I could really do about the fact that she had a deadline to meet. If it hadn’t been for the weather, there might have been something more about it she could have done.
Now, as I sat on the bed in her room looking at the images she had captured, I could see why she wanted to get into photography more, not just for the newspaper. Her photographs on her initial trip around the sights, where she had been the only one walking that way and all the photos had no signs of footprints, were amazing. All of them seemed like scenes I could have seen in a movie. They were outstanding examples of what a place looked like before everyone got to it.
After dinner, she grabbed her camera. I raised an eyebrow.
“I told you I would take you out to see how I create these photos after I had finished with my deadline. Since we’re not leaving until Sunday, let’s see what we can find before others get their footprints everywhere or the snow starts to melt. I have a feeling today was the only day I could get such beautiful snowy photos,” she said. “But I just had an idea, and I want to see if I can capture a few more tonight.”
I nodded slowly.
She was still dressed in dark jeans, black knee-high boots with a bit of a platform (since there wasn’t enough to be considered a heel, in my opinion), and a navy-blue fleece hoodie. However, she added a purse to the outfit now since she was not on a mission to get the absolute best of the photos she could. And, she had a set of helping hands this time.
I was dressed in a pair of light-wash jeans, with my muted olive jacket over a tee shirt that told which part of the Navy I had been with, what company I was in, and all of that information. I didn’t wear it often outside of Tulsa, but it was one of the comfiest shirts I had. I was also wearing sneakers today. Not the best choice for snow, but there was so little of it on the streets of Corinth that I wasn’t too worried about losing my footing on the sidewalk and face-planting on the cement.
We walked the opposite way of the large tourist structures and towards the more local part of town. Grace ended up taking a few more photos, and for one of them, she even got down on the ground, lying at an incredibly odd angle. When she showed me the picture, she had managed to catch the sunset in the most dazzling position. The first bright golden rays of the sunset were coming over the edge of the building she had been lying beside, and she had caught it all reflecting off an art installation in the alley – lighting the alley up in hues of gold and red as the sunset started to fade into cooler colors like purple and pink.
“That’s… that’s a beautiful picture, Grace,” I said reverently. Looking at her photos made me look at the world around me differently.
That air of peace followed us until we returned to Tulsa. She gave me some rudimentary photography lessons to try out with my phone’s camera, but my photos didn’t turn out nearly as good as hers. Part of it was because she was using the camera she was used to, and part of it was simply that she had far more experience capturing such beautiful pictures.
***
After returning to Tulsa, I couldn’t stop thinking about Grace. Or the way I felt around her. Though I had a backlog of clients to get around, mostly just business men and women who wanted to spend a few weeks out of the office despite having to take work with them for whatever reason, I finally found some time to invite Grace over for dinner.
The ruse was that I wanted to celebrate that she had gotten her photographs published, and they appeared to all have the right byline. They were all absolutely gorgeous. My favorite one had ended up being the first picture that introduced the town of Corinth to the reader. From there, she had managed to persuade her boss to use some of the most interesting angle photos – including the one of the sun setting in the alleyway reflecting off the local art piece and highlighting it since no one knew it was there unless they were a local.
When she arrived, I had just finished making homemade garlic bread. I didn’t get to cook often, but I loved to do it. Homemade lasagna with garlic bread was my favorite thing to make for guests. Though it was more meant to be a party dish, I had halved the recipe and stuck it in a smaller pan to make it work for just the two of us.
