Page 134 of Matchmaking On The Menu

“Teddy...”

She barely breathes my name. I don’t answer. I don’t want to interrupt whatever she’s seeing. She wanders deeper into the room, moving from frame to frame.

Mr. Davenport on a park bench, smiling at something outside the frame. Shelly and her dad laughing together. Luke, covered in flour and looking horrified that I caught him singing to bread dough. A little girl crouched in the grass watching a ladybug crawl across her finger. Mrs. Holloway carrying flowers home from the market. Beverly talking with both hands while the poor bastard standing opposite her looks like he’s forgotten how to escape. The whole town is here. Living.

Her hand lifts to her mouth. “You photographed everyone.”

“Not everyone.”

She turns to look at me.

“I photographed the town.” A smile tugs at my mouth.

“Yeah.”

She turns back to the walls, taking it all in. The laughter. The quiet moments. The tiny things most people would walk straight past without ever noticing.

“They’re beautiful.”

“They are.”

Something in my voice makes her look back at me. I haven’t taken my eyes off her.

“You know what I realized after I got here?”

She shakes her head.

“For years, I thought I’d stopped loving photography.” My gaze drifts back to the photographs. “Turns out that wasn’t it.”

Silence settles between us.

“I stopped seeing people.”

She doesn’t say anything.

“When I first picked up a camera, it wasn’t because I wanted famous clients or gallery exhibitions. I wanted to capture moments. Somewhere along the way, everything became bigger. More expensive, more important.” I let out a quiet laugh. “At least that’s what I convinced myself.”

“You photographed celebrities.”

“Yeah.”

“You won awards.”

“Yeah.”

“And you’re saying none of that mattered?”

“It mattered.” I meet her eyes again. “Just not for the reason I started.” I gesture around the room. “This does.” She follows my hand across the photographs. “You did this, Dannica.”

Her head snaps toward me. “What?”

“You.”

She laughs softly. “I definitely didn’t take these.”

“No.” I close the distance between us. “But you reminded me what I was looking for. The way you see people, actually see them, is the reason why I started looking again. You notice people, Dannica. You always have. You see the things everyone else walks past, and somehow you make them matter.”

Her smile disappears.