Page 94 of Good Enough

He had to stop her tears. Make her understand. But even more than that, he needed to believe what she’d said.

In a fluid motion, he stood, swept her up into his arms, then gathered her close on his lap in the chair she’d just been removed from. One hand curled around the back of her head. “Kubrick. Look at me right now. Please. I need you to look at me.”

Reluctantly, she opened her eyes.

His voice, when it came, was desperate. “Say it again.”

She inhaled. “Wh-what?”

He brushed away more tears. “Please. Say it again. I need to make sure I heard you right. So say it again.”

She searched his face. She must have seen that he was serious instead of angry. “I love you,” she whispered.

His forehead bent to hers, his lips a breath away from hers. “Again.” He stopped breathing.

“I love you. I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I know I wasn’t supposed to—”

A finger touched her lips, keeping her from apologizing further. He withdrew his finger and used that arm to curl around her waist. He pulled her tight, his face buried in her neck beneath her ear. Only when she was as tight to his body as he could get her did he breathe. “Again, Kubrick. Say it again,” was his muffled plea.

She clutched him tightly. “I love you, Waters.”

A ragged sigh escaped him as if he was holding back tears of his own.

His watch beeped.

Waters pulled back, and his hands framed her face again, his thumbs swiping away more tears. “This isn’t finished. Right now, I need you to dry your eyes, baby. Midas has something for us.”

She inhaled deeply and nodded her head that she was ready to hear what Midas had.

“Go ahead, Midas,” Waters called out, but his eyes never left hers.

The screen came back live, and Midas appeared. TB, Demon, and Nemo were gone from the screen, but God’s square remained. “Sorry, you two. My timing is shit, but there was no package at the shipping store in that box. There was just an envelope.”

“Did Steel open it?”

“Negative. Wanted Kubrick’s permission first.”

“You’ve got it, Midas. Open it,” she ordered.

Eyes still on each other, foreheads touching, Waters’ thumbs stroking her jawline, he heard the sound of ripping paper and something sliding out of it. A low whistle came from Midas at whatever he was looking at. “Umm, Kubrick?”

She sniffled, shaking herself free of Waters’ gaze, wiping her cheeks with the back of her hands. “What is it, Midas?” she asked, turning to face the screen.

Waters directed his attention to the screen as well, one arm sliding down her back to rest around her waist, the other crossing her lap and gripping her opposite thigh. He had a sneaking suspicion she was going to need physical support in addition to mental.

“Who is this?” Midas turned the single sheet of paper in his hand to face the screen. It was a five-by-seven photograph of an Egyptian woman standing in the middle of the open plaza before an Egyptian tourist site.

Kubrick leaned forward to get a better look. The woman wore a white gauze dress and a sunhat. Her face was turned in profile and lit up with a beautiful smile, eyes shining. She shrugged and shook her head. “I don’t know. She’s beautiful.”

Waters squinted, looking more at the background than the woman. “That’s the Temple of Philae.”

She looked closer. “You’re right. But I don’t understand.” Her face depicted true puzzlement over the picture.

Midas pulled the photo back, scanned it, and it popped up on their screen in the lower right corner. “Look at the bottom of the frame.”

A shadow showed at the bottom of the photo, the outline of a person holding a cell phone to take a picture. Kubrick leaned in further to the screen, her frown deepening. “Midas, can you blow the photo up?”

“Again, with the silly questions. Any particular portion you want enlarged?”

---