Page 14 of Picture Us

Tilting her head, Rose’s eyes followed the delicate drape of Diana’s hair. She could feel the love between them. It wasn’t the same love they had professed at the party the night before.

No… this was something from many years ago.

Before Rose could think about it much longer, Drew burst back into the room, the screech of the curtain along its rod making her jump.

Drew twisted the black canister in their hand. Their eyes looked to what Rose had been enamored by. With a sigh, Drew sat down.

Rose looked back up at the print, letting Drew see her admiration. “I’d give anything to have someone look at me like that.”

“That was a long time ago.”

“Do you still love her?” Rose asked, point blank.

Drew laughed, caught off-guard. “No, no. We’re past that. We were not good for each other. We’ve always been better as friends.”

Rose pursed her lips together as she peeled her eyes away from the photo and walked back toward the stool. “Have you seen anyone since?”

“I’m not a nun. That was literally like five years ago,” Drew shook their head, a blush rising in their cheeks. They gulped. “No one serious. Just sleeping around.”

Rose nodded, giggling as she pulled her laptop out of her tote bag and set it on the table.

Drew looked down at their hands and cleared their throat. “You and Shan are cute.”

She was surprised by the comment. From everything she saw last night, Drew could hardly stand Shannon. But Rose simply shrugged. “Yeah, she’s sweet.” Rose looked off toward Drew’s perfect bed. The thoughts she had about Drew the night before invaded her mind once more, images of Drew’s hands on her thighs…

“So, show me what you got.” Drew interrupted.

Rose jumped, her forehead wrinkling as she tried to catch up. Her clit was throbbing, and her heart was pounding with excitement.Did they mean…?

“The engagement?” Drew raised an eyebrow, laughing.

“Right,” Rose tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. “Sorry.”

Her fingers guided the way to Photoshop, giving her mind a moment to catch up and clear the nasty thoughts lingering in her brain.

She opened the few hundred photos and began scrolling through them. She tried to skip over anything she knew was trashed.

“Sorry I didn’t get rid of the duds: no time since yesterday,” Rose giggled.

Drew shrugged, concern washing over their face. “That’s a lot of shots.”

Rose shrugged, “Benefits of digital?”

As much as Drew tried to hide the eye roll, Rose could have seen it from space.

Asshole.Rose felt her center grow slick.Traitor.

She shifted in her chair and eyed Drew. “What do you have?”

“The shoot is going to take an hour to develop, and that’s just the negatives. Then I’ll have to print the best ones and digitize them.” Drew took a deep breath. It was clear to Rose that as tedious of an operation as it was, Drew was almost giddy about the lengthy process.

Drew continued, “So maybe I can cull some of mine, you can cull some of yours, and we’ll check in. Meet later this week, maybe?”

“Seriously?” Rose tried to hide the annoyance in her voice. She took an hour train into Manhattan just to have Drew turn her around and send her out the door.

Beneath her annoyance, though, was surprise. From everything she had seen, Drew couldn’t stand being around her.Why would they offer to spend more time in person?

Shaking their head, Drew lightly licked their lips. “Yeah, seriously. If you can get through that many pictures in time.”

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