Page 4 of When to Call a Blitz

“Please,” she tells me, her eyes hard. “Hey! You even know one!”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Absolutely not.”

“I’m telling her to call you.”

“Briar.”

“Emmett.”

We fall silent and my eyes narrow.

“Get help or I’m telling Leo you want to come to therapy with him,” she whispers finally before spinning on her heel, her middle finger lifted in the air as a goodbye.

If I’m honest, there’s probably no better punishment.

2

HEIDI

“Ijust feel like if I could take the same quality photos on my phone, I shouldn’t have to pay you,” the Karin in front of me says as she places her grown-out manicured hand on her hip.

I sigh, placing my camera on the table. “They’re different qualities though. You’re just looking at the photos from my small screen.”

She shakes her head. “It’s the same.”

I bite my cheek in an attempt to keep from snapping. “What would you like me to do here, ma’am?”

“I’d like to get my money back.”

“The money you paid for the non-refundable deposit?”

She nods.

I scoff.

Photography seems to be a dying art, and every single month I see this more and more often. People who go through all the trouble of hiring a photographer for their children’s engagement, graduation, or wedding photos only to stand behind me and take photos on their phones as I direct the posing.

I’ll never understand why these people hire photographers in the first place, but it aggravates me to no end, and I’m never quite sure how to handle it. I mean sure, most people would be on my side if the customer wants to mouth off and leave me a bad review for coming here to do what I was paid for. But more and more, people have been a little loony.

“Fine,” I tell her stiffly as I whip my phone out of my back pocket. “I’ll give you half of your deposit back. The other half covers my time here.”

A complete waste of time,I want to say.

The woman bristles as if she’s going to argue for the full amount, but as soon as the notification comes through on her phone that it was sent back to her, she seems to drop it.

Spinning on her heel she heads off in the direction of her high school graduate, leaving me to clean up all of my equipment.

I lost money coming here. I lost money the other day, too as someone cancelled last minute.

When I first left the agency I was working with, things were good. I was nannying for Briar, I was getting a few jobs here and there with really great pay. Life was going in a really positive direction.

But when Leo got arealassistant, leaving Briar at home and able to look after her daughter, I had to rely on my photography income to pay my rent at Mila’s townhouse, because lord knows I can’t afford to live on my own.

I’ve been stuck between a rock and a hard place trying to decide which is worse: asking my friends or my parents for help.

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