Page 93 of Try Easy

Fifty Dollars for the Pair

Seattle,Washington

February 20

Lou

Lou wentto Pacific Camera on her lunch break. She crept out the back door of the bank that led to an alley between the buildings like a kid cutting class.

Paul had been making it a habit of dropping in and taking her to lunch. She didn’t want to see him today. She wanted to look at her pictures from Hawaii.

Was it really as beautiful as she remembered? Or had she made it better in her imagination?

Mr. Tollison hurried from behind the counter to greet Lou when she walked in the store. His face was split with a smile as he grabbed her hand and pulled her to the wall where inspirational photographs were displayed.

“I told you the black and white would be perfect,” he said, pointing.

Hanging on the wall next to a black-and-white photograph of Mt. Ranier capped in snow was the stark image of Diamond Head Crater.

Lou stared at the photograph, remembering the exact moment she had snapped the shot. She and Keoni had just finished eating breakfast together on her last morning in Hawaii, and they had walked out to Waikiki Beach.

Keoni had never finished that story about how Diamond Head got its name. Lou’s cheeks turned pink remembering how Keoni had kissed her that morning. He had kissed her slow and sweet as if he had all the time in the world to linger, not as if she would be leaving him later that same day.

Lou felt tears burn her eyes as she stared at the framed photograph, and then another thought entered her mind.

That was her photograph on the wall.

Lou threw her arms around Mr. Tollison and hugged him tightly.

“I made the wall!” she said.

The older man laughed and patted Lou on the back. “You made the wall,” he said. “I told you the black and white would be good.”

Lou turned to stare at the photograph of Diamond Head, basking in her accomplishment.

She couldn’t wait to tell John! She couldn’t wait to tell Keoni!

Her heart sank as she realized neither one of those options was possible. Her heart sank further as she thought of Paul. He’d been her third choice. Would he ever be her first choice?

“I’m going to pay you for that photograph,” Mr. Tollison said, walking back behind the counter. He pulled out two envelopes. One was large and thin, and the other was small and flat. He handed them both to Lou and said, “I want to buy that one, too.” He nodded at the thin envelope. “It’s the first color photograph I’ve ever wanted to display.”

Lou took the photograph out of the envelope and saw that it was an action shot of Keoni surfing at Sunset Beach the morning of the Duke contest.

Keoni’s body was turned toward the wave, and he was leaning so far forward on his board that he was nearly horizontal. It was an impossible position, but Keoni made it look effortless. He had one hand splayed against the base of the wave, and the white tip curled over his head. The wind blew back his dark hair, and his mouth turned up in a sexy smile.

It wasn’t the vibrant colors of the ocean or Keoni’s good looks that made the photograph so incredible—it was that Lou had managed to capture Keoni’s intimate relationship in the picture.

Lou studied the picture with a critical eye, hardly believing she had been the photographer.

“You should submit that one to a magazine,” Mr. Tollison said. “I could offer you fifty dollars for the pair for my display wall.”

“Fifty…did you say fifty dollars?” Lou’s tongue tripped over the words. “Are you serious?”

“It’s an investment,” he said. “I think you could be famous one day.”

Lou burst out laughing and then reached over the counter to hug Mr. Tollison’s neck again.

Mr. Tollison laughed and hugged her back. “Do you want cash or store credit?” he asked when they parted.

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