Page 10 of Staying for Her

“Fuck, I’m so sorry. I didn’t even realize what time it was,” she whispers, her hands flying out and trying to clean up the piles and piles of paper that surround her. “I’ll be out of here in a minute,” she mutters and I chuckle softly, shaking my head as I walk into the room and sit in the one corner of the bed that doesn’t have anything on it.

“Don’t worry about it, honestly I was just amused at how much of a mess you made in here,” I admit, taking one of the papers and trying to figure out what it is.

“I know, Mike always used to get pissed at me when I did this in our bedroom. But it’s the only way my brain works.”

“What are all these papers for? I mean, I know you’re a photographer. I just didn’t know it involved… all this,” I say, motioning to the rest of the bed.

“It usually doesn’t. But my brain works very differently than most people’s and I need lists for everything or else I forget to do them. So every one of these papers has a list of tasks I need to do and for who.”

I tilt my head, wondering who this girl is and how she landed in my lap.

“For example, this pile is for Brad and Vicki. They just got engaged and sent me a list of what they wanted for their wedding. So I have to look it over and figure out the best locations near the venue to get the shots they wanted. I also have their contract and their itinerary here so I know how much time I have to do each shot and so I use that to organize my schedule and shot list.”

I shake my head in disbelief because that is way more complex than I originally thought. “Wow, that’s more intense than I was expecting.”

Her smile is soft as her eyes rake over all the papers on the bed. “I know it looks like a mess from where you’re sitting, but for me, it is organized chaos and without this chaos, I would be lost.”

“Can I see what you’re working on?”

A blush rises against her cheeks, making her eyes pop and for the second time today, I wonder if this arrangement is a good idea, because the longer I spend with this girl, the more I want to devour her. No matter if I get my money or not.

“Sure,” she whispers, turning her computer toward me and every word in the English language leaves my brain because the photo in front of me is incredible. The colors are muted, the couple standing in a field as they face each other and each one of them is laughing and it looks so natural that it almost seems like I’m intruding in a private moment.

“Billie,” I breathe, my eyes flicking to hers and seeing nothing but nervous energy reflected back at me. “This is incredible.”

She lets out a breath and her shoulders relax as a grateful smile crosses her face. “Thanks.”

“I mean it. You were meant to do this. They look so natural,” I say as she turns the computer back toward her and her eyes take in the photo as if seeing it for the first time.

“These two were easy, they love each other so much that it was easy to capture it on camera. Right before I took this photo I told Brian to tell his wife the best dad joke he could think of. And this is the reaction we got.”

I can’t keep my eyes off her, the way her lips twist into a smirk as if remembering the moment so clearly and then I catch a glimpse of the sadness behind her eyes, that flicker of disappointment that I wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t been staring so intently.

“Thank you for showing me.”

She smiles, shutting her computer and setting it aside as she leans back against the headboard and stretches, a sliver of her stomach showing as her arms rise above her head and my eyes track the movement, staring at that bit of skin, wondering what it would feel like under my fingers, how her body would react as my lips trace that same line. But I shake myself out of it, knowing we still need to talk about our arrangement.

“So I got a text from my mother today.”

Billie’s eyebrow raises and I laugh, loving that she’s never even met the woman and yet she knows what that means.

“She wants to have dinner this weekend.”

Her eyes widen and that nervous look I saw earlier comes roaring back to the surface. I take her hand in mine, ignoring the way my body reacts as her skin touches mine.

“As in four days from today?” she asks, the panic rising to the surface between us.

I nod, hating that she seems so uncertain. “Billie,” I say, waiting for her eyes to meet mine. “If you want to back out, say the word and we don’t do this. I will not kick you out, you can still stay here as long as you want and you owe me nothing.”

I need to get those words out there because it’s been bugging me all day that our talk last night felt more like blackmail than I wanted. I never wanted her to think that she had to do this to stay here. At first, that’s what I wanted, a favor for a favor, but the more I sat with it, the more it made me feel like a pervert and I need her to know that she has an out if she wants.

“I know, and I appreciate that, but I’m in. I want to help you. I just don’t know what you need me to do or what to expect.”

Fair enough.

“Well, my mother is a piece of work. My father is no better, but we’ve always had a better relationship than the one I have with my mother. She will definitely hate your hair,” I say with a smirk as her finger touches her hairline. “She hates anyone that doesn’t look ‘proper’ and so that will be a bone of contention for her. My father will most likely try to talk to me about business, and ignore you, which honestly is the best-case scenario for everyone. He drinks a lot and so the less combative he gets the better. As for my sister, she might be the one you need to worry about,” I say, remembering that Lena has always been the shining star of our family and is treated as such. She’s gotten everything she ever wanted without a fight and because I’m the family fuckup, it only makes her seem even more agreeable.

“Wow, how the hell did you turn out to be so down to earth if your family is like that. They sound horrible,” she mutters to herself and I laugh because I’ve thought the same thing so many times over the years.

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