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Emily tore her eyes from the picture to look at the woman by her side. Her long reddish-brown hair, green eyes and contagious smile reminded her of Jody, as did the curves accentuated by her closefitting black stealth dress. She remembered seeing the woman the day before talking to Taylor. “It’s mesmerizing. You’re Marina, right?”

“Thank you and yes, I am. You’re Emily?” Marina asked warmly and received an affirming nod, before continuing, “You probably think I’m the rudest person in the world for not greeting you yesterday, and I’m sorry for that. I’m just a freaking nervous wreck.”

“I don’t, really. Tay told me how crazy things have been here for you, with the prints arriving late and all, so no worries, tonight is your night to enjoy. I’m just happy I get to meet you now.”

After spending the last couple of days dealing with Kimberly, talking to someone as nice as Emily was refreshing. It was clear to Marina why Taylor liked her so much. The feeling was beginning to grow on her as well. “Thank you. So you like the photos?”

“I haven’t seen them all yet, but the ones I have are incredible,” Emily said, returning her attention to the picture in front of her. “I don’t understand much about photography, but they are beautiful. Especially this one; it makes me want to cry.”

Marina turned her attention to the image and smiled. Secretly, it was also her favorite. “That day was magical, and I guess it was translated in the photo.” From the corner of her eye, she saw Emily turn her face ever so slightly to look at her. Understanding it as an invitation to continue, she did. “Peter, the man in the picture, is a longtime friend, and one of the most selfless people I know. He’s a brilliant captain, researcher and conservationist of sea wildlife. A few years ago I asked to join one of his campaigns to the Antarctic to take photos, and he agreed.

“It was their most successful trip in a decade and, when it was over, he took all of us to this penguin sanctuary so we could see some of the wildlife we helped preserve. It was cold, like, unbearably cold, but the ocean was calm and the sky was the bluest I’ve ever seen. When we got close to the iceberg there were hundreds of penguins and, I know it’s gonna sound crazy, but it was like they were waving at us with their little fins,” she said, replicating the up and down movement with her arm. “Pete went alone to the iceberg to pray, I guess. I was taking pictures of the little assembly and suddenly one of them walked straight to where Pete was kneeling and stood in front of him. It felt like he was thanking him for dedicating his life to their cause. It was magical.”

“I can’t even imagine how emotional it must have been to see this in person. I would have been a weeping mess.”

Marina laughed before speaking again. “That’s exactly how I was. The magical is how this picture came out this good, because God knows I couldn’t see
nada
through my wet, blurry eyes.”

The two women laughed. Together, they moved on to the next picture.

The theme connecting each picture was love, in every sense the word could be applied. Marina explained that the penguin shot Emily liked so much represented love for a cause, while the one they were observing now portrayed compassion.

The black and white shot showed a homeless man sitting underneath the shade of a tree. In front of him was a wooden box, used as a makeshift desk, with notebooks and scribbled papers on top of it. His head was slightly tilted down, focused on his writing. Only his black eyes were visible through the wild mass of hair and beard that covered his face. By his side was a couple, both impeccably dressed, the man in a tailored suit and the woman in a chic light-colored dress and high heels. The man was crouching next to the homeless guy, focused on the page he was writing, and the woman was leaning over her companion, looking at the figure next to the tree. Their smiling faces were a complete contrast to the sadness in the picture.

Once again, Emily was stunned by the amount of emotion put into the still scene. Being moved by words was something she was more than used to, but having the same thing happen with a single image was a novelty. Compassion was, without a doubt, the main feeling behind it—but once you looked past that, you could see two completely different men who were equally leveled as humans. The sense of equality beyond condition was astounding, and something that was definitely missing in the world.

The story behind the image was as impressive as the image itself, and soon the two women were deep in conversation about the homeless man who lived and had written under that tree for over twenty years. “And this was where?” Emily asked, extremely interested in the story.

“What, his tree? About two blocks from my parents’ house in Sao Paulo,” Marina answered.

“
Então seu sotaque é brasileiro?
” Emily used her heavily accented Portuguese to ask about the other woman’s accent

Marina’s eyes widened, hearing Emily speak in her native language. “You speak Portuguese?”

“Just a little,” Emily explained, using the foreign language once again. They continued their conversation in Marina’s native tongue. Emily told her about studying the language along with French and Italian while she was in college, and how little she got to practice it.

When Emily finished her story, she asked the other woman how she met Taylor. Switching back to English, Marina told her that he had saved her during a landscape photography seminar with a world-renowned photographer back in London almost five years prior. According to her story, said photographer spoke much faster than her English allowed her to understand, and if it weren’t for Taylor, she would have quit during the first hour.

“Since he was the only person I knew in England, we hung out a lot, and after the month was over and I went home we remained friends,” Marina . “After he gave Georgina the boot, he even tagged along on one of my trips for a month while she moved out. I never really got why such a great guy like Tay put up with that poisonous, fake, evil bitch. Getting rid of her was the best thing he ever did. And it’s really awesome to see how happy he is now,” she said, with a smile. “After all she put him through, he more than deserves it.”

An array of feelings passed through Emily. There was curiosity, not only towards his relationship with this Georgina, who had obviously been someone important since they shared a home together, but also about her part in his no-dating policy. On top of that, she was unsettled; did Taylor still harvest feelings for her? Her desire to grill Marina for more information was nearly unbearable.

Being used to hiding her emotions, Emily focused on her smile as they moved to the next photograph, turning her conversation with Marina to a safer topic. They were talking about Marina’s many adventures in NYC when footsteps came from behind them and a pair of hands gently touched Emily’s arms.

“Hi Ems,” Taylor’s greeting came through her hair as he delivered a soft kiss to the back of her head. “Hey Rina. I see you two ladies met.”

Taylor turned his head to Emily’s side and saw that, despite her sweet smile, something was off. It was the most subtle change in her eyes, so subtle that it would be imperceptible to most people, but not to him. He felt frustrated by the fact that, even though he could see a change, he still couldn’t decipher what it meant.

“Yeah, I decided to stop being rude and introduce myself,” Marina replied happily in her heavy accent. “And it’s good to see you’ve been keeping good company. She’s lovely and fucking gorgeous,” she teased with a smirk that Taylor knew so well. “So you better keep her tightly at your side, because I’ll hold you personally responsible if she steals my thunder.”

Taylor worked past his frustration and anxiety to reply to his longtime friend. “Don’t worry. For your sake I’ll keep her with me the entire time.”

Both friends laughed as Emily’s face burned a deep shade of red.

Kimberly barged over and cut through their friendly conversation. The woman began barking instructions at Marina about people she should meet and how to properly answer questions to the newspaper reporters and bloggers that would be covering the show and, before they noticed, she was towing her away towards the door, where apparently some photographers waited to take her picture.

With deep satisfaction, Emily and Taylor watched Marina roll her eyes at the thin blond, before waving at them and following the woman with a smile that almost cut her face in half. Never removing his eyes from Emily, Taylor unceremoniously dismissed Kimberly when she called him to join her.

“What happened, Ems?” he asked as soon as they were alone. Not understanding his question she narrowed her eyes at him in confusion. Taylor exhaled a worried breath before continuing. “There’s something wrong with you—I can tell.”

“Nothing happened, Tay. I’m fine,” she told him with a forced smile, deciding now was not the time to bring up Georgina. “Marina and I were just talking about her pictures. They are pretty amazing.”

He looked her straight in the eyes, giving her his most stubborn look and raising a brow at her feeble attempt to change subjects. “Bullshit. Come on, we promised no secrets. Marina can be a little clueless sometimes, but she always means well, so if she said anything that upset you, you can tell me.”

“I’m not keeping secrets, Tay.” He rolled his eyes at her. It was clear that his patience was running short. “We talked about her photos and her being Brazilian, which led to a short conversation in Portuguese about how I learned the language.” She considered leaving it at that to avoid the real reason for her unease, but decided against it, knowing he would see right through it. “And I asked her about how you two met.”

Emily didn’t need to say anything else for Taylor to understand what the problem was. “She mentioned Georgina, didn’t she?”

His voice was so sad that it broke Emily’s heart, wanting to drop the subject so he would smile again. She spoke with the gentlest voice possible. “Yes, she did. But I’m not upset, and we don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. It’s okay.”

Taylor let go of her hand to rub his eyes. He shook his head, completely disappointed with himself at how stupid he’d been to let her find out something so important by herself.
When she gave you
her
heads up, you should have done the same, idiot.
He mentally admonished himself before removing his hands from his eyes to look at her. “Knowing how much Rina hates her, I should have told you before we came here. I’m so sorry.”

Her small and soft hand touched his cheek in an attempt to relieve some of the sadness in him. It was very difficult for her to see him upset like that. “There’s nothing to be sorry about. We have to remember that, as much as it feels like we’ve known each other for a long time, we’re just starting to get to know about one other. You tell me about it whenever you’re ready. It’s all right, I promise.”

Emily’s tender touch and kind words offered him brief respite, but they didn’t diminish his self-deprecation. Internally, he was still kicking himself for being such an idiot. He took the hand pressed to his face and clasped it between his. “Then why the change?”

“I . . . ” She hesitated, taking a deep breath to steady herself for her next words. “I was wondering if she’s the reason you don’t date.”

“Yes, she is.” Taylor felt good about his truthful answer, until he saw the look on Emily’s face.

It was impossible for Emily to explain the reason for her ridiculous reaction. They were friends, and whether or not he still harbored feelings for his ex was none of her business. Still, the unsettled feeling she had before came crashing down on her once more.

Reading her reactions correctly he hurried on with an explanation, not wanting the wrong idea that was already in her mind to take hold of her. “We had some mishaps, as you put it, but I have no feelings for her now whatsoever. None.”

His words, the emphatic tone he used and the honesty behind them took some of her edge away, and brought the glimmer he liked so much back to her eyes. They stared at each other for a long time, both enjoying the relief the other one offered.

“So you speak Portuguese?” He broke the silence in a light tone.

Emily smiled at him and nodded before answering his question, a light trace of smugness in her voice. “Actually, I speak Portuguese, French and Italian.”

Being a Canadian he’d studied French his entire school career and was quite fluent in it. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, he switched to French to comment on the photograph next to them. With a giggle she easily changed languages and replied in perfect French.

They discussed the beautiful photograph for some time. Following the recurring theme of love, Emily could only guess that the image they were discussing in French represented the romantic kind of love. Her inner self giggled at how appropriate it was to discuss such a subject in such a romantic language.

In the photo, a couple stared at each other, while the man kissed the tips of the woman’s fingers. The scene itself wasn’t sexual at all. However, as in all of Marina’s photos, the emotion behind it was stronger than the image itself. The connection between the two subjects made it incredibly erotic. As Taylor shared with her what his trained eyes saw in the image, Emily found herself thinking how sexy he sounded, speaking in French. The thought completely mortified her and she pushed it out of her mind in the blink of an eye.

Their conversation continued as they walked the gallery together. Taylor commented on the technical aspects of each photo they stopped in front of, delivering short lessons on lighting, perspectives, positioning of the subject and exposition of the lenses. By the time they reached the last of the pictures, Emily was completely captivated by his passion.