I look up at him now to see him smiling back at me, proud to have me on his arm. I push up on my toes and kiss him lightly on the lips.
“You’re the most beautiful girl in the room,” he whispers onto my mouth.
I blush inwardly and peck him on the lips once more.
Melinda greets us, taking me into a gentle embrace.
“Oh, it has turned out so wonderfully!” she says with excitement, squeezing me with her thin, frail arms hidden in a pretty black and lavender blouse.
She pulls away, holding my hands in hers, smiling in at me with such kindness and adoration that I can’t help but smile back at her in the same way.
“I couldn’t be happier that you could make it,” she goes on. “And your photographs”—her eyes get wider and she shakes her head with admiration, tugging on my hands—“they are absolutely stunning, Sienna.”
“Thank you.” My face is too hot for me to manage more words than that.
I feel so nervous to have my photography on display, as if I’m revealing a private part of myself to the world. Having them on the Internet is one thing, but here, out in the open like this where people can walk by and I can physically see the expressions on their faces, puts a knot in my stomach.
Luke hooks my hip with his hand and pulls me next to him when Melinda drops her hands from mine.
He presses his lips against the top of my hair.
“I have no doubt,” he says, squeezing my hip gently, “that every one of her pieces will be sold.”
“Oh, I don’t either,” Melinda agrees eagerly.
“Yours will too,” I say, looking over at Luke, trying to take the spotlight off me some because it just makes me that much more nervous. “That’s a definite.”
He smiles and squeezes my hip again.
Alicia practically runs up, with Braedon close behind—her leg is out of the cast, but she’s still got a small limp. “You’re here,” she says and hugs me tight, even tighter than Melinda had. “So what do you think of the place?” She waves her hand about the room. “Do you like it?”
“I love it,” I say. “I mean … wow!” I gaze up at the brightly lit decorations. “I couldn’t have pulled this off. It’s awesome.”
Alicia purses her lips as if to say, Yeah, you probably could, and then says, “Of course, we couldn’t have done it without your help, though.”
“Oh, no,” I say, shaking my head. “I just steered you in a direction.” I gesture about the room again. “This was all you guys, and you did a fantastic job.” I look at Luke once more, gently bumping my hip against his.
He smiles and bumps me back.
Melinda gestures for us to come the rest of the way into the building. We walk alongside her to see a few of the nearby displays—the photographer who took those black-and-white shots of the old woman is standing in his display area, also dressed in a suit and tie. I meet him and talk with him for a while about his pieces and about our individual techniques and styles. And then Luke walks with me down every row laid out in the room in an intricate pattern to create a labyrinth of extravagant art, all of it situated precisely as if even the layout had been handled with as much care and thought as the art itself.
We drink nonalcoholic champagne in tulip-shaped champagne glasses and meet with the guests—some came by invitation and are dressed up like the rest of us to fit the theme; others are people who came in off the street on a whim: tourists and locals alike, dressed more casually. The night couldn’t be more perfect.
Well … I guess it can—Seth and Kendra walk through the entrance and come toward me and Luke, all decked out in formal clothes—my eyes get increasingly wide seeing them like this. Luke I could actually imagine in a suit and tie, but Seth—never in a million years. And Kendra in a little black dress and tall sparkly black heels, with her blond hair all done up in a perfect wavy bun; I do a double take, having to make sure it’s actually tomboy, BASE-jumping, crazy Kendra and not just another one of Seth’s one-night stands who just looks like Kendra.
“Wow,” I say, looking her up and down, “you are rockin’ that dress.”
“Ain’t I, though?” She strikes a dramatic pose and wrinkles her nose on one side to give me a little of that Kendra flare.
I look over at Seth, tall and dark and one gorgeous walking surprise.
“And you!” I take a step back next to Luke and look him over with a dramatic sweep of my eyes. “Did you have to talk him into a suit?” I ask Luke, glancing over at him.
Luke laughs lightly and shakes his head.
“No,” he says. “I had nothing to do with this monstrosity.”
“Hey, I look damn good, bro, and you fuckin’ know it,” Seth says with laughter in his voice.
I wince and gesture my hand at him. “Keep it down, Seth,” I tell him quietly, trying not to laugh and looking over my shoulder for anyone who might’ve heard his foul mouth. Thankfully, no one was close enough.
Seth winces, too. “Sorry,” he says, realizing.
He really is a sweetheart.
Then I look between Seth and Kendra, the gears in my head churning. They didn’t come in holding hands, or even touching each other for that matter, and from what Luke has told me, they’re still just friends. But I’m not buying it—or rather, I don’t want to buy that.
“So,” I say suspiciously after taking a sip of my sparkling drink, “you came together.” I take another calculated sip; my eyes narrow with speculation.