Samantha had invited Mona, Blythe and Valerie to her town house to commiserate about the disaster, but all three were more interested in talking her into making up with Rick than bemoaning the fact she’d set them up in business in the middle of a drug deal.
Mona, happily in love with Chuck, planned to be a mobile therapist for a while. Blythe would lease space at her old salon and Valerie would go back to mail order until Samantha found a new location for Mirror, Mirror or, if Rick could pull strings, reopened the center.
“You’re not supposed to know what you’re doing in love,” Mona said. “That’s the magic of it. Remember? You told me that yourself. Oooh, save me that strawberry vagina.” Val had snagged a box of sex candy on her way out of the shop and they were all enjoying the loot.
“This wasn’t love. It was a fantasy,” Samantha said, dragging her locket back and forth on her chain. “The man doesn’t even approve of my work. He even told me I should take regular portraits.”
“What’s wrong with diversifying?” Val shrugged.
“That’s not the point. I’m not giving up who I am for a man.”
“Was he asking you to?” Mona said.
No. Rick would never do that. He’d been trying to help her with her own uncertainty about her parents. Besides that, he’d happily played sex games with her for days, even when she could tell he’d rather just make simple love—no chocolate, no costumes, no playacting. “He wants a wife and I want a life,” she said weakly.
Mona stopped rubbing. The other women just stared at her, telling her with their eyes she was full of it.
“You’re going to snap that necklace right off its chain,” Valerie said, grabbing the locket she was tugging on. “Let me see.” She opened the locket and sighed. “I loved that outfit on you.”
Mona stopped rubbing her shoulders and leaned in with Blythe to look. “You look so hot.”
“It was my first bedroom photo.”
“To impress Barry, right?” Mona said. “You look a little shaky.”
“I was shaky.” But not anymore. She thought about the photo Rick had taken of her. The one on her bedside table.
“Hang on a minute,” she said. “I want to show you guys something.” She brought it back and handed it to Valerie, who still held her locket. “What do you think?”
“Great bikini. Do I sell that?”
“No. It’s one of my costumes, Val. And that’s not what I mean.”
“I like your hair this length,” Blythe said, tapping the glass.
“Yeah, but what else do you see?” she said. “Don’t I look more confident? Like I know who I am and what I want?”
“Absolutely,” Mona said. “You look in charge.”
“And like you just ate a big piece of the best chocolate cake in the world and you can’t wait for seconds,” Val said, “now that I look more closely.”
“Or like you just got laid,” Blythe added.
The girls burst out laughing.
When Samantha didn’t reply, Mona said, “We’re just kidding, hon.”
Samantha was lost in the photo. Rick had caught the double image she tried to capture in all her portraits. She could see it here—her confidence, her sexiness, her readiness, her triumph. All of her right in this little square of exposed paper. She did know what she wanted.
“Did Rick take the shot?” Mona asked gently.
She nodded. She thought she needed the photo to remind her not to settle, because she feared she’d lose herself in someone else’s view of her. But she wouldn’t do that. Not anymore. And Rick would never ask her to.
“He’s good,” Mona said.
“Yes, he is.” And not just as a photographer. Or a fantasy lover. He was good in all the everyday ways. She’d told him she didn’t know him, but she did. And it was about time she forgot fantasy and went for the real thing. With the man she loved.
TWO HOURS AFTER HIS MEETING with the lieutenant, Rick sat in a booth at Jade’s Grill and let Rocky pour him a beer. He wasn’t quite used to the idea that he still had his job and the loyalty of his squad mates, but he was doing his best to get into the moment.
“So, now that it’s over, what was it like to have naked ladies prancing around you every day?” Marston asked, sitting across from him, next to Jessie.
“It wasn’t like that,” Rick said. “What Samantha does is professional and respectful. She captures the real person.”
“Oh, I bet,” Marston said, rolling his eyes.
“Tell you the truth, Rocky, you should take your girlfriend in for a picture. Seems to me you take her for granted.”