Page 104 of Hyde and Seek
To see me more.
It’s only me.
“Sweets, if you don’t like it, it’s cool. I should’ve talked—”
I grabbed his hand and began pulling him from the room.
“What’s wrong?” Jake asked.
“Nothing. I just wanna thank you in a way that wouldn’t be appropriate in a health inspected kitchen.”
*******
“God, I freakin’ love it when you do that.” I stood up from being bent over the front of Jake’s desk. I stretched before bending down to pull up my pants.
“And I love when you do that. Got a killer ass, sweets.”
“Are you sure you want it hanging around every day?” The gesture was touching, but I was a little worried that the reality of seeing me every day would get old. Fast.
“Will you let me do what I just did?”
I nodded. “Definitely.”
“Then, yeah. I’m sure.”
“Jake, for once I’m being serious.”
“So am I. I’ve seen you bake before. You zone out and you’re in your own world. It isn’t like we’d be steppin’ on each other’s toes.”
“Good point.” I buttoned my pants and turned towards the door.
Then I froze.
Hung on the wall opposite his desk were five framed pictures of us.
“Like them?” I jumped as Jake’s voice rumbled close to my ear. His arms slid around my waist and he brought his chin down to rest on my shoulder.
“Where’d you get them?” I whispered
“One of the photographers.”
“I saw that one in the paper.” I pointed to the picture of us smiling at each other.
“Didn’t know you’d seen that.”
“Yeah. A friend from school showed it to me after you dropped off lunch last week.”
“You freak?”
“Nope. I mean, it was a little weird to know someone was interested enough in what I was doing to take pictures.”
I looked closely at the other four pictures. One was Jake behind me with his arms around my waist and his lips on the spot behind my ear. There was a close-up of me smiling. The third was him kissing my shoulder when he’d interrupted the interviewer to check on me.
My favorite, by far, was of us from behind. Jake’s hand was on my ass and I was leaning into him. His lips were pressed to the top of my head and his face was in profile.
“How’d you get them?” I asked, unable to look away. The lighting and composition of the pictures gave them a magical look.
“I called the photographer after I saw the ones in the paper. He sent me over these five prints.”
