Finally I understood why he hadn't told me on the way to the signing. With the way I feltnow, I might've hidden in the car until I pulled myself together. And who knows how longthatmight've taken.
Still, I had to ask, "Were youeverplanning to tell me?"
"No."
"But why not?"
"Because it's handled."
I considered everything he'd told me so far. "But you never explained. The photos, how could you buy them?"
"The easy way. With cash."
"Forget the cash," I said. "I just mean, they were probably on someone's phone, right? So how exactly does that work?"
"Simple," he said. "Forward the pictures and delete the originals."
My stomach clenched. "Forward the pictures to who?"
He was quiet for a long moment before saying, "Me."
Oh, God.Now Ireallywanted to crawl into a hole and hide. "So you have obscene pictures of me? Seriously?"
"I wouldn’t call them obscene."
"You would, too," I said. "In fact, I'm pretty sure you just did."
"No.Youcalled them obscene. Not me."
"But you didn't argue."
When his only answer was a tight shrug, I said, "Do you still have them?"
"I might."
Talk about humiliating."But why would you keep them? Don't you think that's a little intrusive?"
Already, the small downtown area was firmly in the rear-view mirror. In the sky, the sun was creeping ever closer to the horizon. Soon it would be dark.
Good.
All the better to hide my embarrassment.
"These photos," I said, "where are they now? On your phone?"
"If you mean the phone I was carrying at the time, the answer's yes."
I already knew he had multiple phones. But that wasn't the point. "But why keep them?" I asked. "Shouldn’t you just delete them or something?"
"No."
Great.So now I was embarrassedandannoyed. "But why not?"
"Because," he said, "if any of those pictures come out, I'll want to know who cheated me."
"Why?"
"So I can deal with it."
