“Into me?”
“I am definitely into you, Callan Cross,” I whisper. Feels like I’ve waited an eternity to say those words, even though I never really imagined I’d be brave enough to spit them out. They slide out of my mouth so easily now, silk off the end of my tongue, without embarrassment or fear. I feel the way he tenses beside me.
“I’m into you, too, Coralie Taylor.”
“That’s a good thing, I think.”
He pauses, and then says, “I think so, too.” I can hear the smile in his voice. He sounds the way he sounds when he’s happy—not the same way he sounds when he’s being arrogant and fooling around. No, he normally only has that soft, gentle texture to his voice when he’s talking about something that means something to him, which is infrequent. It feels very special that he’s speaking about us, me and him, in that tone of voice.
We both sit and soak in the few sentences we just parted with, until eventually Callan says, “So what do you propose we do about this mutual appreciation of one another?”
I pluck up the courage to look at him, turning my head to one side, and I’m possessed by the immediate and intense need to look away again. He just said I was beautiful, but he’s the one that looks like a Michelangelo painting. He’s the one that stops girls in the hallway at high school and has them whispering about him behind their cupped hands. It’s almost too much to bear that he’s so close to me and he’s looking at me like he wants to take me into his arms and hold me there forever.
“I don’t know,” I say.
“I’m not going to kiss you.”
A jolt of shame floods me. Was I looking like I wanted him to? Oh god. “No, no, of course not. Of course not. That would be—”
“It would be amazing. Coralie, of course I’m going to kiss you eventually. It just feels like now’s not the moment it’s meant to happen. Does that make sense?”
I nod slowly. With all of this talk about me liking him and him liking me, it would feel a little contrived if we started sucking face straight away. “I know. I get it. Another time. There’s too much pressure now.”
“Exactly. How about we discuss this instead?” he asks, giving me a broad smile as he reaches over and picks up the disposable Kodak camera from on top of the book in my lap.
“I was planning on asking about that, yeah. Photography’s your thing, not mine. I feel like this might have accidentally made its way into my birthday parcel.” I take it from him, holding it up to my face so I can see a tiny, deformed version of him through the viewfinder.
The lumpy version of Callan shakes his head. “No, it was entirely intentional. Yes, photography is my thing, but,” he holds up an index finger. “I was hoping that you might enjoy it, too. I was kind of hoping that maybe you would participate in a small challenge with me?”
I lower the camera, frowning at him. “What kind of challenge?”
“The best kind. The kind where you are you and I am me, and we see where we meet in the middle. How many shots does that camera have on it, Coralie?”
I glance down and check the small window on top of the camera housing. “It says there are thirty-one.”
“Great. There were thirty-two earlier, but I used up one of your shots before I gave you your gift.”
“You did? Cheat. What did you take a picture of?”
“That’ll be a surprise when I show you how to develop the film at the end of the month, won’t it?” He smirks, the tip of his tongue poking out between his teeth. “The rest of those shots, they’re for you to take. I was thinking maybe you could take a new picture every day for a month, and I could do the same, and then at the end of the month we can compare all of the things we’ve seen.”
I turn the camera over cautiously in my hands, not sure about what he’s asking of me. “I don’t know, Cal. I mean, I’ve seen your photos. They’re beautiful. I don’t have an eye for stuff like that. I’m sure any picture I took would look terrible.”
“Not true. Anyway, this isn’t about who takes the better picture. This is about the things you see as you go about your day that effect you in some way. The things that make you feel something. The things that move you. I want to know those things. And…and I guess I kinda wanna share that stuff with you, too.”