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on her knee. Now lower your head until you can t see the light
anymore.
She complied and saw that her right breast was fully
illuminated, its areola pebbled by the cool air and excitement
of being exposed. Willing herself to relax with deep, controlled
breaths, she sat perfectly still as Leo held the light meter to her
shoulder, hip and leg. As promised, the adjustments took only
minutes and silence ensued when Leo stepped behind her camera.
Several seconds passed before the shutter clicked.
Was it okay? she asked anxiously.
It was absolutely breathtaking.
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Chapter 21
Present Day
Leo returned to the terrace and handed Eva a diet cola from
the minibar. For a bride, she didn t seem the least bit anxious that
things were running so far behind schedule. On the contrary, she
seemed grateful for the quiet reprieve while she waited for her
mother and grandfather to arrive for their photo sessions.
I was hoping to see Maria and Sandy today, Leo said.
Maria s doctor won t give her a walking cast because he
knows she ll be out biking again the next day. Eva covered her
mouth too late to stifle a belch, and her eyes went wide with
embarrassment. Oops.
Better now than later.
No kidding. Todd would die laughing if I did that in the
middle of my vows.
Leo chuckled at the image, thinking Marjorie Pettigrew
would probably faint.
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Maria said you guys had been friends for a long time.
About twenty-five years. In fact, if it weren t for her, I might
still be taking baby pictures at the mall. She talked me into
taking a lighting workshop a long time ago and it turned out to
be a pivotal event in my career. As she talked, she dragged her
stepstool behind Eva and held her dress out so she could perch
on the top step.
Why haven t I heard this story before? Maria s talked about
you ever since I was a little girl.
Leo was surprised, not only that Maria talked about her so
much, but that she apparently had spent a lot of time with Eva
while she was growing up. There isn t much more to it. I took
the workshop, and one of the instructors was a retired photo
editor from Left Coast.
The magazine?
Right, and a couple of years later I got this call out of the
blue. He had recommended me for an article they were doing on
women business leaders in the Pacific Northwest. That was my
first layout for the big shots, and it helped me get noticed by the
right people. When the jobs started piling up, the first thing she
had dropped was the contract for school pictures. It was only a
few weeks in the fall, but she couldn t afford to be tied up that
long, not if she wanted to say yes when the more lucrative offers
came her way.
I d say you definitely got noticed. Maria said you even made
the cover of Vanity Fair.
Leo smiled with pride. That job had fallen into her lap like
this one, when a friend of hers came down with meningitis. That
was a stroke of luck good for me, bad for somebody else. It was
pretty exciting.
What job was your favorite?
Probably the most fun I ve ever had was back in 2004
when Gavin Newsom started marrying gays and lesbians in San
Francisco. I went up with all my equipment and took portraits on
the steps of City Hall. Those ended up all over the place& books,
magazines, even the newswires. In fact, I did an exhibit at Maria s
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gallery.
She has a couple of your photos at her house. They re on
the wall going up her staircase. You know which ones I m talking
about?
Leo chuckled as she envisioned the pair, one a voluptuous
breast centered inside an oval spotlight, and the other a penis
with a slim line of hair tracking up to the navel inside a diamond.
That was a whole series of geometric shapes on various body
parts, nineteen photos in all. For some reason, those were the only
two that made it to mass market. No shoulders, no chins&
Imagine that, she said, rolling her eyes. I remember them
specifically because I used to stare at them when I was a horny
twelve-year-old. I hadn t seen a penis before.
I ll never forget that shoot. The guy really enjoyed posing
for it. In fact, we had to stop and wait a few times for him not to
enjoy it so much.
Eva roared with laughter. That s hilarious.
Yeah, one minute he was a diamond, the next, a triangle.
Then a diamond, then a triangle.
So this is where the party is.
The voice was deeper and more mature, but to Leo,
unmistakable. Fighting the churn in her gut, she turned and
almost gasped at the woman in the doorway of the bridal suite.
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