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  ‘I’m sure he doesn’t.’

  I wasn’t so sure but, as we weren’t dating, it didn’t really matter. Without the pressure of a relationship, Charlie seemed happy for me to rattle on without it causing him too much of a headache, despite his teasing.

  ‘So, what did you do on Sunday? Just recover from the night before?’

  ‘Pretty much. Charlie insisted that a humongous fried breakfast was the quickest way to do that, so insisted on us going somewhere to get something.’

  ‘Although it’s often the last thing you feel like facing, it does seem to work.’

  ‘I know. It’s so annoying when he’s right.’

  ‘So where did you go?’

  ‘Oh, to a little place up on the cliffs, further along the coast.’

  Tilly nodded. ‘Seems a long way to go just for breakfast.’

  I caught the hint of suggestion in her voice.

  ‘Don’t start.’ I laughed. ‘I’ve already explained this once today to Amy. We bumped into The Siren when we came out of his house. He panicked and told her we were going out for the day. He said if she saw him come back earlier, she’d be round. I think he’s a little scared of her, to be honest!’

  ‘Bless him.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘So, we popped back here so I could change, got breakfast and then went rock-pooling, of all things.’

  ‘Blimey, I haven’t done that for years.’

  ‘No, neither had I. It was nice, actually. Charlie was off taking photos, and I was poking around in pools and just swishing my feet in the sand. It was really relaxing; I have to say.’ I left out the bit where I’d burst into tears and ruined Charlie’s pristinely pressed, expensive hanky.

  ‘Sounds lovely.’

  I smiled. ‘Yeah, it was.’

  Tilly was quiet for a moment, and I could see the cogs whirring.

  ‘You know, we could do an “everyday” blog post on that.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘The rock-pooling and stuff.’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know. It was just a quiet day, Tilly. I’m not sure people would be too interested in me spending half an hour trying to see an invisible crab.’

  ‘No, they would, really! I promise.’

  ‘I didn’t take any pictures.’

  ‘But Charlie did. Can’t you get some off him?’

  ‘He’s over in Asia on a business trip now.’

  Tilly looked at me. ‘Err, hello? Email? WhatsApp?’

  ‘I don’t even know if he’s got the photos with him.’

  ‘You can ask.’

  ‘OK, fine. I’ll ask.’

  I picked up my phone, and started typing Charlie a message.

  ✉︎ Hiya, hope you had a good flight. Quick question. Told Tilly about beach trip – well, most of it… She thinks people will be interested in the fact I went rock-pooling (!!). I’m not convinced but there we go. Wondered if you might have a couple of photos you wouldn’t mind me putting up on the blog of the beach and stuff? Obviously I’d credit you! Not to worry if not, really doesn’t matter. Have a fab day and talk to you soon. Xxx

  I put the phone down and pulled my to-do list back up on my screen. ‘OK, I’ve asked him. But I’m not sure—’

  My phone made a clown car noise that signified I had a WhatsApp message. I picked it back up and clicked on the icon.

  ✉︎ Hello you. Flight was good, thanks. One of the flight attendants was very chatty… reminded me of you.

  He followed this with a winky face.

  ✉︎ You’re welcome to use any of the shots I took. Not worried about credit, Libs. I’ll just put everything in a zip file and send it over and you can see if there’s anything you like. Hope you’re having a good day. Bloody sweltering here!

  I tapped out a reply.

  ✉︎ Thanks, Charlie. You’re a star. Sorry to hear about the temp – people don’t realise how tough having such a jet-setting lifestyle can be!

  I returned the compliment of the winky face.

  His reply came straight back.

  ✉︎ Ha ha! Mind you, I suppose having changed my screensaver to that photo of you on the beach might be helping push up temperatures…

  ✉︎ Smart arse.

  ✉︎ Touché!

  Tilly saw me smiling.

  ‘Everything all right?’

  ‘Yes. Charlie’s just being a smart arse. It seems he hasn’t quite forgotten about the surprise contents of that file from Saturday.’

  ‘It’s hardly the sort of thing a bloke would forget in a hurry!’ Tilly laughed, and then remembered that she had been instrumental in Charlie seeing it in the first place. ‘I mean…’

  I shook my head. ‘He’s just saying it to wind me up.’ I pulled a face.

  Tilly smiled.

  My email notification sounded and I glanced at it. ‘It looks like Charlie’s sent the file of photos. He said just choose whatever you like and not to worry about credit, but I definitely want to make sure he’s credited properly, and all the copyright stuff is on there.’

  ‘Absolutely.’

  ‘I’ve got some stuff to look at this afternoon, so would you mind going through these? Just choose what you think and I’ll have a quick look before it goes into the queue for upload. I don’t think it really needs much wording, but you know what you’re doing with these posts so I’ll leave you to it. I’ll forward you his email with the attachment now.’

  We returned to the relative coolness of the living room and went back to work. With news of the Glam deal filtering through, my blog was getting more and more hits and I had now been approached by several more companies interested in working with us. I wanted to sit down this afternoon and start looking at some of their proposals. Searching online for some more information on one of the companies, I glanced up and caught sight of Tilly’s face.

  ‘What’s wrong?’

  She snapped her head up. ‘Wrong? Nothing! Nothing at all. I was just looking at these photos of Charlie’s. Libs, they’re amazing! He’s really, really talented!’

  ‘I know. He takes some lovely landscapes. I’m thinking about asking him if I can get a couple of prints for in here actually.’

  ‘You should. Totally. But you know he doesn’t just do landscapes, don’t you? His portraits are pretty amazing too.’

  I smiled. ‘Well, he did seem to manage to coax a little crab out to have his photograph taken, so I guess it’s kind of portraiture.’

  Tilly twisted her screen around to show me the one currently displayed on it. It wasn’t the crab. The image was a black and white shot of me standing on a rock, one hand reaching up to the crown of my hat as the breeze ruffled it. My other hand held a bunched-up handful of skirt fabric as I looked down, navigating my way to the next rock.

  ‘Did you pose for this?’

  I shook my head. ‘No. I didn’t even know he’d taken it.’

  ‘I love it. Can we use it on the blog?’

  ‘Umm, I don’t know. I guess. He said use whatever.’

  ‘There are a few of you. They’re all fabulous! He’s better than a lot of the wedding photographers we looked at! I think he’s even better than the one we booked!’

  I smiled. ‘I’m sure yours will be perfect when it comes to it.’

  ‘Yeah. I know. It’s just, you know, it’s that one day, isn’t it?’

  ‘And it’s going to be amazing. Now come on, find the little crab picture he took. He showed me that on the camera and it was really cute.’

  ‘OK. Will do.’

  I picked up my phone. The thread I’d started with Charlie earlier on the chat app was still open.

  ✉︎ Tilly wants to book you as her wedding photographer…

  A reply came back within moments.

  ✉︎ What?!!!

  I smiled. Poor Charlie. I could just imagine panic coursing through him at the thought of dealing with all those people, not to mention the responsibility of getting the Perfect Picture for someone’s Perfect Day. I thought I’d bet
ter reply and put him out of his misery.

  ✉︎ She’s just seen the photos you took on Sunday. There are a couple of me and she loves the look of them.

  ✉︎ Oh! Yes, hope you didn’t mind. I had planned on showing you – just had to shoot off on this trip before I got the chance. I’ve not really done people before, and you were just there. I really liked the look of them too. Came out better than I expected.

  A happy but surprised smiley face followed this declaration.

  ✉︎ I’m not entirely sure how to take that but OK! Ha ha! And don’t worry, she has a photographer booked. Lucky for you, otherwise I think you’d be first choice!

  Winky face.

  ✉︎ I meant the photos being better than expected, not the subject, you daft woman. As I’m sure you know!

  Pokey tongue face. And then another message.

  ✉︎ But I’m glad she has someone booked. Couldn’t deal with the stress of herding a wedding party and photographing a bride – talk about pressure! Give me a high-risk assessment involving billions of dollars any day – that I can deal with!

  ✉︎ I’ll remember that. Note to self – do not ask Charlie to photograph my wedding.

  Thanks. I’d appreciate that.

  I sent him a smiley face as a reward.

  ✉︎ Right, breakfast meeting tomorrow so better get some kip. Have a good rest of the day. Say hi to the others for me.

  ✉︎ Night, Libs xx

  ✉︎ Night, Charlie. Sleep well xx

  ‘OK, these are the ones I thought about using.’ Tilly peeped over her monitor at me. ‘Do you want to come and have a quick look?’

  Cleaning was most definitely not my favourite job. On the other hand, I did like things to be clean and tidy and, as I didn’t have a magical housekeeper lady as Charlie did, the task unfortunately fell to me. I’d been at it for the last three hours and I was just peeling off the Marigolds when the doorbell rang.

  ‘Hi!’ I broke into a smile when I opened the door to see Charlie standing there.

  ‘Hi,’ he replied. ‘I’m not interrupting you, am I?’ His gaze flicked to the bright yellow rubber gloves dangling from one hand.

  ‘Not at all. If you could make it a couple of hours earlier next time, you’d definitely be interrupting me, which would be perfect.’

  He nodded, that shadow of a smile back on his lips. ‘Duly noted.’

  ‘Do you want to come in?’ I stepped aside.

  ‘Only if you’re not busy.’

  ‘No, I’ve literally just finished this moment. I was going to make myself a cup of tea as a reward. Would you like one?’

  ‘Sounds perfect. Thanks.’ He came inside and laid down the gear he was carrying near the console table.

  ‘Have you been out taking pictures?’ I asked, as I bustled off into the kitchen to pop the kettle on.

  ‘Yes. I drove up the coast and took some of the sunrise around Beachy Head and Birling Gap.’ He followed me into the kitchen.

  ‘You’ve been up since dawn?’ I turned to him, teaspoon in hand.

  ‘Well. Bit before. I wanted to get in place for the sun coming up.’

  ‘Wow.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You’re all chirpy. And you look great. And you’ve been up since dawn. Before dawn. Put all those words together and add me in the mix and it would be a different matter entirely.’

  ‘Rubbish. You’re always chirpy.’

  ‘You’ve never seen me pre-dawn.’

  ‘That’s true,’ Charlie replied, smiling as he took the mug I offered him. ‘Thanks.’

  I noticed the hint of blush colouring his cheeks. I hadn’t meant anything remotely in the realm of where his mind had apparently gone but – well, he was a bloke, so allowances had to be made. And he blushed. I mean, really? How could I be annoyed at that? It was kind of adorable. But that didn’t mean I was letting it pass.

  ‘And that’s not what I meant.’

  Charlie chuckled into his tea. ‘Sorry.’

  I rolled my eyes. ‘No, you’re not.’ I shook my head. ‘Men. So, can I see what you took?’

  ‘Of course, if you want.’

  ‘Of course I want!’

  Charlie disappeared and came back a moment later with his camera and a laptop and twiddled about uploading the pictures from one to the other. A few minutes later, he replaced the card in the camera and pushed it aside. I took a seat next to him at the small table in my kitchen and looked at the screen. The most beautiful shot of blush-tinted chalk cliffs appeared on it, followed by more shots, each one as striking, if not more so, than the last.

  ‘Charlie, these are amazing!’ I said, when we’d cycled through his morning’s work.

  ‘They’re not bad.’

  ‘Not bad? They’re fabulous!’

  He smiled at me, his bright blue gaze twinkling like the sunlight on the water outside. ‘Thanks, Libby. I’m glad you like them.’

  ‘Do you sell them ever?’

  ‘My pictures? No! They’re not good enough for that.’ He took the tech bits and headed back into the living room. I trailed after him.

  ‘Charlie, they are. Seriously! You should look into doing that.’

  ‘I don’t think so. I’ve never really considered…’

  I waited. He didn’t finish, but I got the idea.

  ‘Because you don’t think they’re good enough or because you want to keep it purely as a hobby. Untainted by commercialism.’

  He looked back up at me from where he was crouched, replacing his camera in the bag. ‘You’re making fun.’ He smiled.

  I plopped down and sat cross-legged beside him. ‘No. OK. Yes, a little. But only because I know you can take it.’

  ‘Fair enough.’

  ‘Are you going to answer the question?’

  He sat back from the crouch onto his bum, facing me.

  ‘I just never considered it. Well, I did. But not in a real way. Just in a “that might be nice” sort of way. Once or twice.’

  ‘I think you’re an amazing photographer, Charlie. I really do. And I told you what Tilly said when she saw your photos from our day out.’

  ‘Libby—’ he reached for my hand ‘—I really appreciate that. But it’s a massively competitive market. I just don’t think I have the time to dedicate to looking into something like that as well.’

  An idea struck me. I jumped up. ‘You should start a blog!’

  ‘What?’ he said, pushing himself off the floor and towering over me once more.

  ‘A blog. For your photography! You should start one!’ I was gripped by enthusiasm on his behalf – which apparently I needed to be because he wasn’t showing a whole lot himself, but then that wasn’t really his way. I was definitely the show-every-emotion one in this friendship.

  Gripped by enthusiasm for the possibilities of this new project, I suddenly realised that that wasn’t the only thing I was gripping and let go of Charlie’s arm.

  ‘Sorry.’

  ‘It’s all right.’ He chuckled. He was looking at me with that half-amused, half-bemused expression I’d only ever seen him use on me.

  I stepped away a bit, linking my hands behind me, just in case, as I felt the excitement bubbling away inside me.

  ‘So, a blog?’

  ‘Yes!’ I squeaked!

  Oops! Bit too much excitement. But I was excited! I had memories of how it had felt starting my own blog and the prospect of getting Charlie set up was giving me flashbacks of that and it felt good. His photography was amazing and I wanted other people to realise that. Which they would, once they saw it.

  He shrugged and held his hands up, palms upward. ‘OK.’

  ‘OK?’

  ‘OK. Let’s do it. Although I need to warn you, I have absolutely no idea about blogging.’

  ‘That’s all right. I know someone who has a bit of a knack for this sort of stuff.’ I winked at him and he laughed. I grinned, seeing my own enthusiasm now beginning to reflect in his eyes.

  14


  I grabbed my laptop, sat on the sofa and crossed my legs, making a table for the laptop on my knees. Pulling up the Internet, I typed in the web address for a well-known, easy-to-use blogging platform. Charlie took a seat next to me.

  ‘So, have you thought what you might want to call it?’

  ‘It?’

  ‘The blog?’

  ‘Bearing in mind it wasn’t happening until about five seconds ago, err, no, I’ve not had too many ideas yet.’

  ‘Not to worry. We can just call it Charlie Richmond Photography for now.’

  He nodded and made a gesture with his hands, acquiescing. Despite our relatively short acquaintance, it hadn’t taken Charlie long to get the idea that once I thought of something I was kind of off and running.

  ‘OK.’

  I started typing. As I finished the second word, my phone rang and a picture of my brother in ‘mad surgeon mode’ complete with mask, scrubs and scalpel appeared on my screen. We all thought this picture was hilariously funny but then I wasn’t a patient of his, and I could see how ‘deeply terrifying’ could also be an accurate description, depending on your perspective.

  ‘Hi, Matt.’

  ‘Hi, Libs. Are you busy? I need a huge favour.’

  ‘Err, sort of, but ask me anyway.’

  ‘Is there any chance of you taking the boys for a few hours? Maria’s at work and the hospital just called and asked if I could come in. Bit of a crisis.’

  I didn’t need time to think.

  ‘Of course. I can come and get them to save you time dropping them off, if that helps.’

  ‘You’re a lifesaver, Libs. Quite possibly, literally.’