My New Muse (Mild Wattpad Version) (Completed) [SLOWLY BEING EDITED]

9. Choker

"Thank you so much for doing this," he says enthusiastically, sitting by the coffee table beside me. For some reason, we're back at his studio apartment, each with a glass of ice water in our hands, and were discussing the terms on which I'm going to work at his brother's wedding.

"Because of the... um... circumstances, Jackson has agreed to raise the price," he says, as I drink my water.

I figured; no one books a photographer one week before a wedding, and if they didn't raise the price, I would've demanded it.

"So... how much?" I ask, taking the glass from my head, then putting it back and taking a sip.

"Eight hundred thousand dollars."

I choke on the water, the figure hitting me with surprise. This is way too much for me to wrap my head around right now.

Who does that? Who spends almost a million JMD on wedding photos?

"Are you okay?" He asks, looking at me intently as my breathing returns to normal.

"Yeah. I'm just... Fine," I say, pretending that it's normal. Just normal. Enough money to buy a nice, second hand car. Perfectly normal.

"Good... So this is going to be on Sunday, at my house."

How does he not see this as a big deal? How? He's treating this so casually.

"What theme will it be?" I ask him, trying to distract myself from the abnormally large figure Bouncing around in my head.

"White, silver, and red. Why?"

"Just curious."

A few beats of silence pass, then he asks:

"Have you ever photographed at a wedding before?"

Now how the hell do I begin to answer that one?

"Yes, I've worked on eight weddings... but I've never been paid. I can show you—"

"What do you mean you've never been paid?"

Well, I tried.

"I've been doing this since I was fifteen; I've been to eight weddings since then; I've photographed at every single one of them. I edited the pictures, and I have them saved on various hard drives, some on my computer; the only thing is, I never got paid, so I never printed any of the pictures."

As I talk, I realize that I sound like an obsessed pervert with a wedding fetish that keeps unnecessary wedding photos on her computer. I shut my mouth in embarrassment, my earlier issues forgotten.

He looks at me curiously, and then says, "Why?"

"I love weddings. I can show you, if you'd like."

"Yes," he says, his voice suddenly low, with that look in his eyes. "I'd love for you to show me, Leah."

I guess I'm not the only pervert in the room.

***

Pretending that David's double entendre has no effect on me (I'm sure he knows it does), I pull out my laptop, and open up the album labeled "Wedding Photos".

"These are beautiful," David says to me, his voice back to normal, as he clicks through the pictures.

As I see each one, I relive the moment.