Milk And Cardamom | S. Brown ✔

[29]

Luke stepped into the shop, the bell chiming announcing his arrival. His eyes flickered towards Stephanie who was at the counter with Eliza.

A smile played upon his lips as he approached the counter, he had his camera in hand and also a notebook that he had brought with a pen attached to it. A small bag hung from his shoulder, probably having the portfolio inside.

"Would you like to order anything?" Steph asked, green eyes sparkling playfully.

"Of course. Frothed milk with a pinch of cardamom."

She raised an eyebrow quizzically, "you come to a coffee shop and order milk instead?"

"Dora added it to the menu for me so I don't see why not."

Eliza noted down the order and Tyler passed it over to the kitchen. Luke had stepped aside so that he would not be in the way of other customers but hadn't left the counter yet.

"I see you've brought all your equipment," she remarked.

"Yup. The portfolio's here, so is my camera and I also brought the notebook to explain the Golden Rule."

His glass of milk came so he took it and went to the table in the corner, placing all his stuff down. Stephanie joined him shortly afterwards, taking the seat across from him. He took the portfolio out of the bag, it was a ring binder file with dark grey and black cover and he pushed it towards her so that she could see it for herself.

As Stephanie turned the pages, the dull cover of the journal faded into nothing in front of the colors standing out from the photographs carefully pasted inside. There were short notes pasted beside each photograph as well, mentioning the time and date as well as the inspiration behind it.

Each page was covered with protective plastic, showing that Luke was extremely cautious for his portfolio, not wanting any picture to get damaged. The whole journal was divided into sections with different categories for nature photography, cityscapes and portraits.

"These are amazing," she exclaimed in awe as she turned page after page.

"Thank you," he smiled. In the portraits section, she found pictures of Dora and Camille as well and Luke spoke up, pointing to a picture of Dora wearing a flower wreath and sitting in a garden, "see this one, I took it on her birthday and gave it as a gift to her, framed into a diary cover. I think she will still have it."

"You really bring out the best in your photographs, I can't decide which one is my favorite," she remarked, "you should definitely seek it as more than just a hobby."

"Yeah I should but that requires time and effort which is currently on a zero for me because my third semester is starting from the upcoming month. I have a two month break between every two semesters so that's why I could even come here or else I have absolutely no time to focus on anything other than assignments."

She nodded, "I am going to apply this fall too, with Tim. Which university are you in?"

"Yale."

"Wow, real talented person right here."

He chuckled lightly, "oh come on... I didn't get in on my first try but luckily, I passed the retest."

"Good for you."

She had come to the end of the portfolio which had pictures from his recent stay at Gotham; detailed shots of the gargoyles, a collection of pictures from Aparo Park, a few shots of Dora's Coffee Haunt and also had panoramic view of the city squares.

"How did you get the shots of these gargoyles?" Steph asked knowing that those gargoyles were at the top of Gotham Tower and judging by the details of the shot, he could possibly not have captured those without going up to the top.