A Sensitive Arrangement

Chapter 12

The rest of the evening passed uneventfully. Olivia and I left the party as soon as we were excused, ditching the dresses for yoga pants and t-shirts. We spent the rest of the night putting Julian's gift to good use, hiding out in my room and taking photos of each other in whatever ridiculous costume pieces we could find.

The camera loved Olivia and she knew it. But she was determined to make me believe that I was just as good a model as I was a photographer. And I had to admit, some of the pictures she took made me look kind of pretty.

I knew I wasn't ugly by any means, but normally while people complimented Olivia for how breathtakingly gorgeous she was, they would tell me how cute I looked. It was a bit infantilizing. I knew it was in part because I was the youngest.

Even though there were only a few months between Olivia and I, the media had always positioned me as the baby of the family. The poor little orphan girl. For some reason, being an orphan always made people see you as a child. In my experience, it was exactly the opposite. How many nine-year-olds do you know who have delivered a eulogy?

Olivia and I were looking at our last round of photos when there was a knock on my door.

"Come in." I shouted, not really caring who it was. I was so wrapped up in scrolling through the photos, I hadn't even looked to see who entered.

"It seems I missed the real party." I heard Julian's voice just over my shoulder. When I turned to look at him, I followed his gaze to the image on my computer screen. The gallery was currently showing the photo I had chosen as my favourite. A small part of me was glad he had seen this one. I looked good. Okay, maybe it was more than a small part.

"I'll give you two some alone time. Don't do anything I haven't done. Which is a lot, thanks to this one." Olivia joked, glaring at Julian.

"You're welcome." Julian raised his voice to ensure she heard, even as she made her retreat.

"How was the rest of the party?" I asked once we were alone.

"Well, I found myself surprisingly dismayed by the fact that there wasn't a pretty girl in the corner to distract me. While being simultaneously relieved that there wasn't a pretty girl in the corner to distract every other man there." He smiled. "I'm sorry I didn't know. About the way they were looking at you."

"It's fine. It only started last year really. Although, admittedly, it was a lot more noticeable this year."

"Yeah, I can understand that." Was Julian Callaway blushing a little bit? Maybe we were rubbing off on each other. But wait, does this mean he had noticed my little growth spurt? If you could even call it that.

"I still have a present from you." I beamed, suddenly remembering the envelope at the bottom of the box.

"That's why I'm here." He smiled back at me, grabbing his gift box off the top of my pile. "Before you open it, I feel like I should explain something."

"Is a bug about to jump out at me?" I teased.

"No, nothing like that. It's just something I found a few years ago. And I didn't show it to you then because I guess it's kind of weird all things considered. But it made me smile, and when you were talking about that family portrait project and all the things it made you feel, well I thought maybe it was finally time to share." He said, handing me the envelope.

I opened it carefully, having no idea of the contents, or how precious or frightening they might be. Inside was a single picture. It was clearly older, possibly even taken before the age of the digital camera. When I looked at the photo there was a little boy staring back at me, he couldn't have been more than four or five years old. He had Julian's devilish smile and eyes, even at that age. And in his lap he was holding an infant, probably only a few months old. I had a feeling I knew what I was looking at, but I almost couldn't believe it. I had known Julian forever. It was hard for me to contemplate that there was a time in his life, however brief, before he knew me.