The Amazing Spider-Man 4

Chapter 16

Peter set down his fork on his plate, reaching for his glass of water to wash down his last bite.

"Well, someone was certainly hungry," Randy spoke up.

Suddenly feeling a little warm with embarrassment at how fast he'd eaten, Peter tried to apologize.

"Sorry, I guess I, uh, didn't realize how little I'd eaten today."

"Don't think anything of it," Randy's wife, Mandy, replied. "Other than my mother, I grew up in a home with all boys, and now I live in my own home with all boys, so it takes a lot more than that to bother me."

As soon as she was finished, Randy and Mandy's son let out a burp, drawing a look from his mother.

"And what do we say?" the woman asked.

"Excuse me," the boy replied meekly.

"That's better," she affirmed, returning to wiping the place she'd been cleaning.

"So, Peter, how's my pops treating you at the Bugle?" Randy asked. "You know, since he's in the bathroom and you can actually answer honestly."

"Honestly, he treats me very well," Peter replied.

"Oh, come on, surely he's not THAT perfect," Randy prodded further.

"Well, I don't have any complaints at least," Peter said, raising his hands in mock surrender for a moment. "I'm guessing if you look hard enough, you'll find someone that can give you a more interesting viewpoint, but I'm afraid I'm just not that person."

"Nah, probably not," Randy conceded. "Besides, even if I did, they probably just can't handle him being a little tough from time to time. He always had high expectations of me as a kid, but he never came down too hard on me unless I did something REALLY stupid. Even then, he was still about as fair as he could be, at least compared to what a lot of my friends would say about their dad, assuming they were even in the picture of course."

"Yeah, he's not afraid to tell us what he wants done, that's for sure," Peter agreed. "I remember one time he told me that he wanted some pictures I was still working on done in the next thirty minutes, and I thought there was no way that I was going to get them done in time."

"But you did, didn't you?"

Peter turned to see that his boss had returned from his brief trip to the bathroom, and he was admittedly feeling a little guilty at getting caught talking about him when he wasn't in the room.

"Yeah, but part of me still thinks I could've done a bit better," he conceded.

"It was as good as it needed to be for the deadline," Robbie said. "Besides, your 'could've been better' is still a lot better than the best of some other photographers we've had over the years."

Peter smiled as he looked down at his nearly empty glass of water. He was grateful that his boss thought so highly of his work, but he wasn't one to handle attention being drawn to himself like that, even in a positive context.

"Alright," Mandy spoke up, "everyone ready?"

"Ready if you are!" Randy replied.

"Just give me a moment to get my camera set up," Peter replied, scooting his chair out and getting up to grab his gear. He got his bag and took out his camera, making sure it was working as it needed to and was at what should be the proper settings. He'd not had a lot of experience shooting this kind of thing, but he did know that there would be minor adjustments he'd make anyway. Even so, he wanted to make sure all the basics were covered.

Once he was ready, he and everyone else went outside, where the couple in question had set up a very solid backdrop for him to work with. They began the photoshoot with some specific poses or setups that the couple had in mind, and Peter made some suggestions and tweaks as they went along, making sure everyone was in optimal position for his lenses to capture the moment. He found himself having more fun than he'd anticipated as they went along, and they ended up going even longer than he'd anticipated as a result. Nobody seemed to be complaining though, including Robbie, who was planning on at least taking him back to the Bugle.