True Identity

Chapter 13

I love going over 2000 words ☺

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The journey was so good that only five minutes later we were stopping.

"We're already here?" I questioned as the chauffeur opened the door for me again.

"Yes. There's only one thing that's far away." Eli said, coming to join me on the pavement after telling the driver to meet us at our next location. Eli must have briefed him earlier. I looked around my surroundings and it seemed like a normal New York neighbourhood. Nothing touristy or out of the ordinary to visit. "Come. We need to cross the road."

He took my hand without directly looking at me and pulled me down the street until I caught up and walked next to him. I think he expected me to take my hand away but I didn't want to right now. I didn't know where we were going and he was leading me, nothing wrong with that. He stopped me on the corner on the other side of the street and placed me on a subway grate and stepped back, looking intensely at me. I didn't did do anything for a minute but eventually we looked kind of stupid.

"Eli, what are we looking at?" I asked.

"Wait one more minute. I'm gonna get my camera." I finally noticed that he did have a bag but it was a professional looking camera bag. The camera he got out of it was heavy duty but it didn't take him long to have it ready and prepped for whatever he was going to take a picture. When he pointed it at me, eyes immediately went wide. Photos and me didn't go, I just embarrassed myself. But he looked like a professional with that equipment and today was about fun so I decided to ignore my insecurities with the idea of photo-taking for the day. However, that still didn't tell me why he was taking a photo.

"Eli, this is just a random street." I said, looking around me. There was people dotted on both sides of the street and the building towered over us as always. I turned back around to him and he was checking the time and grinning.

"You ready?" He asked. I shook my head at him in confusion and was about to reply when I felt a breeze come up below me so I looked down and it got stronger, enough for my skirt to billow around me and my hat to lose its place on my head. I held them both down and looked up at Eli who was grinning while taking pictures of me. His smile was infectious so I grinned happily and took my hat off in a pose for him. This reminded me of something but I'm sure these grates are all over the city so I had probably seen it happen to someone elsewhere.

Eventually it stopped and I had to stroke down my hair to keep it looking less of a bird's nest.

"Do you recognise this?" He asked, gesturing to our surroundings.

"I think so." I lied. It was just some random street in New York; there are thousands of these. I didn't want to hurt his feelings though.

"Think, Marilyn Monroe in the seven-year itch." He said. I frowned and thought back to everything I knew about Marilyn Monroe and an iconic picture came to mind.

"Oh my god! Is this the place where she...?" And I did her pose without thinking about how I'd look, which was stupid by the laugh that came out of mouth after I'd done it.

"The exact same." He chuckled.

"That's so cool! I wonder why it isn't a more popular tourist destination."

"I have no idea, but it means photos like this one are unusual to come by." He said, tapping his camera screen as he flips through the different photos he's taken. "I'm so glad you wore a skirt today."

"Me too." I replied. I held onto his shoulders and looked over to see how well the photos came out. He was a really good photographer. I would never be able to do it that well but I could only try. "Come on it's your turn."