The Photographer (Ignazio Boschetto Fanfiction)

Chapter 43

Chapter 43

        When Ignazio took me out to dinner in the evening, we tried to maintain normal conversation, but it was very difficult. Some moments we were speaking as if everything was normal, but our fluctuating moods made normality difficult to uphold, with our excited smiles and my trembling, and then our spells of blinking back tears as we gazed at each other for the last evening.

          In the cab on the way back to the hotel, I pressed my forehead against the freezing window and peered out at the dead trees and grass quivering in the bitter wind under a coating of ice, and then up at the stars, winking in the dark sky and glowing brilliantly.

          Ignazio laid a hand gently on my back, and I turned away from the window and laid my head on his shoulder, feeling his arm move around me and hold me tightly.

*****

          As I took a warm shower in my suite, I thought of all the places I would be in only a few days. I imagined running through Africa, and I could almost feel the dirt under my high-tops, smell the baking grass and feel the bark of those funny little off-balance African trees. Before my eyes I saw brilliant orange sunsets and blue skies, with the sun and moon completely visible above the plain, all the colors dancing with nothing to obstruct them.

          My heart raced as quick as the images, and as I ran my hands over my dripping face I felt them trembling with excitement. I was going to be working for National Geographic. After all this time, all these years of work, I was finally going to have nothing else to do but romp through the earth capturing its beauty, and the realization filled me with brilliant exhilaration.

          My laugh interrupted the rushing sound of the water, and my mouth was immediately filled with it so that my laugh turned gurgly and funny. I spit out the water and laughed again, turning my face up gleefully to the stream.

          After I had scurried out of the shower and danced into the living room, I swept up my camera in my arms and fell onto the couch, laughing and hugging it to my chest.

          Then I heard a knock on the door and I leaped up and raced to it, throwing it open and beaming at Ignazio.

          “Tamzin!” he cried happily, and came into the room and shut the door behind him. “It’s so good to hear you laughing!”

          “I’m so excited!” I exclaimed.

          “Good! Good! I just came to tell you goodnight.”

          “Oh. Okay.”

I moved closer to him and hugged him tightly. His arms went immediately around my back, and we fell silent, holding each other. I buried my face in his neck and felt the rise and fall of his chest, and my heart rate slowly returned to normal. My glee was replaced with a deep longing and anguish, and the hug became me clinging to him.

          “I love you,” I whispered after a moment.

          “I love you too,” he responded.

          I turned my face up to his, and he kissed me tenderly and lingeringly. I gazed up at him, feeling the sorrow in my chest, and I felt like crying.

          “Do you want to dance?” he asked softly, and I nodded. He moved his hand gently around my waist, and then held out his other hand. I took it and laid my head on his shoulder, and we started to sway back and forth, turning slowly in the circle that would too soon be broken.