Dancing With The Devil

Chapter 31

Alistair and I had settled into a comfortable lull. We still hadn't discussed what had happened between us and I wondered if we ever would. Either way, I wasn't bothered by it anymore, I just wanted to move forward. We rotated between moseying around the village, heading into the city, and going swimming. Somehow, though a habit had formed, it was still relatively new and exciting.

I had started taking out the digital camera Alistair had purchased for me and snapping photos of everything and anything. When this disaster had first started I thought the camera was a stupid cover that I would never use. It just reminded me that I was pretending to be something I wasn't. But now, I realized that this was going to be a prominent part of my life. It didn't matter how this whole catastrophe turned out, I had been to Spain and France and Amsterdam. I had done wonderful and difficult things that deserved to be remembered. I had lived through it and it was time to embrace it.

Alistair was always patient when I tried desperately to get the best shot that I could. He would wait a few steps away from me or stand behind me and try to see the shot that I was lining up for himself. Sometimes he got so caught up in the world around him that it was me waiting for him.

When he wasn't looking I would turn and snap a couple of him as well. I would wait until his shoulders stopped hunching and he would be looking at something in awe and wonder. After a few discrete shots he caught me with my lens pointed directly at him and immediately demanded that if he had to be in pictures I had to be in some too. I complied, but I usually wasn't able to stop myself from laughing whenever he took pictures of me.

And after I exhausted myself trying to get various pictures he would take me to quiet cafes that few had heard of or we would dip into bustling bakeries for the world's best pastries.

"Get any good pictures?" Alistair asked, coming up behind me in the kitchen after one of our adventures.

I, like the easily excitable human I was, had stopped in the middle of the kitchen, my elbows resting on the counter as I flicked through the pictures on my camera.

"Mhmm."

"Can I look?"

"Mhmm."

Alistair smoothly slipped one arm around my waist, his hand resting on my hip. The gesture caused the briefest pause in my flicking, but I forced my attention back on the photos. Most of them were of the architecture that had surrounded me through the past weeks. I loved photographing the buildings that were brushed with snow like a light layer of glittering diamonds. It made the pictures appear as magical as this place felt.

"That one." Alistair announced after being quiet for a few moments.

I paused, looking at the photo that he pointed out. It was one that he had taken of me. I was standing in front of the beautiful cathedral he had taken me to shortly after we had arrived here. I was wearing my ugly second-hand jacket with a warm sweater beneath. My hands were stuffed into my pockets to keep them warm as a massive gust of wind blew, my hair twirled around in all kinds of directions. But through my dark brown and purple hair you could see the bright smile that lit up my face as I laughed at the silliness of the whole thing.

"That one is my favorite." Alistair breathed, his lips so terribly close to my ear.

I briefly wondered if he knew how different I looked a few years ago, how timid and lifeless I appeared to be. Or is he knew how shy and skittish I would've looked in a new city if I didn't have someone like him beside me. Through our wild journey together I had grown so much.

In this picture I had such an elated and easy expression on my face. Through feeling completely absurd I had forgotten all about Josh and the hell he had brought upon my life for a brief moment.