Coffee and Love

“I’m gonna be sick, Lu,” I groaned.

“Just chill, Caleb,” he said. “I’m sure there’s a perfectly good reason she’s coming in today.”

“She’s gonna break up with me,” I breathed. “I just know it!”

“Caleb, don’t-”

The door opened and Mirela walked in with a smile on her face. She was holding coffees for all of us and Luther kissed her cheek. She was dressed up nice in black yoga pants and a green long sleeved shirt. She had put makeup on and wore a simple gold necklace.

“Do you have any appointments?” she asked, passing around the coffees. I shook my head mutely. “Good. Luther, can you take me to the men’s dressing room, please?”

“Uh… yeah,” he said. “Why?”

She just smiled and pecked me on the lips. “We’ll be right back.”

I stared after her, confused. Why was she asking? And why was she dressed up so nicely? I heard them talking and narrowed my eyes, taking a gulp of my coffee then spitting it out when it burned my mouth. Shit.

When they came back out, Mirela pushed me in the dressing room.

“What-?”

“I’ll hold onto your coffee,” she said and took it from my hand.

“What’s going on?” I asked Luther as he passed me a pair of black jeans and a green button up that matched her shirt.

“We’ll make your hair messy again,” Luther said to himself and I frowned as I changed.

“Dude, what’s going on?” I demanded.

“You’re dumber than you look,” Luther laughed. “You two are doing a photoshoot, dummy.”

“We are?” I asked. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

He pushed me on the chair and got some gel in his hands. “Because I didn’t know until just now.”

“You mean she planned it?”

“Yep,” he said cheerfully. “Close your eyes and hold your breath.” I obeyed and he sprayed my hair. “Now, no fighting. We’re going to do the mascara and lip gloss again.”

“Luther,” I groaned.

“It’s Mirela’s orders,” he said and I sighed.

“Oh fine.”

He laughed and we finished up. I walked out and Mirela beamed at me.

“Let’s unbutton the top three,” she said and I frowned down at her.

“What are you doing, Mirela?” I whispered.

She sighed. “We’re going to take pictures together, Caleb, because we haven’t and I feel like we need to.”

“Why? I mean… we did that romance series with Luther….”

“That was different. Please do this with me, Caleb. It’s all candid, no posing.”

I didn’t know why it was so important but I nodded and she pulled me onto the green screen.

“When we’re done,” she said, “you and I are going to go to Starbucks and edit them.”

I laughed a little. “Okay. I still feel bad about-”

“Shut up,” she said and kissed me.

Luther started taking the pictures and I leaned into her kiss, holding onto her tightly.

“What now?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she said, holding my hands. “What do you want to do?”

I couldn’t resist and smirked at her. “Something we shouldn’t do on a green screen.”

She giggled. “There’s the Caleb I know,” she whispered, standing on her toes to kiss my nose.

For a couple hours we joked around with each other but I couldn’t stop hugging her. She didn’t seem to mind. She brought over the couple’s couch we had and had me sit down. She put my arm on the back of the couch and then settled into the crook of my shoulder.

“I thought you said these were candid,” I teased and she poked my stomach. I squirmed and a devilish grin spread on her face. “Don’t even think about it.”

“What’s wrong, Caleb?” she teased back. She poked me again and I groaned, slapping at her hands. “Can’t handle some pokes?”

I leaned down and kissed her and she laughed into my lips, putting her hand on my chest. I sighed through my nose, caressing her cheek. She sucked on my lower lip but pulled me to the floor and we lay on our back. She pointed up.

“Smile and wave,” she said and I laughed.

She put her right arm under her head and held my hand.

“Wanna know a secret?” she whispered in my ear and I nodded, turning my head to face her. “I think you are very handsome.”

I smiled. “And I think you are very beautiful.”

She smiled back and put her forehead on mine. I closed my eyes, smiling like a fool. I could hear the camera taking our pictures.

“We should get you out of those clothes,” I teased and she wrinkled her nose. “You better have gotten that, Lu!”

“I did!” he called back and we laughed.

“Let’s go get that memory card,” she said.

“No,” I groaned, putting my arms around her. “Let’s just take a nap here.”

She laughed. “Nope,” she said. “We have plans, my dear.”

“Oh, fine,” I pouted and she giggled.

I changed back into my normal clothes and we got the memory card from Luther.

“Have fun,” he said and we left, walking hand in hand.

We saw Jenny walking toward us but the only indication Mirela gave that she saw her was gripping my hand tighter. I kept my eyes focused forward but she stopped in front of us. She slapped me and I sighed.

“You got me fired!” she yelled.

“Actually, you got you fired,” I said in an even voice.

She stomped her foot. “I was going to put that on my resume!”

“Well, I certainly hope you don’t do it now. You definitely won’t be getting a recommendation from us.”

She glared at Mirela. “He’ll just do the same to you. He tried to grope me!”

“Nice try, Jenny,” Mirela said coldly. “Excuse us. We have plans.” We started to walk away but she stopped and turned. “By the way, if you ever touch or slap my boyfriend again, I’ll kick your ass.”

I smirked as we walked away. “So that’s all it takes to get you going, huh? Random women slapping me?”

“Just go get us coffee while I pull up the laptop.”

I laughed and obeyed. When it was ready, I sat beside her and she moved her chair over, putting her head on my shoulder. I rested mine on hers and wondered if she had caught my slip up last night. I hoped not. That was not how I wanted her to find out that I love her.

“So, for the ones we’re laying down, I wanted to do like we were in the grass but we’re wearing green shirts so that would look weird. Ideas?” she asked.

I thought and took the mouse from her. I went to the more recent backgrounds I had downloaded. I found the one of the galaxy and put it on the green.

“I like that!” she said. “Where did you get it?”

“It’s a secret,” I whispered in her ear and she giggled.

We spent several hours going through backdrops until we got the ones we wanted.

“So, what are we going to do with these?” I asked.

“We’ll pick ten that we like,” she answered. “Then we’ll frame them at somewhere other than Hobby Lobby. You get five, I get five. The rest I’m going to give to Luther and he’ll put some on the walls if he wants to.”

“Why did you do all of this?” I whispered and she looked at me with tender eyes.

“Because I want you to know how much I care about you,” she whispered back. “I know how much photography means to you, even though you’re not used to being a model. Next time you can take the pictures.”

I smiled and kissed her forehead.

“You’re pretty awesome, you know that?” I said.

“Yep,” she said. “Now let’s get dinner. My mom wants to come with us so give Luther a call.”