CASSIAN
The photograph caught us exactly like that.
When we got the print later, you could see the sea behind us, grey and wide, and you could see Julian looking right into the lens with his mouth open in a huge, white grin, his eyes crinkled at the edges and the jade pendant hanging sideways across his shirt.
And there I was, half a head taller than him, not looking at the camera at all. I was looking down at the side of his face, my mouth set in a straight line but my eyes completely soft, caught in the middle of realizing how much I loved him.
Julian walked back to the old man, took the camera back with a small bow and a word of thanks, and then stood there on the wet sand looking down at the little glass window on the top of the machine.
He looked like he'd just stolen something incredibly valuable and was checking to make sure it hadn't broken in his pocket.
"What?" I asked, walking up behind him.
