The Second Shooter – Part 2: After the Last Dance

The last wedding of the summer ended at one in the morning.

The band packed up their instruments. The guests drifted off in tipsy clusters, calling goodnight. The staff stacked chairs and swept confetti. In the cool, scented dark, the quinta garden was a scatter of fallen petals and flickering candles, with a huge full moon rising over the orange trees.

Beatriz sat on the stone steps with her cameras beside her, boots off, her braid loose. She was exhausted and happy. Rafael sat down next to her with a bottle of water and two glasses.

"That's the season."

"Fourteen weddings."

"I've never been so tired."

"I've never enjoyed it so much."

He lifted his camera and held it in his lap without raising it. "May I?"

"May you what?"

"Take your picture. Not for the album."

She hesitated, then smiled. "Go on."

He raised the camera. The shutter clicked. She was sitting on the steps in the moonlight, braid over her shoulder, face open and tired and radiant, hair full of confetti. He lowered the camera and showed her the screen. She gasped softly.

"Is that me?"

"That's you."

"I look..."

"Happy."

She looked at it for a long time. "I haven't been photographed in years."

"Then I'm glad I was first."

The moon rode high over the garden, silvering the white walls. A night bird sang in the orange trees. The air smelled of lilies and warm stone.

"Can I ask you something?" said Rafael.

"Yes."

"May I kiss you, Beatriz? Not for a photograph."

She laughed. "Yes. And if I say stop, you must be my business partner."

"That is a very serious threat."

"I know."

He kissed her, shy and warm, a hand rising to her loosened braid. She kissed him back with a bright, tired joy, her fingers curling in his black T-shirt. The candles flickered. Confetti drifted down from the trees, soft as snow.

When they parted, both of them were smiling.

"Green?" he asked.

"Green," said Beatriz. "Very green."

The studio sign changed in the autumn: Beatriz & Rafael. Photographs, by two. They shoot fewer weddings now. There is one on their own wall.

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