Searching for Moore by Julie A. Richman Page A

posterity.
    Schooner moved to the next photo and wondered if his gasp was audible. Mia had shot a photo of him in a moment when he was not aware the camera was on him. It was an introspective photo as he was reveling in the pristine beauty of nature. He thought that he’d never seen such a perfect photo of himself. It was really him. “Would you mind if I gave this to my mother? I would really like her to have this.”
    Mia’s smile was brilliant. “I love that idea,” she clapped her hands.
    There was one photo left and when he lifted the portrait off of it, he felt the stab in his chest. It was a photo Mia had shot of their feet. They were facing each other, his hands were on Mia’s shoulders as she pointed the camera down and shot the photo of their sneaker clad feet, toes touching each other. Mia had hand painted the B&W photo, the bottom of her blue jeans, her red and white Converse sneakers, his white sneakers with blue laces and tennis socks with a navy blue border at the ankle.
    It was the only picture of Schooner and Mia together that existed.
    He stared at the last photo for a while — it wasn’t lost on him that this photo was it, the only thing documenting their relationship. Mia had taken a simple B&W photo, painstakingly hand colored it, and brought to life their sweet, quirky love.
    Schooner picked up the envelope and photos and put them on the desk so that they would not get ruined. He sat back down on the bed and took her face in his hands and kissed her roughly. He was overcome by a myriad of emotions. Her unexpected gift had been so personal and touched him very deeply. He didn’t think there was another soul on Earth who got him quite the way she did.
    She reached over and started to unbutton his white Ralph Lauren shirt. He just watched her, smiling. A month ago she would have been way too shy to do this to him. When she had it unbuttoned, she pushed it off his shoulders and got up on her knees on the bed and leaned forward, gently kissing his shoulders and working her way to his neck, where she let her teeth graze his skin.
    “Oh Baby Girl, the things I want to do to you.”
    “Can’t wait,” she whispered in his ear.

    He woke her in the morning before he left for the tennis center. He had his packed duffle bag and was holding the oversized envelope of photos and his racquets. He was wearing the black knit cap she had given him. It was pulled down almost to his eyes.
    He sat on the edge of the bed, brushed her curls from her face and looked at her intently. He didn’t say anything, just leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on her lips.
    Had he looked closer in the darkened room, he would’ve seen the two plump tears that had escaped the outer corners of her eyes and rolled into the curls he had just brushed off of her face.
    But he was already out the door.

CHAPTER 21
    He had put it off all day. He’d spent time hanging with Beau, hearing all about his month abroad and the hot Ecuatoriana babes (not that he got any). He’d spent an extra hour on the courts hitting balls. He knew from the Psych class he had taken first semester that this was classic “Escape-Avoidance” behavior. He had something really unpleasant to do, wanted to escape confrontation at all costs and was working himself up to do it, but in the meantime, finding every way he could to avoid it.
    He began feeling bad for CJ and he really didn’t want to embarrass her, make her feel like she’d been cheated on while she was away. But that is exactly what happened. He fell in love with someone else and while technically he and Mia had not had sex (he was amazed at his own self-control and that Mia was still a virgin), they were lovers in every other sense of the word.
    Schooner wondered how much CJ might have heard already about what his Interim had been like. Her roommate, her dorm mates had all seen him with Mia, Rosalie and Henry every day for a month, so this might not come as a huge shock to her. He’d missed