Through the Lens (Click Duet #1) (Bay Area Duet Series) Persephone Autumn (black authors fiction TXT) 📖

As if she can hear my thoughts.

“So… what was up with all that?” She gestures to the doors, waving her hand aimlessly.

“What do you mean?” I play coy.

She freezes and glares at me as if to say you’re shitting me, right? Silence stretches between the two of us for minutes—her glaring at me, me ignoring her penetrating gaze. A game of cat and mouse. But the longer we stand here, the more I come to realize she is not caving until I answer. Damnit.

“Ugh. Gavin and I knew each other in high school,” I mutter.

“And…” She draws out the single syllable and leaves it hanging like bait on a hook. She is relentless and won’t give in until I hand her more information. Only I don’t know how much information I want to give up. Not that I am scared to share history with my close friends. More like I am scared of what will happen to me when I dredge everything up.

“And we dated for years.”

There, I have said it. Got it out in the open. The sour taste on my tongue turns bitter.

I haven’t discussed anything relating to Gavin in so long, I am not sure if I am being relieved of a burden or gaining a new one. Shelly, and her brother Micah, are the only two people in my current life, other than my parents, who know about me and Gavin. They also know not to mention him around me.

“You know I’m going to need more to go on. Spill,” Erin coaxes.

But I am not surrendering everything I have worked so hard to forget in one sitting. I don’t mind sharing with her, but will do so at my own pace. And now is definitely not the time.

“Maybe later. Right now, my head is pounding. I just want to gather up all the equipment, shove it in the car, and head home. Perhaps drink enough to pass out, but not so much I will have a hangover tomorrow. Since we’ll be in the blinding sun for hours.”

Erin nods and collects equipment from around the room, placing it in the appropriate storage crates. A few minutes pass as we break down the set in silence. Just as I think how great it is of her to stop playing twenty questions with me, she speaks up.

“I’ll drop the subject for today. But tomorrow…” She pauses for a breath. “You’re catching me up on this whole Gavin-Cora history. We can do it at your place or out somewhere. Either way, you’re giving it up.”

I stop and stare at her, realizing she is more than just an assistant. Erin is a bestie. One I am proud to have at my side. My team. All the years of not sharing this part of me, it was for selfish reasons. All because I didn’t want to rehash old wounds. Or cut new ones when hope sparkled in my eyes at remembering him.

Wounds heal, right? Sure, some leave scars. But scars don’t define you; they mend you. Give you thicker skin. Show you different paths.

I am more than that small, worried, heartbroken girl. Now, I am a woman. A woman who takes no shit. Or allows anyone to trample over her heart. And gives no fucks to someone such as Gavin Hunt—a selfish asshole who didn’t have the decency to try and keep his word and what we had.

He doesn’t know it yet, but because of him… no one can ever knock me down. No one can take my heart captive.

No one. Not even him.

Chapter Four

Gavin

The last few hours of the shoot were a blur of confusion. I did my best to focus, but my head was all over the place. Every time Cora held the camera to her eye and peered through the lens, my skin flamed. Yes, she was doing her job, but it felt like so much more.

Thirteen years have passed since I last saw Cora. Thirteen years since I last spoke with her. And somehow, it feels like thirteen years is about to catch up with us in no time.

Just as Alyson and I prepare to leave, I ask Alyson to give me a moment. She checks her watch and nods with slight annoyance. Not sure if it is directed at me personally or the fact I am derailing her schedule. She lives and dies by schedules, but we have nothing planned after the shoot. Sure, she is just tired. It has definitely been a long day.

I walk over to Cora, her hands fidgeting with her equipment. As I step close to her, she stops but doesn’t look up. Funny—or cruel—reality, we have always sensed each other’s proximity. From the day I met Cora, her energy danced with mine. Her energy is my energy.

“It was good seeing you again,” I mutter. For some reason, I feel the need to keep this conversation quiet from the other sets of ears in the room. Alyson knows nothing about Cora, and I don’t know if Cora’s assistant knows of me.

She sets the camera on the table, takes a breath, then turns to face me. A softness hazes her green eyes. “You, too.” Something resides beneath her exterior. Something she doesn’t want me to see. And the notion bothers me.

“You want to grab dinner? We can catch up.”

Her brow furrows a moment. Eyes twitch before working to right themselves. Lips pinch then loosen. Pain dances over her face for a breath and it stabs me straight in the heart. “Maybe another time. I’m tired and I think I’ll just head home for the night.”

Her rejection hits me harder than I care to admit. I blink away the sting behind my eyes. “Another time,” I mumble, walking away and out of the room with Alyson on my heels.

I am so fucked.

Alyson drones on about today’s shoot. Talking to me as if I had never stood in front of a camera before and had millions