Page 13 of Safe With You

According to the short bio beneath his photo, Ellis had been working professionally for almost seven years. He specialized in portraits, lifestyle photography, and community events. There was a small paragraph about storytelling through images that should’ve sounded cheesy but somehow didn’t.

Maybe because his work backed it up.

Everything about his photography felt raw. People looked comfortable in his pictures. Seen. Like he knew how to capture moments before they disappeared. I paused on one photo longer than I meant to.

A woman sitting on a kitchen counter laughing while a man stood between her knees holding her face like she’d said something worth memorizing.

Soft. That was the word that kept coming to mind. Easy. The kind of softness that wasn’t rooted in weakness, but in confidence. The kind that felt intentional.

My chest tightened unexpectedly.

I exited the page almost immediately.

Absolutely not.

I was not about to start projecting emotional depth onto a man because he knew how to hold a camera correctly.

And yet, here I was, psychoanalyzing email tone in the back office of a bookstore because Naomi sent me the website of a ridiculously attractive photographer.

Embarrassing.

My phone buzzed again.

Another email.

Hi again,

Also, no pressure at all, but if it’s easier, feel free to call instead of emailing back and forth. Either works for me.

Ellis

I stared at the screen, then looked down at his number sitting neatly beneath the message, my pulse giving one unexpected skip.

I grabbed my phone before I could overthink it again and pressed call.

The phone rang twice before he answered.

“Ellis Monroe.”

His voice was deeper than I expected.

“Hi, this is Luna Bennett from Chapter & Charm. I just got your email.”

“Hey, Luna.”

I sat up a little straighter in my chair. “I hope calling’s okay.”

“Yeah, absolutely.”

The steady tapping of keys faded in the background before everything went quiet, like he’d turned his full attention to the conversation.

“So,” I said, “I wanted to go over tomorrow’s details really quick if you still have a minute.”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

“The event officially starts at seven, but vendors will probably begin arriving around five-thirty. We’re expecting somewhere between eighty and a hundred people.”

“Okay.” A brief pause. “And you’re mainly wanting candid coverage?”