“Yeah. I know. It’s not the most obvious choice in the world, but yes.”
“It’s an art gallery.”
“I know. It’s not a huge wedding, so I guess that’s why they were able to have it here. Believe it or not, they do catering and meetings and other functions. Work stuff, I imagine. Or dinners. That kind of thing. The place is big enough.”
“Yeah, I just…yeah.” Morgun fumbled with her seatbelt, suddenly very clearly nervous. “What are your parents like? The rest of your family? Am I going to get mobbed?”
“Mobbed?”
“Ambushed?”
“Oh. Yeah, probably. Mostly by my mom. We do probably have to sit with them, but don’t worry. She won’t pinch your cheeks. She might try to hug you. A lot. She might also cry.”
“Jesus. Are you that hard up for a date? Is she close to writing you off? Are you a troublesome daughter?”
“No,” Laney snorted. “Actually, yes. And yes. And maybe.” She didn’t want to have to explain this to Morgun, because it should be obvious, but maybe it wasn’t. They were both photographers, but they likely had different schedules and it was clear that their personalities couldn’t be more different either. “She wants me to settle down and have a family. She doesn’t want me to work so much. She thinks I’m getting old and the chance to be happy is going to pass me by.”
“I see. But you’re not that old, are you?”
“No.” Laney found herself cracking a smile. “Not yet. To her? Yes. Ancient. She had two kids long before she was thirty. She was a stay at home mom. The best mom. Her family was her whole world. She did have a couple jobs before she had my brother, but after that, she didn’t work outside the house. I don’t know if she doesn’t realize that a career can be just as rewarding or if she’s just worried that she’ll never have grandkids or both, but the nagging has become incessant lately. I swear, if she could, she’d order up reports on my ovaries. Then again, she was bugging me about finding someone and having a career, since she might be interested in having the kids and being a stay at home mom.”
“Good lord,” Morgun groaned. “I can see I’m really in for it.”
“Look.” Laney slid her seatbelt off too. “The requirement, crazy as it might sound, was that I bring a date to the wedding. That was it. She knows I probably had to bribe my way into it, but if you could refrain from mentioning that, I’d appreciate it. My parents are mostly normal otherwise. No one is going to give you a hard time. We’ll get in and get out, and as soon as I can make a clean getaway, I’ll pay you your thousand dollars and drive you home and you never have to see me again.”
“Unless we end up working together. Or running into each other along the way somewhere.”
“Right,” Laney said slowly. Why hadn’t she considered that? “Yeah. I guess.”
“You don’t think that I’ll get a job anywhere? Was my work so terrible?”
Morgun wasn’t fishing for compliments. She was sincere in her self-doubt. How many times had she been rejected before? Laney knew how much that could sting. She knew how it could make a person doubt not only their work, but themselves as well. How many times had she painfully gone over her portfolio, analyzing every single image? She couldn’t even begin to count the hours and hours of research she’d done into taking those shots in the first place. She wanted to give people what they wanted, not necessarily what she liked to photograph or how she liked to do it.
“No. No, it wasn’t terrible. I looked at your website after. Your photos aren’t terrible.” She didn’t offer any more feedback. No tips and no pointers. She didn’t have time, but she wouldn’t have, even if she did. She figured telling Morgun exactly what was required to succeed in a certain portion of the industry wasn’t going to help her.
“I guess we should go in, then.” Morgun produced her phone from the clutch that was in her lap. “It would be really awful to walk in late and we’re cutting it close already.”
“I know. I did it on purpose. No one likes the ceremony anyway. Everyone just goes to the reception to eat and get drunk.”
“It sounds like you hate weddings.”
“Nope. Just humanity in general.”
Morgun rolled her eyes. “It’s not like I can tell or anything.”
She opened the car door and tumbled out before Laney. She walked a couple paces ahead of her, to the massive glass front door. Laney let her. It wasn’t like this was a real date or anything. They didn’t need to be mushy or hold hands. Her mom stipulated that she had to bring someone. She didn’t say that she had to fall all over herself with PDA or even enjoy it.
There was a huge sign with arrows as soon as they walked into the building. The windows let in tons of light and gave the even bigger, wide open area with the white tile and wood and metal steps, and even more open, airy, and fresh feeling.
“Wow!” Morgun exclaimed.
Laney ignored her and took a hard left. She had to admit to herself that she was nervous about how this was going to go over with her parents. She also hated weddings, which was why she resolutely refused to photograph them. Her refusal to do her brother’s wedding led to a blowout between them. Jason hadn’t spoken to her for a few weeks after, but eventually Natasha intervened and found a different photographer who wasn’t too expensive.
Four grand was still expensive enough.
Laney pasted on a look she hoped screamed confidence. It was a look she used to reassure her clients, even when she wasn’t certain at all how the shoot would turn out. She didn’t look back at Morgun until they arrived at the huge reception room on the second floor, where the wedding was being held.
The floor was lined with massive windows and had pieces of art lining either side, but Morgun powered through, knowing that they didn’t have time to stop and look at anything, and joined Laney right at the doorway to a massive room with more of the same windows, white tile, and wood accents.