One Hour Photo

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Astrid felt more than a small measure of sadness as she stood at the entrance to the Photo World and watched Alexander pull away in the new car that his father had bought him to take to school. The last few months had been more than incredible and she was sorry to see them end.

Still, she was content with the memories they had left her with, tempered by the knowledge that her young lover understood that their sexual relationship had come to an end. No one had ever found out about the two of them, or their almost daily trysts, but in the end, both had decided that it was better than they revert to friends rather than try and remain as long distance lovers. It had impressed Astrid to no end that Alexander was able to make a choice like that. She doubted she would've been able to do so at his age.

"Makes a father proud to see his son set off in the world," Nicholas Jennings said as Astrid stepped back behind the counter.

"I know," Astrid agreed, remembering how she felt when her own children had done just that. "I'm glad he stopped by to say goodbye one more time. I'm going to miss him."

"I'm sure you will," Nicholas said. "Just as I'm sure he's going to miss you as well. Hopefully, some cute co-ed will help take his mind off that before too long."

"Excuse me," Astrid said, trying to project a look as if she hadn't the slightest idea of what Nicholas might be talking about.

That effort lasted less than half a minute as she looked into her employer's face and realized that the last few weeks might not have been much of a secret as she thought.

"Oh shit!" the redhead said softly, then added, "I guess I'm fired."

"Why, have you been stealing from the cash register?" Nicholas grinned.

"No, of course not," Astrid said automatically, "I just thought..."

"That I was going to fire you because you slept with my son?"

"Yes," Astrid admitted awkwardly.

"I'd look pretty silly if I tried to do that," Nicholas grinned. "Seeing that, as I pointed out before, Alexander is legally an adult and able to make his own choices. Although I did have my doubts about some of those."

"Like me," Astrid offered, feeling at the moment like she'd robbed the cradle.

"Actually, I was thinking more in the lines of Monica Brown and Samantha Montgomery."

Astrid's mouth dropped open as she thought, "My God, he knows everything."

"Yes, I knew about both of them as well," Nicholas said, almost as if he read her mind. "I saw Alexander and Monica sneak off after the Association Christmas party, and I knew she wasn't looking for him to help her trim the tree. Stuff her stocking maybe, but..."

Astrid couldn't help but laugh, then stopped as she reminded herself that this wasn't a laughing matter.

"I'd probably feel differently if I had a daughter instead of a son, but you deal with the world like it is, not like it might've been," the older man went on. "I've known that Alexander had a thing for older women since he was thirteen and I discovered that he made duplicate copies of photos of women he found attractive. It seemed harmless enough, so I just let it pass. Maybe not the most professional thing to do, but I think any parent bends the rules a little when it comes to their kid."

Thinking back to her own son and daughter, that was a sentiment that Astrid had to agree with.

"And to be honest, if he was going to have a fling with someone older, I'd much rather it be with someone like you rather than that slut, Monica. She's been trying to get me to stop by after work for over three years now."

"Is that why you hired me?" Astrid asked, suddenly feeling a little used.

No, not at all," Nicholas quickly insisted. "I want you to believe that."

"Then you still want me to work here?"

"Yes, but with a little different arrangement."

Astrid wasn't sure she liked the sound of that. Could she have been wrong about Mr. Loving Husband? Did he think that just because she had slept with his son that there was now an open place in her bed.

"I'd like you to take the Assistant Manager position now that Alexander's gone, and hire someone to take your place," Nicholas explained. "Of course there would be some more money in it for you too."

"Oh," Astrid said, feeling a little foolish at what she'd been thinking.

"You don't want the job?" the bearded man asked, thinking that was the meaning of the look on her face.

"Oh no, I mean yes, I want the job."

"Good."

"I was just wondering about what you said earlier," Astrid lied, not ever wanting him to even think what she had been thinking. "About Samantha having been a mistake."

"Well, it was just that I though it rather strange for a young man to have a lesbian girlfriend," Nicholas went on. "Mind you, I'm not like Samantha's parents. I believe that everyone is entitled to live the life they want, and the chance to be happy. In the beginning, I wasn't sure he realized that she was gay, but once I understood that she wasn't playing him for some kind of fool, I figured he knew what he was doing."

"How did you know?" Astrid asked curiously.

"I've been looking at pictures of people for over thirty years, and you can't do that without learning how to recognize certain looks on people's faces. Things you might not notice as they happen, but can be pretty obvious when they're frozen in a photograph."

"I still don't get it," Astrid said.

"I must've developed a hundred rolls of film over the last few years with Samantha, Alexander, and Doris in them. The truth is pretty obvious for anyone to see, if you just know what you're looking at. When you look at the photos, you can see the glow in Samantha's face when she looks at Doris. A glow that wasn't there when she looked at my son. He and she shared a friendship, but not love. Once I saw that in the pictures, it wasn't hard to see it in real life as well."

"And no one else ever noticed that?" Astrid asked, then realized that she had been totally oblivious to it all as well.

"People often see what they expect to see," Nicholas said, "its just human nature."

"And you never told her parents?" Astrid asked.

"Not my place to do so," he answered, "That's between them and her. Personally, I hope they learn to accept her. Who she loves doesn't change who she is. I know that's what I like to think I would do in that situation."

"You know, I think I know now why Alexander turned out to be such an extraordinary young man," Astrid said, changing the subject. "He had such a great example to follow."

"Talk like that isn't going to have any influence on the Manager of Photo World," Nicholas said in a stern, warning voice. "It might, however," he added in a much warmer voice, "convince a proud Dad to take a good friend of his son's out to lunch to celebrate her promotion."

"You don't have to do that."

"I know, but I want to," Nicholas smiled.

"Okay, let me get my purse," Astrid relented.

"Good, I know a great place over on Knickerbocker, the owner is a good friend of mine," the taller man said as he held the door open for her, then locking it behind them. "In fact, Mariel and I were thinking just the other day that the two of you might hit it off."

"I'm not too keen on set-ups," Astrid said, remembered her sister-in-law's attempts.

"You go out, you have dinner, if you don't click, you say good night," Nicholas said. "What could happen?"

"What could happen indeed," thought Astrid as she climbed into the passenger side of Nicholas's truck. If there was anything she'd learned in the last month, it was that things had a tendency to develop in ways that you never expected.

END