The Street Photographer

Chapter 2

Point. Focus. Click.

Dressed in my favorite maxi skirt and flowy short-sleeve shirt, I grabbed my purse and camera. It was a beautiful day, and I was more than ready to sit on a park bench. I could back to being unknown Ally. There was so much life to be seen and captured. I made my heart skip faster just thinking about what was to come. All I needed was a place to start, and the nearest park was my favorite place.

Some young kids ran past, screeching in glee and reaching for whoever was closest. They were heading straight for the playground, clearly their favorite place. I raised my camera to eye level and focused the lens on the end of the slide. As soon as one of them came down, I'd be ready to capture the grin on their faces.

In a matter of seconds, I got my shot...lots of them. The kids came down the slide in quick succession, each of them shrieking from top to bottom. Their joy was contagious, tugging my lips into a smile as I kept pressing the shutter button. Maybe I could start personal projects again...

Leaning back against the bench, I flipped through my most recent photos. I didn't like to brag about my skills, but I'd learned a lot since that college class. Manipulating the camera's settings no longer freaked me out, and most photos turned out well on the first try.

A shadow fell across my lap. With a quick glance at the person's shoes, I knew it was a guy. Why he was standing next to me was a bit of a mystery.

"Can I help you?" I slowly lifted my head to meet a steely gaze that bore right through my head. I flinched as he towered above me. Hazel eyes with flecks of green glared back at me. And I do mean glared.

"Show me your camera," he growled.

Oh crap... Please, let him not recognize me.

"S-Sorry?' I sputtered, resisting the urge to wither under that glare and growl.

The guy with gelled black hair, a chiseled jawline, and a light dusting of freckles across lightly tanned skin drew a deep breath. "Show...me...you...camera."

I stared at him for a long time, still trying to figure out why he thought he had any right to demand such a thing. Right when I thought I'd found my position, something clicked in my head.

"You're... You're Kent Davids," I sputtered.

Kent Davids... one of the most elusive celebrities on the coast. Most big-name celebrities lived in or around Los Angeles, but this guy had made New York his home base. Every tabloid in the country knew it, and every single one of them had tried and failed to snap even one photo of him in his home environment. He'd become as skilled at avoiding the paparazzi as the paparazzi was skilled at popping up where they weren't wanted.

The hotshot celebrity actor blinked at my quiet declaration. Clearly he'd been going for incognito, and I'd just blown his cover. Not to mention that he was asking to see my camera. I swallowed hard as he slowly sank onto the bench beside me.

"Yes, I am," he huffed. "And I can't stay, so please show me your camera."

Still a bit numb from the shock, I didn't have a tight enough grip on my camera. He reached over and took it right out of my hands. I sputtered in protest but didn't move to take it back. I had nothing to hide.

He scrolled through my photos before glancing at me. "Where are the other photos?"

"What other photos?"

"...the photos of me," he fairly snarled. "I saw you pointing your camera at me."

Now it all made sense. In a moment of distraction, I snatched my camera back. "I was pointing my camera at the slide where the kids were playing. If you happened to be in the background, that's purely coincidental. Believe it or not, not every person with a big camera is from a tabloid or part of the general paparazzi. Some of us are hobby photographers who do it for fun."