Photography is an art of love

Chapter 11

After a month... Los Angeles...

Nikki is in his place. Special, dark and quiet. No one but he enters here. Sometimes Katherine comes in, but that rarely happens. She organized it for him, being a surprise.

Now he's in his office and looks at the newly printed pictures. Pictures taken when he was in Russia, the U.K. and the Czech Republic.

He inspects their quality,  carefully.

His eyes fall on those in which Aleksandra appears. He takes in his hand the picture he took at St. Paul's Cathedral.

A dark picture, but also a few rays of light pouring into it. Alexandra's face lit up and her eyes shone.

He hasn't contacted her since he left the airport in London. And what happened was that Katherine came there without him knowing. It's good she didn't come when Aleksandra was still there. It would have been a not very pleasant situation.

To be between two women for whom he has feelings.

He sometimes wonders if Aleksandra is thinking of him. At least if she did. Has she already forgotten him?

His hand grabs a picture. It's the selfie in the mirror with him and Aleksandra when they kissed. They both look like a couple. One in love. He smiles when he remembers the moments with her. So special and so short. Time passed quickly with Aleksandra. This woman has earned a place in his heart forever.

"Oh, Alex," he sighs, looking desperately at the picture.

He can't give up these pictures. He really can't. He wants to keep them.

He has to find a safe and special place for them though. He wouldn't want Katherine to see them.

He intends to do this, but his cell phone rings. It is on the table and he looks at the screen. The mother of his older children, Brandi, calls him.

He takes the mobile phone, because there must be something important about the children, and he answers it, putting to his ear and leaving from his special place.

A big mistake he made because Katherine soon appears.

She's been looking for Nikki for a while and arrives here hoping to find him. But he's not here either.

Disappointed, she prepares to leave, but her eyes stop at his desk. She walks slowly and sees the pictures. She is interested and approaching, wanting to see the pictures from Nikki's trip. The first pictures are of some tombstones and St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.

Her attention is captured by a picture. She puts aside other pictures to see it better and has a shock. It's a smiling young woman. It looks like a picture taken in the U.K.

Was she Nikki's interpreter? She knew it was a woman, but she didn't know she was so young and so... attractive.

That makes her more and more nervous. She doesn't want to feel jealous, but that's how she feels now! And why would Nikki take pictures of her? With his interpreter? This doesn't make sense... Unless... She's hoping it's not about what she has in mind now.

But it will be as she suspects because the next picture she sees is the one in which Nikki and Aleksandra took their selfie in the mirror, in the hotel in London.

Katherine can't believe it and takes the picture in her trembling hand and her eyes twinkle, wondering if she really sees well.

"What the hell?!" She shrieks.

Just then Nikki appears inside who had finished the call.

"Kat?" He asks her as he walks towards her.

His fiancée has her back to him, looking at the picture in her hand. He stops walking, knowing what just happened. He forgot about those pictures and Katherine just saw them. This is not good!

He takes slow steps toward her, his voice reassuring:

"Katherine?

The brunette quickly turns, with the picture in her hand and her eyes annoyed to the maximum.

"What the hell is this, Nikki?" She waves the picture in front of him.

"I can explain if you calm down," he raises his hands up, being extremely calm in such a situation.

"What can you explain to me?!" She screams and throws the picture on the floor. "It's very clear what happened between you and this woman! Your interpreter? Seriously? How... How could you do that?"

"I know what I did wasn't right for you but-"

"But what?!" Katherine is hysterical, throwing her hands in the air.

"Nothing happened... It was just a kiss..."

"And that should make me feel better?" The brunette raises her eyebrows and puts a hand to her chest. "Because it doesn't make me feel better! You cheated on me while I was here, waiting for you. Thank God I didn't catch you together when I came to London. I couldn't have taken that picture out of my eyes. But tell me... Was it just an affair or a loss of your will? And why do you still have pictures of her?"

"Because..." Nikki has a hard time finding his words, even though he has them deep in his mind. "Because I fell in love with her... That's the truth..."

"What..." Katherine stares at him with her mouth wide open, slowly open.

"Yes, Katherine. I fell in love with Aleksandra and after a month I can't get her out of my head. That's why I kept these pictures," he bends down and grabs the picture thrown by Katherine, looking at it very thoroughly.

"I can't believe it," says the brunette, her throat being dry. "I was here... And you there with her..."

"She made me feel happy, fulfilled. That's after we argued at that time. We argued, parted and reconciled too many times, Kat. This is the truth. We better go in different ways."

Her eyes trembles as she listens to what he has to say. For the first time she doesn't look so angry as before and understands what he means.

She looks at the picture in his hand and says:

"Maybe you are right. Maybe we're not as compatible as I thought."

He nods and sees Katherine take off her engagement ring and leave it on the desk behind her.

"I'm going now," she tells him promptly, and leaves the room.

Nikki looks after her as he looks out of the picture in his hand.

He is not broken heart that he broke with Katherine.

He is finally able to admit how he really feels about Aleksandra. He has to tell her that too. And he thinks he knows how to do it.