Perfect Snapshots: Episode Thirty-four: Claire

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Episode Thirty-four: Claire

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“So, what do you do, young man?” Dr. Zucker asked casually as we walked back inside. 

“I’m an actor and writer,” I explained quietly. 

He chuckled to himself. “That makes sense. That girl is a ball of creativity and energy. I hope that you can keep up.”

“Me too,” I chuckled as well. “It’s already a bit of a struggle, even with the advantage of being a little younger.”

Patting my shoulder firmly, he smirked a little. “Lucky boy.”

'Unbelievably so.”

In the small hallway foyer that led to the living room, there were dozens of framed pictures. The older man kept going as I stopped to inspect them. Bella was in so many of them, alone and with her husband. Then I saw a wedding photo of the two. I hadn’t yet. Bella looked so incredibly young and even smaller somehow. 

Jealousy suddenly swirled through me. I hated that Aiden cheated on her. There was no way that I could ask about it either, not without hurting her. I would never do that to her. The idea of being with someone else behind her back actually made my heart hurt. In my head, I joked about threesomes, but I wanted to play with her. Not with someone else.

Bella came around the corner, watching me. I smiled briefly, licking my lips as my eyes turned back to the pair surrounded by a crowd. The dress that she was wearing made her look like a princess from a 2000s teen-movie. 
 
“He looks really happy,” I remarked softly.  

She snorted very delicately, shaking her head. “I look terrified. It's a good picture of him, though.” Bella touched the photo for a moment before pointing to another. “I like this one better. We were on our honeymoon in Mexico on the beach. You can't tell it in this photo, but I have the worst rash on my back. I was miserable the entire time. Still, I have no idea why I had a rash.” 

My poor girl had the worst kind of luck. “Oh no,” I mumbled as I smoothed my hand up her spine slowly.

She took my arm, and we went into the living room to another wall. Every single picture was of her late husband. I recognized Bella’s style in a lot of them. She pointed to one of them. “This is about a month before he died. He looks like a small straight Anderson Cooper,” she giggled impishly before her breath caught a little. Her eyes were visibly red from trying not to cry. 

“Are you doing okay?”

She nodded, turning so that she could wrap her arms around my waist. “Yeah. Thank you for being here today and being so wonderful.” I leaned down to kiss the top of her head. I had done nothing but sit by her side. If this was wonderful, then she had a very low bar for greatness. Closing my eyes, I breathed her in. 

“Young man, do you like beer?”

I looked up, glancing up towards the kitchen to answer her father-in-law. “Yes, sir.”

“They like you,” Bella whispered as she looked up at me. Her smile was precious, obviously very pleased. 

“Good.”

She led me back into the kitchen, sitting me down at the table beside him while she went to the fridge to fetch us both one. Opening each, she sat one down in front of me with a kiss on the temple. 

Dr. Zucker looked Bella over and smiled at her. “You’re looking very fit, young lady.”

“That’s what I said!” His wife agreed loudly from in front of the stove. “She’s been lifting weights. Can you believe it? The tiny thing.”

He chuckled. “Great! It’s good for you. Keep it up.”

“It’s actually quite impressive,” I informed them, taking a sip of my own beer. If she could brag about me, I could do so about her. “My best mate is into weight lifting, and I was telling him how much she can bench, and he wants to see it. I may have to film it to prove it.”

Bella flushed, looking away from me. “It’s not that impressive.”

“I’m pretty sure that you could bench press Esther,” I teased. 

Her father-in-law let out of a big laugh. “I’d love to see what.” He winked at his wife over the table. “But she’s light as a feather, so it can’t be too hard.” Ah, he was a smooth old man. 

She clicked her tongue at him and rolled her eyes as she went back to work on cooking. Once Bella was done with her drink, she began to help again too.

The conversation kept up steadily until an explosion of noise burst through the front door. Three people, a couple and their teenage daughter, came stomping in from the cold. They shook off the snow, hanging up their coats. 

The girl shrieked loudly when she saw my little girlfriend, pushing past her parents to come colliding in for a hug. She was already taller than her by a couple of inches. “Aunt Bella!” 

“Hey, girly! I missed you.” She squeezed her back, looking at her lovingly. 

“I missed you, too.”

“Have you been using your birthday gifts I got you?” Bella played with her thick curly hair, the girl gazing at her like she was the most fantastic person on the planet. 

“She's been using them every day,” a woman that I recognized from the pictures on the wall said with a little annoyance. The middle-aged man went to go get a drink wordlessly, looking like he was already done with the day.  

Her niece frowned. “Mommy made me wipe it off before we came. She said it looked bad.”

The girl’s mother rolled her eyes. “That because you don't know what you're doing yet.”

Tilting her head to the side, Bella toyed with one of her curls for just a moment. “I have my makeup bag in my purse. I can teach you how to do some subtle looks your mom will like.”

“Yas!” The girl jumped up, putting her hands above her head before she began to floss. I smirked to myself, trying not to giggle at her reaction. It was adorable. 

Bella’s sister-in-law kind of sighed to herself, shaking her head at her daughter. “After dinner. It looks like Grandma is almost done. Go wash your hands.” 

When the little girl rolled her eyes, she looked just like her mom. Her father went into the living room to have a beer and watch sports with his father-in-law. She marched past them. “Yes, ma'am.”

Ash, Aiden’s cousin, returned with another woman her own age and an elderly woman that looked like a much older Dr. Zucker in a wig.

Esther was still at the stove, busily cooking. She turned, shaking her wooden utensil as she did. “Helena, come meet Bella's new gentleman, Edward,” she shouted, barely missing giving her a smack in the mouth with it. She just ducked. 

Surprised, she turned to look at me. She shook my hand quickly. “Hi! I know you. Have we met before?”

“Probably haven't met,” Bella answered for me as she embraced the ancient woman. She hugged back, patting her cheek before going to get an apron. My girl smirked at me. “I'm telling you, ‘gentleman’ is the way to go.”

Her sister-in-law ignored her, cocking her head to the side as she stared at me really hard. She shook her head in confusion. “Really? Are you sure we haven't met? Maybe at one of those parties you used to have? Those were so much fun.”

Laughter echoed in the living room, the television blaring with sports. Bella’s niece came out of the bathroom, greeting her other aunt.

Flailing her spoon again, Esther turned to look at us at the table. “Maybe you saw him on the Facebook, dear.”

My girlfriend was leaning against the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest as she watched the chaos that was unfolding around us. The girl came sneaking in behind her, leaning in to whisper something in her ear that I couldn’t hear. She replied, pointing to the table. The only thing that I caught was ‘don’t make a mess.’ 

“Okay!” Claire responded happily, skipping into the middle of the kitchen. I watched her with amusement. Then she caught my gaze. I knew instantly that she recognized me because all the color drained from her face before it went fantastically red. Her fingers curled up at her sides as she shrieked like an Elvis fan in the fifties.

“What the hell?” Her father demanded from the living room, not that he got up to see what the sound was. 

“OH, MY GOD! You're Eddie! Mommy! No way! Oh, my god, oh my god, oh my god! Why are you in my grandma's kitchen!?” She screamed before her eyes got wide with horror, and she lowered her voice. “Wait, you are Eddie, right?” 

It was so hard not to giggle. 

Everyone was looking at us. Esther shook her head, totally baffled as to why she was reacting that way. “His name is Edward, dear. He's Aunt Bella's friend. And don't use the Lord's name in vain, please. It's not nice.”

With every bit of strength in her tiny body, she flung herself at me so that she could hug me. Her arms went around my neck, her baby powder perfume smacking me in the face as she did. Embracing her in return, I lightly patted her shoulder blade. Her grip tightened.  

“Wow,” I kind of laughed, squeezing her back.

It wasn’t the first time I had a fan fling herself at me, child or adult. It was just always shocking. I invariably felt a little awkward at the contact, but I was never going to make a fan, especially a kid, feel bad because I was a nervous person. I could feel my cheeks heating by the second as everyone still stared at me.  

Her niece was vibrating in place against me. “I watch all your videos! Every single day after school! Can I take a picture? I love you so much.”

“Yeah, of course. I don't mind.”

It took a half-second for her to pull her phone out of her pocket. With my arm still around her, I automatically smiled. She took about two dozen in three seconds flat before literally jumping in place. Obviously, I had made her very happy. All the while, Bella watched me with a smile. 

“See, I was expecting more of that,” she insisted as she waved her finger at the girl. 

She finally turned her attention away from her phone. “I told you, Mommy, that Aunt Bella was on YouTube!” She turned to look at Bella. “She said it was probably not you. How many people are named Bella Swan, though? Um, basically, no one.”

I pushed my lips together to keep from laughing at her attitude. She reminded me of my nieces so much, and I already adored her feisty little attitude. I hoped that one day she would be able to meet my girls because I think that they would all get along very well. 

My girlfriend was grinning mischievously. “She must have not actually watched the videos. But that's okay. You know, anyone can be on YouTube. I'm pretty sure I'm in probably a few other videos somewhere for something. Probably for CFA. I have some of me playing and singing, I bet.” 

Well, I was absolutely going to have to look for that somehow. I hadn’t thought about looking for her on YouTube. I figured that she would have told me about it. But if she played music or danced on stage as she said, there were probably lots of videos around. I just had to figure out how to find them. 

Then I smiled to myself when I remember what video was going to be posting for the day. It was one of the best that I have ever made for the channel. Editing that particular one was probably the greatest thing that I did when I was away from my little sassy love.  

“I posted my favorite video that I've made with your aunt so far, just today. Do you know which?” I inquired playfully, smirking at her. I knew that she didn’t, but I wanted to see her guess.

She scrunched up her nose, biting her bottom lip as she considered it for a moment. “The cake place? Or maybe the Hawaiian pancakes and chicken? I don't know. They were all fun. My favorite is the Halloween one, I think. Maybe. Of the ones I’ve made with you, I mean.” 

I loved her answer. She was right, they were all fun. I shouldn’t have been surprised that the haunted zoo was her favorite. The entire day was incredible, though. It was, perhaps, one of the happiest days of my life. All because of her. 

I decided to tease her a bit. Leaning into the girl, I made my expression pouty. “The spicy wing flight. Your aunt was so mean to me.” 

She playfully and loudly gasped, acting as if I had just said something horrible about her in a bad soap opera. Her eyelashes fluttered as her nose lifted in the air. “He's such a baby.” 

Looking between us, I saw her niece’s eyes narrow. “Are you dating him? In the videos, it looks like you're dating. The fandom isn't sure.” 

The word fandom associated with me in any way made me want to die a little inside for some reason. I knew that there were fans, and that was cool. I knew that there were people who followed all my stuff. But the idea that there was a ‘fandom’ was insanity. 

“You can tell the fandom we are. If that's okay with you, miss.”

The girl looked between us before throwing her hands up into the air once more and flossed. 

“O.M.G., I have to tell everyone,” she mumbled to herself before she ran off in some unknown direction. Bella watched her with a little smirk. Our eyes met, and both sets got wider. 

She walked over to the table, fixing the chair that the little girl had knocked to the side when she hugged me. Sitting beside me, Bella took my hand. 

“Well, she’s adorable,” I whispered, leaning into her a little. Giggling, Bella nodded her head as she pressed a kiss to my cheek. 

“Thank you for being so sweet to her,” she breathed as she brought her fingers up to my jaw, drawing her nails over it. I couldn’t resist kissing her lips lightly. It was just a peck. 

“My pleasure, love.”

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This episode goes with episode twenty-eight of Imperfect Pictures!

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