Chapter 6 Drew
Drew
Drew couldn’t stop taking photos. Every element of the party had caught his eye.
Elegant dresses shimmering under the disco ball.
The early glimpse of laughter in someone’s eye.
He’d learned that the best shots were taken a few seconds before he realized a moment was worth capturing.
Which is why he reached for the camera around his neck as soon as he walked onto the roof.
The view of London felt like something out of a movie scene.
He could hear the faint sounds of cars fifty floors below, and there was a strangely charged stillness in the air that felt almost otherworldly.
Like he was in a realm that opened only in the final moments between one year and the next.
He couldn’t capture a feeling, but he could frame a memory.
So, as he took in the skyline and thought about the moments that had led him to this point in the year, he readied his camera to take a photo.
But then he noticed a person walking across the rooftop. They were perfectly framed by the night sky, their dress and hair gently blowing in the wind. So, he adjusted the focus on his camera to blur the background a little and focus on the silhouette.
“Taking photos of strangers is kind of creepy, you know?” the person said. “Especially in the middle of the night … on a roof … when we’re the only two people around.” It was a woman with a British accent.
Drew stepped out of his photo-induced haze and back into reality.
He looked down at his camera, suddenly self-conscious of his impulse to capture every moment.
When he stepped back and assessed the situation, it did seem kind of creepy.
He stepped into the light so the woman could see him, then put his hands up to show he meant no harm.
“Sorry, force of habit,” he said.
“So, this is just a regular Wednesday-night activity for you?” He could hear the smile in her voice.
“Every other Wednesday,” he joked. “Don’t worry, I was brought in to take photos of the party. I’m not just some creepy guy who lurks on rooftops.”
“Who says you can’t be both?” she asked, a playful lilt in her voice.
“But if you are the latter, just know I have enough upper-body strength to dangle you off the edge of the roof until you cry and throw up. So … no funny business.” It wasn’t until she turned away from the skyline that he finally saw her face.
She had deep brown skin and a halo of curly hair.
She wore a blue dress with silver details that shimmered under the twinkly lights strewn around the rooftop.
There was a glint of curiosity in her eyes. As if she was trying to figure him out.
“Well, I only have enough upper-body strength to carry a camera bag and a few spare batteries, so I’ll keep my distance,” he joked in response to her threat. She laughed. It was a warm, genuine laugh that instantly made him feel at ease.
“I’m Drew,” he said by way of introduction.
“Ari,” she replied.
Ari took a seat on a bench with a perfect view of the skyline. Then she gestured to the space beside her. Drew walked over, put his camera in his pocket, and sat down.
“Do you know how many New Year’s Eve parties there are in London every year?” she asked.
“Nineteen thousand two hundred and forty-six,” he said, not missing a beat.
“Really?”
“I made that up.” He shrugged.
“Well, let’s say there were nineteen thousand two hundred and forty-six. What do you think the chances are that out of all the New Year’s Eve parties I could have gone to tonight, the one I agreed to is the same one that my least favorite person in the world showed up to?”
“I knew I shouldn’t have come.”
“You could have at least brought flowers to make up for ruining my night,” she teased.
“Damn it, I had one job.”
Ari was smiling, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
Drew didn’t know her, but she seemed distant, burdened.
He wanted to stop and ask her if everything was alright, but he was on assignment.
He was supposed to be downstairs taking photos of the last ten minutes of the year.
Putting his all into the kind of freelance gig that could give him the connections he so desperately needed.
But he couldn’t leave a stranger on the roof by herself.
Not when she seemed this sad on what was supposed to be one of the best nights of the year.
“Do you want to see the photo I took of you?” he asked.
He was always inclined to make people feel better by showing them beautiful things.
So, he picked up his camera and scrolled through until he landed on the photo of her silhouette framed by the night sky.
She examined it for a moment, swiping through a few more from the party, before studying him.
“You’re good at this. So why are you lurking on the roof instead of taking photos?”
Drew paused for a moment. Thinking about his grandma, college, and the life he’d just left behind was a part of it. But the truth was, he’d started to feel like he was intruding on the party.
“People stop enjoying themselves when they see a lens,” he said.
Because as hard as he tried to blend into the scenery, eventually, the actors put their glasses down, and the athletes stopped dancing.
He’d gotten a few good candid photos, but the moment he’d felt his camera making people self-conscious, he put it away.
“They put on their best selves when there’s a camera involved. ”
“But isn’t that what this is all about?” she asked, gently tapping his camera. “Capturing people at their best?”
“Their most honest,” he said. “If I take the photo before people realize, I get them when they’re being themselves.”
“It’s kind of like you’re trying to figure out their secrets,” she said.
He’d never looked at it that way but she was right.
There was a gleam in her eyes. “So now that you’ve taken a photo of me, what do you think my secret is?”
He paused and reached down to look at the photo on his camera again. But she gently put her hand out to stop him. Their fingers touched, his skin tingled. For a moment, time stood still. He met her gaze and held it.
“You can’t check your notes,” she said softly. “That would be cheating.”
“If I knew this would be a closed-book exam, I would have studied you longer,” he said. Her mouth twitched up.
“Well, time’s up. I need an answer,” she said, playful.
“Your secret? I think that you’d rather be anywhere else than at this party.”
“That’s hardly a secret. I’m on the roof less than ten minutes before midnight. Try again. Actually, no … I’ll try it this time.”
“You want to guess my secret? Go ahead.” He was curious to hear how a stranger perceived him.
“I think … you hide behind your camera and observe people from a distance so they can’t guess your secrets,” she said.
His eyes widened.
“That easy, huh?”
“I’m easy to read,” he admitted. “My turn.”
“You better get it right. If not, I’m stealing your job,” she teased.
Drew studied her and thought about it for a moment, trying to find a story through her face alone.
“Okay, I think … you came to this party even though you didn’t want to because it’s New Year’s, and your friends dragged you along.
But now you’re up on the roof avoiding someone downstairs instead of just going home and enjoying the last few minutes of the year …
because it’s easier to hide out than feel like you’re letting people down by leaving early. ”
He immediately worried that he’d gone too far. But she seemed completely unbothered.
“Correct. But so specific that it could only be said by someone who feels the same way.”
She said it like a compliment.
“Well, we’re both sitting on the roof avoiding the best—” Drew began.
“Party of the year,” Ari finished.
Based on his observations, the only people truly having fun were the people too famous to care.
Everybody else was exchanging contacts, talking about their latest projects, and trying to work the room as if each conversation was a potential opportunity.
Thandie had a bunch of famous friends, and he’d been Sade’s plus-one to his fair share of parties like this back in California.
So, he’d developed a habit of trying to guess what social status someone carried to get an invite to a thing like this.
But Ari’s appearance didn’t give anything away.
She was beautiful, but not tall enough to be a model.
Dressed well, but didn’t carry herself with the confidence of an actress.
Maybe she was a musician, an athlete, or the founder of some buzzy tech start-up.
As he tried to figure her out, he found himself drawn to her eyes.
They were such a dark shade of brown that he could see the whole city reflected in them.
But when she looked away, he looked away, too.
They sat in silence for a moment before returning to the topic of the party.
“It feels like a networking event disguised as a party down there,” he said after a moment.
“It’s a glorified business mixer,” Ari said, nodding. But her tone wasn’t judgmental. “People have been asking me, ‘Where do I know you from?’ all night.”
“Where do I know you from?” he joked.
“Nowhere,” she said. “But parties like this are for people who stick around just in case you are somebody.”
“Even if I was a somebody—”
“Are you?” she joked.
“Do I look like a somebody?”
“Not in the slightest. I was just asking to be polite,” she said.
Drew laughed. “Well, I’m not. But even if I was, I have at least twenty red flags that would make them want to run for the hills as soon as they got to know me.”
“Oh, me too,” Ari said. “But it’s a party. You’ve got to show your best side. It’s kind of like a first date. I tell guys I’m a foodie, but the only thing I can cook is pesto pasta, and I order the same meal from the same restaurant whenever I go out. You embellish the good and hide the bad.”
“My profile on the apps says I care about climate change. But I always end up buying plastic bags, and I’m too lazy to recycle,” he admitted.
“Oh, so you hate the planet. You’re the worst kind of person,” she teased. “But my deepest, darkest secret is that I skip to the last ten minutes of a film before I decide to watch it from the start.”
Drew gasped in mock horror. “That’s not a red flag. It’s a siren.”
“But imagine if people were this honest on every first date.”
“Are you saying this is a first date?” he asked, lowering his voice.
“Hypothetically speaking,” she said, meeting his eye. “If everyone shared their red flags on a first date, we would all know what we were getting ourselves into from the start. It would save a lot of disappointment.”
“But would you still like me if I told you all my flaws?” he asked.
“Who said I liked you?”
“You did, when you said this was our first date.”
“You said that, Drew. I was just speaking in hypotheticals.”
He was about to reply when he noticed her shivering. So, he wordlessly took off his blazer and handed it over to her. She hesitated for a moment before taking it, but they both knew she needed it more than he did.
“So, hypothetically speaking, would you stay on the roof if I told you all my secrets?” he asked.
“Honestly, if I knew them, I’d probably enjoy the rest of the night more.”
“Why?”
“Because then I could just talk to you without trying to figure out if you’re flirting with me or if there’s a spark.” She shrugged.
“I’m definitely flirting with you.”
“I know,” she said as their eyes met.
“And I’m pretty sure there’s a spark,” he said, surprising himself.
“Yeah, but if I knew all of your flaws and you knew mine, then we’d quickly realize that this”—she gestured between them—“me and you? It would never work out. So, the end of the party would mark a clear ending, and nobody would leave disappointed.”
Drew understood what she meant.
“If it’s doomed from the start, there’s nothing to lose.” He nodded.
“Exactly.”
Their eyes locked. They were in the middle of one of the busiest cities in the world on the loudest night of the year. But for a moment, the world fell silent. All he could hear was his heartbeat and the gentle winter breeze.
“So where do we go from here?” he said. Her mouth twitched into a small, knowing smile.
“How about … you show me your worst parts, and I’ll show you mine.”