266. Chapter 266

“Stay still there, Sawyer, or it won’t be my fault if I stick you with this pin again.”

“That sounded dirtier than you intended, Schott.”

James laughs and Maggie tries not to squirm again as Winn finishes his final adjustments to the suit he’d designed for her.

“Are you guys sure this isn’t stupid? Or like, arrogant or something? Like, really, a photoseries of me as a present? Like come on, how conceited can I get?”

“’a-ee.” Maggie and James smirk down at Winn and he takes the two pins out from between his lips.

“Maggie. Okay first, you’re gorgeous. Handsome. Whatever you’re feeling. And Alex is gonna be gaga over this. Seriously, she’s not gonna know what to do with herself. And anyway, hey, it was James’s idea.”

James uncrosses his arms and nods. “You look incredible, Maggie. And Alex is gonna love it. I promise.”

“Yeah?”

He reaches for the coat Winn designed and slips it over her shoulders as Winn stands up with a satisfied grin.

“Oh yeah. Come on, let’s hit the park.”

Maggie’s shy at first, intimidated by being photographed – in public, no less – by the Pulitzer Pride winning photographer she’s spent years secretly idolizing.

“I keep telling you, he posed for that shot,” James smiles when she shyly mentions it.

“Doesn’t make you any less amazing at what you do.”

James sighs and looks around, casting about for something that will convince her how incredible she looks, something that will convince her that the honor of this photoshoot is truly his.

“Okay, listen. I want you to look at the lens, and think about two things, one layered on top of the other. And this might be hard, okay, but the best photoshoots are, okay?”

Maggie nods, curious, her heart hammering. She adjusts the fedora Winn had bought her in a thrift shop and based the suit and coat design around.

“Alright, so the first thing to think about is something hard you’ve been through, something devastating. Something that lays at the core of your being and won’t let go.”

Maggie gulps and James’s hand covers hers, because he has a fair guess about where her mind is.

“And then, on top of that, I want you to layer your feelings about Alex. How badly you want her, how much she means to you. Not separately from the pain: integrated with it. Look into the lens like you’re looking into her eyes, like you’re letting her look back into yours, like you’re letting her read every part of your soul. Okay?”

“Damn, Olsen, when you go, you go deep.”

“Maggie.”

She smiles and she flips her palm up so she’s squeezing his hand. “I think I can do that.”

James nods and arranges some of her hair so it’s framing her face, ghosting onto her neck.

“You ready?”

She nods, and he squeezes her thigh and adjusts her collar just so before shifting back to sit on the bench next to hers.

He snaps photo after photo, and she channels everything she has into the lens, and he smiles behind the camera, because god, Clark was right when he told him he could find himself in National City.

When he has the photos developed, Maggie insists that both he and Winn are there when she gives them to Alex; they helped, after all.

Alex gasps at the display and her eyes flood, and Maggie rings her hands, and Winn watches with a massive grin and James puts his hand on Maggie’s to calm her nerves.

“Maggie, you’re – you’re perfect, these are perfect, I… you did all this for… me?”

“You seemed to like how I looked at our private prom,” Maggie shrugs, and James lets go of her hands because Alex is taking them now, and kissing every knuckle, and gazing deep into her perfect eyes.

“James, Winn, I’m going to thank you both later. But right now I’m going to thank Maggie, and I really don’t think you want to be here for that.”

“Yep, yes, point taken, on our way.” Winn is up like a shot, and James follows with a soft laugh.

“You two have fun now,” he teases as he closes the door behind them.

“Dude, did we do all that to get Maggie laid?” Winn asks as they both grimace as Maggie’s ecstatic moaning of Alex’s name somehow follows them out the door.

“I mean hey, as long as they’re happy, man, we’ve done our part.”

Winn grins mischievously. “Well, it sure sounds like they are. It sure sounds like they are.”