Incidentally, the effect might wear off, but the memories didn’t. Meaning he recalled every one of the fifteen minutes he had spent chasing Elaina through town howling “Tiiiiiiiiiights!” They were burned into his brain—and probably Annie’s, too. She stood there, stone silent.
“A-Annie,” Bruno said, rushing up to her. He took her hand, almost clinging to her, and started talking. “Th-this isn’t what it looks like! It’s all a misunderstanding! I don’t have a thing for, you know…tights and maid uniforms and stuff! It’s not like I’d want just anyone to wear them for me!”
He sounded like a boyfriend who’d been caught cheating.
Annie, though, smiled at him. “Bruno, it’s fine,” she said. “Cattleya already mentioned that you’re into that kind of thing.”
Bruno caught his breath.
“I promise, it doesn’t bother me.”
Are we friends or what?
As she whispered those last words, her face looked like a saint promising forgiveness for all sins. She spread her arms, the embodiment of tolerance.
“Annie…” Bruno looked at her, wide-eyed.
In a trembling voice, she whispered, “I know that you ask each of your servants every day what color underwear they’re wearing, so they think you’re gross.”
“Annie…”
“I know that your whole persona at school is being this gallant, handsome guy, but that whenever you walk by a girl, you take an especially deep breath.”
“Annie…”
“Also, I know that when you look like you’re at your most serious in class, you’re really staring at the nape of the girl who sits diagonally in front of you.”
“Annie…”
Uh, was it just me, or was that a lot of sketchy behavior? I drew back a little myself. In another time—or maybe if he weren’t so darn handsome—Bruno would probably have been tossed in jail for all that stuff.
But anyway, that was the story.
“I guess Annie pretty much forgave him for all of it,” I said in summary.
“Oh, what the shit!”
Bam! Cattleya pounded the table again.
“I’m starting to think maybe those two really are made for each other,” muttered Elaina, who had seen them at point-blank range.
“They are not made for each other! They are not made for each other!”
“You’re repeating yourself again,” I volunteered.
“Shut up, shut up! This is no-holds-barred—I want you to obliterate those two!”
Grrr! Cattleya looked like a fuming child. I guess she was still in her teens; she was sort of acting her age.
“After all this, don’t you think it might be best to let them date and be happy together?” I asked. Annie seemed unusually accepting of Bruno, and Bruno seem to be enjoying himself, too.
“Absolutely not! I won’t allow it!” Cattleya greeted my suggestion with a fierce shake of her head. “Those two, go out? Never! Absolutely not!”
She sounded…sad. This didn’t seem like someone objecting to a childhood acquaintance and a best friend getting together. It felt like there was something else going on here.
“Cattleya?” I asked, curious.
“Erk! I-it’s nothing! I mean it!” She refused to look at me. “The point is! Next time, you’d better do it! You have your orders!”
The glimpse of whatever it was was gone, replaced by Cattleya’s usual scowl.
Still privately puzzled, I stole a glance at her. Something felt off. Was she really trying to break up the relationship just to protect Annie?
“Hmm,” I hmmed, and a seed of doubt began to grow in my mind.
So anyway, the next day arrived.
“Ha-ha-ha!” laughed Bruno.
“Tee-hee-hee!” giggled Annie.
They were on their customary bench, sharing a pleasant moment.
“That’s great! I love your smiles, both of you!” came a cheerful call from someone who approached them holding a camera. Namely, me.
Riviere’s and Elaina’s plans had ended in failure, so naturally I would be the next to make an attempt. Put simply, today was my day to try to split the pair up.
“Show those beautiful smiles to the camera! Look this way, if you please!”
I was just a passing photographer who coincidentally happened to spot the happy couple and convinced them to sit for a picture. It had only taken a bit of “Wow! What a beautiful couple! I’d love to take your photograph” and a little “Aw, can’t I?” and a dash of “Pretty please!” before they agreed to let me turn my camera on them.
The camera, of course, was a sancta. One with a very special power.
“Ha-ha-ha… I’m feeling a little camera shy, Annie.”
“Tee-hee-hee… Yeah, me too.”
They looked at the camera with mingled embarrassment and happiness. From every angle, they were the spitting image of a young couple in love.
I put them square in the middle of my viewfinder and pressed the shutter.
Click! One photograph, coming up.
At first glance, there was nothing unusual about the photo at all—but it was the best way of all to break this couple up.
“Great!” I said, and I headed back to Riviere Antiques with the photograph in hand, where I reported my results to Cattleya with a big smile on my face.
“It was no use at all!” I announced.
“Oh, what the shit!”
Bam!
That poor, poor table.
“This was the most nonsensical plan of all! The most nonsensical plan of all!”
“Wow! You said the same thing twice.”
“Shut up! Shut up!”
I can’t believe this! Cattleya looked like a volcano about to erupt.
“Okay, calm down,” I said, offering her a teacup of water in hopes of dousing the flames.
“All you did was take a picture of them sharing a moment!”
“Yes, but it’s a very good picture, don’t you think?”
“That’s not the issue!”
I can’t believe this! Cattleya sounded more and more distressed. She must have been getting hoarse from yelling so much, because she slugged down the water, then glowered at me again. “How exactly did things go wrong this time? Tell me. I want to know.”
She added in a huff that she was done asking us to do this job for her. She was out of patience with us after we’d failed to bring her any good news for several days running.
I did feel like I had done wrong. “I’m real sorry,” I said, bowing my head. But I wasn’t apologizing for not succeeding in our assigned task. “Before I tell you what happened with the camera, could you tell us a little bit about you?”
“What?” Cattleya stiffened, continuing to regard me with a mixture of suspicion and annoyance.
I didn’t mind; I just said, “There’s a few things you haven’t been telling us, right?” Straightforward and to the point, that was the best way to go. There was no need for preamble, and there was no need to beat around the bush. I looked right at Cattleya, recalling what she had said to us when she first came in several days before. Specifically, how she had described her request.