30 Days to Love

Day 27: Acceptance

James is up at dawn. He grabs his camera and hops on his bicycle. He needs to clear his head and work off some of the nervous energy that has been building up as his show nears. He spent most of the day at the beach yesterday but today he needs to ride – feel the wind at his back and take some pictures. He doesn't normally get nervous but ever since he started having gallery shows, his anxiety about how people will respond to his work has grown.

He never used to care what people thought of his fine-art photos. He made them for himself. He thought that would be enough. He amassed photo after photo but eventually he asked himself, for what purpose? If he wasn't making them for others then why make them at all? Why spend all this time and money creating beautiful images only to have them sit in photo books that never got opened? It was at that point, he decided to share his work with others.

Marcos, the gallery owner, also studied photography at Art Center. He came from a wealthy Portuguese family and once he graduated he realized he had more of an eye for the business of art and than for being the artist. He took money from his trust fund and started showing the artwork from fellow classmates and his gallery grew from there. He had always pushed James to show his work so he was ecstatic when James showed up one day with his portfolio.

This will be his third show at Marcos's gallery. He has amassed a solid fan base for his work and each show is bigger than the last. But none of it matters if the woman he loves isn't there. And he's pretty sure she won't be coming. So he rides his bike, tracing the path he and Shauna recently took throughout LA, and takes photos to keep himself from dwelling on the fact that tonight may be a lonely night despite how many show up.

Shauna frees a section of her hair from the curling iron in her hand and lets the tendril fall to frame her face. She picks up another section of hair and winds it around the wand.

"Are you ready?" Margaret pops her head in the bathroom to ask. "Chris and Jeremy are here. Let's get the show on the road."

"I thought you weren't excited about going?"

Margaret lifts up Frannie's flask. "I'm sufficiently lubricated. Frannie might be a genius after all."

"Just give me a second okay? I'll be right out."

"Okay." Margaret leaves and closes the door behind her.

Shauna looks at herself in the mirror. "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." She smooths out her dress and puts the finishing touches on her makeup and joins the group.

Jeremy pulls his truck into the valet and waits his turn. "Why don't you all head in and I'll meet you inside?" Everyone agrees and gets out. They walk toward the entrance. Halfway up she notices James's parents are standing at the entrance. They're talking to someone. She looks familiar and that's when it hits her. It's Kate.

Shauna reaches her hand out and stops Margaret. Frannie and Chris see a few people Chris knows. They stop and chat.

"What? What's wrong?" Margaret asks.

Shauna remains speechless. She's starting to turn even paler than normal.

"Are you okay? You're not going to be sick are you? You haven't even had that much to drink. What did you eat? Or are you freaking out about James? I'm sure he'll be ecstatic that you're here."

"It's her."

"Who? Who's her?"

"Kate. James's ex-fiancée. She's here."

"Oh my God, where?" Margaret looks all around.

"Don't stare!" she whispers. "She's standing with James's parents up there."