➹BEEPER

[intheblanks]

"It had better be an emergency."
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[synanthrope]

[She takes it in her hands and opens the envelope, and takes out the photo. She looks at it for a long moment]

Thank you.

Are you sure you wouldn't rather keep it?

[intheblanks]

You know the reasons someone would keep that picture, despite having no memory of when it was taken?

[synanthrope]

You can't blackmail me with a nude photo.

[She's tucking it back in the envelope]

[intheblanks]

[Saya this is the second time he's had to clear his throat in five minutes.]

That's... not the reason I meant.

[synanthrope]

[She's going to put it away in her dresser]

No?

[intheblanks]

You look at photos to remember a moment you liked enough to record. [He doesn't need to look at the one she's mounted.] You look at photos of anonymous moments to impose your own ideas of what you'd like them to involve.

[And yes, he's had a few thoughts.]

[synanthrope]

[She looks at the photo of her brother]

You're a gentleman.

[intheblanks]

If I wasn't, I could afford a magazine.

[Though actually, anonymous women are preferable in person.]

When was it taken?

[synanthrope]

I was twenty-four, and I slept with a photographer.

[intheblanks]

[He laughs, a breath of audible air.]

When I was twenty-four I had a few friends who were 'photographers'.

[synanthrope]

Did they usually sell their photographs to Italian fashion magazines?

[intheblanks]

Did he sell yours?

[synanthrope]

No. I asked him not to.

[intheblanks]

[The Italian credentials don't seem to have dampened Chase's scepticism, but he nods his head.]

Did you find many others?

[photographs.]

[synanthrope]

[She shakes her head.]

No. By nature, I don't really have a lot of photos taken.

[intheblanks]

By nature you don't like being looked at? Showing off?

[Because a quick glance at her outfit - and yes he does look, and no it's not that quick - disputes that.]

[synanthrope]

Wrong nature.

[intheblanks]

[He thinks - and shakes his head.]

Explain that to me?

[synanthrope]

[She looks at him, briefly]

Loxoceles reclusa.

Seen, not kept.

[intheblanks]

Six-eyed shut-in.

[You know, loosely translated.]

But you're not. The latter.

[synanthrope]

A shut-in?

[She shrugs]

I have a compulsion to hide.

[intheblanks]

Like a hermit. Hermits don't invite people in.

[synanthrope]

You ought to research spiders, Robert.

[intheblanks]

The best accounts are always first hand.

[Always testing boundaries.]

Would you let me take your picture?

[synanthrope]

Would you keep it?