Almost Famous

Being that I live right across the street from the garganutan state library, I finally went with William to work on my final term paper this past Friday. Its a pretty nifty place where time doesn't exist. Somehow I managed to write 75% of a paper in a few hours, whereas I thought it would take weeks. We went back home for lunch around 1:30pm and upon returning and settling into our study areas, we were approached by a stranger with a strange eye, a camera and a clipboard.

"Excuse me..." he says. William and I turn around and meet eyes with a stranger holding a camera peering right back at us. "I'm a freelance photographer doing some publicity work for the library...It looks like you two've just settled down..."

"Oh...cool" William and I say inbtween nods.

"I've taken pictures of people walking into the library and well, now I need some pictures of someone leaving the library. I saw you two walk in and...".

Yeah I know, William and I are a hot item. He said he was brimming with vouchers and he'd like to take our picture for some brochure the library was publishing for tourism purposes.

"So if I could just meet you guys out at the entrance. Oh, and bring your coat" he said, as he made eyes at my fire-engine red winter coat.

William and I exchanged glances, started collecting our things and headed out to meet Mr. Freelance outside. Upon exiting the library we spot Mr. Freelance standing next to one of those boring statues of people you find mounted on horses in any plaza in Europe. He was with another guy, an Asian guy who shook our hands and told us he worked for the state library and was doing publicity work. He said after and only after they took pictures of us, we would recieve vouchers for a book store.

"Well, this is the mood I'm looking for" said the photographer as he waved a wrinkled printout of a couple walking ecstatically in the streets of X city. "So what I need you two to do is just walk by me few times and look studious and like you're having a good time."

I've only recently learned how to flash decent fake smiles. I've hated my smile for a long time because I have the type of smile that makes my eyes disappear form two tiny slits below my eyebrows. I can barely see. I'm not fit to be a model. But I can do anything when William is there, so we just chatted about random stuff we saw in the distance. I kept laughing because the conversation was kind of tense.

"So what do want to do tonight?" William asks me as we walk by the photographer snapping away at us for the fifth time.

"Sushi!" I blurt out just a bit too loud. The night before we had stuffed our faces with heaps of vegetarian hand rolls and falafel. I couldn't even bear to think about eating sushi. I'm not very professional you see.

A few more snaps and we were finally done. We sign our consent forms, take our voucher and wave goodbye. Back at our study spots in the library we were reapproached by the Asian guy from before. He sets up his laptop in between Williamd and I. "Hey guys. This is the picture we've chosen to use. It's perfect, except for as you can see, your eyes are closed".

Those were my eyes he was pointing at. Those eyes that turn into narrow, almond-shaped things when I smile. Darn. "Well, if you don't mind, we'd love to have a re-shooot. We have more vouchers. William, you can just wear jeans and a t-shirt and Adrianna, you wear your red coat".

We agreed to meet again the following Friday. William would wear jeans and a t-shirt and I would wear my magic red coat.

We're going to be famous.