“No,” she said. She was suddenly tired of all of this and wanted to go home again, but she tried to sound simply dis-interested. “Okay, here, I’ll do one,” she said. She turned on her side and propped her elbow on the bed. She took the camera from him and took a picture of him looking at his phone. He turned to look at her, and they were both laying there.

The door opened.

“I need to take back the expensive thing I use to make my art,” Aubrey announced. “Sorry. Oh, Marina, you’re naked, that’s cool.”

The shame hit her belatedly and she tried to cover her body with Perrin’s blankets.

“I took some nudes of her,” Nico said, still looking at whatever was on his phone.

“Oh, lemme see,” Aubrey said, taking the camera back from Marina. “Oh, I love this one,” they said, looking into the little screen. “Yeah, I can edit these and send them to you?”

“Sure,” Marina said. She was sure she was red in the face.

“I really like these,” Aubrey said. Nico and Marina both looked intently at them as they pressed buttons on the back of the camera. Then they looked up at the two of them, seemed to think, and cautiously raised the camera and took a picture of the two of them sitting side by side on the bed.

“Sorry, I should have asked,” Aubrey said, lowering the camera. “But you two just look, like, so good next to each other.”

“I bet,” Marina said.

“We could do some together,” Nico said.

“Yeah? How does that sound, Marina?”

“Sure,” Marina said before she could get herself to think better of it. It seemed like a good way to remain with Nico, even if she had already resigned herself to her feeling that he was probably not interested at all.

“Yay,” Aubrey said softly, already fiddling with the camera settings.

“That means Nico has to take off his clothes too,” Marina added.

“It’s only fair,” he said, taking off his shirt. “Feminist, even.” He turned to her. “Ready?”

“Yeah,” Marina said, her voice coming out breathy and sustained as she looked at him shamelessly. He didn’t seem to notice.

“How should we start?” Nico asked, looking at Aubrey.

“Hmm, maybe Marina, you could stand on the bed and Nico, lie down? Yeah, like — oh, maybe you could put one foot on either side of his legs, and sort of let your hair — yes, exactly.”

There she was, awkwardly looking down at him. She thought she was shivering and wondered if either of them would notice, if the camera would pick up some residue from her trembling body. She closed her eyes and reached down with both hands for him, bent her knees, almost fell toward him. Aubrey clicked the shutter.