Rule of Thirds, The (14 page)

He squeezes my hand back and then it dawns on him. “The competition! How was it?”

I smile. “Second place.”

“You’re going to Tisch?”

I nod.

“Stand up. I want to shake the hand of the most talented photographer I know.”

I laugh as he stands, pulling me up, then grabs my right hand with his, shaking it goofily.

“Do you want to see my favorite photo from the display?” I ask once he’s dropped my hand. I reach into my bag, and pull out the envelope with the duplicates of the photos I used in my entry.

He studies the photo of the bench. “Where it all began,” he says, grinning.

“Where what did?”

“The relationship of Dylan McCutter and Philadelphia Greene.”

“We’re in a relationship?” I bite my lower lip, grinning.

“Philadelphia Greene, I think you’re one of a kind. And you’re going to New York.” He shakes his head. “So impressive.”

I can’t stop grinning. “I owe you for the inspiration.”

“Oh really?” He raises his eyebrows. “Because I can think of a way you can repay me,” he says, playfully kicking my toe with the toe of his shoe.

“How?”

“By letting me do something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.” He sets the photos on top of his book.

My stomach flips.

“What’s that?” I say, but I know exactly what he’s going to do. Finally.

“This,” he says, sliding his arms around my waist and pulling me close. I reach up to put my arms around his neck, closing my eyes as his lips brush mine, lightly at first, then with more intensity, and then, I can’t really think about anything else at all, and I lose myself in the moment.

Chantel Guertin’s
Rules of Acknowledgments

1. Try not to forget to thank anyone. If you do, apologize profusely and offer to give them a Costco-size bag of Twizzlers. Hope they really like Twizzlers.
   
2. Thank your publisher, ECW Press: Jack David & David Caron for being the big men on campus; Erin Creasey for that very first email last summer, which was like getting a note in class from the girl you totally want to be friends with; Carolyn McNeillie for the perfectly Pippa cover design; Troy Cunningham for taking a bunch of loose pages and making them easier to read on a windy day; Jenna Illies for being captain of the pep squad (at a school where being on the pep squad means you’re seriously awesome); Jennifer Knoch for making sure sentences make sense; and Lesley-Anne Longo for catching typos. Also to the rest of the ECW crew for their support.
   
3. Give your editor her own number. Crissy Calhoun, you’re a dream editor. Pippa is way cooler because of you.
   
4. Hug your family, for their love & enthusiasm: Michel and Susan Guertin, Danielle Guertin, Janet & Terry Visser, Sarah Farmer & Rob Newton. And my family to be, the Shulgans: Myron, Nancy, Mark, Jody, Cameron, Alice, Isaac, Julie & baby Junkin. Last but definitely not least, Myron & Penelope. I’m sorry there aren’t any pictures in the book. Also, Mr. Baz, obviously.
   
5. Give xo’s to early readers, researchers, and advice-givers: Heather A. Clark, Samantha Corbin, Melissa Di Pasquale, Melanie Dulos, Suzanne Gardner, Hayley Gillis, Leanna Gosse, Claudia Grieco, Sarah Hartley, Janis Leblanc, Jamie Lincoln and especially Marissa Stapley, for pool days and good juju bracelets.
   
6. Save the best for last: Chris. For the wintry weekend of editing in the woods. For driving around Schenectady on no sleep. For believing in me, loving me and making me laugh. For chest bumps and stormy squeezes. Love you, Shulgs.
   

CHANTEL GUERTIN
is the bestselling author of two novels—
Stuck in Downward Dog
and
Love Struck
—and a beauty expert on
The Marilyn Denis Show
. She likes rollercoasters, notebooks and dressing up her cat, Mr. Baz, on special occasions, like Wednesdays. She also really likes jujubes, but never eats the green ones. She lives in Toronto.

Copyright © Chantel Guertin, 2013

Published by ECW Press

2120 Queen Street East, Suite 200,

Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4E 1E2

416-694-3348 / [email protected]

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any process — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise — without the prior written permission of the copyright owners and ECW Press. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Guertin, Chantel, 1976–, author

The rule of thirds / Chantel Guertin.

ISBN 978-1-77090-463-7 (ePub)

Also issued as: 978-1-77041-159-3 (pbk.); 978-1-77090-462-0 (PDF).

I. Title.

PS8613.U4684R84 2013 jC813’.6 C2013-902469-7

Editor for the press: Crissy Calhoun

Cover design: Carolyn McNeillie

Cover images: Tallent Tam,

www.tallentsblog.com

Author photo: Steven Khan

The publication of
The Rule of Thirds
has been generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $157 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country, and by the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), an agency of the Government of Ontario, which last year funded 1,681 individual artists and 1,125 organizations in 216 communities across Ontario for a total of $52.8 million. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities, and the contribution of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.