About a week after my date with Raven, I was laying in bed, snuggling with Brandon when Corey padded into the room. My guys had all taken to waking me up with coffee when they learned just how much of a morning person I was. Apparently, they had been shocked the first few times I wasn't all warm and fuzzy, and after that decided food or coffee needed to be included every time they wanted to greet me in the mornings.

I was surprised to see Corey this morning. He had spent the last week helping our local bank with a serious breach of security in their systems and whatever free time he had had been spent on a side project he wasn't ready to share yet, so I hadn't seen him much. If he wasn't standing there holding the customary coffee greeting I would have dragged him into the bed with me, even with Brandon still behind me.

"Good morning Sunshine," He greeted me as I extricated myself from Brandon's arms so I could sit up and drink the delicious nectar of the gods.

Brandon groaned at losing contact with me, but he was still mostly asleep so quickly quietened and drifted back off. I smiled at Corey as I sipped on the coffee. After a few minutes, and a good portion of the coffee was in my system, I was finally feeling human enough to put together full sentences.

Smiling at Corey, I said, "I missed you this week".

The dazzling smile he sent me knocked the air from my lungs. Each day I was growing more and more attached to this amazing group of handsome individuals and each day I cared less and less about the possibility of things not working out between us.

"I missed you too, but guess what?" He asked excitedly.

"Is it date day?" I asked, sharing his enthusiasm.

"It's date day! We have a few different things to do today and you'll have to change at some point, but to start the day at least, you can wear anything you want. It doesn't need to be anything fancy, and to be honest, you probably don't want to wear heels, but really, there is no required dress for this. We are going out for dinner tonight and Gabe is going to lay an outfit out for you, so you don't have to worry about that either."

It was my turn to blind him with a smile. "I can't wait! Will you give me any kind of hints as to what we are doing?"

"All I'll tell you," he said, pulling me to my feet and wrapping me in a hug, "is that this is a hobby of mine that I work on during my days off, that even the team don't really know about. It's a bit like Axel and the Life Art classes he helps with. Only, I keep my clothes on."

I chuckled. "Okay. I am looking forward to it. Let me shower and get ready. I will meet you in the kitchen as soon as I'm done?"

"Sure thing, Pretty" he replied, kissing me on top of my head and squeezing me a little tighter before letting me go and walking out of the room to go and get himself ready.

I leaned over and placed a soft kiss on Brandon's cheek before finishing my coffee, and making my way over to the closet. Stepping in, I turned on the light and began looking through the vast amounts of clothing that had appeared in there to find something to wear. I settled on a pair of skinny jeans, a black, oversized, knit sweater over a black tank top and some flat ankle boots. I collected some undergarments from the drawers and headed to the bathroom to get ready.

I turned the taps on for the shower and stripped off while waiting for the water to heat to the perfect temperature. Once it was right, I stepped into the shower and went through my daily ritual, washing from my shoulders to my toes, shaving the necessary places before finishing off by washing my face. I deliberately left my hair so I wouldn't need to wait for it to dry. I stepped out of the shower and dried off. I wrapped myself in my towel before brushing my teeth and moisturizing my face and legs. I took a small amount of hair product and warmed it between my hands before pulling my fingers through my hair, taming some of the frizz that had made itself known around my curls overnight.

Satisfied with how my curls were looking, I got dressed in my chosen outfit, leaving my sweater off for now. I applied a light layer of makeup, sticking with a natural finish and a soft pink lip gloss, before pulling the sweater on and giving my curls one last scrunch. I hung my towel on the rack to dry and walked back into my room, smiling at the still sleeping Brandon. He had replaced me with my pillow when I had gone for a shower and was snuggling into it. I grabbed my phone out and snapped a quick picture before pulling on my boots and heading downstairs.

I walked into a kitchen that smelled amazing!

"Oh my gosh, who's been cooking and what did you make, because I think this is what heaven smells like", I exclaimed.

"That was me", Marc called from the pantry. "I made some strawberry, blueberry, and raspberry danishes. I'm messing with some new recipes and adding chocolate to them as well for the cafe. I have been wanting to spice up the menu for a while and figured why not take advantage of having so many different people with different food preferences in the same house."

I picked up a raspberry and white chocolate danish and took a bite, grabbing a glass from the cupboard and filling it with water while I savored the flavor. I didn't want to ruin the experience with added flavors, though I was sure that it would only enhance it.

"This is one of the best things I have tasted this week!" I exclaimed.

"Aww, thanks, Kitty. I appreciate it", he replied.

Corey walked into the room and took in the sheer number of pastries laid out across the counters. He raised an eyebrow and asked, "feeding an army, or changing the menu again?"

Marc just chuckled.

"He's done this before?" I asked.

"Last time he updated the menu for the cafe he went overboard and we ended up feeding half the Sergeant Jasper with the leftovers", Corey filled me in. "If you're still hungry, grab another pastry and we will head on out. Marc already set us up with a couple of thermoses of coffee and a box filled with danishes."

I smiled and reached for both a chocolate and strawberry and a blueberry danish, placing them on one of the paper plates that were conveniently placed on the end of the counter, before turning to Corey and telling him I was ready to go. I couldn't help the smile that broke out when Corey picked up a couple of danish's to eat on the way, as well as the large box placed on the hall table on our way out toward the car.

"So where are we off to?" I asked as we buckled in and Corey began pulling out of the driveway.

"We are heading to a small warehouse on the edge of the tourist district. I have been working with a group of friends to renovate the warehouse into a studio of sorts. I'll fill you in on the rest when we get there", Corey replied, reaching over and placing his free hand on my thigh and giving it a gentle squeeze. "I am really looking forward to sharing this with you."

I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze before taking a bite of the choc-strawberry danish, thinking, not for the first time, that Marc was a genius for using fresh fruit and not just relying on jams or preserves like other places did to give his danishes an extra special, fresh quality, making them even more enjoyable.

I looked out the window as we drove into a small carpark that backed onto a warehouse complex. The buildings were all either in the process of or had recently been renovated into a variety of stores, including a bookstore with a coffee shop, a specialized homewares store, and one entirely unique shopfront, with a sign naming the shop as the Saved Film Gallery. It was this store that Corey led me toward.

Pausing at the door, Corey looked nervous. "I have been working on this side project for years. At some point, the others all reached out, wanting to know how they could help and it grew into a small team of people working together. Eventually, we decided that it was a shame not to share this project with the rest of our community and the world. No one outside of our core group, and the planners helping with the launch have actually been inside yet."

He took a deep breath and opened the door, stepping aside to let me through and into this new world that he hadn't yet shared with many others. I felt incredibly honored that he had chosen to include me in something that he seemed to be incredibly passionate about, though I still wasn't entirely sure what it was that they did here.

"So what exactly is the Saved Film Gallery? What do you do here?" I asked, looking at Corey as I stepped over the threshold.

He just smiled and gestured for me to walk into the gallery before him. I looked around, stunned at what was before me. The inside space has had a series of dummy walls set up, each painted white and each holding a series of photographs. Some looking fairly recent, maybe ten years old. Others were significantly older, with images from World War II displayed on one of the walls.

I walked over to one of the photographs and stood there smiling at the image. It was a portrait of a small boy, wearing a cowboy hat, pouting at the camera. The image itself was incredibly distorted and had what looked like a feathered texture to it. Corey saw me admiring the image and came to stand beside me.

"We almost couldn't save that one. It took a lot of digital processing to bring it up this far. The film itself was moldy, which is why it looks like it has a feathered effect on it now, rather than being a clear image. That's what we do here. We collect old film, that is either donated or found, process them and salvage what photos we can. They were important to someone at the time they were taken and even if their photographer is no longer around, they are still important today."

"It's incredible! You do this in your spare time?" I asked.

"I do what I can. There are three of us that work on it. Liz is a photographer by trade. She works mostly weekends, doing wedding photography and uses a mixture of film and digital cameras for her shots. We have two dark rooms set up upstairs. Liz uses one for the photos she takes and we will be taking walk-ins for film processing as well, for those that are still refusing to go digital. The other one, the one we are going to use today, Tim and I use to process our rescued film. They are a bit more delicate. We never know if the roll is damaged, or if there will be any usable images left on them when we process it, but it is a risk I would take any day."

I could tell, just by listening to him talk about it, Corey was passionate about the work he was doing here and I could definitely understand why. These images hadn't been seen by anyone since they were taken and they were simply amazing. It was no wonder they were putting this studio together.

Corey led me around the gallery, telling me where the roll of film each image came from and how difficult they were to restore. He talked me through the process and we worked together to process some new rolls of film that they had received during the week and he told me they were holding their official opening night for the gallery tonight, filling me in on the plans and asking me to be his date for the event. He said the guys were all coming as well. He wanted to show them what he had been doing, rather than just telling them.

Once we finished processing the new rolls and hanging them to dry, we moved into the media room and Corey showed me what they do to get the image from the negatives onto the computer, where they cleaned the image and lifted as much of the picture from the film as was possible. One of the images we worked on only had a thin strip of picture available. We could see a woman, standing, posing for the camera, but none of the background. It was actually a rather impressive looking image despite the fact it wasn't the full thing. It looked like it had been photoshopped, but I had been here to see the whole thing and new for sure that it hadn't been.

As the day passed, I noticed a number of the caterers and event planners enjoying the pastries that Marc had packed up for us to bring in. The white choc raspberry was definitely the most popular and went first, but there were none left by the time we were packing up for the day. The staircase leading upstairs had a locked door at the bottom to keep customers away from the processing areas and the downstairs area had been polished to perfection while we had been working. Every image hung perfectly, with a small plaque underneath, giving what details were about the image and, or, the roll of film it came from.

There was a small reception desk inside the door that hadn't been there when I walked in. Corey said that Tim and Liz had been debating over which desk was best suited for the space for weeks before deciding on one. They were prepared to open tonight without the desk, as it had been ordered in and wasn't expected to arrive for another three days, but luckily it was delivered to the store they purchased it at yesterday and the company made a special delivery to ensure it arrived today. The desk held a couple of computers. Once was a touch screen, with a digital copy of the currently displayed works, where anyone interested in purchasing their own copy of an image could order the one they wanted in the size they wanted, both in print and on canvas. The other was for staff use, to fulfil any processing requests for people wanting their negatives processed and taking payments for the prints ordered.

The entire gallery was beautifully presented in way that perfectly blended the feeling of a high end art gallery with a local art exhibit and a very cozy and homey feel to it. It was definitely a place I could lose myself in for hours on end. Each photograph I walked past caught my eye and demanded appropriate attention, even though I had already walked through it this morning. I wanted to stop and look at them all again, but Corey guided me out of the gallery and back to the car, claiming we needed to get home to get ready for our reservations, otherwise we would miss out on dinner before the opening and he wasn't sure he could do it on an empty stomach.

We made it back to the house in record time, it was like traffic knew not to get in Corey's way this afternoon. Walking into the house, he kissed me on the forehead and told me that we would be leaving for our dinner at 5 pm, before singing out to the guys that they need to be at the address he gave them by 7 pm. He had invited them to the opening. The team knew he had been working on his own side project, but none of them had seen what it was he had been working on and he seemed both excited and nervous to be sharing it with them.

I nodded my acknowledgement and made my way back upstairs to my room. Walking in, I found that Brandon had made the bed after he got up and rearranged the pillows on the top of the bed. On the end of the bed there was a gorgeous, knee length, pale yellow, strapless dress with a sweetheart neckline. The top of the dress was embellished with silver beads, the bottom was layered tulle, creating a puffy skirt. The two sections were tied together with an oversized, satin bow. The tails almost touched the hem of the dress. It was far more girly than I would normally wear, but I absolutely loved it.

The outfit was teamed with some strappy silver heels with red soles and a silver clutch, which tied in with the embellishment on the dress. Gabe had also left a note with the outfit. It suggested several different hairstyles and makeup options, depending on how long I had to get ready. The makeup was pretty simple. He knew I preferred a natural look rather than an over made look, so suggested a natural base with minimal highlighting, winged eyeliner, and a gold eye shadow, finished off with a soft pink lipstick. Looking at the clock, I knew I would have the time to straighten my hair before braiding back the left side and leaving the rest to sit where it fell across my back and down over my shoulders.

Once I was satisfied with how I looked, I added a swipe of clear lipgloss over my lipstick to add shine, slipped on my heels and headed back downstairs to meet Corey for dinner. He looked incredibly handsome in his suit. Judging by my dress and now Corey's suit, I could only assume the opening was a cocktail style affair.

"You look beautiful", he told me, before adding, " Did you know that yellow is my favorite color?"

"I had no idea! Remind me to thank Gabriel next time we see him", I replied.

"We are going to a quiet little Italian restaurant for dinner before heading to the event. The rest of the guys will meet us there later. North and Silas are running security for the event and Sang is our photographer for the evening. Liz wanted to do it, but we insisted on having an outside party to ensure that she was captured in the memories as well."

When Corey pulled up out the front of a row of houses, I was surprised to learn that one of these houses had actually been renovated and turned into a small, family run, Italian restaurant. Corey hadn't been lying when he said it was a quiet little restaurant. It was beautifully decorated as well. We enjoyed some quiet conversation while sharing some arancini, osso buco alla Milanese and saltimbocca, paired with some sort of wine that Corey ordered for us - I had no idea at all when it comes to pairing wines with food.

He took my hand as we were leaving the restaurant and led me over to his car. I asked him some more questions about his exhibit on our short drive over to the gallery and was more and more excited about his opening event. He told me that there would be some local media there to cover the opening as they were not only showing new, never before seen photos, but they were only taking the money required to cover the costs of equipment and materials to keep working and to cover utility costs. Any money made over their minimum costs they donated to various local charities, wanting to continue to give back to and support the community that was supporting them.

Due to the number of people that had turned out to support their opening, we weren't able to get a park in the small car park and had to park a couple of blocks away from the gallery. Corey took my hand as we started walking toward the gallery. We were about halfway there when he stopped and turned toward me.

"An.." He caught himself when he realized he was using the wrong name out in public. We had agreed that it would be okay for them to still call me Andy while with only them and when no one else was around, but not around other people and definitely not out in public. "Kenzie, tell me I have nothing to worry about with opening this gallery. Tell me that it is not a stupid idea and that people will actually enjoy what we are doing here?"

I could see the vulnerability shining in his eyes. "Corey, you are taking the film that people have forgotten about, neglected, or even thrown away and are giving new life to these photos. You are giving these photos a chance to be seen by the world. It is an amazing thing you are doing. Even with the small number of photo's that you have on display, compared to the hundreds or possibly even thousands of photos that you have given new life to, I can confidently say that it will be absolutely loved." I leaned in and gave him a light kiss on the cheek.

Corey reached out and cupped my cheek in the hand that wasn't holding mine as I pulled away. Rubbing his thumb back and forth across my cheek, he leaned in and rested his forehead on mine.

"You really are amazing, you know that?" he told me, before closing the gap and brushing his lips against mine.

I sighed against his lips, enjoying the contact. He moved my hand around and placed it on his lower back. He slid his hand up along my arm, lightly trailing his fingers along my exposed skin and over the top of my back, pulling me closer as he did. I moved my other hand around his waist and up onto his chest, feeling his steady heartbeat beneath my palm.

I stepped closer to him, pressing my body entirely against his, removing all space that had been between us. In that moment, Corey was the only thing on my mind. His tongue swiped along the seam of my lips, seeking permission to deepen the kiss. I happily complied and felt myself melting into his embrace as our tongues danced. Neither one of us were battling for dominance in the kiss, rather, we were taking our time to explore each other.

I'm not sure how long we stood there kissing, but after a while, we broke apart and I turned my head to rest it against his chest while we both worked to get our breathing back under control.

"Wow. That was", I couldn't find the appropriate words to describe the kiss we had just shared.

"I know", he told me, stepping back and brushing out my hair with his fingers, flattening out the bumps that we added during our kiss.

We stepped away from each other and I took advantage of Corey taking the time to straighten out his suit to touch up my lipstick-lipgloss combo using the compact mirror that Gabe had added to the purse. Once we were straightened out and looking presentable, I tucked myself into Corey's side and under his arm as we walked toward the gallery.

"Thank you for coming with me tonight", he told me as we reached the door.

Releasing me from his side, Corey opened the door and guided me into the gallery. The opening had begun already and the gallery was full of people admiring the beautiful photographs that I had been lucky enough to see earlier. It didn't take long for people to start coming over and congratulating Corey on the wonderful set up he had.

About half an hour after we arrived, Corey was whisked away to get ready to address everyone and make a small presentation on what they were hoping to achieve through the newly founded art gallery. Once he finished his presentation, we spent the rest of the night meeting more of the attendees, answering questions and showing them how they could order their own copies of the prints.

It was the early hours of the morning before we made it back to the house. I had slipped my heels off in the car on the way back and Corey wouldn't let me walk across the driveway barefoot, claiming with all the work that had been going on around the house and yard, I could step on anything in the dark and have no idea what it was. He lifted me, bridal style, and carried me all the way to my bedroom where sat me down on the end of the bed. He disappeared into his room for a few minutes and when he came back, he was wearing only his pyjamas and carrying another shirt. He slid the zipper of my dress down, undoing it so that I could just let it fall and step out of it before handed me the extra shirt he had brought in with him.

"I thought this might be a bit more comfortable for you to sleep in", he told me, turning to remove the pillows from the bed as I changed into his shirt.

Once wearing the shirt, I climbed into bed and snuggled into Corey's side as we settled in for the night. I listened to his steady heartbeat as it evened out and indicated he had fallen asleep while I was waiting for sleep to overcome me.

A/N: This chapter was partly inspired by The Rescued Film Project. The work this guy does is amazing! I have included a couple of links below - the youtube video that first introduced me to what the is doing, their website which has more information and videos, as well as a link to their Etsy shop, and their Facebook page, where there are a number of images that they have rescued on display. Personally, I love the image attached at the top here, but then, I love most of the images that he has rescued.

https://www.rescuedfilm.com

https://www.facebook.com/rescuedfilmproject/