Exposure
16
Funny Girlfriend
BATHING ROSE was a treat. We touched and kissed and talked. She’d been in Las Vegas since she got out of high school, starting as a stripper, and then getting a chorus part in a revue. You don’t move up all that fast as a Las Vegas showgirl. But she’d come to the attention of a rich guy who said he’d help with her career. She called him a sugar daddy and said most of the girls tried to get one.
“Al’s a good one,” she said. “He likes to have time with me, but he isn’t hung up on being my only guy, as long as he’s my only sugar daddy. If he found out I was taking money from other guys, he’d get pissed. But he doesn’t get upset if I see a guy who revs my engines a little.”
“Is he in our audience?” I asked.
“No. He set this all up for me and talked to me a long time about whether I really wanted to do it. It was obvious, though, that he wanted me to, so of course I agreed. And I can’t argue with the money and a first class trip to Chicago. My lower lips were freezing on the way over here tonight. I’m not used to being this cold.”
“Oh, it just started warming up here. But let’s see if I can warm up your poor pussy a little.”
I crawled down under the covers and got myself intimately acquainted with her pussy. And I got to hear her orgasm for the first time. That was just the first time for the night. We did a lot of petting and kissing and talking. And a lot of fucking.
“The guys—you call them your patrons—aren’t the nicest people in the world. If you hadn’t come to my room with me tonight, it’s likely one of them would have and I wouldn’t have had any choice in the matter,” she said.
“Shit. You invited me here to protect you? You didn’t need to fuck me to get that. I’d have just stayed out on the sofa.”
“Nate, I wanted to fuck you. I didn’t invite you just to protect me from someone else. I’d have called Al and he’d have put the word out that I wasn’t to be disturbed. The guys have a kind of ethics, I guess you’d say. They won’t infringe on each other’s property. But they lack morals. I think they’d do just about anything,” she said.
I was enjoying some nice time just kissing and petting her. She truly had a great body. And she was an enthusiastic lover.
“I don’t really know any of them. The only people I ever have contact with are Mr. Levinson and Mr. Mayer. I don’t think either of them are really part of any organization. My patrons have all been anonymous, except the one guy from the equipment company that I’ve met once.”
“I don’t know everyone who was here,” Rose said. “There’s been a lot of shifting around in Vegas the past three years. Howard Hughes owns, like, all the strip now. Even some of the guys who used to be involved at low levels of the family are employed by Hughes now. You’re probably getting money indirectly from him.”
“Isn’t he, like, an airplane guy?”
“From what I hear, he’s mostly just weird. No one ever sees him, but he’s got people running all over everywhere carrying out his orders. He’s produced some movies, too, I guess.”
“I’m sure they’ll tell me what they want me to know eventually. Until then, I’ll keep doing what I do,” I said.
“Yeah. Keep doing what you’re doing right now. There. Yes! Do me again, Nate.”
I pressed into her again and we began moving. By morning, we were both exhausted.
We got to the studio at eleven, carrying breakfast from a local deli and coffee for all the girls. They’d been there an hour already and had the castle drop set up and some medieval props set out. We all sat and talked while we ate and drank our coffee.
“Did you get what you wanted last night?” Elizabeth whispered to Rose.
“It’s a wonder I can walk,” Rose whispered back. I think both girls knew I could hear them since they were sitting on either side of me. “Just thank you for letting him be with me. You know I was just so charged up after yesterday I was ready to explode.”
“Don’t I know it. Are you wanting to become a girlfriend now?” Beth asked.
“Um… No, thank you. I mean, last night was great, but I live in Vegas. I definitely don’t need a boyfriend in Chicago,” Rose laughed. “But you guys have to come and visit sometime. Bring all the girlfriends and I’ll be happy to show you around.”
“There isn’t all that much for us under twenty-one to do,” I said.
“You’d be surprised. There are lots of shows and some great places to explore outside. And just walking down Fremont will give you an idea of what Vegas was like when they first created a town out there,” Rose said. “Listen to me. I sound like a travel agent.”
“Nothing wrong with liking your town,” I said. “I think we should start. How’s the fan working with the fabric?” I asked as we headed to the stage area.
“As long as we don’t use too much fabric, we can really make it whip around,” Theresa said. “If she’s cloaked with a lot of fabric, it will move, but it won’t flow out much.”
“It’s so noisy!” Rose said. “We’d never be able to use something that loud in our show. It would drown out the singers.”
“True, but we don’t care if our audience hears anything,” I laughed. “We aren’t recording sound in our pictures.”
“Oh, yeah! Well, what do I need to do?”
We started experimenting with the wind and fabric, testing different combinations as Rose held them and moved around.
“Okay, we’ll set this up as the princess fleeing the castle,” I said. “I’ll want to isolate action against certain parts of the backdrop. Leora, let’s get Rose into one of those formals we’ve got that looks like a princess gown. We must have a tiara back there someplace. And what is she fleeing with? Cassie, is there a big old-fashioned book back there? Something that looks like it could contain the history of the kingdom, or all the magic that has accumulated over the centuries. And she should have a leather bag, too. We’ll think about what to put in it. If we don’t have leather, just make sure it doesn’t look like a purse or a shopping bag. I think we want a tree. Do we have something?”
The girls started scrambling. I took Rose behind the privacy screen and started undressing and dressing her.
“It’s not quite as tense today as yesterday,” she said. “I know I don’t mind having you touch me anyplace. Kiss me?”
I gave her a little kiss and then went back to fastening the princess gown on her. She looked like Snow White.
“That’s one of the reasons for the no sex rule that I thoroughly violated last night,” I said. “Everything should have that tension and excitement. You should never expect that I will just come back here and make out with you. When it happens, it should be a surprise.”
“Yes, sir. I understand and I’ll be good. As much as you want me to be,” she giggled.
“Barefoot for this. You haven’t had time to put on shoes before you fled. Your dress isn’t even completely fastened. You’ll need to hold it here so it doesn’t fall off,” I said as I led her to the stage.
Cassie handed me a big old leatherbound book. It looked like a Bible when I opened it, but it wasn’t written in English. It didn’t say ‘Bible’ anywhere, so I figured it would work just fine. I put the tiara on her blonde hair and stood back to look. Not bad. Cassie hung a canvas bag on her shoulder, almost causing the front of Rose’s gown to drop. The bag was blue, which I considered a little out of place, but the color would be lost in my black and white photo. We had to make sure that the logo for the Chicago International Livestock Show was on the side of the bag away from the camera.
Then we started with the poses and I started taking pictures. I hadn’t noticed if the audience had arrived, but if they were late, they didn’t disturb us. We set the lighting as if it was a night scene, making the backdrop into a shadowy presence. I positioned Rose in different action poses, including tripping, falling, crawling, and rolling. In the course of the action, as she made her way across the stage and we continually shifted the lights, her dress came loose and she crawled out of it, dragging it behind her.
We worked for over an hour and a half before I scooped Rose up to carry her behind the privacy screen to change for the next scene. The girls went about changing out the backdrop to the forest scene.
“You carried me off like I couldn’t just stand up and walk,” Rose said as she hugged me before I set her down in the chair. I took the book and bag from her. The dress was still on the stage.
“The audience can see you when you’re performing,” I said. “They don’t need to stare at you as you are leaving the stage or changing costumes.”
“That’s sweet,” she said.
“More than sweet,” I answered. “Even in Vegas, you develop a mystique on the stage. The audience might see you completely nude, but then the curtain comes down. They aren’t invited backstage to see you change costumes or have a drink of water. Seeing you in the dressing room would break the mystique of the stage.”
“You’re right. Being seen naked on stage is part of the performance,” Rose said. “Being seen naked in the dressing room is an invasion of privacy. It is different. I just didn’t think of it translating to what we were doing in the studio.”
“I first realized it when truck lights picked out Avery in the fog and she fell. I rushed in and picked her up so the trucker couldn’t see her. That was an intense moment and Avery appreciated that I protected her,” I said.
Leora brought the thin white fabric to me and I nodded.
“Now, we’re changing up the action. You are still my beautiful, innocent princess, but now you have fled deep into the forest. Here, you are opening the book and intending to work the spell that will save the kingdom. Unfortunately, we can’t light a fire here. We’ll have to do a lot of work with the lighting,” I said, looking critically at her makeup. “Leora, can you work a little makeup magic for me? Don’t exaggerate, but I’d like her cheeks just a little more sunken. Eyes deeper. Don’t make a ghoul out of her. Just a subtle change.”
“We can do that,” Leora said. I left her with Rose behind the privacy screen.
I talked to Theresa and Cassie about positioning things on the set and what I wanted to achieve with the lighting. We had a boulder and a tree stump and we had the tree from the previous scene. The more three-dimensional objects we put in front of the backdrop, the less flat it would look. Cassie moved a couple of potted plants into the scene and then went to work disguising that they were potted. In the low and dramatic lighting, they just looked like part of the landscape.
I assessed what we had and nodded. It wasn’t perfect, but I thought I could filter out the difficult parts. Someday I was going to try staging scenes out of doors. I wondered how I’d handle the lighting.
“Let’s get started,” I said as I went behind the privacy screen. I loved Rose’s makeup. We started draping yards of a white gossamer over and around her. She would approach our little clearing almost as if she were a ghost. “Theresa, put a blue gel in that Fresnel that’s picking her up on this side. I don’t want the white veil to be too glow-in-the-dark.”
“Got it, boss. We can hit a bastard amber on the backlight, too.”
“Try it and let’s see what we see.”
I led Rose into the light and Theresa and I worked on the lighting. Cassie and Leora got Rose’s book and bag props and arranged her veils. It looked great and I started taking pictures. For the next two hours I worked on repositioning Rose, resetting lights, and getting the wind directed in such a way that it shifted her veils to reveal the beautiful girl beneath. We had a great scene in which Theresa managed to conceal a flashlight bulb and battery in the book so that when Rose looked at the open book, the light shone up on her face. It looked incredibly spooky.
All through the session, I moved and petted Rose, reassured her that we were getting something good, and made sure that she felt like more than a prop on the stage. The last scene I shot with her, she leaped onto the stage into the wind with the veils flowing out around her. I liked what I was seeing and we adjusted the lights and direction of the wind slightly. Then she leapt again. And again. I shot an entire roll of film just changing settings slightly and adjusting my timing to catch her exactly where I wanted her.
“We did it,” I said, moving to Rose and picking her up to carry her behind the privacy screen. She didn’t hesitate to pull my face to her and give me a deep and sizzling kiss while my hands were free with touching her breasts and delving into her pussy. She breathed out a moan of satisfaction into my mouth and we parted.
“That was better than yesterday,” she sighed. “Maybe even better than last night.”
“That was the result of creating a work of art. You were magnificent.”
Uncle Nate took Rose straight to the airport. The girls cleaned and tidied the studio. The patrons left with Levi, and Beth was called down to continue bringing them drinks and food in the office on the mezzanine. I headed for the darkroom. I went straight to the last roll of film. Cassie had them all labeled and organized for processing. I processed the roll and examined the negatives with my loupe. I wasn’t even going to do a proof sheet. I was too excited to see this one print. I did a test strip and verified that it really did contain what I thought. I loaded the enlarger with 16x20 paper and cropped to the part of the picture I wanted.
I’d learned recently that while composing a full frame photo was really a great process, there were some visions that simply didn’t fit in the square 2x2 format. I still considered the photo to be composed, but it was composed for a landscape image rather than a square one.
I’d been in the darkroom for an hour before I brought the drying photo out to the table to inspect. Elizabeth was sitting on the couch reading. The other girls had gone. She stood up and joined me at the table to see the photo.
“You did it again,” she breathed. “It’s beautiful.”
“I don’t know what those guys wanted to see, but I’m happy. I wish I’d had a copy to give to Rose before she left.”
“Better to ship it than to have her try to carry it on the plane.” Beth kissed me. “Levi wanted me to let him know when you came out. He wants to talk to you.”
“I guess I shouldn’t just drag you into the darkroom with me, then,” I chuckled.
“Your bed, tonight,” she said, kissing me again.
A few minutes later she came back with Levi in tow. Uncle Nate was with him, too. I guess I figured these two guys were different than patrons. They were more like my agents. They got models and signed releases. They got me materials and supplies. They were the ones who got me my studio. I guess that all counted as patronage, too, but I really felt differently about them.
“Nate, good session this weekend,” Levi said. “I don’t know how you manage to still stand up. Those guys were exhausted.”
“Well, I’m pretty tired, too. But take a look at this.” I handed him the photo of Rose’s leap into the wind, still on the drying plate.
“They’ll choke when they see this,” Uncle Nate said. “They were looking at the show and forgot about the product. Well-done.”
“And apparently, they figured the product would be as good as the show. They want you to spend a few weeks in Las Vegas this summer,” Levi said.
“Las Vegas? What for?”
“There are a couple of reasons. First, there’s money in Las Vegas. More money than there is in all of Chicago. Their entire business is money. They want you to be seen by the money.”
“Sounds expensive.”
“You can’t gamble or drink there, and you have your own women, so you should get off pretty cheaply.”
“What other reasons?”
“There are a lot of girls in Las Vegas who are willing to get naked for just about any reason. Basically, they want you to work full time for a few weeks with an unending supply of models, just so you can hone your work.”
“Well, that’s nice. It sounds like a lot of work. I hope they don’t expect that I’ll get something like this from every model,” I said.
“No. These guys aren’t artists, but they’ve looked at your gallery and albums. They know works like this only come along once in every couple of dozen models. They’ll be happy with more of the Attic Allure photos,” Uncle Nate said.
“That presents a problem,” I mused. “I have a studio full of junk here and another one in Tenbrook. Do they think I’ll move everything to Las Vegas?”
“No. But believe me when I say there’s a lot of junk in Las Vegas that they’ll be moving into a studio space for you.”
“Okay. Well.” I looked at Elizabeth and she was nodding enthusiastically. “When do they want me there?”
“In the most miserable time of the year,” Levi said. “I can’t think of anyplace less comfortable than Las Vegas in July.”
Of course, I spent a good bit of the evening—after Beth and I made love and she went to her room in the dorm—out on the payphone with Ronda. I knew I could get hold of her and tell her about what had transpired. I wasn’t always sure where Patricia was, so I never called any of her numbers late at night. Anna had a shared phone in her apartment complex that was about as dependable as mine.
“They just want you to go to Las Vegas for a month and take pictures of models they send you so you can hone your skills,” Ronda repeated. “They didn’t say anything else about what they wanted you to do?”
“That was all Levi and Uncle Nate could tell me.”
“They’re lying. I don’t mean your uncle or Levi. I mean your patrons. How many philanthropists have you ever heard of who just supported a single artist and tried to get him better? Since the Renaissance?” Ronda asked. “There are grant programs that offer money to individuals in certain areas, but no philanthropists who just single out an artist and have any thought of how to help the artist. They all figure there is a way to make money off the artist. They’ve got another agenda.”
“So, you don’t think I should go?”
“I didn’t say that! Of course you should go! I’m just saying they’re going to want something else. And when they tell you what they want, they’ll have you in a corner where you can’t say no.”
“They all know I won’t do porn,” I said.
“Is that as firm as no sex in the studio?” Ronda dug at me. “That’s finally gotten down to no fucking, except in the darkroom, hasn’t it?”
“Geez. I really blurred the lines up royally, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, but don’t worry about that. They aren’t a national border. We’ll never invade Cambodia, right?”
“I should probably turn the opportunity down,” I said. “Summer is the only time we all have to be together and I’d be gone for a month.”
“From Beth’s reaction, it sounds like she’ll go with you. I have no reason to stay behind. I’ll go with you. I’m willing to bet Anna and Patricia will go with us, too. You’re going to need assistants and who better than us?”
“You’d do that, Ronda?”
“Believe in me, Nate. Like I believe in you.”
The weekend was quickly approaching for Starr’s big comedy debut. It was a pretty cool thing. The college theatre set aside a weekend for standup comedy. It would all be students who would get ten minutes each on stage. Anna was coming into town and planned to be there for Starr’s big opening. She’d planned to come into Chicago soon anyway to go over books and make sure we were tracking with the crew.
I picked Anna up at the bus station at four in the afternoon and we went to the studio so she could greet everyone. Elizabeth had already told us that she would not be available for dinner before the show and that we should just come into the theatre at the appointed time and not tell her where we were sitting. She did have a bit of pre-show jitters.
I don’t think Anna and I had much to eat either. Sympathetic jitters? We were at the theatre right on time and sat about mid-way back so we weren’t in a direct line of sight from where the performers would be. We’d be just a little bit off to stage right. The first performer was pretty good, but I thought he did an awful lot of cursing in his routine. I guess that was popular among some of the big names in comedy. Lenny Bruce had made vulgarity his theme until he died a couple of years ago. Richard Pryor was known to toss out a few bombs, as was Dick Gregory. Don Rickles made his whole schtick up by insulting people in the audience.
The next comedian was a guy who just kept pulling stuff out of a bag and tossing out one-liners to go with it. Like he opened up a purse and a flame shot out of it. “Hell in a handbasket,” the comedian said. Then he tossed that aside and pulled something else out. He’d probably have a blast in the studio props closet.
Finally, it was time. “Ladies and Gentlemen! Please welcome to the stage, Starr!” the announcer said. And then she was out there on stage bowing as people applauded. I think they were applauding her looks. She was in a leotard and a tutu. And she looked pretty damn yummy. She even had her new trademark eye makeup.
Hi! Hi! I’m Starr. Oh, you guys are so nice! It’s my tutu, isn’t it. Everybody loves a girl in a tutu.
Okay, I’m going to get the controversial stuff out of the way right away. There’s no sense having this hanging over our heads waiting for the axe to fall, so to speak. I’m a feminist. Don’t groan. I have good reasons. And that’s one of them.
I know the very mention of feminists brings on images of bra-burning bitches who hate men. I don’t hate men. I have one of my own. But if you are among those who have had that hateful contraption forced on you since puberty—which excludes all you men—you have some sympathy for the women who set the puppies free and burned their leash.
We women have been taught from infancy to protect, support, lift and separate, underwire, and pad our boobs. We have spent a portion of every day since puberty strapped into a painful harness that chafes, pinches, and compresses. Yes! Burn the damned things!
Now I can see you all—at least all you men—cocking your heads and squinting your eyes to see if I’m wearing a bra. No. I’m not. I have something better. Let me show you. It only takes a minute to pull this leotard down. You don’t mind waiting for this, do you?
There! See? The very latest technology of the bullet-proof vest. This baby is fantastic. It’s lightweight and comfortable. And it fully accomplishes the number one reason for wearing a padded bra. The reason women wear padded bras isn’t to make us look bigger. It’s to put a layer of protection between our sensitive little boobies and men’s groping hands. I tell you, you grab hold of my chest while I’m wearing this beauty and neither you nor I feel a thing.
Of course, that wasn’t the reason I became a feminist. It was just a nice side benefit. I became a feminist because men are just too much damned work. But I like men! What to do?
I have found a great solution to the problem. I have three sister girlfriends. We share one boyfriend. Oh, don’t jump to the conclusion that we’re a bunch of carpet-munching lesbians, providing entertainment for our man and all his buddies. No, no.>
I’m afraid a lot of women have the wrong idea about this. Don’t I get jealous? No. Girls, let me ask you: When you’ve had a hard day, you just got your period, your boss yelled at you, you scratched the car… Do you call your boyfriend and talk it out with him? Noooo. You call your girlfriend. You want someone who understands.
And you’ve already heard everything your boyfriend has to say on the subject. You don’t need him repeating the same old solution yet again. That’s not why you want to talk to someone. You want sympathy. You want agreement. You want reinforcement. All the things you get from a girlfriend!
You ladies who are out there dating and trying to find Mr. Right should consider your girlfriend’s boyfriend and suggest you share him. Because here’s a little-known fact. Guys have just three conversations in them. That first date, oh, he’s so funny and charming. The second date, he’s really smart. The third date, he’s such a caring and sensitive person. But if you aren’t sleeping with him on the fourth date, he’s repeating himself. He’s used up all his date conversation. At that point, he has three things to fall back on: Sports, politics, and sex. You’ve heard everything else.
I have a boyfriend for those few times a month when I need an itch scratched in a particular way or need furniture moved. The nice part about having four girls share a boyfriend is that we’re only on duty like twice a week. And once a month we get an extra night off! And you know that with four girls, there’s always one who will pick up the slack if you just don’t feel like it. You probably already know which of your girlfriends that would be. Always willing. Slut.
Oh! Gee! My time’s up. You guys have been so nice. I’m Starr. That’s with two ‘r’s and a big Ass. Ess! A big ess. Does this tutu make my ass look big?
In my opinion, she was the funniest of ten comedians who performed. It was a kind of contest and the audience voted by cheering for the comedian they liked best. The top five moved on to perform again Saturday night with five more comedians. Starr would definitely be performing Saturday.
We met Beth backstage after the show and were invited along to a party at the home of one of the directors. It was an apartment west of the Loop a few blocks. We stopped and picked up a bunch of broasted chicken on our way as our contribution to the party. We were buzzed through a security door by a guard and went to the fourteenth-floor apartment. I didn’t know much about theatre parties. Anna and I were about overwhelmed by the number of people, the smell of marijuana, the kegs of beer, and the food.
All the performers were at the party, including those who would be up the next night. We got to meet several and congratulate them on their routines. Elizabeth… or Starr was extremely popular in the group and entertained by introducing me as her boyfriend and Anna as one of her sister girlfriends.
“Um… Starr said you’re the photographer who did her promo shots,” a cute short brunette said. “Oh, I’m Murphy Travis. I’ll be performing tomorrow night. They took the four female comediennes and split us between the two nights so we wouldn’t all be on the same night. So, it turns out we’ll all be on the same show tomorrow night since Starr and Sonia both got bumped to a second performance.” She lowered her voice. “I almost feel bad for the five guys who got left behind. They were so sure five males would be moved to tomorrow.”
“Uh… Yes. I’m Beth’s boyfriend and I am a photographer,” I said when I had a chance to get a word in.
“So, can I get a photo done?”
“Oh, sure. I have a pretty simple system. There’s a $40 sitting fee and for that you get one portrait and one Attic Allure glamour photo. You can order as many additional as you’d like at regular rates of $5 for an 8x10,” I said, handing her a card.
“Do you have anything like a poor student rate?” she asked.
“I… um… I have a process by which a girl can become a model if we both agree. That gives me the right to use any of the photos I take of her and I direct her poses for a couple of hours in order to get something usable for both of us.”
“Oh, that sounds easy enough.”
“Anna? Could you perhaps explain the modeling contract to Murphy? It sounds better when a woman explains it,” I said.
“Sure. Are there any other girls you think might want photos?” Anna asked Murphy.
“You’re really, like, Beth’s sister girlfriend? Wow! I think Sonia and Trixie would both like to hear this. We were all admiring Starr’s promo photo.” She threaded her way through the crowd to where the other girls were standing. Beth came back with them and attached herself to me as Anna sat with the other three girls.
“Theatre parties can be a real meat market,” Beth said. “The atmosphere in theatre is almost like it is in your studio. But there are a whole bunch of guys instead of just you. Girls pretty much go two-by-two or else attach themselves to one guy at parties. It can be really uncomfortable to get singled out by a guy you aren’t the least bit interested in.”
“Anna’s explaining the modeling contract to the other performers,” I said.
“Yeah. I think she just reached the nudity part. All three sort of sat back.”
“I hope I never have to be embarrassed by listening to her explain things.”
“I’ve crashed,” Beth said, sagging against me. “Why don’t you take us up to my house. We might as well be comfy tonight.”
Anna was laughing with the three performers and I caught her eye to indicate we were ready to head out. She quickly got two more of my cards from me to give to Sonia and Trixie. Then she linked my other arm and we headed out.
Elizabeth and I made love Friday night with Anna cuddled up against us. Anna and I made love in the morning while Beth slept. Then the two of us headed down to the studio to meet with the other girls and Levi. Beth stayed in bed and would have Deke drive her to the theatre late in the afternoon. Anna and I would be in the audience again.
The six of us gathered around the table in the studio and Levi started the meeting.
“That photo,” he said, pointing to Rose’s image that looked like she was flying. “That photo made a big impression on Nate’s patrons who came to watch him work two weeks ago. I can’t actually even say it was the photo. It was watching Nate get the photo. They could all see it taking shape.”
“It’s another beautiful photo. It reminds me of Avery under the streetlamp,” Anna said. She pointed to the picture of Avery that I also had hanging in the gallery.
“The difference was that I had to come up with an idea and get it to work with her in a studio. With Avery, the idea was out there in the fog and I had to run around looking for a model to put in it,” I laughed.
“Well, what Nate has probably not told you or explained fully is that the guys who were here want Nate and his crew to go to Las Vegas for a month this summer to take pictures of various showgirls and create unique Attic Allure photos. If possible, art. The guys all understand the difference between getting a good Attic Allure glamour photo and connecting for a piece of art. They know art doesn’t just appear every time you take a picture,” Levi said.
“That’s a relief,” I said. “But why do they really want me to come to Vegas? You and Uncle Nate explained that they want to provide a place where I can hone my talent. But that doesn’t really seem reasonable. I could just stay here and shoot pictures all summer and it would cost a lot less.”
“You’re right. You’ll be observed most of the time you’re working. Two of the guys who were watching you work weren’t patrons. Technically, half a dozen of them weren’t. One was a writer and one was a producer. Others were the money behind producing something. They want the writer and possibly a producer and director to observe you. They’ll work on a story and script to make a movie out of,” Levi said.
“A movie? Seriously?” I said. The girls were all looking at me with open mouths.
“As I understand it, they don’t plan to use you as an actor, or any of the girls you photograph this summer. It’s to be so they get a realistic view into how you work and how you relate to the models. As good as your art is, your story isn’t particularly a movie script. They’ll invent the whole story, but they’ll use your art as a principal resource. And they will probably have you do the actual photos they want to show in whatever the story is.”
“Nate, that’s wonderful. Maybe I could come and visit while you’re there,” Anna said.
“Not exactly, Anna,” Levi said. “Three of the patrons have met you in Tenbrook, if you recall. Part of the mystique of Attic Allure is the girls who help make it happen. They want as many of you to work on the project as possible and will pay everyone to go to Vegas in July.”
“Everyone?” Theresa asked.
“Yes. That includes you three, Beth, and however many of the Tenbrook girls and girlfriends of Nate’s he can convince to come along.”
I sat back and just shook my head. Take all four of my girlfriends to Vegas with me for a month? Hell, yes! I immediately wondered if I could get Chris to join us. Maybe this would draw her back. I wondered how many I’d manage to get to come along.
The first disappointment was Leora. She was graduating in June and moving to New York.
“I was planning to tell you this week,” she said. “I’ve really had a blast working with you and playing with all the junk. Playing with Theresa filled some nice hours, too. I’d love to do another photo session with you before we’re done. Can we fit me in?”
“I think so. Leora, you’ve really made a big difference in the studio. Your touch with makeup and costumes has been really valuable to me. It will be hard to replace you. Why don’t we do it this weekend? Next week I’m going to be studying for finals and we’ve kept that weekend open.”
“That works for me. We… uh… don’t need to call any of the other girls in to work that day. I’ll move my own props.”
I had a feeling she just didn’t want anyone else around while I gave her the full Attic Allure treatment. That was fine with me.
But it left me in a bind when it came to having a full staff. I was bemoaning my situation in my study group as they looked at the photos from my session with Rose.
“I’d love to watch you work sometime,” Leslie said. “You get such creative poses.”
“Well, it happens that I’m looking for a new assistant to handle makeup and costumes. Interested?”
“You’ve got to be kidding. You don’t want another photographer as an assistant,” Leslie laughed. “I’d always want to be behind the lens. ‘Oh, Nate. You need to have her tilt her head up just a little more and cover that nipple.’ Can’t you just imagine?”
“That would be a fertile environment for murder,” I laughed. “And I don’t believe in that kind of stuff, so you’d probably end up killing me.”
“I’d make it as painless as possible.”
“I’d have too many other issues to deal with,” Carrie said. “First, I’d want to be naked all the time. Second, I’d want every shot to have the correct political slant. Like, this is beautiful, but what does it say about women in the world today? You know?”
“Well, it probably isn’t that good an idea to just hire friends in the studio anyway. Though it worked well back in Tenbrook. It was just my gang that was hanging out. And with Chris not playing with us anymore, I don’t have anyone to fill the makeup role,” I moaned.
“So, just because I’m Asian, you don’t count me as a possible candidate?” Leanne demanded. “Look up at your wall. You’ve got white and black. You’ve got no Asians. You’ve never taken a picture of one. You’re prejudiced!”
“No! I’m not, really! The opportunity to photograph an Asian woman has never come my way. Would you like to model for me, Leanne?”
“Me? Oh, hell no. I mean… Well, if it’s like part of the initiation to become an assistant, I guess I’d do it. It would be good to know what models go through when in your hands. Why couldn’t I be your assistant?”
“I… Well, it’s possible. Are you good with makeup?”
“Dummy! Technical theatre is my major. My focus is makeup. We met in lighting class. I’m in a props class this semester. Why didn’t you ask me straight up?” Leanne asked.
“Um… in all fairness, I didn’t really ask Leslie, Carrie, or Devon. Leslie and Carrie just launched into reasons they couldn’t do it. Devon could certainly handle makeup. He’s great at it.”
“No,” Devon said flatly.
“That’s what I thought. So, are you really interested, Leanne?”
“Yes. I could even get you some Asian models. Better ones than my fat ass would be. Am I pretty enough to be one of your assistants?”
“I want you to come to the studio with me on Sunday. I’ll show you just how pretty you are.”
“Ooo. Sounds like Leanne has been challenged,” Carrie laughed. “Devon and I have both done it. You should definitely experience it.”
“Okay. I will!”
That sure filled up my weekend.
“Welcome to Attic Allure, Leora,” I said when she got there Saturday afternoon.
“I’ve kind of been here a lot, you know.”
“Ah, but this time you are my guest and my model. And you are heading off to a new career in New York! How exciting!”
“It is, you know? I just got word last week that I’d been hired. It’s an entry position, reading manuscripts and sending rejections, but it’s a start.”
“You should have a new headshot for the company to display when you get promoted or discover the next great American novel,” I said. “This is a nice professional blouse.”
I smoothed the silk blouse over her shoulders and led her to the stool with the standard portrait background.
“I bought it as the first item of my new wardrobe for New York.”
“Well, I have something new, too. Levi has loaned me a 4x5 camera and I’m ready with some really fine grade film. If this works right, you’ll look like you could step off the paper.”
“Really? That’s exciting.”
“Now, honey, I want you to sit nice and straight here and give me a little smile. Don’t overdo it. Just a little. Oh, that will be nice. Let me adjust the lights a little.”
It took about twenty minutes of looking through the lens and then adjusting lights and her position before I was ready to take the picture. One thing about using a 4x5 camera was that I would take far fewer shots. The negative was loaded in a carrier and slipped into the back of the camera. When I tripped the shutter, I would pull the negative out of the camera (still in the carrier) and flip it around to take a picture with film loaded in the other side. Then, I’d set it aside to process. Then I’d put another carrier with two sheets of film in the camera. I’d probably end up with six shots, total, although the way the film carrier allowed for putting two sheets of film in so that it could just be reversed did speed things up a bit. There was another little problem – just something to get used to – in that the image I was composing on the ground glass back of the camera was upside down. In a way, it was helpful, because it forced me to look at the image as an abstract composition, though it did make sizing up facial expressions a bit harder.
During the process of getting them, I teased Leora into different smiles and smoothed her blouse and her skirt freely. The blouse was shiny amber satin and would look fantastic in black and white. It tied with a floppy bow at her throat and I experimented with several different positions for it, being sure to glide over her breasts as I arranged things.
“Just enough foundation to support the girls today. I like that. You look very natural and not padded out,” I said.
“I went to Beth’s show last weekend,” she said. “I learned a few things about bras. About how they are used as armor. She’s right. So, I decided that if I didn’t really want to be bulletproof, I should wear something less padded.”
“I see. I’m glad you aren’t bulletproof.”
“Why did neither of you ever tell us she was your girlfriend? All this time, we thought she was a representative of one of the patrons.”
“We never thought it was important to bring our personal relationship into the studio. When I mentioned it to Rose, it started to inhibit her.”
“She got past that. And I don’t feel inhibited at all.”
“Good,” I said. I untied the bow and unbuttoned the top two buttons of the blouse. “There’s no reason we shouldn’t have a less formal portrait, too.”
I finished up with the portraits and switched over to the Hasselblad for us to continue our Attic Allure photos. I took Leora behind the privacy screen, even though no one else was in the studio, and removed the pretty silk blouse. I carefully hung it on a padded hanger. She waited patiently while I unzipped her nice professional skirt and slipped it off her.
I looked at her and had her turn around. She was wearing her bra, panties, and pantyhose.
“You know, there is just something about pantyhose that I don’t like,” I said. “I think I’m going to suggest to Beth that she put pantyhose on the same list as bras when it comes to armor.”
“I certainly won’t object to you taking them off me. My legs like to breathe,” Leora laughed. I pulled her hose down over her butt and had her sit down so I could remove them from her silky legs. I massaged her legs a little after the pantyhose were gone and she liked that.
“Someday maybe we’ll live in a world of bare legs all the time. That would put a crimp in an entire industry, wouldn’t it?”
“I’m in.”
“I want to set up a little desk for you,” I said. “We need a lamp and a stack of paper. In fact, as much paper as we can find that is just loose paper.”
We went to work finding the needed props and setting up the stage. I’d start out with a medium toned backdrop. This was going to be an Attic Allure shot that showed Leora in her natural habitat. As natural as I could get her, in fact.
“There’s a whole file box of papers here,” Leora said from a corner of the props closet.
“Perfect. This reading lamp will work and I found a library chair.”
We moved things to the setting and I started focusing lights, with Leora’s help. It wasn’t often that I had her in just her undies when I was setting a scene to photograph. It usually meant there was a client. It was nice to touch her as we set things up.
“We need to start with your blouse on,” I said as I focused the camera.
“You just got me out of it.”
“I’ll get you out of it again, but we need a first shot of you working at the desk like you were already in New York.”
“Is that what this is?” she asked.
“This stack of papers is all the manuscripts that are already piled on the desk, waiting for you to get to New York,” I said as I slipped the blouse over her arms. I smoothed it over her boobs and buttoned it, then tied the bow.
“I need my skirt.”
“No. I won’t be taking the picture down that far. It will just be your top.”
I got her positioned and found her glasses in her purse. From there the photos went well. I did get her out of the blouse again, and then out of her bra as we moved from the desk to an easy chair with a reading lamp. I kept stacks of paper around her in each position and even stacked more paper on top.
Finally, we got the daybed out and made up. I removed her panties and paid attention to fluffing her pubic hair, even though I didn’t plan to show it clearly. She moved her feet apart so I could have better access between her legs and I found her moist and pushing against my fingers.
I picked her up and laid her on the bed, fussing over positions of pillows and running my hands up and down her body. Then I started stacking the papers around her so it looked like she was lying in bed reading manuscripts.
I got a nice picture of her with her tongue between her teeth and one hand between her legs as she read ‘a steamy romance.’ After the pictures were finished, I sat on the bed next to her and helped her get even steamier. We kissed and I sucked her nipples as she spread her legs for my questing fingers. Before long, she came and hugged me tight.
“We’re not done,” she whispered.
“We aren’t?”
“We need to take all the film to the darkroom and process it.”
Of course, her idea of processing the film was simply to leave it all sitting on the counter while she got me seated, rolled a condom on my cock, and planted herself on me. I’d worry about processing the film later.
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
