A week later, I was in town shopping. The twin sisters were busy being artists, as they had been for the whole time since the trauma of the nude study. Beth had been instructed in canvas stretching and mounting, and there was a pile ready for Marie. She had also been instructed by Jason in the mysteries of Photoshop and image manipulation. I had made a trip to town for a high end photo printer and fiendishly expensive photo paper. Images in 8x10 and 16x20 were on the wall in the stairwell. They had decided on a self-imposed limit of twenty for their little gallery. This made them more critical and choosy as additional prints were produced.
Chapter 5 - Jason's Images are Saleable
I had a folder of a dozen of their recent prints that had been up on the wall, but taken down. They were very nice and the woman who ran the tourist shop in town was impressed. A portrait layout of Marie in shadow caught her attention immediately.
"This is really excellent. Your work?" she looked at me.
"I took the image, my girlfriend provided the body."
The woman, who was very trim, said, "I'll take my clothes off for you, anytime. I'm divorced, but have a new man friend, who would love to have one of these of me."
I asked, "What should the price of this one be?"
She looked at it critically. "In a real gallery, not a nickel under $1000. Out here in the sticks with the tourists, it needs to be $295. Does that work?"
"Yes. Would you like to see more?"
We looked through the rest and the woman, whose name was Anita, said, "They will all sell, especially if we only post two or three at a time. Unfortunately, I can only pay you after they are sold."
She was standing next to me at the counter, looking at the prints over my shoulder. The attraction was mutual and noticed. I said, "You have been very kind. If you like, I will photograph you without charge for being nice to me and my women friends."
The gap between us vanished, and hips were touching. "We are closed on Tuesdays. Does tomorrow work for you?"
"You are going to have a hard time explaining this to your boyfriend, especially if the print is a surprise gift."
"Yes, you are absolutely right. He can be very jealous. But he is away this week on business, so I am free to pose and model." Her hip nudged me.
There was no one in the shop at the moment, so I wrapped my arm around her and said, "You should come for dinner. I want to photograph you at dusk and at dawn." I sketched a map to the cabin and made a date for cocktails and dinner at six.
I turned to go, but she said, "Just a sec." The kiss was firm and wet and lasted.
My hand pressed her to me so she could feel a stiff projection between her legs. "See you at six." She was left panting.
Over lunch, we discussed the morning's successes, and the potential income. "I think the models should get 80%, after expenses, don't you?
They looked at me with round eyes. "No shit, Jason. Money for our naughty pictures? You didn't tell her who we are, did you?"
I laughed and said, "I only mentioned one model and said she was my girlfriend."
"It gets better. She is very attractive and wants one like yours for her boyfriend. She is coming here for dinner tonight and staying over so she can be photographed at dusk and at dawn."
They stared at me. "Here?"
"She gave me a torrid kiss on the way out the door."
Beth looked over, "He is not only a studly photographer, he is a wayward studly photographer." The two of them burst out laughing. "And we thought we had you to ourselves."
The laughing went on until I said, "After dinner, she has to get naked for me to do my thing. After it is dark and I am done, what do we do with naked Anita?" I smiled.
The words tumbled out, "You're not, you wouldn't, really?"
"She won't talk. The boyfriend would beat her. She wouldn't have any more prints to sell. Besides, maybe she likes it. Maybe she likes all three of us."
Beth climbed into Marie's lap and they kissed and giggled, "God, this is better than college."
I called Anita after lunch and inquired if she would like to come early for a sail and a swim. She was excited about that and said she would close at three-thirty and come right out.
Marie and Beth were into the swing of the "photo shoot," and decided they would be shopping when Anita arrived, so she could relax with me before dinner. It was agreed that they would be just my friends Marie and Beth, although they doubted the subterfuge would last, with the obvious family resemblance.
Anita drove an aged Triumph roadster and arrived just at four with a throaty roar. I went down to meet her and received a nice bottle of wine, along with a quick kiss. "I can't believe you are doing this."
We went inside and I showed her the back bedroom, half of which was my computer gear and the printer. "I hope you don't mind the mess, I need a relatively dark space to work on the images."
We walked down to the boat. She had a modest but very smart looking bikini on, and the body inside of it was fine. Fine for photography, and fine for other things too, I suspected. Women who gave me spontaneous kisses were high on my list.
It was a warm afternoon with a nice breeze. Anita handled the main sheet like a champ. I used my smartphone for some candids. You never knew what you might catch in the way of a good image.
I fixed her a cushion and gave her my windbreaker for the ride back. With her eyes closed, Anita said, "I could get used to this. When I divorced, I discovered there was no money. My lawyer got the court to keep me out of his debts, but I had to go to work. After ten years, I own that store and am living ok. Not great, but ok."
I reached for her hand and squeezed it. "I admire women with the toughness to survive in the real world. I'm not there yet. Still have to finish school."
"I like kissing you. Is your girlfriend going to be jealous if I steal a few more?"
I kissed her hand as the boat approached the dock. Beth was there to take the mooring line. I took care of the sails as they said hello to each other and Beth asked for a hug. Anita said, "Are you the woman in the photographs?"
Beth nodded and Anita said, "Wow. He does magical things with a woman's body."
Beth smiled and said, "Yes, he does. Surprises me all the time."
As we walked up to the deck, I could tell Anita was desperately trying to add up two and two. Her thinking fell completely apart when we encountered Marie at the head of the stairs. She and Beth were in identical sundresses. Neither had anything on under the dresses and I wondered if Anita noticed.
I took drink orders and went to the kitchen, leaving poor Anita to try to figure out what was going on. The simmering beef stew smelled terrific. Her bottle of Merlot would go nicely with it.
As I returned to the deck with a tray of drinks, Anita was looking at me accusingly. "You tricked me. They showed me the prints on the stairs. You and they have to be pros."
He looked blandly at the twins. "Pros?"