Chapter 32 Mystery Client
The sound of Meka Okuda's squeaky office chair made my fillings ache.
"You ever considered oiling that thing?" I complained.
"Oiling what thing?" Meka asked absently as she worked on a drawing in her sketch book.
The digital clock on a shelf near the door said that it was twenty minutes to noon, Li Hong would be here any moment. Almost against my will, I reached into my bag to feel the thick envelope of cash Meka had given me a couple of hour ago. One thousand five hundred dollars in twenties had such a unique feel and weight.
"That's the tenth time you felt up that money, "Meka said not looking up from her sketching. "Why don't you just rub it against your body and get it over with already."
I pealed two twenties from the envelope, held one in each hand and rubbed the bills over my shirt covered nipples and gasped with passion.
Meka looked up from her drawing with a frown. "You fucking lolo weirdo," she said. Her cell rang, she looked at the incoming number then flipped it opened. "This is Meka, talk to me." A couple minutes later she shut her phone and said, "Deirdre Kaahumanu Smith will be my second tonight."
"Super Goth girl?" I blurted out.
"I've heard her called less flattering things," Meka said with a laugh.
"It's the way she dresses sometimes," I said, "over the top even for a Goth."
What I knew about Deirdre Kaahumanu Smith filtered through my brain. The girl was of Hawaiian and Caucasian mix. Her features classic Hawaiian yet her skin was ghostly white giving her a very exotic look, plus she was tall, at five-eight, maybe more and the chick was one hundred percent pure militant lesbian.
We joke in the painting department, that a person's body piercings is a gauge to one's lack of artistic talent. In other words, the greater the amount of piercings the more you sucked. But Deirdre the goth lesbian is a rare exception to the rule. Her photo portrait work is outstanding, although her subject matter, mainly other goth lesbians, has become a bit repetitive.
A knock came at the door. Meka got up and opened it. Standing outside Meka's studio was an extremely beautiful Asian girl at five foot six inches tall. Her hair cut short like a boys. She wore a clinging cream colored top with short sleeves, jeans and black running shoes. Her figure was tight and athletic. It was of course the famous Li Hong.
"David didn't come with you?" Meka asked. I heard the pang of disappointment in her voice.
You like this David guy, I immediately thought.
"He gave no indication he was coming," Li said.
Meka allowed Li to step in, and then closed the door behind her. It took all my will power not to gush like a wide eyed celebrity worshiping fan. After Don Ho and Brother Iz, Li Hong was the most recognizable celebrity in the islands. Meka introduced me.
"This is Gwen Yoshimura my assistant."
"Hi," Li said with a smile just for me it seemed.
A dorky smile of my own spread across my face. I wanted to tell her how awesome she was and if she could sign a picture of her that I didn't have. Fortunately, Meka pushed me aside before I started babbling like an idiot.
"Please sit and we'll talk about the shoot." Meka said.
Li nodded and sat on Meka's small loveseat sofa. The loveseat was the same size as the one in my studio, but that's where all similarities stopped. My loveseat was a ratty rundown piece of shit I got from Goodwill. Meka's on the other hand, was made of dark brown suede, plush and surely free of bugs. I sat next to Li and Meka sat across from us in her squeaky office chair.
"So what's your vision?" Li Hong asked Meka directly.
"I see you standing on a diving board in a white evening dress," Meka said all business. "You dive fully dressed. I take photos of you on the way down and more as you climbing out looking sexy in the wet garment. I photograph you taking off the dress then shoot you diving again in the nude."
"Where do we do this?" Li asked.
"Don't know yet," Meka said, "I'm waiting for David to tell me. Do you own a white evening dress?" Before Li could answer Meka waved her hands. "Never mind, it would only get ruined. We'll buy one for the shoot." Meka handed me a credit card. "You and Gwen can get one later." Meka fetched her sketchbook, shooed me from the loveseat, and then sat next to Li. Li tapped the armrest next to her indicating I should sit there so I could see too. Meka's thumbnail sketches of the photo poses were elegant and to the point. The sketches were very good; the chick certainly can draw.
"When did you do these?" Li asked impressed by the drawings too.
"Today" Meka said. Just then Meka's cell rang. "It's David," she announced and took the call. After listening and nodding for a few seconds she said goodby and shut her phone. "We have a location for the shoot. A pool at a community college not far from here. The place will be cleared of people for the shoot at five today."
"Can I see some of your photos?" Li asked as she closed the sketch book. Meka nodded went to a shelf full of books and pulled down a large photo album. For the next few minutes Li and I looked at Meka's work. The woman certainly had a knack for quirky portraiture.
"I like that one," I said looking at a color photo of a pretty Asian girl in a black sleeveless dress. She held a smoldering cigarette in one hand and a glass of champagne in the other. The expression on the girls face was somewhere between a smile and a frown. Her black hair, pinned up but just barely for much of it spilled out around the edges. As pretty and quirky as the model was, it was the odd surreal element of the planet Jupiter with a field of stars dominating the background that held my attention.
"I never got her name," Meka said. "She was from Tokyo I think. I met her at a grad mixer thrown by the Astronomy department. The background is a mural in a hallway. That was the only shot I took of her."
Li turned the page and the next photo was a sexy picture of Meka wearing just a white dress shirt standing facing forward, her dark nipples just barely visible through the material of the shirt.
"I like it, very sexy," Li said.
I suppressed a smile as Meka blush.
