If I had known about the stunt that Greta and Amy had planned I probably would have tried to stop them from staging it, because I would not have been sure that it would work as well as it did. But I would have been underestimating Amy's confidence and her ability to get away with almost anything she did, and it certainly worked out well for Greta and me. In the days following the show, Amy's performance was the hottest topic on local talkback radio, one that kept on coming up again and again. The community was divided between the people who said, "Good on her, I wish we could all be so uninhibited", and the ones who said she should have been locked up or said she needed her sinful soul to be saved. Amy was interviewed by both radio and TV, and the newspapers carried pictures of her and some of my artworks.
Now, three weeks later, the novelty of being the center of attention was wearing a bit thin for both of us, but especially for Amy, who was starting to feel a bit hounded, and her comment about me getting the fortune while all she got was 25 bucks an hour and her bare ass in the paper was true. This had already been bothering me before she said it out loud, and the last thing I wanted was for Amy to feel resentful and lose her enthusiasm for what we were doing. The money wasn't important to me, but my artistic development was, and my work had improved out of sight since Amy had moved in with me. For that alone I was extremely indebted to her.
"Did you see what came in the mail this morning?" I asked her, as she was about to kneel up on the dais and take up the pose again.
"No, you know I don't read your mail."
I handed her Greta's cheque for all the pictures she had sold. It was minus the gallery's commission and expenses of course, but it was still a very substantial amount of money. Amy's eyes widened when she saw it.
"Wow, is this all yours? That's wonderful, I'm so pleased for you."
"No, it's not all mine. Here's your half", I said, handing her another cheque, this time one signed by me.
"You're kidding me, Sam. You know I can't take this."
"Why not?"
"Because... it's yours. Because I didn't earn it. Because you already paid me for my bit. Because it's not right."
"But I think it is right. Look at it this way, Amy. Greta would normally sell about half the works on display. She sold all of the current exhibition for three times what my stuff usually sells for, so this cheque from her is about six times as much as a show would normally bring me. Even if I give you half, I'm still well in front, and I wouldn't have any of it if it wasn't for you."
"But..."
"No arguments. We were partners in this project, remember. It's yours. I insist."
Amy looked at the cheque in disbelief. She shook her head, then smiled at me.
"That's great, thank you, Sam. But you've got a problem. You'll have to get another model, now, because I quit. I'm rich enough not to have to work for another 12 months." She saw my face drop, and nearly wet herself laughing. "JOKE! You goose, Sam. If you think I'd stop modelling for you now, you must be crazy."