At 21 I thought I knew it all. I had decided that I didn't need college and ended up working for slave wages at some office building in town. I wasn't even sure what the company did. I just made the coffee and filed the files, but I knew that if I caught the eye of the right person I had the potential to go places. It was a big company. I kept my skirts short.
We had something to do with books or paper, which I knew because a good portion of our clients were teachers and authors. I was doing my best to look busy one day to avoid answering the phone when one of many good-looking professor types walked in.
He was probably 45, but extremely handsome. Salt and pepper hair suited some, and it just made him sexier. He smiled at me and I fought to keep my face straight.
"Can I help you?" I asked, eyes down.
"I'm here for Lyle Burgess."
I had no idea who Lyle Burgess was. I gestured vaguely to the waiting area. Someone else would eventually deal with him as long as I never looked him in the eye.
Instead of sitting, he smiled again and took a step closer.
"I'm Andrew Talbott. I'm a professor at the university and I'm hoping to discuss printing my textbook with Lyle. Is he in?"
He was speaking to me like I was an idiot. I kept my eyes down and simply shrugged. Confirming his suspicions, I'm sure.
"Miss?" he was leaning forward and whispering now. "Miss, are you ok?"
I finally met his gaze and sighed. His blue eyes were piercing. I took a deep breath.
"I'm sorry. I just... I don't know who Lyle Burger is and I really don't care. I just want you to go away."
He stared at me for a moment, eyebrows raised.
"Lyle Burgess is your boss, I assume. He's the manager of this office." He looked me up and down. "How much do they pay you an hour?"
"They don't. I'm a full time intern so I make $110 a week."
"What the fuck?"
He shouted louder than he probably meant to and a few people looked up from their desks. Andrew flashed them a Colgate smile and they grinned, turning back to their work. He stepped in even closer to me then. I could smell his cologne.
"You're telling me that they pay you $100 for 40 hours of work. You realize that's $2.75 an hour right?"
"Whatever," I said miserably. "What are you, a math professor?"
He grinned. "Nope. Anatomy. How would you like to make $250?"
It took a moment for his words to sink in. "Wait. What? Make $250? How?"
"Well, Miss... what is your name?"
"Oh right. I'm Lila. Salinas. Sorry."
"Not at all, I apologize for not asking. Now I'll answer your question with another question. How modest are you, Lila?"
How modest was I? 'Extremely!' I wanted to shout. 'My mother is Amish!' But I looked down at my skirt, so short it rode halfway up my butt when I sat down. I looked at my shirt, a white blouse "accidentally" worn with a black bra. I knew I couldn't claim modesty.
"I'm not... I'm not modest."
His grin grew wider. "Excellent. I teach an extra-curricular anatomy class for freshman at the University and our model backed out last minute. It's an ongoing thing, every Tuesday at 5pm starting tomorrow. And it pays $250 each night you show up and model for the whole hour."
"Model... For an anatomy class. What does that mean? It sounds sexual."
He chuckled. "Well, it's whole body anatomy. Or, think of it more like a nude model for an art class. That's the biggest thing you need to come to terms with: the nudity. Are you ok being naked in front of strangers?"
I stared at him for a minute or so. That was a lot to take in. I had a few questions first.
"How big is the class?"
"About 12 students."
"Are any of them going to touch me?"
"It can be helpful for them to be able to touch different muscles and bones on your body but that's up to you."
"Are you going to touch me?"
He put his hands up and smiled. "Only in the most professional manner. I could lose my job otherwise. So what do you think?"
I pretended I needed to think about it, but an extra $250 a week to stand naked in front of 15 strangers and let this sexy man touch me for an hour? It was a no brainer.
"All right. I'll do it."
"Excellent. Come to classroom 532 tomorrow night at ten of five. Do you know your way around the University?"
"Yeah no problem."
"Great."
He stood there for a moment and I realized he still needed someone whose name I'd already forgotten. Seeing no one around I knew and unable to bring myself to ask him for the name again, I mumbled something about going to the bathroom and shuffled out the door. When I returned 20 minutes later he was gone.
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The next night I was determined to be just a little bit more charming. I had a few puffs of the joint my little brother had stashed in my room the last time mom did a raid and I felt loose and confident. I knew I could handle this. I dressed in comfortable, boring clothes because I figured I'd be getting naked anyway. There was no one to impress with my clothing. I took my time showering and grooming that afternoon however, and felt I was looking pretty damn good by 4:30.
Even though the school was only five minutes away I left early since I had technically lied to Andrew: I had no idea how to find my way around the University. I prayed I would run into a helpful student or teacher on the way who could point me in the right direction.
The first person I ran into was a young looking guy turning down a hallway just as I walked through the front doors.
"Excuse me?" He turned and I ran to catch up with him. "Could you tell me where room 532 is?"
"That's where I'm going. Are you taking Professor Talbott's class too?" He seemed incredulous.
"No, I'm the new model."
He didn't say anything after that but I kept catching him eyeing me from the side. Nude models must be a well known staple of Andrew's classes. But surely I wouldn't be nude all the time, just for the parts that required it, right? This whole thing seemed a little weird.
We reached the classroom and the boy opened the door for me. I took a deep breath and stepped in.
Andrew greeted me with a dazzling smile and a half-hug and asked me to step into his office. There were several other freshman boys sitting in the semi-circle of classroom desks. In fact, there were about six boys already sitting, plus the one I had arrived with. Why weren't any of the girls there yet? I followed Andrew through a heavy wooden door on the other side of his desk.
His office was small but cozy and he gestured for me to sit in one of the plush leather guest chairs. There was a silky white robe draped across the other. I sat down and eyed it.
"Lila," he said, interrupting my thoughts. I felt like I was in school again. "I want to go over a little more of what is going to happen in class tonight. This is just the introduction tonight. It might run about 45 minutes, most classes will go an hour. I'll be honest, I was a bit, uh, facetious yesterday about this class. It's not so much an anatomy class... it's more like a sex ed. class. Well... more like Sex 101. It runs for eight weeks each semester. As long as you're comfortable with what's happening and doing a good job, you're welcome to remain my model for as long as you'd like."
"Wow... that's not what I expected to hear. What exactly do you teach then...? I'm a little confused."
"Look, I'm giving an overview of the course tonight before we start. Why don't you come out and listen to me explain what we're doing here and then make your decision."
I wasn't sure what to say but nodded slowly. What else could I do? An extra $2000 a semester? I'd do much worse things than this.
"Great!" Andrew clapped his hands and stood up. "Please take off every item of clothing, put on this robe, these slippers and put your hair up in this elastic. Come out when you're ready."