I didnât realize it at the time, but when Helen walked out of the room our lives had changed. She was true to her promise and we never did anything like it again. She ALLOWED me the opportunity to make love to her from time to time, but now it was always when SHE wanted it and on HER terms. Every time it happened we both seemed tentative and self-conscious. It was the memories of what happened that night that had driven us apart. I remembered the wild and uninhibited woman that she could be when she let herself go, and she remembered the dirty, wanton slut that she could be if she didnât constantly hold herself in check. It was a perfect stalemate, and there seemed to be no way to resolve our differences. Soon we began the slow process of drawing away from each other. We began crawling away from the center of the bell shaped curve, her to her side and me to mine. The crawling away became a walk and the walk soon became a run It didnât take long to develop into a gallop.
We slept in the same bed as before and we talked civilly. We went about our lives in the same manner we always had, and we even enjoyed each otherâs company. As long as the subject of sex wasnât mentioned everything seemed normal. The kids never knew our problems nor did our friends. On the outside nothing seemed to have changed, but on the inside everything seemed dead, or at least dying. There was many a night I lay in bed next to her thinking about sex and longing to turn her way and put my arms around her, to talk to her, to cuddle with her, to feel her naked body next to mine, to make love to her, to fuck her; anything, everything, most of all something, something that would make everything OK again. But I never did. Instead I would lay there beside her, my back to hers and hers to mine, and rather than interrupt her sleep only to face rejection and ridicule I would pretend to be asleep while I quietly masturbated. As the years went on my nighttime erections became less and less frequently, and before long my sexual needs, like Helenâs, evaporated into nothingness. Donât get me wrong, I still thought about sex, but there was no physical reaction whatsoever. My mind still worked but my body didnât. As best I can recall I had my last erection in 1996.
Helen was diagnosed with lung cancer in October of 1997 and she died August 2 of 1998. She had never smoked until she married me, and I felt a little guilty over her death, but only a little. Iâm a firm believer that a person should take responsibility for his or her own actions. She had made that choice herself, and I donât think I could have stopped her had I tried.
They say that whatever goes around, comes around, and three weeks before her death I was diagnosed with emphysema. Maybe one of these days Iâll take responsibility for my OWN actions and finally quit. I havenât yet.
*********
Fast forward again, if you will, another year. Itâs now the summer of 1999 and my adventures (and misadventures) with Angel are about to begin. Sheâs the one this story is about, and what I have been telling you so far has only been background. I felt obliged to tell you how I got to be who I am now. Had I not, the story might wouldnât have meaning. I suppose some of you have found that you donât really like me, but thatâs OK. There are traits about me that I donât like either, but I was determined to show myself warts and all. It wouldnât be fair of me to tell you about Angel, exhibitionist par excellent, without having the nerve to expose at least a little of myself.
It was strange the way I met Angel. She lives (or maybe lived, since I havenât had contact with her for over a year) only a few miles from me, yet as far as I know I had never seen her before the day she showed up on my doorstep. I know I would have remembered her. She was there because I had put an advertisement in the newspaper for a model and of those that responded she was the one I hired.
The ad was worded as follows:
WANTED:
Liberal thinking woman 18 â 35 for non-pornographic
video project. Nudity required. Good looks not as important a fun
attitude. This is NOT a sex ad! Call Tom @ 555-4567
The idea had been inspired by an article I read in one of those underground newspapers that are sold in racks along Hollywood Blvd. It purported to be an interview with an ex-porno actress who had recently opened a studio on Santa Monica Blvd in Hollywood where, for an hourly fee, amateur photographers and filmmakers (i.e. anyone who had the $$$âs and who had tired of sticking them a strippers G-strings) could hire a model, rent both film and camera, and get their rocks off by watching a beautiful girl spread their legs in a more private way than you could find at a âgentlemanâsâ club. According to the âarticleâ the âmodelsâ were âmore than willingâ to have their image taken in âany positionâ the âphotographerâ needed to create his art. The only caveat was that no âsexual activityâ between âartistâ and âmodelâ would be allowed. Money is always money, however, so it stood to reason that if an ex-porno actress was posing for a horny man who felt no guilt over lying about his artistic talents the sexual activity that wasnât allowed probably was. From a legal standpoint I suppose they had to mention that in the interview to throw the police off track.
I was never really tempted to check the place out since 1) I was impotent, 2) I had never been one to visit prostitutes, and 3) what floated my bubble was to see women acting out the wildness of their freedom rather than performing the requirements of their profession. Being with a woman who publicly bared her breasts for fun was far more erotic to me than being with a whore who needed to fuck in order to survive. Sometimes I wondered whether it was actually the nudity that turned me on or the pleasure I derived from watching girls enjoy themselves. The whole idea of pretending to be a serious artist so I could hire a girl who would then pretend to be my model all so the police could pretend that we were 100 per cent legitimate and not engaged in anything illegal struck me as a particularly hilarious scenario since I couldnât get Junior to grow any bigger than my thumb even if I tried. The article did, however, give me an idea for the ad and the more I thought about it, the better it sounded. Some nights I would lie in bed and simply think about the various scenarios that were possible. The beaches, the mountains, the desert, all were within an hourâs driving distance. There was no shortage of places where we could go to experiment with a little friendly streaking, flashing, flirting, teasing and other creative ways of demonstrating her playful nature. My camera and her boldness could create a most enjoyable experience. As long as she was willing to have fun I would have fun, and for THAT I would be willing to spend money.
The next morning I went over my options. I knew that the project wouldnât be inexpensive (even though they might have fun doing it, girls didnât usually get naked for free unless they were drunk out of their mind or in love) so it was now a simple matter of deciding how much I would need spend and how I would spend it. Even though I was worth nearly two million dollars (on paper) money was still a consideration, but with Helen out of the picture and the kids now on their own and doing well (OK, doing SEMI-well) what else did I need the money for except for my own pleasure?
In the end I decided that one model for a number of days was better than a number of models each for a day. It would give me the opportunity to get to know her and, by extension, get the most out of her assets while avoiding her shortcomings. In the best-case scenario she could even become a valuable assistant. She could help in the planning process by suggesting places to go, things to wear, scenarios to act out, and other matters I might otherwise overlook. In the beginning only she would know what her assets were and what she was most comfortable with, and the knowledge would make for a more enjoyable experience for us both. I figured that $300 per day would be a sufficient amount to pay, and to sweeten the pot I would guarantee her work for twenty days. Twenty days at $300 per day came to $6000 dollars, and taking into account expenses (video camera, tape, gasoline for the car, admissions to public events, food and drink, exotic/erotic clothing, etc) I could easily do the whole thing for less than $10,000. That wasnât bad at all. Helen and I had spent that much on our vacation to Paris and this promised to be much more fun.
That night I wrote the ad and in the morning I called the paper and told them run it.
**********
It was two weeks to the day when I received the first response. It was a Thursday night and it came in the way of a message on my phone recorder. Two weeks was a long time and I had almost decided to pull the ad, but she had left her name and phone number so I called, hoping that our conversation would fire up my imagination again Her name was Molly, and after exchanging pleasantries we got down to business. When the subject of money came up I told her I would pay her $300 per day with a guarantee of 20 days. I think I offended her. Disdainfully she informed me the last shoot she was on paid her $1500 per day and it was finished in 4 days. Iâm quick at math and immediately realized that she had made as much money in those four days as I was offering for twenty. There were undoubtedly assassins running around somewhere that would perform whacks for that kind of money.
I tried to tippy-toe carefully around the subject of money by emphasizing the R rated nature of my interests but not for a moment did I really think it would do much good. When the subject came up again I decided to generously increase my offer to $500 per day. She said that she couldnât possibly accept such a low figure, but she would entertain offers of less than $2000 if I were to give her a written contract stipulating that she wouldnât be asked to take it up the ass or swallow cum.
I laughed out loud and then told her there was no way I could afford more than $500 per day.
She laughed out loud and then hung up the phone without even bothering to say goodbye.