It was a suspicious text.
"Drop whatever you're doing and come see the new exhibit! Dress up nice..."
Suspicious indeed...
Madison drove towards the museum, following her girlfriends instructions. It had closed hours ago. The parking lot was empty.
"Be sure you check out the Welcome Screen on your way in..."
What the hell is Emily up to...
The huge video screen outside the museum displayed the exhibits coming to town soon. The Frida Kahlo exhibit... a science camp starting up in the summer... "Happy Birthday Madison! I love you!!" Madison slammed the breaks. Emily must've made that little sign for her! How sweet! The words were layed over an image of Madison smiling. She remembered that photo because her hair was on-point that day... that photo... When had she sent that?
Suddenly, her face flushed bright red.
She definitely remembered THAT photo! The big bright image on the screen in front of her was her own smiling face; but it was cut off at her belly button. Emily had cropped the original photo, because if she hadn't, any one driving down the street would see Madison lifting her dress just enough to prove she wasn't wearing underwear.
Madison hunched down in her seat, searching to see if anyone was around to see the photo. That was supposed to be a private picture just for Emily!... she studied the image farther. Her lack-of panties were perfectly cropped out. Anyone looking from the street would have no reason to think that it was any more than a sweet smile at the camera.
But Madison knew. And Emily knew that Madison knew!
Her phone buzzed.
"You like it?? Then you'll looooove the changes I've made to the rest of the exhibit! Come to the door"
Madison didn't know what to think as she parked and walked through the abandoned parking lot. Emily and her team of nerds had been hired to program an interactive exhibit at a local museum. The building was packed with monitors that she programmed to display art or videos, or whatever the show needed. Madisons heart fluttered wildly in her chest, wondering what her crafty girlfriend was up to... they'd recently been exploring some new sexual ground; mostly involving Madison sending her lots of compromising photos. Including the bright photo displayed on Main St.!
Emily waved through the glass door. She was dressed beautifully. Short hair done-up and a sharp looking suit; the outfit she'd bought for the premier of the exhibit next weekend.
"Happy Birthday Madi!"
"What... is that??" she pointed accusingly at the big screen, with the big secretly-obscene photo of herself..
Emily ignored the question, and pulled Madison into her arms for a kiss.
Madison gave into the embrace... but only for a moment.
"What. Is. That."
"It's just the beginning." She pulled Madison inside and locked the deadbolt.
Madison was in a daze as her girlfriend poured her a tall, elegant flute of champagne. Her favorite champagne, of course. Emily had an eye for details.
Emily scrolled through screens on a digital tablet. It was the one she used to rework parts of the show's programming. Suddenly, the lights in the hallway dimmed, spotlighting a path for Madison to walk down. The click of her high heels echoed down the long, empty corridor.
"So the show's not about Frida tonight?"
"Someone else. I finally finished the control set up for every screen in the museum... but I decided to make a NEW show to test out the system." Madison's stomach churned. She'd been there and seen Emily and her nerds setting up dozens of screens and speakers throughout the museum.
She approached the first exhibit. A wall with several large screens. Every other time she'd seen those monitors, they were cycling through artwork by Frida Kahlo. But tonight, it was allllll Madison...
The theme of this particular room, seemed to be photos Madison had sent Emily while trying on clothes in dressing rooms.
Her eyes passed from screen to screen. Briefly she saw herself, taking a selfie in a dressing room with new jeans. Then a tiny swimsuit that barely clung to her big chest. Then a comically tight, short dress that showed the bottom of her cheeks. She looked around the huge room. Next weekend hundreds of people would be passing through this room. And now the center piece was a collage of her in every color, running the entire modesty spectrum. One second she'd be showing off a funny gas station hat with a plastic fish jumping out of it. Then the image would fade into Madison touching herself in the changing room with the curtain slightly open.
This was crazy. It was too much.
Part of her wanted to scream, break every monitor in the museum and burn it to the ground with Emily inside. Salt the ground the fire left behind, and never speak her name again... But she couldn't lie to herself, part of her was way too into this.
She must've spent 10 straight minutes, eyes darting from screen to screen. A selfie with her nipples under a see-through top. A scarf that was supposed to be a present to her boss, but she ended up keeping. Her modeling a pair of shoes that intentionally featured a sneaky view up her skirt in the background.
The jump between innocent and playful, to sexy and vulgar was jarring to say the least. She was speechless.
Finally, her attention fell to an awkwardly placed mannequin. She immediately recognized it as one of the mannequins that displayed some of Frida Kahlo's wild, flamboyant dresses. But the dress was gone now. Just an empty mannequin...
"What's that?"
Emily blushed a little, suddenly shy about her own wild ideas. "I thought you'd never ask."
She brandished her tablet like it was a magic trick. She tapped out some commands on the screen again. "I'm glad you wore that particular dress. I remember the first time I saw it."
One by one, all of the screens changed to the same image. Madison modeling the very dress she was wearing now. A photo taken in a dressing room the day she bought it. It was flowy and dark green with a high-waisted skirt.
Emily walked up behind Madison and touched her arm. "I was hoping you could make a donation to the exhibit." She gingerly pushed one of the dress straps off her shoulder.
Madison's heart skipped a beat. She starred at Emily in disbelief... then she kissed her lips. Then her neck.
Emily was playing this trick off, trying to look cool and collected. But when Madison drew her girlfriend in close, she could feel how tense her neck was. She was just as nervous about making this bold of a move, as Madi was about being on display like this.
Madison pulled herself out of their embrace to catch her breath. Without a word, she offered her dress zipper up to Emily.
Emily hung the dress up with care. Madison watched, wearing only a white cotton thong, and some black high heels. She sipped the champagne, imagining how the exhibit would look next weekend. Imagining those crowds with her now, watching and admiring her dressing room photography skills.
