Jonathan Kolb knew he was a lucky guy. He had a great job and a beautiful, talented wife. As a senior art director at an advertising agency, he had found a way to successfully combine creativity with his drive to excel at business. And in his wife Megan, an accomplished professional fundraiser for a major nonprofit organization, he had found a life partner who was highly regarded in her field and supportive of Jon at home.
Although they first met seven years earlier in college, it was only recently that Jon had begun to indulge his fantasies of seeing the attractive 5' 6" blonde-haired wife exposed to other people. He had always been enormously proud of her and counted himself incredibly lucky to be seen with her on any occasion. But in the last couple of years, he had started urging Megan, who was by nature somewhat reserved, to wear more flattering and revealing outfits when they went out for dinner or attended events.
Then, several months ago, when the nonprofit organization where Megan worked decided to host a costume party as a fundraising event, Jon saw a chance to take his fantasy a step further. With the help of Megan's work colleague Kayla, he succeeded in convincing his wife to dress as Cammy Street Fighter, a video character whose outfit consisted of a green bodysuit cut so high over the hips that the person wearing it was basically revealing their entire ass.
Megan, after considerable persuasion by Jon, acknowledged that displaying her 36-25-34 body in that way would certainly attract attention and help raise money. So, with Kayla's help and support, she went along with the plan, something that proved exciting for both her and Jon. Her husband's enjoyment was certainly heightened by an unexpected turn of events when a wardrobe malfunction caused the snaps of the bodysuit to give way during her presentation in front of the entire audience, threatening to expose her most intimate areas to the crowd. But with some careful maneuvering, Megan survived the evening with only a fleeting sense of embarrassment but a longer lasting thrill of knowing her husband had seen her at risk of being exposed to so many strangers.
Although neither Jon nor Megan forgot about the "Cammy adventure," things seemed to settle back into more of a routine, particularly because their jobs were so demanding, requiring extra hours in the office and less time together at home. Over the next few months, there seemed to be no opportunities for further escapades.
That didn't stop Jon from daydreaming about the ways a husband could expose his wife to others. One of his favorite ideas was to imagine photographing a completely nude Megan but in a way that her face was never seen and anonymously displaying the images. Then, in one of those moments of creative inspiration, this fantasy suddenly meshed with an assignment he and several of the other art directors had been given at work.
Each of the creative teams had been asked to come up with ideas for an advertising campaign to encourage people to visit Germany. That country's tourism board had approached multiple advertising agencies in Europe and the United States with a request for proposals and Jon's company was eager to get the business. Not only would it mean a big fee, but it would mean great exposure for them and signal that they were ready to compete against the big firms both in New York and abroad.
One night while Jon was indulging in his fantasy of how to display his wife, he suddenly realized that a professional model could be photographed in ways that displayed parts of her naked body to suggest some of the natural attractions of Germany. It wouldn't take much imagination for a viewer to think of a model's breasts as mountains or the dark shadows between her thighs as remote valleys. So, the next day he immediately put his team to work at fleshing out his initial ideas and submitting them to the agency's head for consideration.
That concept was somewhat daring by US standards but relatively commonplace in Europe. He'd already sketched out several possibilities -- a semi nude model would be shown with captioning that invited the reader to "Ski our slopes," "Explore our valleys," and "Discover our forests." Parts of the model's body would be presented as abstract shapes in black and white, ideally in a way that would initially suggest a landscape before the viewer realized what they were actually seeing.
Although impressed by the boldness of the idea, management ultimately decided they wanted to go with a less risky, more "family-friendly" proposal, and the sketches from another team were submitted. Jon accepted the rejection gracefully; after all, the other group's ideas were excellent and he understood the desire to be cautious with such a large account at stake. That evening at home, he and Megan discussed their work day and Jon shared his disappointment at not having his idea selected.
"You know," he explained, eager to see what Megan's reaction might have been, "you were the inspiration for this whole idea. When I first thought of it, I imagined using you as the model."
"What?" Megan replied, in a tone that was more perplexed than offended. "But you have to use professional models for all of your work, don't you?
It did not escape Jon's notice that Megan said nothing that dismissed the whole thing out of hand, but instead she was focusing on the practical details of the business, something that was very typical of his wife. "Oh, absolutely," Jon replied in an offhand tone, trying to hide the fact that he might ever have seriously considered using his own wife as the nude model. "As I said, it was just a bit of a fantasy."
"Well, dream on, Jonny boy," she said with a smile. Although he didn't give voice to it, he definitely thought to himself, "don't worry, I will."
*****
But then, several weeks later, everything changed. It all began on a Friday night when Jon arrived home after seven and full of apologies. Earlier in the day, the partners had been told by the German National Tourist Board that the agency's proposal had been rejected. They explained that while there had been considerable support for their ideas, ultimately they had decided that for this campaign they wanted something more sophisticated and cutting edge. The agency's director in the phone call from Germany had done what any good business person does -- asked for the weekend to submit a revised proposal. And surprisingly, the prospective client had agreed.
Jon had been immediately summoned into the director's office after the call ended. He was given a budget and told to begin preparing initial mockups of the ideas he had submitted several weeks earlier. The next step was to pull his team together and set to work hiring a photographer and model for a photo shoot the next day. Those freelancers, along with Jon and two of the team members, would be there first thing tomorrow morning and work as long as it took to get the job done.
By the time he left for home, a lot had been accomplished. Jon's favorite photographer was available and had signed on for the job. One of the assistants completed the official request form, specifying "Female model; nudity required; any hair color and height acceptable; face not shown," and then posted it, along with his preliminary sketches, to the agency's shared drive. Next, Jon texted Maggie, the HR person who routinely contracted with outside modeling agencies, to say that he would need a nude female model and that the details were in the document. Just before he left the office, he received a confirming email stating that a woman had been hired and would be there by 9:30 the next morning.
Although he was late arriving for dinner that evening, Jon tried to make amends by picking up takeout from one of their favorite restaurants. Finishing up the meal with a special bottle of wine, Jon explained some of the details of the work he envisioned, thanking her for being so understanding about the disruption in their weekend.
"With luck, we'll get almost everything done tomorrow and I'll only have to spend a few hours at home on Sunday finalizing the mock-ups."
Megan responded that she was excited that he was getting this chance to showcase his ideas, and it wasn't the first time that one or both of them had to spend a considerable portion of their Saturday or Sunday on work.
"Come to think of it," Jon said as he raised a glass of wine in a toast to his wife, "you have only yourself to blame. After all, you were the inspiration for this all."
"I was?" she answered coyly, remembering full well Jon's fantasy of having her pose for pictures.
"In fact," he continued, "I'm tracking all activities and expenses for this project under the label Project M." He smiled and then added, "I thought that was more discreet than calling simply calling it Megan."
"I guess I'm flattered," the blonde answered with a bit of a blush. "Too bad you have to use professional models," she said teasingly as she stood up to collect the plates. Heading into the kitchen to clean up, she called back to him. "So tell me more about the types of ads you're developing?"
"The Tourism Board wants images for use in digital and print, including billboards, as well as social media. It's really a huge opportunity. But hey," he said, getting up and joining her in the kitchen, "you're not usually so interested in the details."
"Oh, just wondering," she responded, "what a model thinks about when she's posing for something like that. I mean, knowing you'll be seen that way by thousands of people."
"Thousands," Jon said with a look of horror. "We're counting on hundreds of thousands, if not millions including the views on social media. We're swinging for the fences with this one."
The couple engaged in light-hearted kidding as they rinsed the dishes and loaded the dishwasher, imagining the riches and rewards that might lie in store for him and the agency. Then, filling their glasses with the reminder of the wine, they moved into the living room and settled into the sofa where Megan picked up her questioning.
"But really, I know these women do this for a living but they usually keep their clothes on, right?"
"Well," Jon chuckled, "I don't know what other jobs they take, but yes, for us, even if they have to strip to get a certain shot, we crop things out so the final image doesn't show anything." He paused, trying to figure out what just what was going on in Megan's mind. "At least if that's what you mean."
"But how do you feel about it, Jon?" she asked.
He grinned broadly and shook his head. "If you're thinking I see this as anything other than work, you don't have to worry in the least." He could see the genuine curiosity in Megan's face, and so he continued. "I mean most of these models are definitely attractive and we've worked with a few who are really stunning. But when we're working with the budget and time constraints we have, it's all absolutely professional. You're focused on getting what we need as quickly as we can and then moving on to the next shot. Besides," he added, reaching over to hold her hand, "there's no reason to be concerned. You know you can hold your own with any one of them."
