All of my writing is fiction and the stories and characters are all products of my imagination. They were created for my fun and, hopefully, your enjoyment. Some of the events in the stories are not particularly condoned nor encouraged by the author but are there to create and enhance the story of the imaginary characters and their lives. Comments are always encouraged and carefully reviewed. Enjoy!
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My brother and I had always been a lot different. Three years older than me, I had thought I might follow in his footsteps but, that wasn't to be the case as I was always an excellent athlete, all sports seemingly coming very natural to me, while he could barely walk and chew gum at the same time. He had tried but just couldn't do anything well in the athletic line. We looked very different too. I always had the build that you'd expect for an athlete, trim and fairly muscular with hardly any excess baggage on my 5'-10" frame while he was certainly not fat but also not very well defined on his 6'-1" frame. I was, of course, jealous of his height -- having it would have made my athletic career a little different, but I adapted to what I had and made the most of it over the years. Both of us had kind of sandy colored hair, mine usually cut short and his a little longer, but, I took after my father with dark brown eyes while he took mother's pale blue eyes. I was a little jealous of that too, since the girls seemed to find his eyes fascinating, but girls and the two of us were another story indeed.
Jimmy, my brother, from the time he was in the later years of elementary school, always had to have a girlfriend, or at least a girl he could call a girlfriend. He was almost always with a girl and, when he broke up with one of them, which was fairly often, he had to find another almost immediately. It was a kind of compulsion that seemed to possess him and he was only happy or at least somewhat content when he had that girl, or seemingly any girl for that matter. Of course, when he graduated from high school he got a job and immediately married his current high school sweetheart but, similar to high school, that didn't last very long and he was soon divorced and chasing another woman, ready to get married again immediately. When that marriage ended rather quickly in divorce it was like he stepped back and evaluated himself and his life and decided he had somehow missed the mark and he changed totally, not dating or chasing women at all. He bought a little cabin out away from things and seemed to be very content again, but in a totally different way. He became a very dedicated wood worker and built some beautiful things which he shared with the family and which he also sold to locals at flea markets and craft shows in the area.
I, on the other hand, zipped off to college for two years before deciding that was just not my thing so I came home, worked odd jobs to make a little money and bought a camera as I had decided that I really wanted to be a photographer. It just seemed like a good line of work, meeting people some of the time and working by myself much of the time as well. I experimented with pictures and finally saved up enough to purchase a commercial quality camera and some lights which I knew I needed if I was really going to make this my profession. I wasn't a total recluse as I had a few dates with some of the girls I'd known in high school when the opportunity presented itself but the whole relationship thing didn't really fit into my picture of life at the moment. I have to admit that I'm not a bad looking guy so it wasn't surprising that the girls wanted to date me. Still, I usually ran away once they seemed to be looking for something more than casual dating. With a couple of the really aggressive ones I'd found the sex to be very enjoyable but, just as with the casual relationships, I wanted casual sex and that didn't seem to be their intent. I'm not blaming them, of course. We all have dreams and plans and just sometimes the dreams and plans of one crash into the dreams and plans of another and so you back off to avoid any more collisions.
I was really fortunate in my photography business as a couple of my high school friends, who I have to admit, were from some of the more prominent families in town had me do their wedding pictures. I could see that this was my chance to become really established and to build a reputation so I took lots of extra pictures, worked on them extra hard, took great pains with the printing and touching up process which meant that I didn't make a lot of money on those two jobs. However, the pictures were shared with friends, they showed up here and there, I used some of them to advertise the business and to decorate the little shop I'd been able to rent and, before I knew it, business was good and I was busy, very busy indeed. I also picked up a lot of business through family photos and children's stuff too as I seemed to have a way with the little ones and they liked me rather than being afraid of me so the pictures came out very well.
Over the next couple of years I had about all the business I could comfortably handle. The other photographer in town and I had kind of split the senior picture business at the high school, using a common format for the school yearbook and letting the students and family choose which one of us to use. We furnished a picture that the student chose for the yearbook and then sold packages of photos to the family of the student. It worked out well for both of us. Plus, I handled all the athletic team pictures and he did all the social event things and we were both happy. When they opened the second high school, he took over doing all their things and I did the same for the old school. Life was good and I was very happy with the way things were going.
One day I had stopped at our only Panera Bread store for a soup and sandwich lunch and was checking my email on my phone when I saw someone come in who looked very familiar. I watched as she was walking toward me and realized it was Peggy Lambert, or at least she had been Peggy Lambert in high school but, since I could actually see a wedding ring on her finger as she got closer, I knew she wasn't Lambert any longer. She was a senior when I was a freshman and had easily been one of the prettiest girls in the school, and, now probably 30, she hadn't lost that prettiness, just let it mature a little. And, she was obviously headed right for me.
"Hi," she said in a very rich, alto voice. "You're Larry Baxter, aren't you? Baxter Photography?"
"You've got it," I replied. "And, I know you were Peggy Lambert at one time, when we were in high school."
"I thought we had gone to school together," she quickly replied. "And I'm Peggy Hollister now." She offered her hand and I stood and shook it.
Not sure why she had stopped to talk to me, never-the-less, I gestured toward to empty bench. "Join me?" I offered.
"Thank you," she said, sitting down.
I sat back down and looked at her with, I guess, a slightly questioning look on my face. Obviously she wasn't here to hit on me so I wondered just what was up.
"I love your photography. So many of my friends have had you take their picture and I've seen them so often. They're so well done, and very flattering as well."
I had to smile at that. "Well, everyone has a certain beauty or grace or mark of character about them. It's my job to find that and bring it out in the photograph. And thank you for the compliment. I appreciate it very much."
"No problem, you deserve it. Actually I was going to stop by your studio but I thought I recognized you when I came in here. I have some photography I'd like done."
Let me hear about it, then," I encouraged.
She coughed a little nervously as she looked away out the window for a moment. I wondered if I could imagine what might be coming here.
"My husband has a birthday in two months and I wanted to do something special for him. We've been married about 7 years . . . " She paused. "I've been looking on the internet and had this idea. Have you ever done any boudoir photography?" Now, amazingly, she was looking me right in the eye.
"Not exactly," I answered, hesitantly. "Not really anything close," I continued.