Sunday morning, Gloria's phone rang. She was nude, sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee and absently surfing different porn sites on the internet. Nude was Gloria's preferred state of dress. Since her divorce, she had changed considerably. She left her clothes in the closets and drawers, preferring to strut about her home in the altogether.
"Hello, Shane."
Shane Wilder, Gloria's ex-husband's sister's kid. A pervy teenager grown into a pervy and rich young man. He was lucky in that way. His perversion made him rich.
"Aunt Gloria? You rethink my offer about coming and doing a video for me?"
"In a way Shane. I'm sending you some raw footage of me. I'm going to hang up. Call me back when you want to talk about it."
Gloria hung up, and pressed send on the prewritten email to her nephew.
Thirty minutes later, the phone chirped again.
"Aunt Gloria? Are you doing this a lot?"
"That was the last shoot on our schedule. It's also the last shoot we can afford."
"And you need me to fund your next few shoots? What direction are you going on with this?"
Gloria said "I was thinking of you investing some quiet money. I want to keep acting, but if things continue to go well, we're going to have to expand. I'm running things as well."
"This is a company you've started?"
"Watch Me/See Me Productions. Me and a friend of mine, she quit the firm to do this. The black guy in the scene with me? An unemployed marketing manager who has come to work for us as well. I need an infusion of cash for things like payroll, equipment, getting my marketing guy his research."
"You need startup cash."
"I need startup cash."
Shane thought about it. His company,Hidden Camera Desires Inc., had enjoyed a long run of popularity and controversy over the years, and it had put his company deep into the black. Being at the forefront of the hidden camera/voyeur trend in online porn had paid off in spades. HCD controlled numerous websites, both paid and free, and had a very healthy DVD mail order business as well. Shane was rolling in it. He decided to gamble.
"OK. I'll have to run it by my attorneys and the accountant, but I'm prepared to write a $500,000 check right now and have it couriered over to you."
Gloria said absolutely nothing.
"Aunt Gloria? You there?"
Gloria croaked out "Yes. Thank you Shane! What about your return?"
Shane said, "One, you're family. I don't care if you and Uncle Wynne aren't together anymore. Two, this goes right, I may be able to buy Watch Me/See Me from you and set you up for your golden years in style. And three, you are about ten times as smart as most of my managers, and what happened between us is really what got me started in this business. If I haven't said so before, I'm sorry about that. Consider this reparations."
Gloria said, "I owe you."
Shane said "Nope, we're even. You need more money, though, we'll need to talk."
Shane hung up.
Monday morning, the brain trust of Watch Me/See Me productions met around the table in Gloria's kitchen. Gloria, who had deemed the robe unnecessary around her present company, was clean and presentable, and as business-like as one could be in the nude. Mickie was in black hip hugging capris today over her black heeled sandals, a black low cut v-neck over her large tits, her playing card tattoos peeking out from underneath the sleeves of her shirt. Reggie Crowder was leaning on one elbow, looking as relaxed as Mickie and Gloria had ever seen him, dressed in black Adidas sweats and a white tank, gold chain, and watch.
"OK, folks." Gloria put her coffee cup down. "We have had a development. Today, I should be taking delivery of a half million dollar check-"
Mickie and Reggie made various noises of disbelief, Reggie rising out of his chair so fast it tipped over.
Gloria raised her hands. "Hang on, we're not rich. This is investment capital. Reggie, I'll start you at $90,000 a year? Does that sound nice?"
"All the way nice."
"Mickie, we're going to have to get serious about profit sharing and whatnot. But we'll shelve that for next time." Mickie nodded, smiling.
"Reggie, I'll assign you a marketing budget. I don't know how much yet, but I bet $25k can get you rolling."
"For sure, Ms. Beck. I have a couple of things that I worked on that I'd like to show you."
"We'll get to that, in new business. Mickie, how is the editing going?"
"Well, but I'm going to need a new computer. My poor laptop is on its last legs."
The doorbell rang.
Gloria put her robe on and went to answer it. She returned with an envelope and a smile, leaving her robe by the front door.
"Well, call up the Apple Store and get what you need. A desktop and three laptops should do it. Reggie, I'm going to need you to be on top of our social media as well. Speaking of which," Gloria stood and took a good selfie, and posted it on the MatureTattooGirl page. "I'll give you passwords and stuff so you can access the accounts. Make me and the company look good!"
"What else?" Gloria consulted her notebook, looking every bit the CEO, her nudity notwithstanding. "Umm...new business...Reggie?"
Reggie took a folder out of his soft laptop case and spread the contents across the table "Ran to FedEx Office last night and had them make these up for me."
"Make sure you write an invoice." Gloria said, standing and bending over the table.
The five sheets were attempts at a logo. The first two were just type, and Gloria thought they were a little tired. The third one used a small version of Gloria's raised arms to the sky pose, with the words "Watch Me" on one side, "See Me" on the other. "That's the one." She said
Mickie craned her head to take a look. "Reggie, that's great!"
Reggie also had a sample box cover with the logo and a shot of Gloria's hands busy with her pussy.
Gloria said "Bravo. After I get this check cashed, you need to get busy with-"
Reggie said "I already compiled a list of outlets, digital and brick and mortar, that we need to include in our initial push. I also have a manufacturer for DVD's, if you still wanna do that. But we need more-"
"Footage!" Mickie cried. "We can't have Reggie fucking you in every scene. We need more bodies."
"I have an idea about that. Reggie, get busy doing preliminaries for our first marketing blowout. I'd like to kick it off no later than Halloween. Get us in there on all the perv Christmas lists. Mickie, go on down to the Apple Store and get those computers. I need to get on the phone. Let's have lunch together and catch up?"
Mickie and Reggie stood, gave their goodbyes, and split.
Gloria went upstairs and got dressed, putting a pair of leather-look leggings on over suede black booties. The weather had at last started to turn, but Gloria's penchant for revealing clothing persisted. Up top she wore a dangerously low off the shoulder sweater in a dark, royal purple, the strap of her matching, low-cut bra making a bright line through her tattoos. A waist length leather biker jacket to protect against the chill. Makeup, glasses and jewelry,including a new gold belt that was mostly a waist chain that hung on her hips, and she was out the door.
Looking for Susie Crocker, the woman her husband left her for.
****************************************************
Susie Crocker was thinking that whatever she had been doing with Wynne Beck was coming to an end. More and more, when he would undress in that expectant way to make love, Susie would find her stomach turning. At 21, she was just beginning her journey, and Wynne seemed like a totally boss older guy with his shit together. Over the last few months, though, he began to look more feeble. When his wife kicked him out and he moved into her studio apartment, it took him down a peg or two. As it turns out, Wynne was living off of his wife. He barely had a job, his sales gig really one of those pyramid scheme things which meant Wynne made no money. Susie had finally realized that her coffeehouse earnings were not enough to keep them afloat, but Wynne made no move to leave.
All of this was swirling around in Susie's head as she took a smoke break behind the coffee shop where she worked. She knew she had made an error in throwing in with Wynne. Her best friend, Ash, had been on her since Wynne picked her up at the coffee shop months ago.
"Susie, he just wants to fuck some 21-year old pussy." Ash had said. "You need to quit it with that man." Susie hated to think that she was right. She smoked and looked at her reflection in the back door. Her dyed black hair swept straight back off of her head, her dark eye makeup and black lipstick marking her as a goth girl. The septum piercing completed the look, a black skirt over black sheer leggings and Doc Martens under her apron. She exhaled smoke at her reflection. At least it was finally cooling off. Dressing in black all summer had its drawbacks.
She returned to her place at the counter as a tall, put together woman approached. Her wet-look leggings looked sprayed on, and you could see the tattoos on her exposed shoulder. Her shoes were amazing and the gold chain around her waist was cool as fuck. The woman removed her sunglasses, and Susie's eyes opened wide. Holy Shit! Wasn't that Wynne's ex-wife?
"Hello Susie."
"Uh, hi. What can I get you?" Susie couldn't look Gloria in the eye.
"A mocha. Tall."
Susie hollered the order and began making it. When she handed the finished product to Gloria,Gloria grasped her hand and the drink, and said "Susie, I would like to talk to you. I'm not going to get violent, I'm not going to yell at you. I just need to talk."
Susie looked down at the tattoo on the outside of Gloria's wrist. Susie's hand was shaking in fear. "What do you and I have to talk about?"
"The one thing we have in common. Wynne."
"I have to finish my shift."
"You know where my house is. Please be there at two o'clock. I might be able to help you out."
Susie looked at Gloria for the first time. Maybe it was frustration at Wynne, maybe it was the fact that Susie wanted to BE Gloria, a woman who looked like she had whatever she wanted. It should have been a sign to her that Wynne was lacking, that he wanted to leave a woman like Gloria.
Susie said "I'll see you at two at your house."
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Gloria sat down as Mickie distributed hot sandwiches to her and Reggie, who was in the corner of the kitchen on the phone.