Chapter 12

After a good long swim Andrew felt fine the next morning. Julian turned up around 11.00 and they went car shopping. In hindsight it might have been easier if they had brought along a ‘real’ adult. With his dad three years earlier Andrew had bought a Golf at just the second showroom. This time it was more difficult given so much of the age prejudice that they received. Neither the BMW or Alfa Romeo dealers believed them that they could afford their cars and didn’t even let them have a test drive. Andrew went from being pissed off to just shaking his head in wonder. They were there to spend money and yet the salesmen took one look at the two of them and sent them on their way. So they ended up back at the VW dealer that Andrew had bought the Golf from.

Now to say a saleswoman reminded him of a stripper sounds terrible and demeaning. But Andrew meant within the context of knowing how to close the sale. He remembered sitting in that strip club in Hamburg and watching who was getting the punters to go for a private dance, and who was just a pretty, half-dressed fantasy that didn’t know how or, more likely, want to be there. He and Julian were standing looking at a VW Sirocco, one of the classic ‘boy-racer’ cars of the 1980s. Seven sales staff all men bar one and nobody bothering to come over and talk to them. Just seen as a couple of kids window shopping. But eventually the woman walked over to them. The place was empty, it was December 22^nd, and she made the effort. And she ended up selling two cars, another Golf to Andrew and an Audi Quattro to Julian. Looking back Andrew wondered if they bought there because it was the only place that actually took them seriously. Andrew was inordinately pleased when he saw the faces of the other salesmen as they completed the paperwork and left cheques for the agreed amounts. When Andrew watched Pretty Woman, the scene where Julia Roberts goes into the store where the snobby clerks hadn’t served her, it reminded him of that day. He wished he had thought about going back to the Alfa dealer to rub their face in it. After a more tiring Saturday than was really necessary Andrew had bought his first new car. He was going to collect it the following Friday, since it would take that long for the cheque to clear.

Andrew skipped his run and swim the following morning and walked over to meet Tony and Maggie. The previous evening he had read, enjoying a quiet night after what had felt like a very busy week. They were almost ready when Andrew got there. For Tony and Andrew that meant they were dressed in all their under layers for a walk in the hills in the middle of the Scottish winter. Maggie was ready in that she had her boots on. And seemed to be having to bend over and pick a lot of things up off the floor. Andrew smiled at her antics but it wasn’t nearly as wide a smile as either of the other two. They loaded the car and Maggie put on her inner coat as she walked to it. But once in the back seat she discarded it and so Tony headed out of Edinburgh in the overcast pre-dawn with Maggie chatting naked in the back seat. Someone was up for some fun.

The Ochil Hills rise to just over 2,000 feet and although in the central belt of Scotland could still be snow covered in winter. As they approached them Andrew saw that there was a dusting of snow on the higher ground. Tony and Maggie had been there before and Tony drove up into the hills on the only road that ran through them. Halfway up into Glen Devon he turned off and they followed a well maintained side road that ran up to the side of a reservoir. The small hut and dozen fishing boats were all locked up. There was not another soul in sight.

Maggie could have left her coats in the car. There was not a breath of wind and although it was cold and crisp Maggie posed without interruption for nearly an hour. They walked up the side of the reservoir for half a mile sometimes visible from the road, mostly not. Four of the six rolls were Maggie posing on the path or on the banks of the reservoir just looking happy and relaxed. The other two rolls were of Maggie first on her back lying with her legs spread. Tony had thrown a blanket down so that she didn’t get dirty. Maggie didn’t close eyes or look away. She stared down the barrel of the lens, demanding that Andrew take the shots. With every click of the camera her smile got wilder. The final roll was the same thing but on her hands and knees. The poses were gloriously explicit, Maggie’s excitement plain for everyone, and the camera, to see. By the end of the roll she had her shoulders pressed into the blanket and her full arse high in the air. Andrew had kept the car keys when they had set off and so just turned and walked back to the car. 22 minutes later the two of them came back along the shore to the car, Maggie wearing her coats although they weren’t belted. She kissed Andrew full on the mouth.

“You are too good to us. Thank you.”

Tony didn’t say anything but looked grateful, relaxed and smug. Quite the look. 10 minutes later they were off, up further into the hills, Maggie now more appropriately dressed for hill walking in winter. They did a two hour loop, staying below the snowline, just enjoying getting out into the country. For long stretches the three of them walked in silence. The views in places were wonderful, they caught a glimpse of Stirling Castle 12 miles off to the south west. They were back at the car right around noon and found a café open in one of the small towns at the base of the hills and warmed up and relaxed.

“I didn’t know I was missing modelling so much.”

Neither Tony nor Andrew said anything waiting for Maggie to expand.

“All the talk of the business, the ups and downs, it fascinates me. But I was thinking about it as we were walking there this morning. I have all these fantasies, some long suppressed, some new and daring, and I realised that I needed this. We are making a nice little business out of these fantasy shoots for people like Stacey and Elspeth. But I get to shoot fantasy shoots all the time with the two of you. I love the effort that goes into it. This isn’t just me lying on my back on the bed in the studio, it is Andrew taking me up to Edinburgh Castle last week, coming here today. It encourages me to fantasise I suppose.”

She stopped and sipped her tea.

“I guess I am letting you both know that I love doing this, and I think I need it, in a way I am not sure that I can explain.”

Tony took her hand and squeezed it. It was a strange dynamic. He visually shared his wife to be, she visually shared herself, but just to one man. Andrew was the proxy for everyone else. He thought about Elspeth.

“I think within the women who have fantasies there are a few that realise that they need the excitement or release of doing a shoot. Now it is only based on two couples so it is hardly scientific but Elspeth and Donnie seem to be very similar to you two.”

Andrew explained the chats in the darkroom the previous week and his offer to teach her to develop film so that she and Donnie could live out each other’s fantasies.

“That is very clever. He doesn’t know you and I doubt she would be as comfortable posing like I do, so he can take the pictures and she can develop them.”

“It is something to discuss with any women that return for another session. Stacey was the first yet she seems to have got the bug out of her system. But in contrast Elspeth has been back for a second shoot and I doubt that will be her last.”

They headed back and dropped Andrew off at his flat. They would take his camera bag into the shop for him. Andrew was going to help out on Boxing Day, normally the busiest day of the year for Tony. Hugs and handshakes all round and they were off.

That night Andrew went over to Brian and Mary’s early, on his own before Leslie and Julian had turned up. Without saying anything he wanted to gauge their mood especially as Leslie’s engagement party was less than a week before Faith’s birthday. They however seemed to be in fine form and in fact asked him about his family rather than the other way round.

“I will see on Tuesday. I talk to Grandma every week and she passes the news on to the extended family. But I don’t talk to my folks.”

“You don’t talk to them at all, on the phone even.”

“No, I write letters to Mum occasionally but it is superficial, how I am doing at university. They don’t know about Paris, the Trust paying out the first amounts to the Fund, stuff like that. Hell, they don’t even know about either of the Trusts. My relationship with my parents was not as strong as I always assumed in my teenage years. Dad liked and preferred Rowan more than me before cancer and nothing changed after cancer. Mum always thought she knew best and wanted the last word. I have shared more with you both, as well as Jim and Freya, since I started university. They know I went to Jim and Freya’s wedding but not who I sat with, things like that. That is the key thing in all this fucked up mess. I have you two couples as well as several older friends that I talk to instead. I never really had that relationship with my parents so I can’t miss it. But there is no doubt that it is a mess.”

There was nothing else to say. Leslie and Julian arrived and Leslie had news that shook him though.

“I remembered, finally, to check who the President of the Cancer Fund was. You will never guess.”

Not much of a bet and Julian and Andrew sat and looked at her.

“You pair are no fun. Angus Ogilvy.”

Julian and Andrew still had blank faces, looked at each other and shrugged. Exasperation reigned.

“Really! Princess Alexandra’s husband. Husband of the cousin of the Queen.”

Laughing out loud was not the reaction she expected.

“As a way of ensuring I never attend another meeting with them, that is remarkably effective. Any meeting or dinner with anyone other than Bodmer, I will have a conflict. Terrible shame.”

Julian looked at Andrew.

“What he said.”

If only it was that simple. Leslie verbally smacked them, repeatedly, and they were told to stop being children and to grow up. They would be attending meetings. They were reduced to ‘yes dear’ by the end of it, which got them both whacked as well. Bloody woman. Andrew refrained from any wisecracks as it would just result in more violence. After dinner which had been relaxed and lively Mary disappeared for the evening. She would flit in and out of the living room but didn’t sit and chat as they talked about the party the following Saturday night. Andrew was surprised, the whole event seemed to be for their parents rather than them. He wished everyone a Merry Christmas and would see them on the 29^th.