Chapter 9

Andrew talked to Leslie about the photoshoot the next evening, she was always interested that he moonlighted as a photographer. He talked about any studio shoots with her but had not mentioned the two outdoor shoots.

“So she finally went topless?”

Andrew nodded, he had spent the evening explaining about June’s initial gung ho enthusiasm and how it had quickly changed to uncertainty.

“I know you didn’t force her but did she feel she had no choice?”

Andrew shook his head.

“No, I don’t think so. Sure she talked a big game about posing for the last year but I could tell she was having doubts. It was something she ended up doing for herself, not for me. Yes, I took the photographs but I think the word she used was fantasy, this was a fantasy and it came true. But I also think it was a one-time deal, I doubt she will do it again.”

“You don’t do anything half-arsed, do you? What was it like? Did it turn you on?”

“Yes, but again it wasn’t the fact that I saw a pair of tits, it wasn’t like June’s tits were some forbidden fruit. You know what I am like, the thing that excites me more than anything else is the other person getting turned on, getting excited. June wasn’t hiding the fact, you could have cut glass with them.”

Leslie laughed at his bloke-ish description.

“So it was a turn on?”

“Yes, it turned me on. I have photographed June topless and Monica naked, that is the extent of my career with models. June loved the day yesterday and I know Monica loves modelling. But I don’t know that I could tell you why I am really doing it. It is not a profession, I am just playing at the edges, and I don’t do it to sleep with the models. I was already fucking June and I have never touched Maggie. I think the truth is this is one of the times where I have the money and I go why not?”

“It sounds like you are doing this more for the two models than for yourself.”

“There are moments when I think that, but it is more complicated than just that. But it is all practice for me. I am constantly playing around with filters and lens and camera settings. Some of the shots are really good and some are awful. I do think I am getting better.”

Andrew was happy to chat about his photography with Leslie, to have something other than the latest details on the business to talk about.

His current Open University course was the hardest yet, unsurprising given that it was part of the final block, and Andrew had only just completed module four. His thoughts on the course had changed over the three years since he had started, from just doing it to get some micro computing lessons to now wanting to complete it and to get his degree. That was inevitable given everything he had invested into it and the sacrifices he had made to complete the courses so far. Andrew was concerned though about getting everything finished before he left home to start his Engineering degree. He knew that the current course was the big hurdle he had left and that once he completed it he would be fine on the last two courses. Only the 11^th course had modules and assignments, as the 12^th course was a project. If Andrew didn’t finish this hardware course until January then he would just have to deal with it. He wasn’t going to muck things up now and fail a module. Both Leslie and Suzanne saw his slowing down as a sign that he wasn’t superhuman and neither of them gave him much sympathy.

Instead Leslie was focused on ending the business and licencing AIMS to ComputerCom or another buyer. Kyle Turner had been very interested when he found out how successful they had been already. He was dealing with his Canadian parent company and no price had yet been discussed. It was at this point that they finally heard from CSG. Leslie and Mhairi had been trying to interest them in the program for more than a year to no avail, but now they were there and interested. They were owned by a French conglomerate that did a lot of work with the Government in France. Andrew stayed out of it and left Leslie and Mhairi handle the negotiations. He found himself quite anxious for them to licence the program before a competitor came along. And they succeeded, to such an extent that it changed their lives forever.

Mhairi masterfully played ComputerCom and CSG off against each other. They ended up splitting the rights between them. ComputerCom bought the rights to AIMS in the UK and Canada for £6m and £2 royalty per copy sold. CSG bought it for the rest of the world other than Germany & Austria for £22m and no royalty. Mhairi and Leslie listened to Andrew’s concerns about obsolescence and got more purchase money but no royalty from CSG. They had nudged CSG up from £20 to £22m and that additional amount paid all the fees from the three transactions. It was no surprise Mhairi was invited to join the Drummonds partnership when she made the firm £2m. As for Andrew, even after tax he was a multimillionaire and all he felt was relief. This was one of the things that changed with him over these four years. He could look back and remember being excited about a thousand pounds, or five thousand pounds. He became inured to it and it worried him very much, fretting he was changing. At the age of 17 he could do anything he wanted and be set for life. Even after paying 50% in tax Andrew had more than £2m and rather than be delighted it scared him. He went to see Leslie and her father.

“You can guess why I am here Brian. Can we talk about my options please?”

The next two hours were an education in investing for Andrew. Brian knew that he wanted to do something. He posed a bunch of questions to Andrew about industries and the future. He kept coming back to what Leslie, Julian and Andrew had created. If he wanted to invest and help people then he needed to do more of that. Andrew had his own success as the model.

“Are you prepared to lose all your money?”

Andrew recoiled at the blunt question.

“Not all of it not, but I will risk part of it.”

“Okay then, I will talk to Doug, the guy who is setting up our small investment fund, and tell him that you are prepared to invest more. Twenty investments of up to £50,000. I will sit with you and show you how to evaluate these proposals and how much percentage of the business you should get for your money.”

Leslie interrupted her Dad here and asked Andrew if they could do this together. So there it was, CM Venture Investments was borne. The stories of their adventures, the successes and failures would fill their lives over many years.

As with all the financial matters, there was a significant gap between the idea and the execution of it, all filled with mundane detail, essential to a successful business. It was more than a year later before they felt confident enough to start investing. Brian had repeatedly told them they could lose all their money so their expectations were minimal. And they could never have done it without Brian Campbell and his friend Doug Somers. Both Leslie and Andrew wanted to try and help and so they made a whole series of investments. Some of them were new technology spin offs and start-ups coming out of the Scottish universities.

Andrew was done for the moment in terms of trying to make money. In the run up to Christmas and the month afterward he spent more time with his friends talking about the future and especially the Trust, rather than coding. Julian was less concerned about changing because of the money whereas it bothered Leslie and Andrew more. The Trust now had more than £25m of investments in it and they needed help. It was right in front of them, Creighton came on as the Finance Director, still working with his dad for another six months but they knew they would need his help long term. Looking back on this period of his life Andrew had a similar feeling of disconnection he had when he bought the house and Ferrari and restored them. He had never seen the Ferrari or the house in their restored conditions, they were these imaginary things, and the trust felt the same way. Thank goodness that Julian had suggested the trust structure and they were all not sitting with £10m each.

Andrew’s head was never turned by the money. It came from his own hard work, luck and timing, but for a number of years he was worried he would be defined by it. He was confused by it, and looking back, felt tremendous guilt about it. It all seemed too easy yet it was their ideas and skill that created it.

So there was a lot of distractions going on with Jullesand, he was working hard to stay on track with his computer course and was playing catch up on his Physics project. It was good to get some things out of the way. After the fuss with McCardle hockey settled down and was back to being low key and fun. He had submitted his record book for the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award with everything signed off. He need not worry about that anymore. It was something he could mention in his interviews if asked. They were all scheduled for the last week of school and Andrew would not be there after the Monday. University College on the Tuesday, Imperial on the Wednesday and Trinity College on the Thursday. He was staying in Imperial Halls of Residence on the Tuesday evening and a room at Trinity on the Wednesday night. So things were getting resolved and settled.

The perfect counterbalance to all the serious discussions and decisions about money was Andrew’s career as a photographer. Andrew sat with June at a desk in the City Library and discreetly went through the photos with her. Their backs were to the wall and no one could see the photos without approaching the desk. It wasn’t an ideal place to view them but much safer than at the school library. A lot of the shots were spectacular. The series with the just the shirt, shoes and panties were great, and the set with June in stockings and suspenders oozed sex appeal. When June looked through the final three sequences of shots, first her kneeling up on the bed, then the just fucked set, and finally the last shots on the couch, Andrew was pretty sure June didn’t breathe. They were there in her hands, it wasn’t a dream. June Wyatt, glamour model, with the portfolio to prove it.

Andrew quietly put the photos away and waited for June to process everything. She took his hand and squeezed it almost painfully.

“I have thanked you many times already but one more cannot hurt. I was there, I know it wasn’t a dream and yet it was only when I looked at the photos that it became real. But looking at these prints, seeing myself there just emphasises to me that this was a perfect way to prove to myself that I did it. But I also know that I don’t want to do it again. Do you know the shots I liked the best? The updated fashion shots. I had fixed several pieces since the shoot in the garden and I could tell they fitted better on me than before. The lines were crisper, they hung on me better.”

June carefully removed all the negatives from each of the packets of prints where it was her modelling as opposed to showcasing her clothes.

“I am going to destroy these negatives, the prints in the packets are the only ones that will ever be made of my couple of attempts at modelling. I will go through the fashion pictures and can I ask you to enlarge some of them for me, they will be good additions or replacements for my portfolio?”

Andrew walked down to Princes Street with June. His mind was flitting about thinking of the difference between Maggie and June. They both went to the edge of the water but rather than dive in, June dipped her toe in the water and realised it was not for her. June hugged Andrew fiercely, tactile thanks on top of all the verbal ones, and left Andrew to his thoughts. As he stood waiting for the bus he was happy but did not expect there to be another photoshoot, of June or her clothes. He was right.

In contrast to June, Maggie was really pleased with her shots on the beach. She wanted to shoot up in the hills south of Edinburgh the next time, a different experience and one where it would be more difficult to ensure there was no one watching. Andrew was starting to think that Monica would be disappointed if she wasn’t observed during the shoot. But then fate intervened. When Andrew told Maggie about how Tony had loved her photos, and had been very impressed not just by Andrew’s photography but by the way Monica looked, her poise, the whole vibe of the shoot, well Maggie was intrigued. The next time she and Andrew met for a coffee she said that Tony was going to watch a studio shoot, if it was okay with Andrew.

Before the end of the shoot Andrew could sense something was changing, had already changed, by the way Monica and Tony acted during the shoot. Tony sat quietly at the back of the studio at first, staying out of Andrew’s way. But then Monica asked Andrew if it was okay for Tony to suggest the poses that night and Andrew got to photograph romance happening right in front of him. The two of them had worked together for more than five years but it was clear that they were looking at each other through different eyes. At the end of the shoot Monica slipped on a robe, and quicker than normal returned to being Maggie. She told Andrew she was going to sit and chat with Tony for a while and the lack of subtlety in getting him out the studio was pretty funny. In the space of a week Andrew photographed each of his models for the last time. The following week Maggie confessed that she was going to stop modelling while she and Tony sorted out their relationship. Maggie now had her own personal photographer to let her indulge her exhibitionist fantasies. Andrew was delighted for his friends and still saw them both together and separately. They started to call him the matchmaker. But it was back to landscapes for Andrew.

He and Suzanne would fuck every day if they had the chance, Andrew was sure of it. Their nights out were full of flirting, innuendo and kissing and caressing that left them both horny and breathless. And it was not impacting their friendship at all. They would talk every day on the walk from Warrender to school and saw each other during the day. They no longer had any classes other than form at the beginning of the day, but other than when Andrew had prefect duties they would walk to Assembly chatting away. Suzanne was a daily balance to everything else going on in his life. There was no doubt that she was his closest friend.

In November Andrew was asked out unexpectedly from a familiar face. Gail Robertson, she of the wandering hands the previous year, waited for him after practice one day looking nervous. As soon as she started her stumbling little speech Andrew knew what was coming.

“Em, Andrew. I was wondering if, well I was hoping that we, what I am trying to say is.”

That is as far as she got as she ran out of nerve or thoughts in her head. He looked at her sympathetically.

“Gail are you trying to ask me out?”

He decided to get to the point, it would be dark if he waited for her to blurt it out. She blushed.

“Yes.”

“Sorry I am going to have to say no.”

“Oh, why Andrew? I understand it is just friends.”

“I am the coach now and I don’t think I should suddenly go out with someone on the team.”

“But you go out with Suzanne and June, they are on the team.”