Chapter 10

Maybe famous was too strong, but Andrew was recognised. He and Heloise were walking in the gardens that run parallel to the Champs-Elysees, and they were being filmed, so maybe it was the two of them together that triggered it but they were stopped and Heloise was asked for her autograph. What surprised Andrew was when the woman asked for his as well. He had no idea what she was saying to him until Heloise translated for him. So Andrew Bressay signed his first autograph and the young lady left quite happy.

“What did I tell you? You are famous.”

He didn’t respond and just let the moment pass. Andrew wasn’t sure that he wanted to be famous. And yes the irony of thinking that while showing his naked arse with the most famous model in France hadn’t escaped him. But other than that it was a standard model shoot. One of the relatively few that he ever did. They would go upstairs at the Hermès store, change outfits, there would be a pretend sale at the counter and they would wander off through a couple of streets back to the gardens and then repeat. It seemed incredibly easy. If Andrew was shopping for Heloise personally it would not have been any different. So the whole morning was fun, relaxing and did not require him to do anything than enjoy Heloise’s company. Tough work.

The afternoon shoot was with his first full-on diva. Now Chiara had been like that the night in the Salon but this was the first time it happened on set. Her name was Giselle and she was passive aggressive and petulant and called her agent twice in the first half hour. She was not impressed with anything, Andrew most of all, and the initial part of the shoot at the store was going nowhere slowly. Heloise had left for another shoot, she was on her way to the airport and Veronique was stuck. After Yvette on Monday and now this, his determination to get an agent was increasing.

“Look Andrew this is a mess. Once again she is not right and she should have never been hired. Although in this case it is her agent’s fault. He did not explain fully what the shoot would be like. Come back here at the usual time tomorrow morning.”

Veronique was fed up and she had every right to be. The contrast to the morning was brutal. He had left a jumper at the studio the previous day and since he now had the time he wandered back over there to pick it up. He had not run for the last two mornings so figured he would go for a run later. But when he got to the studio Renee Clement, all 5’ of her was looking round the studio.

“Andrew!”

She must have had springs in her feet. But Andrew caught her, managed not to drop her or fall over. And his reward? She was a great kisser. When she finally came up for air he could talk to her.

“What are you doing here? We are tomorrow.”

“I know, but my last job finished at lunchtime and I was passing and wanted to see the set. But the lady at the front said the shoot had been cancelled. What happened?”

He gave her the 30 second version of Giselle. Renee’s face did not hide her disdain for the woman. But another woman’s stupidity is a former gymnast’s gain...

“Are you free until 10.00 tonight?”

“Such ambition, such staying power.”

If ever a woman deserved a whack...

“I would threaten to spank you but you would probably just say ‘bon’ or some such thing.”

Biting her bottom lip was just cruel.

“I was going to phone Veronique and see if we could do a third scene with you. Of course you would be naked the whole time, have me caressing your body, teasing you.”

He thought Renee would shriek and whack him; instead all he got was “bon, trés bon”. There was a break room where the technical people sat and relaxed and fortunately not all of them had left. Andrew recognised Michel and Renee explained she was going to do the shoot, they just needed to find Veronique. Renee asked that they prepare everything because the assumption was that Veronique would jump at the chance to salvage something from the afternoon. The problem proved to be finding Veronique. The woman at the studio reception was constantly haranguing the Hermès receptionist to find her. So they were all dressed up and there was no sign of Veronique.

“Can you translate for me please.”

Through Renee Andrew asked Michel if they could just start. It was going to be no different than the previous two days and Veronique would be there any minute. Michel knew what to shoot, Andrew knew what he was to do, why not just start? Michel looked nervously at the door, it was probably in violation of a thousand union rules but then he just shrugged, shouted at the other technical people to get ready and looked at Andrew. The lunatics were officially in charge. And it went smoothly. They did the usual entry scenes, clothes gradually coming off, right up to the point where Renee was in his arms wearing nothing but the short silk robe. Andrew had to hold her just for framing purposes, it was ridiculous otherwise.

They both looked over at the door expecting Veronique to burst through any second but it was resolutely empty. Through Renee the two of them talked to Michel. He thought they had the same shots as with Mathilde on Monday. Renee with her short hair could not use the claw clip in her hair. The way Michel talked about the shot with Mathilde made Andrew think there must be something different. But what.

“Are you okay with being naked for an extended time?”

There was a leading question.

“Yes, but why?”

“Can you play being a bull attacking the matador, while doing some of the moves from your floor exercise routine. It won’t be the large wrap just a regular scarf, mostly used to hide what needs to stay hidden. You heard Michel, all this is so far is a repeat of Monday. Let’s make it unique, something only you can do.”

Renee hauled Andrew’s head down for a quick kiss before smiling and getting ready. He found a vivid red patterned scarf and they were set. Two naked people, a scarf and a Christmas Tree. And nine French film crew. Andrew knew that full frontal was going to be edited out so didn’t worry about constantly moving the scarf to try and hide everything. They both had their postiches on, Andrew’s securely taped down, he had learned his lesson. He didn’t wave the scarf around his head but didn’t try and use it as a fig leaf either. It was a prop to allow a top ranked gymnast to pretend to be a bull. They pranced around for 10 or 12 minutes, Andrew doubted he could have gone much longer the concentration was tiring, and then he wrapped the scarf around Renee and pulled her to his arms. She jumped up with a huge smile, clearly said Joyeux Noel and kissed him. They found robes but also Veronique watching them. Oh, oh.

She had been dragged into a meeting with Beatrice Raymonde, voices were raised, down the telephone not at each other, and nobody had dared to intervene. She had arrived half way through the bullfight and had resisted the urge to interrupt and left them to it. She listened as Michel described all the footage already shot and sat in silent thought for a minute.

“Okay, extra shots. Andrew, I want you to carry Renee to the fire, let’s have a big wrap there so that you can throw it over each other. We will start there tomorrow. We will shoot the purchase scene as an extra in the morning. Once we have this last shot then we will get a restaurant shot and that will do for today. Tomorrow will be a long day so be ready.”

The shot in the studio was easy and without having to switch restaurants that was easy too. They did all the different shots as usual but then Renee and Andrew just stayed and had dinner. They didn’t linger as they had to cab it out to Renee’s apartment where she packed a bag for a couple of nights before heading back to the centre of Paris. They lay in bed, having done nothing yet, Renee stretched out along him.

“That was more tiring than I would have thought it would be.”

“I know what you mean. I found the dancing around trying to be aware of the cameras but at the same time not look like I am aware of the cameras, that was tough. What on earth gave you the idea?”

“It was when Michel said we had the same shots as Monday. Now you are 24 and Mathilde is 36 but I thought they would want something uniquely you. And as there was no equipment it left the floor exercise. Waving a wrap or a scarf around, I needed a reason. Every kid has played matador at some point. I knew you could do it. The secret was not to worry about the nudity and leave that to Veronique and the editor.”

The kiss started as a thank you, turned playful and then passionate. And yet their fucking was drawn out and fulfilling. They both came but it was almost secondary. Their bathroom routine was quick and Renee Clement fell asleep on him. Andrew slid her down into his arms and succumbed to torrid dreams. The thing about the punishing schedule was it thoroughly disrupted his plans for Renee Clement. They were up very early as she had to be at Hermes at 6.30. Andrew was not the kind of guy who was going to roll over and let her go on her own so he dressed in his running gear, walked her there and then went for his usual morning run. But what Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday all showed was the importance of chemistry with his modelling partner. It had worked on Monday as well, and if he worked with Mathilde again Andrew thought it could be even better. He wondered what it meant that he had fucked all three of the models that he had the best chemistry with. He supposed that there was a chicken and egg issue but it highlighted the failures of Yvette and Giselle.

After a full day of shooting Renee and Andrew crawled into bed and were sound asleep immediately. The following morning was a different matter, it was as if they were embarrassed at being 20 and 24 and falling asleep so quickly. Renee Clement was a naturally happy, exuberant person, and it translated into her approach to sex. She was never going to not give it her full effort. And her full effort was pretty special.

“The next time you are in Paris, I want an uninterrupted full day with you. None of this crazy work schedule that we both had. I want a day of room service from both the hotel and you.”

She made him late for work and he didn’t care. Renee Clement was a seriously sexy young lady. The last day of shooting was another where it seemed they were trying to do too much, capture too many shots, too many different outfits. Manon had realised there was no point in staying for dinner on Friday if Andrew wasn’t finished until after 10.00 and had cancelled her reservation at the hotel. He moved his flight back to early afternoon and had arranged to meet her for breakfast on the Saturday morning. The final model of the week was another first. The model was working as a fashion model for the first time. Celia had big tits, way larger than anyone in the fashion industry and had no future as a runway model. But this campaign seemed tailor made for someone with her attributes. She was new, inexperienced but wanted to make the most of the opportunity. She was focused and worked hard but what she brought to the shoot was an air of confidence about her body. Unlike Suzanne all those years ago unsure how to cope with boys and their comments about her blossoming body, Celia Renard had understood from an early age the power it gave her over first boys and then men. She was much more like Maggie in that regard. So Celia turned up ready to work and wanted to impress all the while knowing that she had a killer body. The shoots were good and Veronique seemed pleased at the end of the night. Although she may have just been like Andrew and happy for the week to be over. For him personally the day had been a revelation in one respect. He had an 18 year old woman with the body of a centrefold naked in his arms all day and it was work. They got on well, there were no issues and the shoot went smoothly. But for whatever reason Celia didn’t do it for him the same way that Renee or Heloise did. You can’t fake a connection, it is either there or it is not.

Knowing that Celia had the body of a centrefold had Andrew thinking about his photography. One of the great side benefits of this job was that he got to watch professionals at work in a studio. He was learning so much. Tony had noticed Andrew’s pace during a shoot, and they both now worked in a focused manner. Not rushed but with a purpose. But perhaps the biggest thing that Andrew learned was about getting more than one thing from the day. Several of the people that often seemed to be standing around were doing exactly that during the shoot. But as soon as one shot was finished then they were moving and redressing the set, the make-up ladies were touching up make-up and the costume people were getting Andrew and the female model into a new outfit, while also ensuring continuity from the shots earlier at the store. But all that meant that Veronique was able to shoot at least two commercials per model and occasionally three. Andrew and Mathilde had worked a long day but even with the late start Veronique ultimately was able to create three separate commercials. So when Andrew thought about the EPIC Partnership and Maggie’s dream of owning the house outside Burntisland and creating a studio there, he thought about everything that he was learning just from observing what was around him. He was looking forward to talking to his friends about the week.

Andrew had pushed back his flight to London to have a chance to meet with Manon but also to have the long delayed meeting with Marilyn Gauthier. Phillippe came into town with Manon and the three of them caught up on their lives, which often was Manon talking. Andrew knew he was not the world’s best sharer and saw Phillippe as a kindred spirit as he wasn’t going to talk about French monetary policy outside the office. He and Manon had finally, after an engagement of several years, decided to get married. It was going to be around Easter the following year. There had been talk of that summer but they had pushed it back. They talked about it with him as a way of giving him a heads up that he would be invited. After Phillippe left to go to his office Manon and Andrew talked work.

“You need to understand that I won’t do another week like this. The days were too long, several well in excess of the limits in the contract. The issues with the models also highlighted the difficulty with this kind of modelling. And if one flakes and the shooting schedule is crammed full then it all goes to hell quickly.”

He watched Manon for her reaction.

“I know. We realised it on Wednesday when everything went wrong with Giselle. It is only a lucky circumstance that you ran into Renee and saved something from that day’s shoot. The campaign has started incredibly well Andrew and we want to capitalise, keep the momentum going. At Christmas you shot with Chiara for the first time and did that amazing lift with her against the wall. The shoot at Easter saw her drive you crazy in bed, there was no denying some of the looks between you. And then to cap it all in Cyprus there are the shots of the two of you lying in bed, looking completely natural, wiped out and with that indescribable air of sex about you. Once again Beatrice is going to have to show the commercial to her bosses to get the go ahead.”

She laughed.

“You should have seen her face when Veronique showed her the push ups with Renee beneath you. When she turned round, oh Andrew, you should have been there.”

She turned serious again.

“Despite all the problems this week it has been a tremendous success. Veronique spoke to Beatrice and I on Wednesday while you were off playing director.” She smiled. “She told me how well Monday had gone with Mathilde and how easy the day and a half with Heloise was. We got a cryptic message about what you did on Wednesday but she seemed pleased with it. So although it was tough work, the first four days went well and we got lots of good footage. I am sure yesterday was fine as well.”