Chapter 8

Andrew stood and watched as the wall of sound washed over him. Veronique saw him, flung a hand up in the face of some person moaning at her, and stalked over.

“This is all your fault.”

She was smiling so she hadn’t lost her sense of humour. Yet.

“It is an audition. Get all the women together, tell them what you will be looking for, and then kick them all out to one of the other rooms here.”

That got Andrew an angry glare and a solid whack.

“Really, I am glad a man is here to tell me how to do my job. I know! I just need them to shut up. Go next door, I will talk to everyone there.”

Andrew recoiled from Veronique’s wrath and ruefully understood it had been entirely justified. He tried not be paternalistic any more but clearly had failed that morning. He turned to escape the bedlam but saw Renee across the room. She looked a little forlorn and so he smiled and indicated the door with his head. Once in the smaller studio next door she leapt into his arms and they hugged for a moment or two.

“This is crazy. What are they trying to do?”

Andrew told her about filming the audition process as part of a behind the scenes.

“I found out about the scarves thing yesterday. I don’t know that I can dance the way they want.”

“Rubbish, you have done floor routines. It looks like dance, artistic, with all the tumbling thrown in as well. None of those women can do that.”

The worry on her face eased.

“What are they trying to get from the shoot?”

“Scarves and sex.”

“Andrew!”

“No really. It is scarves and sex. Buy this special pack of seven scarves and good things happen. If a man buys it, then his wife, girlfriend, lover, dances about at the end of the bed, scarves come off, ravishing ensues. In fact, it is earlier than that. He has his naked lover at the end of the bed and drapes and ties the scarves around her, with lots of touches and caresses. Then they all come back off again, ravishing ensues. That is why they are looking for dancers, models who can move rhythmically. Something like that. Veronique likes all these shopping shots, in the Hermès store. We go there, you leave with this beautiful bright coloured scarf around your neck. Later that night the camera closes in as I hold one end and the scarf slowly slides across your naked body, highlighting, hiding and ultimately revealing you. Ravishing ensues.”

Renee giggled.

“I see that ravishing is not an option.”

“It is in the script.”

Renee looked at him with questioning eyes and Andrew nodded. His gorgeous little gymnast was going to spend the night with him. They both looked very pleased at the prospect.

“How many are they going to pick today?”

“No idea.”

“Do I have a chance?”

“Renee, this is not about showing off your dance moves. This is about selling the scarves. And they want to do that with sex. I have never met any of these women before. Think back to that first shoot we did at the Eiffel Tower. You babbled on in a mixture of French and English and took, what, two hours to calm down. Now by the end of the day it was fantastic. Last time we just picked up where we left off. So you have an enormous advantage. You know me, you can flirt with me and it is not some random model trying too hard. It is you. I don’t know what they want but you must be one of the front runners.”

The peace and quiet was shattered by the doors flooding open and a stream of dancers came into the studio, trailed by Veronique. More than a few curious glances were cast their way but nobody had a chance to say anything as Veronique launched into a spiel of rapid French. Andrew caught pieces of it but wasn’t concerned. He knew Veronique would tell him what she wanted at the end. HIs name was mentioned several times and lots of eyes flicked over to him but Veronique continued to demand their attention and they focused again. Once she was done she beckoned him over and they went back through to the main studio. Order had been mostly restored and it looked like they were going to start shooting soon.

“There are 20 women here for the audition. We need to thin that down to 10 to start. Go and put on some shorts and a tight tee shirt. The first set of auditions is going to be standard dancer gear for the women. I told them this is not dance, it is a commercial. But I didn’t give them a lot of specific direction. I want to see how they react and interact with you. Go.”

Andrew was a prop for the audition, a human piece of furniture for the women to dance round. And the ones that danced were done. The women who understood what the commercials wanted to convey were the ones who were successful. Renee’s audition lasted less than 30 seconds before she was told she was through. Everyone else got five minutes but there was no need to waste any time with her. The way she looked at him, the way she focused on him, it was prefect. Six of the others just didn’t get it and barely looked at him, did some kind of dance solo and were easy to eliminate. Veronique had an assistant who was the designated executioner and these six had eliminated themselves. The other 13 were a full spectrum of women, allowing that they were all models so it was hardly a representative sample of the whole population. There were two others that didn’t need the full five minutes, they got the time but they didn’t need it. Andrew was sure one had worked as a stripper, the way she moved, how she almost gave him a lap dance. And for the others it was seven from eleven and nobody asked his opinion. They made the choices and they had the first cut.

Andrew had concentrated on the dancers as he had been instructed and so after two hours of them auditioning he was ready for a break and some food. He grabbed some sandwiches from a long table with food along the studio wall. Marilyn Gauthier was waiting for him when he returned to a chair off to the side. He let her talk as he ate.

“They are really pleased with you but you do seem to cause chaos Andrew. You have been told about Courcheval?”

He nodded.

“They are want to keep the chemistry but still get in fresh faces. Do you have any ideas?”

Andrew shrugged, as he swallowed and gathered his thoughts.

“You have seen all the shoots. You know or at least have heard what all the models are like. Yesterday was a painful struggle and I don’t want to do something like that ever again. I don’t think she wanted to be there and it was not fun, not sexy and it will take an editing miracle for it to be remotely believable. Maybe they don’t care because she is a star. The two models that I am most comfortable with are Heloise and Renee. And everyone raves about Chiara and Mathilde. There is absolutely no common thread to work with there. I am 20, Heloise 22, Renee 25, Chiara nearly 30 and Mathilde 36. I seem to work better with older models, more experienced models. I know that they want fresh faces but they are getting that this week. You should ask Veronique if I am getting better. Yesterday afternoon is a good shoot to ask about, it is recent and I hated it.”

“It is a risk to fly people to location if the chemistry is wrong. Okay. By the way we need to sign the paperwork now that it is finally agreed. It will let me work with you better.”

Andrew agreed to bring the copies of the agreement and sign them with her the following day at the studio. With a smile she left him to the last of his lunch. Not that he got any peace as Beatrice arrived, Manon in tow.

“Can you work with all of them?”

Well then, let’s cut to the chase.

“Yes. Can they do the scene?”

“We will see. I am going to keep Renee Clement for Courcheval. The chemistry between the two of you is crystal clear so I want to keep her for the shoot where the travel is much harder. Will you work late doing shopping scenes with the five we pick tonight?”

“Sure.”

She smiled and kissed his cheek, before leaving. Manon smiled ruefully at Andrew and as usual dutifully followed. Renee came through all but doing flips so was so excited.

“I am so excited. Two days, maybe three in Courcheval. And you should here the catty comments through there. Beatrice came through and talked to me and then I packed up and those bitches thought I was eliminated.”

She giggled.

“If you happened to mention the shoot in the Alps while you are with them today and tomorrow, I will reward you most handsomely tonight.”

She was a perfect bundle of sexual energy and just talking to her had Andrew all hot and bothered.

“They need me late to shoot scenes at the store. I have no idea when I will be done.”

“Shall I come over tomorrow night instead?”

“I think we will have more time, and I will have more energy for you.”

Her giggle was too much. She needed to get out of there or he was taking her to the changing room right then. She danced away provocatively.

“I will try the hotel at 6.00 and if you are not back I will come to the studio, okay?”

She jumped up into his arms and her mouth nibbled on his ear.

“I have got a new move I want to try on you. You are going to be a broken man.”

And with that image in his mind she jumped down and left with a jaunty wave. Andrew was still smiling 10 minutes later when Veronique came to talk to him.

“Okay, we are down to nine but that does not help me as it was clear that Renee would have been one of the five. So we have to select five from nine. I am going to bring them all in naked, well they will have their postiche. I want to see how they react to being naked in front of all these people. One of the shots will be from a camera in the back corner so that I have shots of nine naked women individually facing this crowd of people. I want the behind the scenes to show what it is like to have to do this, how many people are there. Can you wear your postiche, and tape it down okay? One of the wardrobe women will tie the elbow and knee scarves on the first model and then do the sarong and halter top effect with three scarves on all of them. I just want you to stand there naked from the back just staring at them. I don’t want you to scowl but I don’t want you to smile. As each woman is being ‘dressed’ I want you to look her up and down. I will tell them when it is their turn to be dressed to focus on you. This is about making them uncomfortable and seeing who reacts. Then it will be the physical with you, one on one with 50 people watching, or however the hell many we have crammed in here. Got all that?”

Andrew nodded and managed not to say ‘yes dear’. He went through to ‘dress’ in his little pouch and taped it in place. It is an experience that nothing can prepare you for, to walk into a large room, in this case a dance studio, in front of 56 people, again he counted, wearing a thin cloth condom-like contraption. But to every single person there apart from Veronique, Beatrice and Manon he was simply Andrew the model. They knew nothing else. He was an animatronic mannequin. So he took his place as directed by Veronique and waited.

Nudity is context, circumstance, location. When Andrew was in Cyprus, more than half the people on the beach wandered around topless, and they were not all models. Bikini bottoms were getting skimpier as well so if any of these women relaxed at the beach in August they would not have been wearing much more than they were that day. And in front of a lot more people as well. But there was safety in numbers, safety in being one of hundreds topless at the beach. It is entirely different to walk into a large room wearing nothing but the equivalent of a fig leaf. One women lost focus and confidence and again all but eliminated herself. So there were eight women who behaved as if this was the most natural thing in the world. Once all eight were dressed, number nine had already gone, they were told to return to the other studio and they would be called one at a time. Everyone turned and left except one person. She walked up to Andrew with a sultry smile on her face.

“Bonjour, Elodie.”

She shook his hand and then closed his fingers around the end of one of the scarves covering her breasts. With a smile she just backed away, the scarf sliding up her body, brushing and rubbing her breast and nipple before she backed far enough away that the scarf fell to the floor and she stood there with one of her breasts exposed. As she clearly intended they had the first hire and she was done until later at the store. She got what Veronique was looking for. The next three hours were just a blur in his mind. Seven women, all dressed the same going through a lot of the same moves again and again as Veronique put them through their paces. She called a break and talked to Manon and Beatrice before coming back over to Andrew.