Chapter 30

Fortunately that small trip out with his friends was sufficient to break Toby’s mood of black despair and he found that he was able to look at life with much less despondency than he had done ever since Amber’s departure. At long last he could face the thought of looking at the photographs of her, feeling that they would no longer make him tearful, so he took the four undeveloped rolls of film over to Mark Hales’ dark room to process them. The fourth and final film proved something of a problem as he didn’t really feel that he should let Mark see it, having promised Amber that it would be for his own eyes only. Fortunately Mark and Diane went away one weekend in October and Toby was able to talk Mark into allowing him to use the darkroom in his absence. He printed up the entire film on eight by ten inch sheets of photo paper which cost him a small fortune, but he was highly delighted by the results. The photographs were really good as well as being extremely erotic.

On Sunday night, having carefully locked the door of his bedroom, Toby settled down on the rug with his oil bottle, his tissue box and thirty eight pictures, mostly of Amber but some of the two of them together. He took his time and it was good, but afterwards as he kissed the image on one of the photographs tenderly, before he put them away carefully, he wished with all his heart that his lover was there in the flesh instead of just on paper.

The development of the fourth roll of film was to lead to several weeks of somewhat erotic correspondence between Toby and Amber. Their first letters after their separation had been passionate and emotional, but as there is only a certain amount that one can easily write in that vein, their subsequent weekly efforts had become slightly more light-hearted. They both began to tell each other what had happened in their world during the previous seven days. When Toby had printed up his erotic photographs, one of the two of them together had struck a particularly strong chord in his memory. Whilst it was certainly obvious what they were doing, the shot in question was not, perhaps, quite as explicit as some of the others, due to the camera angle. Both of them had been facing the lens and the camera had gone off right at the moment of penetration. From the expression on each of their faces it was obviously an exquisite moment and Toby remembered that Amber had commented on it at the time. While he had been alone in the dark room he had made up a small print from the negative with a view to sending it off to her as he was sure that it would bring back a lovely memory.

He put the print carefully into a separate smaller envelope with a covering message, telling her of his ritual on the rug. That was suitably sealed up and marked “Private and Personal - YOUR EYES ONLY” and included in his usual letter. It was duly posted off and with the usual delays between the United States and England, it was a while before Amber responded. Indeed, Toby had almost forgotten about the entire thing. Amber’s reply was extremely amusing, for she informed him that she had decided to read his letter during a particularly boring class at college. Fortunately she had been sitting in the back row. When she found the little envelope she initially decided to save it for a moment when she was alone, but eventually curiosity had got the better of her and she had ripped it open. When she saw the photograph Amber said that she had experienced a hot throbbing sensation in her groin, exactly as she had at the moment at which the shutter had fired. Unable to resist the temptation she had there and then crossed her legs and had proceeded to give herself no less than three orgasms as she read his little note and pored over the photograph.