Chapter 15

Bob didn’t find anything for the teens to do, at first. His ad business had no call for either of them, at present. He was fairly busy with the portrait side of things. A lot of older couples wanted a new portrait of them for posterity, in case one or both caught Covid and died. Again, though, there wasn’t any need for the teens in that part of the business.

He produced a few more series with Erica, which helped keep things afloat, but he thought it was too early to try to bring Josh into the nudity program.

He knew that his old boss had contracted Covid and was in the hospital, on a ventilator. He called the man’s wife regularly to see how she was doing. One day she cried and said her husband had passed. During the conversation she asked Bob if he would come help her son re-open the studio, which had been closed when the owner got sick.

What Bob found was that their son, David, was struggling to bring the business back to life. Bob knew David because David had worked with him as a junior photographer. It was David, in fact, who took Bob’s place when he struck out on his own. David was struggling because nobody had thought to contact their regular customers to let them know what was going on. His dad’s voice mail was full of companies offering work. Of course, when they were contacted, the company representatives said they’d had to find other studios, and had now established new relationships. Two or three customers were glad to hear things were back and said they’d send some work.

Then David had to call the models they had used, but who had been laid off. About half of the adults said they’d come back to work. The others had found some other kind of work and didn’t want to abandon a fixed income. None of the parents of the kids said they were willing to risk it.

“I’ve got two teenage models,” said Bob. “A boy and a girl. If you get jobs needing teens, I can do that work, while you take care of the adults. Companies are just going to have to understand that younger children aren’t going to be working until this Covid shit gets figured out.”

“Deal,” said David. “I feel better already.”

Because he had worked for David’s father, Bob knew where things were, including the business records. He went through them with David and his mother, who had never paid any attention to that side of the business. His mother agreed to take over the administrative side of things so David could concentrate on taking pictures.

A week later a job modeling swimwear for the upcoming spring season was offered to David. He took it and notified Bob. When the clothes arrived, Bob picked up the teen-size material and called Mona to arrange for Josh to come work. The studio was fifteen minutes from their house, by bicycle.

This kind of modeling was easy. Josh wasn’t muscle-bound by any stretch of the imagination, but he wasn’t skin and bones, either. His bare chest, arms and legs were all “normal” and acceptable, in Bob’s opinion, to represent the average teen male. All he had to do was wear the clothes and have the right look on his face. This kind of modeling called for the viewer of the picture to notice the clothing, not the model. It was the reverse of what Bob had done with Erica. For this shoot Erica’s hair was back in a normal ponytail and she wore no makeup at all. Josh needed some foundation, but that was all. They never looked at the camera when Bob was ready to shoot. They became living mannequins, basically.

Initially, both Erica and Josh used the changing room to take off the old swimsuit and put on the new one. Then, because there were forty suits for each to model, Erica said, “We can change out here. It will be quicker and we’ve already seen each other naked.”

Josh looked at Bob.

“Up to you,” said Bob. “All I do is take the pictures. I will say, though, that since I had to peel you two apart when you first got here, you need to ask yourself if it’s wise to be naked around each other.”

“We can handle it,” said Erica. “We have rules about what we can and can’t do. Well ... not rules exactly. We just both agreed not to go all the way.”

“That’s fine. I just don’t want to have to peel you apart when you’re naked.”

“Don’t worry. If problems arise, I know how to deflate them.” She said it with a straight face.

Josh, not being stupid, looked at her and said, “We can’t do that in front of him!”

“I’ll just do something else while you consult with each other, should the need arise. How’s that?” Bob said. Josh looked clearly surprised and spoke.

“I don’t get it. Everybody else says we have to control ourselves and just say no and all that. Why are you different?”

“I see both of you as being adults. In two years neither of you will be able to model teen sizes at all. And both of you are over the age of consent in this state. I have no right to intrude into your private lives. Unless the two of you want to do some porn, your sex life is none of my business.”

“Porn!” gasped Josh.

“You two would be perfect for soft core porn,” said Bob. “I’m not trying to talk you into it. All I’m saying is that opportunity is out there. I will say it pays a hell of a lot better than what you’re going to do, today, but that’s neither here, nor there.”

Josh looked at Erica, to see how she was reacting to this. Her brow was furrowed and she had one finger on her jaw.

“Erica?”

“Hush. I’m thinking.”

That told Josh she was contemplating doing this! He couldn’t believe it.

“How would that work?” she suddenly asked. “If any of our friends or teachers or anybody we know saw it our lives would be over. It might be legal for us to do it, but our parents would have fits anyway.”

“Well, the best customers I have for doing something with you two would be in Asia, Africa, and Russia. Maybe some in the Slavic countries. There are literally a billion soft core pictures taken every year ... or there were before Covid. The chances of anybody you know seeing a website or magazine put out in Tajikistan are pretty remote. I’d even be willing to say zero. It’s all in where you market things.”

“You’re serious?” Josh croaked.

Erica came and faced him.

“We do this stuff anyway. Why not get paid for it?”

“Because our parents would kill us for doing it!” Josh said.

“They can’t be upset about something they don’t know about. Did you tell them what you were going to model today?”

“Well, no. Bob didn’t tell Mom what we were doing. He just said he had a job for me.”

“So, you just keep going to work. Sometimes it will be like this, right Bob?”

“Yes,” he said.

“And sometimes we can do ... other stuff. I’ll be honest with you. I’m horny and I want to be with you.”

“I’m horny, too,” groaned Josh. “But posing for pictures naked? I don’t think I could do that. I’d be way too embarrassed. You’ve seen my...” He looked at Bob. “thing,” he ended weakly.

“I have and I love it,” said Erica. “You know that. It’s handsome and strong looking. There is nothing wrong with your ... thing.” She grinned.

“We can talk about this later,” said Bob. “Right now we have swimsuits to model.”

Josh did all right for about an hour. Modeling was new enough to him that it consumed his attention, initially. Bob started Erica with one piece suits, most of which were modest, but still displayed her curves deliciously. One of them had a thong back and when she turned around she said, “People go swimming showing their butts like this?”

“Fashion knows no master,” said Bob. “It actually calls for a small inset photo of the back, so they aren’t hiding anything.”

Josh watched as Bob took a shot of Erica’s backside.

That made him think of what Bob had said.

Repeatedly, as he changed suits and froze, in whatever position Bob wanted him, he thought, “Would she really do that? And if she did, could I?”

That was when his first erection popped up. He turned away from the others and put on his next suit, which was baggy. He pulled his cock up to lie against his abdomen and waited to see where Bob would want him. He managed to get through that shot, but when he took the suit off Erica saw his boner.

“We need a break, Bob,” she called out.

“What?” Then he said, “Oh, right. Go ahead. I’ll just look at what we’ve done already. I’m sure it’s good, but I don’t take chances.”

Erica walked over to Josh. She took his hand and then made him look at her with her other hand.

“There is nothing to be embarrassed about. Bob doesn’t care. He’s probably had it done to him a thousand times. My mother may even do it to him, though I don’t want to think about that.”

“We can’t do it right here,” Josh gasped.

Erica pulled him to the changing room and closed the curtain.

Bob got an erection as he heard Josh react to Erica sucking the cum out of his balls.

When Josh was finished, she swallowed and then kissed him.

“See? Easy peasy. Now you feel better and can go back to work.”

“You know how crazy this is, right?” said Josh. “Nobody does this in the professional world.”

“And you know this how?” she asked, archly. “For all we know everybody does this.”

“Bob?” Josh called out. “Does every studio handle the problem this way?”

“No,” Bob called back. “There is medication a man can take that will prevent him from getting stiff. Most men don’t like it, though, because it lasts several days and their wives and girlfriends don’t like that.”

“Shit,” Josh said, softly.

“You didn’t like what I just did?” Her voice was flat.

“No! No. You know I love it. I just think I’d puke if he was taking pictures of you doing it.”

She kissed him again.

“There’s medicine for that, too.”

By the end of the day Erica had had to deflate Josh four times. By the last one, it seemed routine and Josh was no longer embarrassed that Bob knew what they were doing.

“I’m impressed,” said Bob as they came out of the changing room in their street clothes. He looked at them. “I’ll be honest. You two are perfect for the other side of modeling. Josh, you leave me in the dust, when it comes to being able to have a new erection. In that business that’s a hell of an asset. You obviously love each other, which renders authenticity to the video. Again, I’m not trying to talk you into anything. I’m just giving you information. Each of you earned three hundred dollars today. If you had spent the same amount of time doing what I’m talking about, it would have been three thousand. I’m just saying.”

“We have to think about that,” said Erica.

“Wait,” said Josh. “You said videos. I thought all you were talking about was still photos.”

“Yes, at first. There is a whole host of different ideas we could work with for still photographic series. Had we done that, today, you would have gotten a thousand.”

“I already told him I’ve done some of that,” said Erica.

“Good. You can tell him what it’s like. And you’re right. This is a big decision. I do want you both to think long and hard about this.”

“We will,” said Erica.

“I’ll call you when the next job comes in,” said Bob. “Great job today, to both of you. Josh, for a rookie you killed it. You have the look.”

“I’ll explain what the look is,” said Erica. “How are we getting home?”

“I’m taking you,” said Bob.

Bob could tell that at least Josh wasn’t freaked out about his proposal.

Josh and Erica made out in the back seat all the way to Josh’s house.

The next day the phone rang and when Bob answered it, it was Mona Penwillow.

“Hi!” he said. “It’s good to talk to you. What’s up? Josh is doing really well, by the way. I think there will be more work for him.”

“That’s actually why I’m calling,” she said. “He came home so happy last night. We’ve never seen him like this. We have decided that he’s finally interested in a girl and that’s making him open up.”

“He picked a good one to be interested in,” said Bob. “Erica is smart, loyal, and eager to succeed in the world.”

“The way he walked around the house with this silly grin on his face made my husband tell me he remembered being like that. I asked him when that was and he said it was while we were dating. If you’re still willing, I think I’d like to do those glamour shots as a present for him. I know I can’t look like I did back then, but do you think you could make me look nice?”

“I know I could,” said Bob. “I already have something in mind but it may take a little while to find all the ingredients I think would serve you best.”

“What kind of ingredients?”

“I think you would knock his socks off in a solid yellow dress that will enhance the strands of color in your hair.”

“Oh. You noticed those. I was going to maybe dye them.”