Chapter 8

Pam had made a reservation and they were taken to their table without a delay. Once they were seated though an awkward silence descended around the table. They were all fascinated by the wine list. It was no surprise that Pam dealt with it head on.

“This is supposed to be a thank-you dinner, not a wake. Let’s talk about this, laugh, blush, get told off by my daughter and move on, okay?”

Even Abi smiled at that.

“Andrew, I don’t mean to embarrass you, although I suspect I am about to, but what the hell. I have never seen anything like that in my entire life. I have never heard of anything like that. She was 10 feet in the air!”

Andrew didn’t think there was a question in there.

“With Heloise and Joelle, some of the last scenes shot were me carrying them from the bathroom to the bed, well from that fake door to the bed. I carried them both like that, supporting their weight with them having their arms round my neck, then I would throw them onto the bed. Camera fades out as the ravishing commences, that sort of thing.”

Abi lightly whacked him, just to keep in practice he thought. Pam and Dan smiled.

“I also carried them through in a fireman’s lift. Heloise was tall enough that she could beat me on the arse as I carried her to the bed, and again I threw them down onto the bed, camera fades to black etc. With Chiara we didn’t do that so I thought I would try something different. I had checked that it was a properly supported wall and that it wouldn’t collapse when I tried that.”

Pam mulled this for a moment.

“Don’t shout at me Abi, alright. You don’t look that strong Andrew. Abi says you swim every day and your body has that look, lean and spare not bulky and muscly. Part of my surprise and shock at the scene was I didn’t think you were that strong.”

“It is only a short burst, lifting her from waist height to shoulder height, then her weight was supported by my shoulders and the wall. As long as we don’t start to lean to one side then it is pretty easy.”

“Like a ladder?”

Dan finally was able to contribute, safely.

“Exactly. The centre of mass is high and so if we started to lean then it is dangerous. That is why the wall helps.”

Abi finally asked the question that everyone had been skirting round.

“Have you done that before?”

Andrew smiled and took her hand.

“Once, several years ago. That was only the second time I tried that.”

Once the initial questions were dealt with they all started to relax.

“Are you okay with us asking questions about the shoots Andrew? It doesn’t make it uncomfortable?”

Daniel obviously still had some questions.

“I am fine with you asking anything at all. I shot for all three days with Abi sitting watching. The only thing I would say is I will answer questions honestly, so if you are not ready to hear the answer then don’t ask the question.”

Dan’s face was a picture.

“Now you have me worried, but here goes. We only saw the last 30 minutes or so of the shoot, but when the director shouted ‘cut’ you turned very serious. You were naked and the young lady was naked, the scene was you carrying her through to bed for, as you so aptly described it, some ravishing. Yet you were matter of fact about it, serious even, once the camera stopped. Was it not fun?”

“That is an insightful question because it plays into some of my own thoughts. At a superficial level it is fun, naughty even. All of the women were stunning and so 10% of me is this endless loop in my head of ‘can you believe they are paying me to do this?’, something like that. But after that it gets complicated, in no particular order. I am acting this out in front of Abi, what does that say about me, and about us? This is important for Hermès, what is the impact on my friend Manon? The is very important to the three models, for Heloise and Joelle, although it seems strange that showing your tits and bum is a career progression, they were totally invested in making this a success. For Chiara it was confronting an industry sell by date and taking her career in a different direction. And then you look round at the studio, at what was it 20 people there, something like that. It is a job and I always try to do my best at everything. So you have the personal, for me and for the models, together with making sure it what Hermès wants. Oh and on top of all that I am an engineering student who apparently is a bit of a show off, and I don’t know what the hell I am doing. I think that is why I am so tired. Too many people to let down so I was very focused and worried more about the shot rather than the bum I was holding.”

He laughed at himself.

“Like I said 10% of me was amazed at the bum I was holding.”

Abi hadn’t let go of his hand and she squeezed it. Daniel had been listening and he turned to Pam.

“When you put it that way I can sort of understand. It is that jarring juxtaposition of important work but without any clothes on.”

He shook his head. Pam took over.

“Did Abi being there have an inhibiting effect?”

Andrew felt Abi’s hand squeeze tighter.

“No. At least I don’t think so. I thought about Abi almost as an inspiration a couple of times but for the most part it was me trying to be myself. I think that seeing it may have been awkward in places for her but it also stopped her imagination from thinking it was even worse than it was. I walked to the studio with her every day, kissed her before going off to the set, and walked back with her to dinner and the hotel every night.”

Andrew could see Abi square her shoulders and knew what was coming.

“I also slept with him all three nights, as in fell asleep in Andrew’s arms. I don’t think I would have come to Paris or would have left on Friday morning if I did not have that reassurance.”

Her parents looked happy at this announcement.

“So you are a couple?”

Pam was designing the wedding invitations.

“No Mum, that is the whole thing that Andrew talked about as the personal aspect to all this. I don’t know what we are. We are friends first and foremost, and I hope we always will be. But you heard me what three weeks ago. I am a confused mess when it comes to men, to relationships, to sex. And this weekend has just added to that confusion.

“Look this weekend has been an absurd and wonderful fantasy for us all. Thursday night, I will treasure that forever. I got to watch commercials being made for three days, saw the technical aspects, but do you know what the best part was. I have a wonderful friend in Heloise. That incredible woman is lonely and untrusting. We are completely different, I am this nerdy computer science student from England and she is the most famous model in France. But we hit it off, and I pretty sure that you will be having a guest in the house during some breaks from Cambridge. As Andrew said to me before we came here, she is intelligent in a book smart sense but she is also incredibly street smart. She is great with people, look at the way she dealt with that lovely old man at the restaurant two nights ago. That is why she wanted Andrew for the shoot, not because he has this great body.”

Giggles from both her and her mother. Rolled eyes from Daniel and Andrew.

“It is because he is different to the other people that she has met. Andrew spent three days with her having no idea who she was, how famous she was, just enjoyed her company as Heloise the person as opposed to Heloise the model.”

Gradually the conversation moved away from the shoot and they listened as Pam extolled the shopping and Dan just sat there with a contented smile on his face. When Andrew looked back on that night it is an odd thing that he remembered most vividly. Daniel and Pamela Wilson were in love and showed it. He had lots of friends, and the parents of friends, who were in love but there was something different about the two of them. Were his observations coloured by Pam’s behaviour the previous day? Maybe. But there was an intimacy and attraction between them that was very un-British. They were still attracted to each other and didn’t care who knew it.

Now the conventional wisdom is that people at his age just blank out the possibility of older people having sex, you can never imagine your parents having sex, and it is just an extension of that. But the Wilsons were 25 years older than him and Andrew remembered thinking that he hoped he was still as clearly in love with his wife in 25 years as Dan and Pam were. He didn’t think the sex aspect of it was as clear then, it was the active nature of their love rather than the passive nature. They enjoyed doing things to please the other person. When Andrew thought about love, when he thought about what it means to love someone as opposed to just being attracted to them, it was Dan and Pam Wilson that were his first role models. Not their looks, or their compatibility or anything like that. He saw the love in them as always wanting to please the other person, selfless rather than selfish.

The dinner was delicious but they had an early start in the morning so didn’t linger over brandies or dessert. Abi and Andrew wanted to walk and talk so said their goodnights as they left the Ritz and walked down to the Gardens again.

“I think it will take me all break to try and figure all this out.”

“I know what you mean. It has been an intense couple of days.”

“You weren’t upset at Mum and Dad’s questions?”

“No. The questions were all dancing around the subject of you and I. Being honest and open with each other, and you with them, is unusual I think. I have never met a parent that I haven’t managed to confound at some point. Like I said to your dad, careful what you ask as you might not be ready for the answer.”

“Yes, that got him worried.”

She paused before starting again.

“We have not had a chance to talk about last night. I am sorry I sprung that on you, I spent a fair bit of today berating myself for being so presumptuous.”

“You can let that go. You know me well, and you know I would have agreed to exactly how the night went. But it would have been terrible for Heloise, it was clear she had been crying when you came back from the toilet together. But you said it to your parents, she is lonely. It is an unusual way to comfort a friend but I’ll cope. It was torture obviously having the two of you lying naked on me. I fell asleep hard as a rock and woke up hard as a rock. And the two of you wiggling your bums at me as you cleaned your teeth.”

Andrew shook his head and Abi smiled.

“Come on, let’s go back to the hotel and I can thank you properly.”

The night started out loving and calm but once Andrew started whispering to Abi about how he imagined her in all the shots, the filthy fantasies of her imagination burst forth. What had started as making love quickly descended to intense fucking. All the main shots of the three days were recreated, other than the final one, the ceiling was too low. Andrew carried Abi over to the bed three times and flung her down twice before pulling her to the end of the bed and fucking her hard. The third time he was so ready he slipped into her before he even got to the bed and they ended up fucking in his arms pushed against the wall. Andrew was a sore and beaten man when they finally crawled into bed. Abi lay on him, her eyes tired but still passionate.

“That is what I was thinking most of the time I was watching you with the models. I knew that you would whisper in my ear, get my heart racing and my imagination fired up and then we would take all these shots and finish them. When you started whispering I immediately imagined being on the set. God, I wanted you to take me instantly. Sit on that bathroom counter, lie at the end of the bed and just get fucked. Honestly Andrew, if I was the model I don’t know that I could stop. I would have dragged you to the dressing room immediately and ravished you for hours.

“That is why I wanted to come and watch this, to see you with those other women. Because I knew that my reward would be this. Babbling away, lying on you, my whole body tingling with satisfaction. And whenever I need to release my filthy imagination it will be there fresh and vibrant.”

Abi rambled on a bit longer but he was exhausted. HIs last memory was holding Abi’s arse as she lay on him, thinking he was the luckiest man alive. Like mother like daughter. Dan looked as though Pam had worn him out the night before as well. Andrew drove to Calais for him, about three hours or so, and they didn’t have long to wait on a ferry.

“Are you sure we can’t run you back to London?”

“No thanks, I am going to take the train, probably have a nap, and it will be easier for everyone just to drop me at the station in Dover.”

Abi and Andrew had hugged for half the English Channel.

“I will call you next week. I don’t know my plans yet but I will down before term starts, at least I assume so.”

Finally he was alone at the station platform. Other than his morning runs Andrew had not been alone for four long days. The journey back to London was tedious with all the stops but he tuned out the world and dozed and vegged the whole way. He just had time to get to Jim and Freya’s flat before heading back to King’s Cross to wait for Leslie and Julian.

It was a strange day, a strange feeling. As Andrew waited at the station for the Edinburgh train to arrive he thought about the last week and now that week. It started with a weekend with Jim and Freya, three days in Cambridge, then four days in Paris with everything that had happened there, then this week they were presenting the first funds to the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, the culmination of years of efforts. Part of his rationale for jumping into so many adventures was the ‘living two lives’ mantra but that only worked up to a point. His head was swirling with images of the all three models as well as Abi and yet he was about to meet Faith’s older sister and present a cheque in her memory the following day. It was going to be an emotional occasion. He sat at the station feeling cheap. Leslie on the other hand refused to be maudlin.

“The four of us sat and talked this weekend over dinner. Even Mum was okay. It is a something separate and distinct from Faith. The Trust is in her name but what I want to happen is there to be ever fewer Faiths until one day there is an effective and viable cure for leukemia, in fact not just leukemia, all cancers. So cheer up, you miserable git. You have tales to tell about your dirty film career in Paris.”

As a way to cheer him up it was effective. Leslie kept saying unnecessarily loudly ‘you were naked?’ on the Tube ride, to guffaws from Julian and blushes from Andrew. There was never going to be any danger of him getting too big for his boots with the two of them around. They had time to stop for a beer so they retreated to the Deerstalker.

“So, how was the weekend?”

“I am going to save the details for when Jim and Freya get back, so I only have to tell it once. But overall it went very well and everybody seemed pleased. But it was a lot more tiring than I expected, I dozed on the train up here from the coast. Hey, let it be, I will tell you all the stories in an hour, just have some patience. Talk to me about tomorrow.”

Leslie pouted so Julian filled him in.

“We are meeting at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund at 10.00. Meet and greet, lots of explaining I expect and then lunch. After lunch we get an overview of general research being funded by them before we give them the money. There may be a dinner in the evening. On Wednesday we are meeting the researchers on childhood cancer, including leukemia. This will be the one and only time we will do that. I just hope it goes okay.”

This last was said with a worrying tone.

“Is there any reason to assume it will not?”

The two of them looked at each other and Leslie nodded at Julian.

“They don’t come across as very good at listening. They smell the money but it is if they are at a cocktail party and aren’t really paying attention to the conversation. There have been a couple of occasions when they seem to go back on things previously agreed. Our key contact has changed and the last letter went back over very old ground. I am just warning you.”

Andrew looked at Leslie.

“Is there anything in writing?”

“No Andrew, it is a donation. Not a contractual amount. The senior people seem good, but the level below that, not so much. And it is them I have been dealing with.”

“How hard is it to give quietly give money to fund cancer research?”

This was pushing some of his buttons and he could feel it.

“What is the other outfit called? The Campaign.”

“The Cancer Research Campaign.”

“Do we have their details if necessary?”

A sad nod.

“Yes, we do.”

“Okay, well let’s hope that they have their act together tomorrow. I want this to be painless for both sides. They get more money and have to have a one day meeting once, no more than twice a year. This should be straightforward.”

Andrew tried to shake the worry that the next day was going to be a shitshow. He was comfortable showing Julian and Leslie the spare room and letting them get organised. He started dinner and opened a couple of bottles of wine. It was going to be one of those evenings. When Jim and Freya got home they were charming to their guests and soon the five of them were sitting round the kitchen table chatting, waiting for dinner.

“Come on then tell us.”

Leslie was clearly eager to hear all the stories for the weekend. So Andrew recounted the three and a half days omitting the more gratuitous parts.

“So you were really naked for more than three hours every afternoon?”

Jim was still concerned about his virtue.

“Yes, I know that it sounds odd but after a while I stopped worrying about it. The filming was more technical than I had anticipated and so I had to concentrate, not screw up the shots. It was also an important job, important to the models and the company. I did have a robe or a towel to put on if there was going to be a long time between shots.”

He, with a very red face, explained about the postiche. That his tackle was at least marginally covered seemed to assuage Jim. Slightly.

“You’ve explained what happened but you have not really told us what it was like. Were there parts that were hard.”

As soon as Freya said it she knew. 54 and blushing like a schoolgirl. There were tears of laughter everywhere. As an icebreaker it was without compare.

“The word we always used was difficult. Less open to misinterpretation. And yes there were parts where I was not very good, the third day in particular. Chiara was tough to deal with at first and I am not good enough of an actor to fake attraction. But I got there in the end. But it was those moments that were toughest. The bathroom and bedroom scenes were just a lot of different shots, lots of takes, different clothes, different underwear, things like that. But as I said to Abi’s parents it was 10% ‘oh my god I have a naked woman in my arms’ and 90% ‘I hope I don’t do something stupid and ruin this shot’.

“Ask me in five years and those percentages will have swapped round but that is how I feel right now.”

With the meeting being early the following morning the evening did not get out of hand. Andrew was up early and skipped his run in favour of a nice long swim. As a way of mentally resetting it was very effective for him. He saw Jim and Freya on the platform into the city as he got off the train coming the other way. He, Leslie and Julian were quiet over breakfast and on the Tube back into central London.

All Andrew’s fears were for naught. A sudden resignation during the correspondence phase had left the Fund scrambling and there had been some confusion. They were met at reception and taken to a small conference room to meet Nicholas Lyell, the new person in charge of donations and legacies for the Fund. He apologised at the beginning for the confusion.

“I have several letters from a Ms. Connelly from Drummonds in Edinburgh setting up this meeting. Look, we are normally much more professional than we have appeared over the last three months. Some correspondence appears to have been lost or misfiled and so I am underprepared for this meeting. Could you give me a brief recap of what you wish from today’s meeting so that I can start to present the Fund in a better light?”

The man had been dealt a tough hand and was in damage limitation mode. Sure they could have been unimpressed about the lack of preparation but what was the point. The Imperial Cancer Research Fund had an 80-year legacy of working to find a cure for cancer and so they simply rolled with it and explained. This was Leslie’s meeting.

“We are the Trustees of a fund that was established to support cancer research. Knowing that we have neither the time nor a fraction of the expertise needed to assess and monitor the actual research we had approached the Fund to donate to you. From reading your annual report we have seen that you support both basic research into the biology of cancer as well as supporting clinical research and studies into specific cancers, their causes and possible treatments. We wish to donate to you to support those efforts.”

Lyell had politely watched and listened to Leslie although the fact that they were Trustees had caused his eyes to widen momentarily.

“That is excellent, you are meeting with the right person to assist with that. You mention you are trustees; if you have raised money why did you set up a Trust?”