Chapter 4: The Studio

The Millers slept late Saturday morning. The trip had been long, and Cary and Jack stayed up late talking to Dory. Saturday, Dory drove them down to the Strip and over to Caesar’s Palace, which was practically a city in itself. First was a long shopping trip through the Forum Shops, a gigantic multilevel shopping center that seemed to go on for miles and had stores that were guaranteed to tempt and then bankrupt anybody. After several hours spent mostly window shopping, Dory took them into the casino, showed them around, and then took them to a late lunch/early dinner at the buffet. It was late when they headed back to the house. Sunday, they lazed around most of the day and Dory took them to a show at the Mirage.

Monday was an eye-opener for Jack and Cary. It was one thing to be active members of ‘the lifestyle’ and to know their daughter was in the adult entertainment industry. It was quite another thing to walk into Ecstasy69 Studios and see it upfront.

Dory’s parents were surprised when Dory drove them over. The place looked exactly like an old warehouse behind a chain link fence topped with barbed wire, just like a million other industrial warehouses. “It doesn’t look like much,” commented Jack.

“It’s not a place that needs advertising, Dad. If you’re in the business, you know where it is, but otherwise, you don’t need to know.”

“You get much in the way of rampaging hordes around here? Lots of bible thumpers complaining?”

“Not really, Dad, but we don’t need to ask for problems, either.”

“It’s just, I don’t know, dingier than I thought it would be,” commented Cary.

“That just makes for cheaper rent, Mom.”

“Oh.”

“You’ll see. It’s a lot cleaner on the inside.” She drove through the gate, past a smiling guard, and parked around the back of the long building. The lack of identification continued, at least until she led her parents inside the warehouse. Once there, they were surprised to see the inside clean and neat. To their right was an office wing, and that was where Dory was leading them.

The first person to greet the Millers was Dory’s boss, Brian Epstein. His office door was open, and he waved them in when Dory knocked on it. “Come on in. Welcome to the studio.” He came around his desk and held out his hand. “I’m Brian.”

“Jack,” said Dory’s father, reaching out and shaking Brian’s hand.

Brian turned to face her mother. She said, “Cary.”

“Nice to meet you, Cary, Brian.” He winked at Cary. “Now I know where Dory got her looks from.”

Cary smiled. “Thank you.”

“How was the trip? Where in North Dakota did you fly from? Dory has told me that your hometown doesn’t have an airport.”

“We flew out of Minot. That’s in north central North Dakota,” answered Jack.

His wife laughed. “It’s pretty rural where we live. We had a stop in Denver.”

“Well, welcome to Las Vegas. This is about as far from rural as you will ever get. Not sure whether that’s a good thing or not.” He turned to Dory. “I am guessing you just got here?”

Dory nodded. “I wanted to ease them into things a bit, not just go straight to a Goth bukkake scene.”

“Yeah, that’s a little much, even for me,” Brian agreed.

Cary gasped. “You do that here?”

Dory laughed and answered, “Mom, we do everything here. If somebody has ever had sex doing something strange, we’ve done it in a movie.”

Brian wryly smiled and nodded. “That’s true. If people have ever had fun putting body parts together, no matter how, we’ve got the video.”

“You do that here?” asked Jack.

Brian shrugged. “It depends on scheduling. We mostly do the relatively straight stuff here. We have a collection of different sets around the interior, and we’ve even done some interior work, like inside a garage or warehouse, that sort of thing. Somebody needs to do some B&D, some S&M, a dungeon scene, we do that elsewhere.”

“Huh.” Jack looked at Cary and then Dory. “You didn’t...”

“Not my thing, Dad. Still, some people like it. A lot of it, the pain stuff, gets faked. The worst is done overseas, and we don’t touch it, not even to distribute,” explained Dory.

Brian said, “I have to admit, it’s pretty unusual to be talking about the business with somebody’s parents.”

Cary smiled back. “I don’t know how much our daughter has said, but we’ve been involved in the lifestyle for quite a while. The girls knew about it, too, at least after catching us hosting a party once.”

“Cool!” He turned back to Dory. “So, what’s your plan for the day?”

“I’m going to show them the office and then a scene or two from behind the cameras. What’s filming this morning?”

Brian shrugged and grabbed a clipboard. “Same as the plan on Friday. This morning is a scene from Investigations, the airtight scene with the wife of the manager. This afternoon, there’s a couple of straight scenes from Couples Therapy Two and Apartment Hustle.”

“Okay. Thanks. See you later.” She led the way out of the office and down to Chubby’s office.

Like Brian, Chubby greeted the Millers warmly and complimented Cary on her looks. In Casting, Janet even suggested that Cary audition for a role or two. “There’s a big market for matures,” she said.

“Matures?” asked Cary. She wasn’t sure she liked that description.

“Don’t sweat it, Mom. It’s not an insult. A mature is anybody over the age of thirty.” She looked her mother over critically. “Janet’s right. You’d do great in some of our MILF product.”

“MILF - a mom I’d like to fuck?” asked Cary.

“It’s a big market these days. That and incest porn, you know, screwing your sons or daughters,” said Janet, putting air quotes around ‘sons and daughters’. “You’ve got a good look for it, good figure, good face. If you liked fucking on camera, I could get you a job as soon as you got tested.”

Cary gave her husband a stunned look, and then laughed. “I don’t think so.”

Jack laughed with her. “Wouldn’t that be a surprise back in Mikulski!”

From the offices, Dory took her parents through the warehouse. What they found was a set of rooms built throughout the structure, all with only three walls. “What we did was use the big empty space of the cheap warehouse and build sets inside. So, we have a bedroom set, a couple of office sets, a fake kitchen, a fake living room. You get the idea. Then if we have a movie with a scene in a bedroom, we simply stage the room. Today it might be the bedroom of a married couple. Tomorrow, change the bed, put posters on the walls, add a pink bedspread, and you have a bedroom for a teenaged girl. Same with all the other rooms. We can make it look like a business or a house, whatever.”

“Wow, so you can do different movies without needing new sets or locations,” said Jack.

“We still need other places for outdoor locations, but it cuts down on travel and expenses. It’s a business, after all,” Dory said. “Let’s go over to Office 2, see what’s going on.” She led the way across the cavernous interior of the warehouse.

She had been expecting to find several actors in the room, along with a video crew and the director, but nothing was happening. Everybody was present but nothing was happening. Dory walked up to the director and asked, “Steve, what’s happening?”

“That’s what I want to know. Sherry was supposed to be here an hour ago! Where is she?”

Dory looked mystified and pulled her phone out of her pocket. She read a text and then hit a number. “What’s going on, Janet?” She listened for a few minutes and rolled her eyes. “Send me the picture.” A minute later she went back to the director.

“What the fuck’s going on Dory?”

“Scene’s off. Sherry was in an accident this morning. She’s over at Mountainview with a broken nose and a broken arm.” She showed Steve the picture.

“Well, I guess she’s not giving any blowjobs for a while.”

“Steve, that’s low even for you!” Dory complained.

“But so true, so true.” He looked over at the people with Dory. “Who are you? Closed set!”

“Cool it, Steve. I cleared it with Brian and Chubby. These are my parents. They wanted to see where I work. Mom, Dad, this is Steve Rogers. Steve, my parents, Cary and Jack Miller.”

Steve nodded from the folding director’s chair he was sitting in. “Bring your parents to work day, huh? We don’t get a lot of that around here.”

Cary was looking at Steve curiously. The director looked like a grizzled burnout, with three days of stubble, a mop of curly salt-and-pepper hair, and a collection of wrinkles and lines on his face that made his skin look like old leather. Otherwise, he was a large man, slim, trim, and tall. Then it hit her who Steve Rogers was! “Oh my God! You’re Stiffy Hardon!” She turned to Jack and exclaimed, “It’s Stiffy Hardon! Oh my God!”

Steve rolled his eyes but nodded and smiled. “Well, I was once.”

Dory laughed. “He still uses the name, but he only directs these days.” It had been at least ten years since Stiffy had appeared in front of the camera.

Cary blushed. “Oh my God! I can’t believe it! The guys back home won’t believe it! We’ll have to show one of your movies at our next party!” She turned to her daughter and asked, “Have you ever...?”

Dory smiled. “It was at a party.”

“Wow!”

Steve looked at Dory. “The next party?”

“Mom and Dad are into the lifestyle back home.”

“I’m one of your biggest fans!” gushed Cary. She blushed again. “You were one of my Freebie Five, not that I ever needed one.”