Chapter 13

Andrew and Pete had arranged to meet for a beer and then go and see a band on the Friday night. He would head down to the Guildford after the session with Stacey. Andrew would have been happy to spend the day in the flat with Suzanne, Tuesday was looming large, but after a vigorous morning fuck she got ready to head over to her family home. She was going out with her sister and was borrowing the car. After his thoughts of the previous day it felt more of an issue than it was. Maybe it was because she was going to stay there that evening and Andrew wasn’t looking forward to an empty bed.

But once Suzanne was on her way Andrew got over the pity party and buckled down to some studying. It filled in the afternoon nicely before he had to head over to the studio. He had read ahead at the end of the second term and knew that he was going to be fine for the start of the Easter term. The week of modelling for the Art School students would allow him to review and study all his term two notes. He felt calm and relaxed as he sat engrossed in his textbook.

Andrew got to the shop just after 5.00, he wanted to make sure that everything was ready for 6.00. He wasn’t the only one early as Stacey was standing talking quietly to a large woman as he arrived. Andrew was introduced to Stacey’s friend Elspeth, who since she was a friend from their school days, must also have been 36. She looked younger and had a very beautiful face. She was also probably close to Andrew’s weight despite being a foot shorter. But after the conversation on Wednesday Andrew was thinking about her as a model. She conformed to no standards and would have had no chance to be a glamour model. But if your audience is only yourself and your partner then things were different. All this flitted through his mind in seconds but it was interesting that Andrew was thinking differently. It would be a different style of persuasion, but Andrew smiled as he thought about Maggie and Stacey working to convince Elspeth to pose. Which, given Stacey hadn’t even modelled yet was putting the cart way down the path in front of the horse.

“I’ll leave you to chat. I am going to go through to the studio and make sure everything is all set.”

Andrew slipped past them and as he disappeared through the back he caught a snippet of Elspeth’s not quite quiet enough whisper.

“Stace, he is young enough to be our son.”

Stacey’s ‘I know’ was drowned out by giggles. Andrew thought that them being so relaxed was a good sign. Tony was in the darkroom but the red light was on outside the door so Andrew just banged the door, shouted ‘hi’ and carried on through to the studio. The remainder of the hour passed quickly. Andrew dressed the bedroom set with dark green sheets and pillowcases and a light red blanket. The bed had extra pillows so that they could be stacked up to allow the model to lean against the headboard comfortably. The rest was standard glamour set props, a couple of candles, a side light, a glass of wine. At 5.30 Stacey and Elspeth, now much more subdued, had came through and disappeared into the small changing area. Ten minutes later Maggie showed up with a small bouquet of fresh flowers. They were added to the set but after Tony had come through and greeted Andrew the two of them left, closing the studio door behind them. It was just the three of them now. Time to see if Stacey was ready to be a glamour model, even if it was just for the evening.

Andrew recognised the look of nervous determination as she came out of the dressing room and walked on to the set. Stacey was wearing a very flattering dark purple dress, looking like she was about to be a guest at a wedding. She had on more makeup than usual but it was still low key. For the first three rolls of film there was no hesitation from her. Andrew moved her around the little bedroom set, sitting at the dressing table, standing in front of the mirror, standard posing in front of a neutral backdrop. Stacey’s smiles as she flashed a stocking top or bent down to reveal a deep cleavage seemed genuine and Andrew treated her like any other model. What was interesting was that Stacey’s insecurities showed in the middle of the shoot not in the last third. She was past 35 and had given birth to three children and so her tummy had some softness to it, several stretch marks as well. And it was immediately obvious she was very conscious of them. In hindsight a corset or a merry widow would have worked wonders but hindsight and all that. The flow from earlier dissipated and Stacey was obviously breathing in and tensing even in the viewfinder. What saved the shoot and stopped it ending early was a series of shots in the mirror. Andrew moved the mirror so that the angles worked and was able to capture a nice series of shots of Stacey’s legs and arse as she bent over the bed. He was capturing her at the same time but the angle concealed her stomach and when she realised what she felt was her biggest flaw was not on the camera she relaxed. As he was shooting Andrew was thinking about what to do next.

“Okay, these were good. I am going to step out of the studio for a minute. I want you to take off your bra and panties and hang one on each of the end posts of the bed. Then climb under the blanket. Give me a shout when you are ready.”

Andrew wondered if this was the moment that Stacey would have some qualms but less than a minute later he was called back into the studio. She had done exactly as asked.

“These next shots are all about your attitude and your face. Other than a couple of bumps in the blanket you are showing nothing. But you know that you are naked under there and after I take the staging shot with the underwear on the bedposts, Hamish will know you are naked under there. So just tease him, let your face, the way you arch your body under the blanket, let all that come through in the photos. I have plenty of film so let’s see what happens.”

Andrew took a couple of wider angle shots making sure the underwear were captured but then focused on Stacey. Inevitably it was more miss than hit but there were sufficient hits to make it worthwhile. Two rolls were shot quickly. Then it was time to see how far Stacey wanted to push this.

“Okay, I will step out again. Stockings off and your robe on please.”

When Andrew returned he had Elspeth help him straighten and smooth the blanket and then Stacey lay face down on the blanket. Then it was a case of boiling the frog slowly. The robe loosened and Stacey arched her back slightly and more and more cleavage appeared. Then Andrew decided to include Elspeth in the shoot.

“Elspeth. I want to capture a shot of you with this big bath towel.”

“Me, you are going to take a picture of me?”

“Several. Okay, I want you to have a sneaky smile, like you are about to play a prank on Stacey.”

It took several attempts but Andrew was happy that one captured the right look.

“Okay I am going to turn my back. Stacey slip off the robe, lie back down on the bed, and then Elspeth cover her with the towel.”

Tony had tens of towels but best of all he had a huge variety of sizes. And so for the next 30 minutes Andrew worked with Stacey but now she was only covered on her back and sides. So as she lifted her torso from the bed her breasts were now swinging free. But then he would get Elspeth to bring a smaller towel. Her smirks were getting more and more genuine. The large bath towel was replaced with one smaller and unless Stacey tucked her elbows in the sides of her breasts were visible, especially as she raised off the bed. But of course this just made her cleavage even more impressive. Andrew couldn’t believe all the different sizes of towels. Then he pushed Stacey slightly again.

“I am going to shoot your bum. Are you okay with that?”

There was no biting of her lip or any sign of nerves.

“Sure.”

So the next few shots were of Elspeth removing the smallest bath towel and replacing it with a hand towel. Here the chemistry between the two friends shown through. Decades of catty comments to each other were captured on their faces. But Stacey caused the best face of the day.

“Just you wait. You need to worry what I am going to do on your shoot.”

The look on Elspeth’s face was priceless. Stacey had been lying naked on the bed for close to an hour, first under the blanket and then on top of it. But she was having fun and was relaxed. Her mental block was her tummy and the way Andrew had her posed was perfect. It was all legs and bum and flashes of her chest. Her tummy was firmly pressed into the bed and she was calm. The final switch of towels was not even to a towel. Elspeth turned up with a wash cloth which barely covered the crack of Stacey’s arse. But the laughter was loud and genuine. Then Stacey pushed herself and had her glamour moment. She got Andrew to kneel down at the end of the bed so that he was in line with her and this time she pushed herself right up off the bed. This wasn’t cleavage and teasing of whether you could see her nipples. She was topless and being photographed. And if the smile wasn’t genuine then she was a brilliant actress. Andrew thought it would be the perfect moment to stop but it was Elspeth that created the last shot of the day. She found two identical hand towels and draped them over Stacey. But the lower one only covered her thighs and the upper one only covered her body. Smiling happily in the middle was Stacey’s arse. Andrew’s only direction.

“I want a cheeky smile.”

He got the shot from her head shooting down her body and then turned for a moment while Stacey crabbed round so that he could get the same shot from her feet back up her body. That took a moment to ensure careful placement of the lower towel before the final frames of the session were captured, Stacey looking back over her shoulder. It was done.

Turning again to let Stacey get her robe on Andrew was suddenly hugged from behind. And once Stacey had finished Elspeth hugged him as well.

“That was fantastic Andrew, thank you. God, I can’t believe that I was naked for the last hour of the shoot.”

“Go and put some clothes on, I am sure Maggie and Tony want to hear all about it.”

Three minutes later everyone was holding a glass of wine and Stacey, with lots of comments from Elspeth, was recounting the shoot. Andrew had packed up his camera but was carefully labelling all the film. There were 10 rolls in all, nearly 250 frames. At some point soon he would have a long day in the darkroom developing them all. At 8.40 everything started to break up and Andrew, after another round of hugs, escaped down to the Guildford. Pete had a pint on the bar waiting for him.

“Can I bring my stuff over in the morning?”

“Sure. Any time after 9.00, I will be back from the pool. We should talk about life as flatmates. I will be on the train to London on Tuesday morning and probably not be back until sometime in mid-June. The electricity, gas and phone bill are all paid automatically and are included in the rent. The only extra would be expensive long-distance calls but other than that it is just one set amount every month. There is a washer and dryer in the flat and I have paid for the TV licence. Any questions?”

“No, it sounds too good to be true. I have the place to myself for nearly three months.”

“You may not like it. This term might show you that you need the company. I am going to be away for the next three years so it is not as if I will be moving back in. We will figure it out. I presume I will be back in the summer but I have no idea about a summer job yet and I will need to think about that soon.”

As it turned out the pair of them went to the Nite Club later than normal, listened to the band that had already started, decided they were crap and went back to the pub. It was good to re-connect with Pete and having him as a flatmate would have been good, it just required Andrew to be in the flat, which was the issue. After a couple of beers more than normal Andrew meandered home to a cold empty bed. He lay there thinking of his cuddly bedmate still resigned to them never being a couple but hopelessly confused as to his feelings for his closest friend. Despite the beer, Andrew was up and exercised before heading out for a swim. The 200 sit ups and 100 push ups were automatic now, not easy but Andrew knew he was not pushing himself, it was care and maintenance, just maintaining his physique without going crazy. He swam for a long time, purging the beer from his system before showering at the pool and heading home. It was a lovely spring morning and Andrew sat drinking coffee waiting for Pete to show up.

What he got was the whole Thompson family, the parents, and younger brother and sister. The twins were about to turn 15. Andrew opened the door and there they all were, the look on Pete’s face was a resigned ‘please don’t give me shit about this’ one. Now it was a two bedroom flat, it took less than a minute to see the whole place, living room, dining room, with the kitchen off it, boxroom, two bedrooms and a bathroom. Fortunately the door to Andrew’s room was closed and no one snooped but they all wandered round the rest of the place. Mr. Thompson had a similar look as Pete but it was clear who was running the show. Mrs. Thompson wanted to make sure that her baby boy was not moving into some rat-infested hell-hole. The parents knew Andrew but had only ever met him the previous summer at school graduation, so they did have to do the whole ‘nice to see you again’ thing.

Andrew wondered how much Pete’s parents knew of his circumstances, that this was his home, that he owned it, how much money he had? They were mostly in the dark but they negotiated most of them without too much issue. All was going well until Suzanne turned up, looking hotter than the surface of the sun, and then the reality of what Pete was going to get up to hit his parents. His dad, in between trying not to perv on Suzanne, looked proud, while his mother looked horrified. Suzanne was in a spirited mood that morning so sashayed around the flat looking just fantastic. She flirted with Pete’s little brother so much that Andrew thought he had burst a blood vessel he looked so red. Suzanne and Andrew joined the family and helped bring Pete’s stuff up, he hadn’t brought much over and then his parents took the hint and left. When the door finally closed behind them Pete came through to the dining room and slumped down at the table.

“I had talked to Dad about helping me move but our clever plan did not survive contact with the enemy. Sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry about it. Your mother is the one that is going to have to do the laundry.”

They both looked confused.

“After old flirty pants here had finished with Bruce I thought he was going to explode. They won’t get him out of his room all weekend.”

Suzanne of course ‘eewed’ and whacked him but Pete just laughed and his tension lifted.

“It is good to see you Suzanne. You look fantastic in case the reaction of both my father and brother left you in any doubt. How have you been?”

And with that Andrew had a new flatmate. They left Pete to get the second bedroom arranged the way he wanted and sat chatting away. Leslie and Julian called round and the five of them went for a late pub lunch. Everyone knew everyone else but Pete was thin on some of the details so it ended up the four of them answering questions about their relationships, how long they had known each other and all that sort of stuff. Not intrusive, he knew how Leslie and Andrew had met and steered clear of that, and he fitted in well. It was Leslie who changed the direction of the conversation.

“You look fantastic Suzanne, there is an air about you, a glow almost.”

She blushed.

“I am happy, my best friend in the world spoils me in so many different ways, and there are days when it just seems dreamlike. I woke up this morning and I was fizzing with energy, I can’t explain it. I am happy, let’s leave it at that. Plus I flirted with Pete’s brother all morning and had him so hot and bothered I thought he was going to explode right there.”

“How do you think you will handle living on your own Pete?” Julian asked.

“I think I will be fine but it is one of those things that you don’t know until you actually try it. I know that I am grateful to get out of the house and away from Bruce. He was starting to drive me mad, plus there is the issue of girlfriends. I could hardly take them back to Mum and Dad’s place so that is going to be a change I intend to embrace. Pun intended. How did you find it when you first moved out?”

“My place is a three bedroom but I only ever had a single flatmate during first year and half of second year. He moved out at Christmas and I never got around to replacing him and then Leslie and I started going out and with her staying so often it just felt better that it was the two of us. In a lot of ways I am like Andrew, I had the luxury of not having to worry about a flatmate and now that we have bought a house I will figure out what to do with the place at the end of the year. I am not attached to the flat, it was a way of exerting my independence, we all know what that is like.”

All of them nodded in agreement with that comment.

“I will either rent it or sell it, I haven’t given it much thought.”

Leslie and Suzanne decided to go and shop some more and Pete headed back to the flat to get ready for a long-planned night out. Finally it was just Julian and Andrew.