Chapter 22: Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

I drove over to the scene shop so I’d have a way to transport stuff. Kathleen looked a little haphazardly put together, but was still as beautiful as ever. And she really came through.

“John, what do we have that will furnish a medieval tavern?” she asked the head of the shop. “Oh, something we don’t need this summer.”

“Yeah. Oh, this is the photographer everyone is talking about. How about a rustic table, a fireplace, some primitive chairs, maybe a couple ale barrels? We could do a whole bar, but that piece is really big and awkward to move. Then you have to deal with decorating what’s behind the bar, you know?”

“That stuff sounds perfect,” I said. “Um ... I’m Nate.”

“Nice to meet you. John here. Nobody ever remembers to introduce the techie. If it weren’t for us, they’d all perform on a bare stage, naked, in the dark.”

“That might be interesting,” I said. He laughed.

“Let’s get you what you need. What are you shooting?”

“A very sexy warrior elf,” I said. “She’s in costume and makeup now.”

“You do put things together quickly. Sexy, you say? Let me come help you put this scene together.”

“John, you’re a horndog,” Kathleen laughed.

“There are few enough perks to this job. Seeing you change from page boy to princess backstage is one of them.”

“Enjoy what you can.”

As it turned out, he did come to the studio with us and in an hour, we had an entire medieval bar room equipped. He even helped move some of my lights and get them focused. He spent some time looking over my gallery and then spent some more looking over Patricia when she emerged from the dressing room. From a distance. He took one good look at her and bolted from the studio.

“Candles!” he yelled on the way out. “I’ll be back in ten minutes.”

He was right. Having a professional scene designer/technician consulting on the set made it a hundred times better. He had a huge fake fire for the fireplace and mantel we brought over. There were battle axes hung above it. Candles were set strategically in the room and he reset the temperature of the lights so it looked like a smoky bar.

I tried several poses for Patricia with her sword drawn, a drink raised, asleep in a chair at the table. But when I got her on the table with a tankard in her hand, it was perfect. I approached her to get her in the perfect position and put myself between her and our audience, which now included Damien, Kathleen, John, Ronda, and Anna. I slid a hand under Patricia’s right boob and hefted it a little.

“Is this secure?” I asked.

“I’m sure it would fall out if you gave it a little push. It’s only held in by faith.”

“You must have powerful faith,” I said. “We’ll take a couple like this and then free the beauties. We have an audience. Any objections?”

“Let ‘er rip,” she said.

Between the wig, the ears, and the makeup, you would never guess it was Patricia. The leather-like costume that only barely covered her boobs to start with, fell to the side with a gentle push, allowing her breasts to escape their tenuous confinement. When I had the 4x5 slides I wanted, I scooped Patricia up in my arms and rushed her to the dressing room, shoving the door closed behind me.

“You are so beautiful! I love you, my delectable little morsel,” I said, kissing her and then dipping my head to feast on her nipples.

“I think Judy is right and these have grown,” Patricia said, holding my head to her breast. “Oh! I need to thank her for this costume. You found its other access point!”

When I finally let Patricia get out of her wig and ears—I’d long since gotten her out of the rest of the costume—she got dressed and we went out to join everyone else. They all applauded Patricia’s performance.

“You say you have other costume concepts?” Damien asked Judy.

“Let me grab my sketchbook,” she answered.

Judy ran to the dressing room. Kathleen and Damien were in a hushed and excited conversation with John. Anna and Ronda took charge of hugging and kissing Patricia. I went to the cameras and removed the film carriers to the darkroom where I prepared them for transport to Dave’s.

“Can you do another shoot like this on Wednesday?” Damien asked. “If John changes your scenery for you tomorrow?”

“Sure, I suppose. You’re really going to change the scenery for me?”

“If you do another piece like this one, it shouldn’t be against the same setting,” John said. “This set will forever be locked into that character. Magnificent.”

“I hardly know what to say,” I said. “Patricia? Are you up for another character on Wednesday?”

“Oh, we’re bringing a model,” Kathleen said. “Judy is coming over to the theatre tomorrow to do a test of the costume to see if it needs to be altered. Olivia will absolutely die when she sees what you did today.”

“Olivia is even interested in posing?”

“Can you have these available to show her tomorrow at noon?” Damien said. “It will be the last thing to push her over the line. She’s been seesawing back and forth all summer.”

“Well, if I get these down to Dave right away, we can get the color slides back in the morning. I can develop and print a couple from the black and white roll yet this evening,” I said.

I took off and headed for Pro Photo Source. It seemed that life had once again taken an unexpected turn and I was just a photographer recording the journey.

And having a very satisfying time in the dressing room with my girlfriend.

When I got back from Dave’s, John had a crew in the studio and was carrying out the set pieces I’d borrowed.

“As soon as you get Olivia to agree to the shoot tomorrow, I’ll bring a new set over and get it ready for you,” John said.

“I’m glad I don’t have any normal photoshoots scheduled until Friday,” I laughed. “Um ... Thanks, John. Really, I don’t know why you’ve been so nice to us here, but I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your work.”

“We’re four weeks from the end of the season, which means everything the crew is doing is cleaning and putting things away as shows close. Having a couple of quick turnaround installs like this is giving us something to do for fun.”

“I sure loved it,” I said. “Anytime I can provide something for you to do for fun, let me know.”

“Oh, I foresee a lot of that next summer,” he said. “But not early in the summer! We can barely keep up with the installs at the theatre until the end of June.”

“Okay. We’ll probably try to get here in mid-May next summer, but I won’t bother you until July.”

“I have a feeling your costumer and your makeup artist are going to be keeping you pretty busy when they aren’t swamped with work on the shows,” John said.

“Judy’s going to do work on the shows next summer, too?” I knew Leanne had been offered a job next summer.

“Well, the request has gone to the executive board already. Seems Damien wants her as one of his designers for that Scottish play next year. He has some interesting ideas for that show. It should be fun.”

“Well, good for her,” I said. I wondered if Leanne and Judy would be wanting to stay with the family. That could make for a long summer.

I ran upstairs to see if anything needed my attention with the family.

“We were all watching the show of our sweetheart this afternoon and no one prepared dinner,” Ronda said. “So, dinner will be late tonight. You have plenty of time to get some of the film developed from this afternoon. You have some black and white we can see right away, don’t you?”

“Yeah. I was just checking to see if I had time.”

“Plenty of time. Judy has been with Kathleen and Damien in the dressing room ever since you left. Wonder if they’re doing what we did,” Patricia laughed.

“Well, the studio is about cleared out, so I’ll go down and make sure things are locked up, then get that film processed.”

When I got downstairs, John had already left. Kathleen and Damien were saying goodbye to Judy. Kathleen quickly came to say goodbye to me, along with a deep kiss. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, but...

“Um ... Kathleen, your partner is just over there,” I said. I looked up to see him kissing Judy.

“Yeah. I’m kissing you because he has a thing against kissing guys. At the moment, he thinks you just walk on water. He credits you with bringing him a fresh life in Stratford,” Kathleen said. She kissed me again, though not quite as passionately.

“I don’t know what I’ve done. I just take pictures.”

“The first one arrived at the theatre with me. Then there were Leanne and Min, who he plans to have back next summer. Then Adrienne, who he fell in love with—from a distance. And Beth, who launched our performances at the Black Swan and got a pesky director off his back who wanted to raid the cast for his opening in New York. Now there is Judy. He wants you to just keep bringing him more talent and he’ll work on providing you more as well.”

“I’m glad to help. I’m hoping they don’t all want to stay in our apartment next summer, though.”

“Well, we’ll see you tomorrow when you bring the photos over to show Olivia.”

She took off with Damien and I locked the door behind them. As soon as I turned around, Judy was on me like an octopus. Her arms and legs were wrapped around me and her mouth was attached to me like a vacuum cleaner, sucking my tongue in. I decided to just enjoy it until she wound down.

“I can’t believe Damien wants me to work on costumes for his shows next summer!” she said when she finally let me up for air.

“It’s great! I need to get in and get some film developed so we have pictures to show tomorrow.”

“I can’t come down. I just want to talk and talk and talk. Can I come into the darkroom with you?”

“Of course you can.”

As soon as we were in the darkroom, Judy was pulling off her clothes and tugging at mine. I didn’t object to this at all. I could keep the developer tank twisting while kissing and petting a naked girl I’d always liked. The first girl I’d met when I moved to Tenbrook.

“I thought I’d get to have you last night, but Patricia kind of occupied all my time,” Judy said as she cuddled up to me. Being naked and touching is one thing, but actively having sex is rushed, especially during the processing time.

“How did you feel about that?”

“Are you kidding? Ever since Ronda convinced me that being with a girl might be a good thing now and then, I’ve fantasized about having sex with Patricia. She was one of my two best friends until Tony came along. I don’t hold that against her. Janice and I pulled away because we thought we had to keep up with her and we weren’t ready. But up through the fall of tenth grade, I probably knew Patricia’s body better than my own. I made costumes for us and I watched her blossom into a woman before my own boobs had even started to grow. Even before I considered being involved with a woman, I wondered what her breasts felt like. Last night was like a fantasy fulfilled. And I’d do it again any time.”

“I’m glad to hear that. It was kind of strange. Ronda didn’t push either Patricia or Anna into having sex with her or each other. It was something they arrived at together while Ronda and I were in Chicago and Boston.”

“She told me that. She said it was because she and Anna started to love each other that they started to touch and become sexual. I would never have expected it of Anna in a thousand years.”

I was cutting apart the first strip of negatives to make contact prints and Judy decided to make herself useful by sucking on my cock. That’s not necessarily the easiest thing to do when I’m facing the enlarger. I stepped back when I turned the light on to expose the contact sheet and just enjoyed her oral ministrations. It was only my constantly watching the second hand on my watch that distracted me from coming in her mouth.

I moved the first print into the developer and got the second one ready to print, pausing a few times to pull Judy up to me for a kiss, to suck her nipples, and to finger her very wet pussy. Then I turned on the enlarger light and Judy dropped to suck my dick some more.

“Are you having fun in school?” I asked. “Meet any special guy?” I wasn’t worried about having sex with Judy, whether she had a boyfriend or not. I was thinking more about whether I should wear a condom with her.

“Eh. I went out a few times when I was a freshman, but after our summer in Las Vegas, I started thinking about the theatre world in general and how I wanted to be known,” she said. “I wander around the dressing rooms—both men’s and women’s—while they’re getting dressed. I hold their costumes together during fittings and I’ve seen plenty of dicks, boobs, and pussies exposed. I got to thinking about the no sex in the studio rule and you never dating a model. I really started to see the sense in it. I don’t want the actors to think I’m going to give them a blowjob every time I walk into the dressing room. Or that I’ll spread my legs for the lead actress just because I saw her naked. So, I just made a rule of my own. No sex or dating in the theatre department. And I haven’t been much of anywhere else to explore.”

“You mean you haven’t had any sex at college?”

“I mean your dick will be the first dick that has been in my mouth, pussy, or ass since the last time you were there in Las Vegas,” she said specifically. “And I would really like to spend some time riding it this week.”

“I think we can arrange that.”

I finished printing the proof sheets and getting them through the developer process. I rinsed them and put them on drying plates to squeegee, then sat in my chair. I welcomed Judy into my arms on my lap and she straddled me, rubbing against my cock with her wet slit.

As we kissed, she raised up enough to catch the tip of my cock and slide it into her pussy with a deep sigh.

“Oh yeah, Nate. I never even imagined that I’d screw you when you stopped to take my picture that day. Now I wonder why I didn’t try to jump your bone that very afternoon,” she said.

“We weren’t ready for anything like that. We could have fucked, but we’d never have connected like this.”

“Yeah. I’m not stalking you, you know,” she continued. “I like screwing you. I think I like all your girlfriends, too. But I’m not into the whole polygamous thing other than for vacations. Damien says he wants me to come to work on his show next summer. I don’t expect to live with you. Maybe Leanne and I can find a place together. Kathleen said there are several families in town who rent rooms to people working at the festival. But don’t think of me as one of your family. I’m just a really friendly friend of the family. Okay?”

“Yeah. That’s good.”

In fact, it was so good that I filled her pussy with come as she clamped down on me in her own orgasm.

I got the transparencies from Dave as soon as they got back in the morning. I had a couple of great shots. I went straight to work printing a 12x15 copy of one of my 4x5 slides. I loved it. I bundled up my slide projector and a cube of slides, along with the print and the three black and whites I’d printed, and Judy and I went to the theatre for our meeting.

“So, Damien and Kathleen think you have photos and a costume concept that will convince me to come and pose for a sexy—and probably nude—photo,” Olivia said after we’d all been introduced. “You should know that I don’t even dress with the rest of the cast. When I absolutely have to have help getting into a costume, I have one person who helps me. But Damien says that if I play his Lady Macbeth, I’ll need to loosen up. And, I guess I’m ready to, if you’ve got something to show me.”

“Wow, Olivia. I’m not here to convince you to do a nude photo,” I said. “That’s always a choice the model makes, not something I force on anyone.”

“I’ve worked with Nate a number of times—in fact we did a whole month together down in Las Vegas—and I’ve heard him ask every model if she is there of her own free will and is not being coerced,” Judy added.

“I appreciate that,” Olivia said. “Let me see what you’ve got.”

We darkened the room and I started the projector. This was really a nice way look at material instead of through a viewer or on a light table. Olivia didn’t say much at first, then made comments on everything except the model and costume. She said she recognized the set, that the use of candles was nice, and that she thought a couple of the slides were overlit—something I had to agree with. Finally, I turned off the projector and handed her the prints.

She held the color print in her hand and looked at it from every angle she could, as if she could walk around the picture and see if from the back. She set it down and shook her head.

“Okay, who is it?” she asked. “Who is this fabulous model?”

“Oh, you know her,” I said. “That’s my girlfriend, Patricia.”

“No. The cute little blonde with the toddler? That can’t be her.”

“Patricia’s really beautiful!” Judy said, a little upset.

“Oh, yeah. I didn’t mean that. This just doesn’t look like her. It’s really her? You’re not trying to put one over on me?”

“This is really Patricia. I don’t get what the big deal is,” I said. Damien was the only other one in the room with us and he was just smirking.

“Okay,” Olivia said. “I’ll do it. Under two conditions. First, you make me as unrecognizable as you made Patricia. People who know me well need to look at the photo and wonder who it is. And beautiful like Patricia. Don’t try to disguise me with scars and a humpback.”

Judy nodded and pushed her concept sketch over to Olivia. I hadn’t seen it yet, myself. It was stunning. The picture was of a dark angel with wings spread. She was in a gown that had a solid panel across the breasts and a strip from her waist down between her legs. The rest of the costume appeared to be strands of heavy string that tied it all in place. Then, from her knees down, the black dress flared out solid to the ground in what looked almost like a fishtail.

Olivia caught her breath and heaved a big sigh.

“We have everything?” she asked Damien.

“Wardrobe and props are standing by to put together the wings now. John will put a set on Nate’s studio stage and help get it lit,” Damien said. “It just requires you to say yes.”

“Second condition,” Olivia said. We all kind of held our breath waiting for the other shoe. “A locked studio. Nate and Judy are the only ones allowed in the studio from the time I walk in until I’m fully dressed and ready to leave. You know how I feel about voyeurs.”

“I was afraid you’d want that,” Damien said. “It’s up to Nate.”

“Usually, I have an assistant or two who helps me with lights and scenery and positioning. Judy and I can do it alone, but it might take a little longer. Models often feel more comfortable with a ... um ... chaperone,” I said.

“Nate, I’m not afraid of you. What you and I do to get the perfect photo is between us. And Judy, I presume you focus on the costume and technical aspects and don’t interfere with the photographer,” Olivia said.

“I have costume ideas,” Judy said. “Nate has story ideas. After you are in the costume, all I do is what Nate tells me to. Or if you need help with the costume.”

“We’ll talk about that as we work this afternoon. Those are the conditions.”

“Agreed,” we all said.

I barely got back to the studio after lunch in time to meet John and his crew as they moved a new set onto my little studio stage. My ceilings are only twelve feet high in the store and studio, so not quite as lofty as the theatre where I think they have something like thirty feet. But John was able to hang his backdrop from my stand and just not roll it down all the way.