Chapter 128

Mom said to me, “We want to hear about how you did at Burgers,” once Megan was introduced to everyone and we all sat down.

I began telling them about Fresno and the ‘Lead’ girls, and how I was supposed to work with their agendas. I told about the cheerleaders showing up and how Burgers had arranged to have radio and TV stations there, and when Erin asked what the people in the store were like, I told about the fat lady who wanted to buy a fridge and how she treated her husband, which got a big laugh.

Mom then asked if both days were the same, and I decided I’d better tell them about Brandy when I thought about what happened on Sunday. I said that she was a friend of Nell’s who drove up Sunday to see how I was doing, and ended up helping me at the store. I explained that she did it because Nell and I had driven up together, and she had to take the car when she was called away on a business emergency, so Brandy stayed to take me home and ended up going to the wedding with me.”

Erin squealed, “Oh, what about the wedding! Was Della beautiful coming down the aisle?”

Both Mom and Erin gasped and asked what happened when I said, “There was no wedding, Della changed her mind at the last minute.” I began explaining things as best I could, including the fact that Della was going to come to LA and stay with Brandy.

That got a rise out of everybody and they wanted to know more about Brandy, so it started a barrage of questions about her.

I explained that she was a friend of Nell’s and that she had a large house and had invited Della to stay with her, which started even more questions. I finally said, “Yes, she’s THAT Brandy,” when responding to some insight from Mom. Erin squealed and wanted to know how well I knew her, but Mom interrupted, “Does she know that pregnant girls need care and medical supervision?”

“I asked her about that and she said that she would make sure that she had the best.”

“How long is Della planning to stay with her?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you know why Della wants to stay there?”

“All I know is that she and Brandy had a talk when Della called the wedding off, and they left together a while later. We met the next morning, and Brandy told me that they had talked with Della’s family and that Della was going to come to LA and stay at her house for a while.”

“Are Della’s parents okay with it?”

“I guess so. I don’t think that Della gave them a choice.”

“What about Steve?”

“Brandy said that they talked to him as well.”

Mom stood up and said, “I’m going to call Clara Torres. I’ll be right back.”

The girls were all over me asking about Brandy and how I knew her when she left the room. I answered what I could, including the inevitable questions about them getting a discount on clothes.

Mom came back shaking her head a few minutes later. She sat down and said, “How well do you know Brandy?”

“I know her pretty well, why?”

“She apparently convinced everyone that Della should stay with her. Do you trust her?”

“Yes, I do. I know that she talks to women’s groups a lot, and she said on the way home that she knows that she can help Della, and I believe her.”

Mom looked at Megan and asked, “She’s Nell’s friend, so you must know her. What do you think of her?”

I was curious about what she would say, and she surprised me with, “I think she’s wonderful. I recently went through a rough patch, and she helped me a lot. Your friend is in good hands.”

That seemed to calm Mom down, so I said, “Oh, and Sam is back, by the way. I ran into JJ and her at the wedding.”

That got another stream of questions. Dad even joined in to ask how the airport was coming. I told them what we talked about, but I left out the part about bringing them to the hotel.

It was now my turn, and I asked about the trip to New York.

Mom said, “I want to hear more about your weekend,” but Erin burst in with, “It was fantastic, Pete,” and she started talking about what a great time they had. She said that they visited two agencies, met a bunch of beautiful models, and surprised me by saying how she and Amy got dressed up and pretended like they were models tool.

I looked at Mom, and she smiled and said, “We decided not to tell anyone who Amy was so that she could get an idea how the places were being run from the models’ perspective, so we said that both she and Erin were west coast models. They did very well.”

Erin cried, “Wait,” and she ran into the house. She came back with her laptop a minute later, opened it, and said “Look,” with a big grin. It was a shot of her and Amy standing together, dressed like they had just stepped off a fashion runway. They were gorgeous and they both looked like they were in their mid-twenties.

The next two pictures were of Amy alone in two different outfits. She looked so sophisticated that I barely recognized her, then there were three of Erin and they were startling. The ones of Amy were great and she was beautiful, but you could see that she was uncomfortable if you looked close. I could almost see someone standing off-camera saying ‘Stand this way or that way’, but Erin looked so natural in the ones of her that it was like she actually wore those kinds of clothes every day. They showed her in two different outfits and she looked great in both of them, then there was another picture of the two girls together. They were in full makeup and were wearing evening gowns. Erin’s was a light blue and Amy’s was a dark red.

Megan and I both stared in awe. It didn’t look like Amy and Erin standing there, it was two of the most beautiful girls I’d ever seen. Megan said, “You guys look fantastic, where did you get all those clothes?”

Erin answered, “Pretty neat, eh? We got them from wardrobe at one of the agencies we visited. Aren’t they great? We got dressed up in that last one because Mom and I were on our way to a meeting with a designer who wants to work with us, and Amy was going to a play with Kevin.”

I looked at Amy, “You wore that dress to a play?”

She nodded, “Sure, girls in New York dress up when they go to plays.”

“The agency didn’t mind you wearing it?”

She raised an eyebrow and said, “That agency belongs to us now, and so do the clothes.”

“Well, you both look fantastic.”

With a big smile, Erin said, “You’re darn right we do, and you should have seen Kevin’s face when he saw Amy. I thought that he was going to have a stroke.”

I asked, “What’s he like?”

Erin answered, “He’s gorgeous! Take a look, Mom took these.”

The next picture was Amy and a tall, well-built, very good-looking guy who I instantly hated. He was tall with dark curly hair, a Tom Selleck mustache, and a smile that lit up the computer screen. He had his arm around Amy’s waist and they were smiling at the camera. Amy looked spectacular and he looked like a movie star.

Megan gasped, and asked Amy, “Is that your fiancé?”

Amy grinned at me and said, “No, Kevin is someone a friend of ours sent over to meet me. Who said I had a fiancé?”

“The kids at school all think that you’re getting married.”

“I said that so that guys wouldn’t bother me.”

“You don’t like any of the guys at school?”

“It’s not that, I just don’t have time.”

“Oh. What’s going to happen when school starts, aren’t they going to wonder what happened?”

Amy looked at me, so I said, “Tell her what you’re going to do.”

Amy explained that she was taking a special MBA course at UCLA and wouldn’t be back in high school for the next few minutes.

Megan looked stunned when she finished. She said, “You’re going to skip your senior year and go right to UCLA?”

“Yes.”

She sat back in her chair, shook her head and exclaimed, “Wow! I knew that you were smart, but that’s amazing.”

“It’s going to be a lot of work.”

“I’m sure it will, but I bet that you can do it.”

Megan sat there for a minute, then she asked, “So that guy is someone you just met?”

“Uh huh, why, are you interested?”

“God, yes, but he lives in New York, doesn’t he?”

“No, he was just visiting family there. He actually lives in Westlake Village which is only a few miles from here.”

“W-What does he do?”

“He’s a business major at Pepperdine University.”

“That’s less than a mile from where we live.”

“I know; it’ll be perfect. He’ll be home in a couple of weeks. I have his cell number. Shall I have him call you when he gets back?”

Megan’s eyes got big at first, then she looked down and said, “Uhh, no thanks.”

Surprised, Amy asked, “Why not?”

“He’s not going to be interested in me after having met you.”

Amy reached over and took Megan’s hands, smiled, and said, “They must not have mirrors at Nell’s house, because you’re a very pretty girl.”

“Thanks, but nothing compared to you. Plus I have, umm, problems.”

Still holding her hands, Amy said, “I understand that you have a hearing issue. Well, I think that he might understand, look.” She fiddled with the laptop and the screen was suddenly filled with a close up of his face. Peeking out by his ear was a hearing aid tube.

Megan stared at his picture for a minute, then she asked, “Is that why you won’t date him?”

Amy chuckled, “Don’t be silly, that’s not it at all. I simply don’t have time for dating. I’m going to be so busy for the next year that I won’t have time for anything but books and school.”

Erin was still sitting at the computer, and she looked impatient, so I asked, “Is there something else?” She smiled and touched the computer again.

The next picture was both startling and disturbing. The background was dark and slightly out of focus, but Erin was standing in the foreground and looking directly the camera, and she was very much in focus, so much so that she seemed to jump off the screen at you.

Her body was slightly turned, making her breasts stand out, and she was wearing one of those things that I heard Mom call a handkerchief dress. It’s a one piece thing made of light material that follows every curve of your body. The bottom was an inch or two below her crotch, and the top was low but not too low. It would have looked kind of sexy on almost anyone else, but it was way beyond that on Erin. She looked so amazing that it felt like an electric shock went through me.

Both Amy and Kristen are beautiful and have killer bodies. Amy plays hers down by wearing clothes that don’t call attention to her. Kristen dresses better and when she walks down the street every guy and many women crane their necks to look at her, but I guess that I haven’t been paying attention to Erin. I know how beautiful she is, but that dress showed that her body was every bit as sexy as either of her sisters, and it was a surprise to me for some reason.

The dress looked like it was painted on and it clung to every part of her, including her nipples, which made it obvious that she wasn’t wearing anything under it. I couldn’t help myself. I felt myself starting to get hard when Megan excitedly cried, “Wow! Who in the world set that shot up? The layout and lighting are perfect!”

Erin said, “I was in the wardrobe room changing and I saw that silly dress, so I tried it on. I stepped into the hall to show Mom and a photographer who was working there saw me and asked if he could take some pictures. We went to a room that was already set up and he took several shots of me. He said that he liked what he saw and he’d send them to us when they were developed. He then took a couple with Mom’s digital.”

Megan kept staring at the picture. She finally said, “That’s beautiful, I’d love to paint it.”

Mom asked, “You paint?”

“Uh huh, I work in a gallery.”

“And you could paint something like that?”

Megan answered, “I-I think so,” and looked at the ground,

I interrupted, “She can, Mom, she’s really good, and so is Nell. Their paintings have been in galleries as far away as New York.”

Everyone wanted to hear about it, and it started a long conversation about art. It went well until Erin asked her what was the most money she ever got for one of her paintings. It was probably the one that she had painted of me, and I’m sure that the next question would have been about what the subject was, and Megan was looking uncomfortable, but Mom stepped in with, “That’s none of your business, Erin. Let’s change the subject,” and she turned to me and said, “Let’s get back to your weekend. You told us about Saturday, how did things go at Burgers on Sunday?”

I started telling about the glee club and how we got so much TV and press coverage. Mom asked me to go into depth about how it happened, and I saw her look at Amy and they both nodded after I told her how Burgers had donated money to the school for the music program.

When I asked why, Mom said, “Amy and I have been trying to think of why Burgers wants the meeting tomorrow. It’s apparently some kind of a big deal because they asked us to have our lawyer there. We think that it has something to do with how well things went over the weekend.”

“What do you think they want to do?”