Chapter 87

I stared at the painting in awe. It was beautiful. There were two naked people having sex, but it wasn’t pornographic. The artist had captured a couple making love instead. After my initial shock, I stepped back and studied the figures, then I noticed something odd. My face was different. It was me, but I looked older. My hair was darker and I had a five-o’clock shadow, then I looked even closer. My eyes were open and I was staring up at the girl. I had an intense, almost cruel look on my face. It was like I was trying to dominate the girl even though she was on top of me.

The focus of the picture was actually the girl. It looked like she was on the brink of orgasm. Her body was long, lean, and unmistakably Nell’s, but the face was different and somehow familiar. I couldn’t help but think that I’d seen it somewhere. I studied the painting some more, then I said, “This is us making love, isn’t it?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Amazing, but why did you use a different face for the girl?”

“My picture is in the newspaper a lot. We thought it best to use someone else’s. Even your face was changed a little.”

“What do you mean by ‘we’? Didn’t you paint it?”

“No, a friend of mine did.”

“He did a beautiful job. How did he get our likeness?”

She looked at me for a minute before she answered, “It isn’t a he, it’s a she. She did the sketches the last time you were here. I know you heard about the painting that was hanging in the gallery in New York. She did that one, as well.”

“But they said it had your name on it.”

“It did. That gallery only handles known artists. I’ve had some success with my paintings, so they let me hang my stuff there.”

“Why do I have that odd look on my face?”

“I guess that’s the way she sees you.”

“Where did she see us, was it a photograph?”

Nell walked over to a wall that was covered by a cloth. She pulled a cord and the cloth rolled up revealing a glass panel. I could see directly into the bedroom we had just left through the transparent glass. It was obvious that it was one-way glass, and the other side was the mirror directly opposite the bed. I turned to Nell and asked, “Did you install this?”

“No, this place once belonged to a producer. He did it. He and his friends used to have parties here, and I think that they took pictures. I was going to fill it in, but Brandy likes it. She wants me to keep it this way.”

“Brandy! Does she live here too?”

“No, but she brings friends here once in a while.”

“Doesn’t it bother you?”

“I don’t live here either, Pete. I paint here, and I stay here once in a while.”

“What about your painter friend, does she live here?”

“Yes. She needed a place to stay and she’s been here for a while. She has a room of her own.”

“So she was in here sketching us while we made love?”

“Uh-huh, does it bother you?”

“I, uhh, guess not. Doesn’t it bother you?”

“No. She asked to do it, and I told her that it was okay. We’ve been painting together for a while, and she’s wonderful. Your painting was her first large canvas, and I wish that you could have seen it. It was so amazing that I wanted to keep it for myself, but she insisted that we sell it.”

“Why didn’t you buy it?”

“It’s complicated, I’ll tell you about it another time.”

“Is she here now?”

“Yes, she helped us with dinner.”

“Is she your maid or something?”

“No, she’s just a friend.”

“Can I meet her?”

“I asked her and she said that she’d rather not, not for a while at least, and while we’re talking about her, there’s something that you should know. That first picture of you sold for a lot of money. I told the buyer who really painted it, and he liked it so much that he commissioned her to do the one you see here. You’re entitled to a part of the money for both of them, she actually insisted on it, but I said no, and I’m going to ask you not to accept anything from her. She needs the money, and what you’ll get from modeling will far exceed anything that she could give you. I would consider it a favor.”

“No problem. Besides, I haven’t thanked you for arranging this modeling thing.”

“No thanks are necessary. As I explained, you’re actually helping me by keeping some people I don’t trust away from the business.”

“Is that the only reason?”

“Enough questions for now. Will I see you again?”

“Do you want to?”

Her eyes narrowed, and she said, “I suppose so.”

I walked close to her and said, “Not good enough. I want you to say ‘I want to see you again, Pete’.”

She stared at me for a long minute, then she said, “I want to see you again, Pete,” but she didn’t look happy when she said it.

I immediately pulled her to me and gave her a good long kiss. Her face was flushed when I pulled back, so I put my fingers on her cheek, stroked it for a second, and said, “I was hoping you would say that.”

Another kiss, a quick one this time, and I said, “I’ll call you the first of next week.”

She nodded and watched me as I left.

I thought about what happened on the way home. I’ve had sex with two women before, but what went on tonight was bizarre. I’d been introduced to ‘snowballing’ and I couldn’t figure out if it was erotic or disgusting. But to my surprise, I wasn’t shocked all that much and I sort of wondered why. I’m seventeen years old. Shouldn’t I have been shocked, or at least a little shaken by what happened? Was I getting jaded? What about Nell, had I pushed things too far with her? I needed to talk to someone. It was only eleven o’clock, so I went to Amy’s bedroom window after I parked the car. The room was dark, but I could see her outline in bed. I didn’t wake her; I just stood there for a minute looking at her and thinking how great it was to be able to talk with her about things. It made me wonder if she knew how important she was to me.

I woke up around eight Thursday morning. Everyone was gone, so I had some corn flakes and hit the exercise machine. I decided to name it ‘Killer’ because I had all the adjustments set to max, and I felt like I was going to die after about forty-five minutes on it. I’d been on it for almost that long when the phone rang. It was Meg, and she told me to be at the studio at ten.

She met me in the parking lot and led me to a large building with blacked out windows. I spent the whole day in a crowded photo studio, where lights and colorful backdrops were strewn around in a seemingly haphazard fashion. People in strange costumes were milling around, and photographers, makeup and wardrobe people were everywhere.

Meg handled everything, always checking her watch as we went from set to set. There were different backdrops, and people dressed in all kinds of different costumes were being posed and having their picture taken everywhere we went. I was dressed in a dozen or more outfits, and I posed for what seemed like a million pictures throughout the day.

It was interesting that we changed clothes behind simple, one-sided screens. Anyone walking by could see what was happening but no one seemed to care, and I didn’t pay attention either after a while. We didn’t leave the studio when we broke for lunch. A guy showed up with a platter piled high with pastrami sandwiches and potato salad.

Some guys dragged some lights over to a set next to us while we were eating. A single bed was sitting in a corner formed by two walls. It was decorated to look like the corner of a bedroom. They plugged the lights in, and one guy ran around with a light meter while the other guy pulled the lights around until they got them where they wanted them. A girl then came up, followed by another girl and two guys. The second girl and the two guys were wearing street clothes, but the first girl was wearing a bathrobe. Something about her was familiar, but she turned her back to me and dropped the robe after a few words to the people around her, and completely naked, she pulled the sheet back and lay face up on the bed. The second girl went to her and began arranging her hair and placing her arms and legs like she wanted them, including putting one arm so that it covered her nipples. She pulled the sheet up until a corner of it covered the girl’s pussy, and stepped back. The look was very sexy, and I tried to think of where I’d seen her before.

The light meter guy took some more readings, said something to the camera guys, and they took a bunch of pictures after a few adjustments. The girl stood up and reached for her robe as soon as they finished.

I was admiring her body when I noticed that she had stopped moving. She was standing there stark naked, looking at me, and I recognized her just then. It was Rita Rawlins, the woman I met at Epstein’s party, and she said, “Hello, Peter, see what you missed the other night?”

It was clear that she was getting a kick out of trying to shock me. Her body was covered with makeup, but she still looked good, so I thought that I’d flatter her a little, and I said, “Yes I do, and I could kick myself. You’re even more beautiful than I remember.”

She looked at me for a second, then she grinned, looked at Meg, and said, “Watch out for this one, Honey, he’s smooth,” and she threw her robe on and walked away. Meg was smiling and shaking her head when I looked over at her.

We finished around three o’clock and I asked Meg, “Well, are we on for this weekend?” when I finally had a chance.

She grinned and said, “Okay, tell me exactly why you want me to go. Are you sure that this isn’t an elaborate plan to get in my pants?”

I joked, “I would love to get in your pants, Meg, but not this time. There’s a girl down there who I plan to be with. The reason I want you to go is because you need a break and I think that you’ll have some fun.”

“Okay, I’m convinced. We’re not scheduled for tomorrow, so I can be ready whenever you are.”

“Great, I’ll make some phone calls and get back to you.”

She left, and I was gathering up my stuff when the Devon girls ran up and jumped all over me, messing up my hair and trying to tickle me. I was able to pull one of them off, but the other one had her arms around my neck. She tightly clung to me and said, “Hey, Superman, Mom says that you’re going to be our protector.”

“Well, that depends on how much protection you need. Are you guys planning on overthrowing the government?”

The girl on the ground said, “Maybe, but Rose and I are going to overthrow you first. Are you ready?”

I pretended to cower and I said, “Okay but be gentle with me.”

The girl on the ground, obviously Lily, jumped back on me, and we wrestled around for a while. It was fun. They would try to pin my arms, and I would break away at the last minute and tickle first one of them then the other. It went on for a couple of minutes until the unmistakable voice of Myrna Devon interrupted us with, “Stop it before you break one of them, Peter. Get off him, Girls.”

The girls started to complain, but something unusual happened as they slid off me,. Rose still had one arm around my neck, so she had to wait until Lily got out of the way. Lily had her arms around my waist, and one hand moved down the front of my pants until it got to my crotch as she lowered herself. She let it linger there for a second, then she gave me a squeeze and stepped away.

Rose dropped down just as Mrs. Devon came up and said, “Go get changed, Girls, I need to talk to Pete.”

The girls scurried off, but not before Lily smirked and gave me a kind of ‘knowing’ look.

Mrs. Devon continued with, “Well, the pilot is almost finished, Peter. You did just fine.”

“Good, how did Erin do?”

“She’s amazing. Let’s sit down, that’s one of the things I want to talk with you about.”

We sat on a nearby bench and she looked serious when she said, “I joined with your family at the Stone group because I felt that we could go a long way together if we pooled our talents, and from the way things have worked out, I made a wise choice, Pete. Career management is my job at the agency, and I couldn’t be happier with the way things are going.”

I interrupted with, “I thought that was Amy’s job?”

“No, here’s the way things work. Your mom handles the day-to-day running of the agency, and sometimes acts as the head of things to keep people from knowing how young Amy is. Amy’s job is talent acquisitions and contract negotiations. She’s a whiz at it, and the main reason why I joined the group. Amy and your mom give it to me once they get finished with the initial negotiations, and my job is the day-to-day scheduling. I handle everyone except Tomaso and Kristen. They travel together, and Tomaso does their scheduling. I also work with you, Erin, and my girls when we’re at a studio, especially now that you and Erin are just starting out.”

“What about Alice, Monique, and Breane?”

“The contract we set up for Alice calls for the studio to do the scheduling. We’ll keep our eye on her, but she’s been doing this for awhile and she doesn’t need anyone to hold her hand. Monique has some work scheduled, but not as much as she should, and we’re curious as to why, but she’s going to be plenty busy working for WE.”

“I’m going to meet her this weekend.”

“Try to find out what’s going on with her if you get a chance.”

“Okay, what about the country singer?”

“Breane came to us with her schedule already in place, but she didn’t even have contracts in some cases. You would be amazed at what Amy did for her. Breane is going to be very successful, and while we’re talking about it, so are you and Erin. You have what promises to be an outstanding modeling career ahead of you, and I suspect that there is more acting work coming. Erin is the one we’re really excited about right now. She’s beautiful, the camera loves her, and she’s taken to this acting thing like a pro. That’s good news for her, but it could be a problem for others in our little family. I’ve taken my girls this far, and they’ve been very successful, but they’re at an age now where they are sort of ‘in between’. They’ll very soon be too old to play little girls, and they’re not women yet. Their careers may slow for a while if this pilot doesn’t sell, and it could affect how they get along with Erin. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Erin has changed just since I met you kids. She’s younger than my girls, but she acts and looks more mature. She could actually pass for her early twenties with the proper makeup. There’s a lot of work around for someone like Erin. We’ve already been contacted by another TV show. I’m worried about how it’s going to affect my girls, however. They’re used to being the center of attention. The show will wrap in a week and I’m going to send them back to school to finish this semester. They’re not going to be happy about it, but I want them to get away from the studio so that they won’t see what Erin is doing.”

“But they’ve become friends. They talk all the time.”

“I know. I’ve already talked with Erin and I asked her not to talk to the girls about what was going on at the studio. I kind of wish that you were still in school so that you could keep your eye on them.”

“How long will it be before the pilot goes on?”

“It depends on a lot of things. The studio will look at it. It’s over if they don’t like it, but they’ll either air it to see what kind of response they get, or they might order some more episodes if they like what they see. They could either put it on their summer schedule or save a place for it in the fall if they really like it and there’s a spot for it.”

“How soon will you know?”

“By next weekend at the earliest. We’ll start getting ready right away if they want more episodes or decide to put it on the summer lineup. It’ll depend on how well it’s received if they want to shop it. They might put it in as a late summer replacement and we could start in a few weeks if it goes well. We have around two months if they want to hold it for fall.”

“Wow! There’s a lot at stake, isn’t there?”

“There sure is, but that’s the nature of this business, and while we’re talking, I’m concerned about you.”

“Me! Why?”

“You are going to be busy pretty soon, and you’re going to be very busy if the show sells. You’re going to be very well-known but you’re probably not going to be as famous as Erin might be, and you’re not going to be making the kind of money she is for a while. Would that bother you?”

“No! Of course not! I would love it if she was successful.”

She smiled and said, “That’s what both Amy and your mom said, but I wanted to talk with you about it. Are there any other questions?”

“Umm, yes. Speaking of money, I’m, uhh, running low. Do I get paid for what we’ve done so far?”

Her eyes got wide and she started to laugh before she said, “Talk to Amy or your mom about this. You might be surprised.”

“Okay, so I’m done with the pilot?”

“Yes, you are. The show is at the editors’ now, and I’m sure there’ll be some revisions. I want you to come to the studio with me next week. I want you to see how things work while we finish things up.”

“Okay, but when does the modeling thing start?”

“They have all the stills they need. It should start in a week or so. The next step is the actual filming.”

“You said that Erin might have another show?”

“Yes, I was contacted today. I’m coming to your house to talk with the family about it tonight.”

“Will the girls be there?”