Chapter 25

The light outside the window and the feel of the unfamiliar bed woke Vanetta early. She lay there for a few minutes, looking at her lover sleeping beside her and luxuriating in the sensation of being able to wake beside him.

She carefully extricated herself from under his arm and padded to the bathroom where she had a quick shower and brushed her teeth, then feeling naughty, slipped on one of Todd's Trek Ts before bounding down the stairs. Firing up her computer, she grabbed her list of potential advertisers and sent three of the best pictures of Kelly that Todd had scanned the day before.

Deciding on a magazine was a bit harder. Having decided to go with a lesser-known magazine cut the potential for model payment, but the upside was that advertising costs would be lower and with Kelly personally endorsing each product, this could be a big plus for the magazine. She finally sent copies of the pictures to the two magazines that showed the most potential: 'Fit Pregnancy' and 'Mothering Magazine.' Dangle the bait and see who nibbled first. As a teaser, she sent the pictures to Jorge as well. She was about to head back upstairs when the phone rang.

Hanging up the phone, Vanetta wondered if she should call Ami with the news, then decided against it. The girls had probably adopted Kelly's habit of sleeping in, and she didn't want to wake them.

Back upstairs, she noticed Bobby's early morning erection and decided to take advantage of the situation. Stripping off her t-shirt, she slid up the bed gently and engulfed his cock in one gulp, sucking with abandon and jubilation. Soon, they would be able to do this every day. The thought made Vanetta wet between her legs. Bobby started to buck back, his hips driving his raging hard-on into Vanetta's willing mouth. His eyes were wide open as he reached his critical peak and with a loud groan, released a torrent of hot cum on to her eager tongue.

They sat together eating breakfast, both of them in the nude.

"I don't understand, Netta," Bobby said. "Generally I only see you naked after we've worked up to the point of love making. I love seeing you like this, but it's so different."

"Just roll with it, Bobby," she replied. "This is natural, the way we were born. Don't let other people's sense of morality get you all tied up in knots."

Robert laughed. "I doubt that will happen," he said. "Around here, you see more skin than clothes. It'll take some getting used to, though."

"The human body is a beautiful thing," said Vanetta. "Some people are so ashamed of their own bodies they try and impose their feelings of inferiority on you and try to write laws that will change your basic nature. Of course you're right about seeing more of it around here than most places, but this studio isn't a breeding ground for hypocrites. While you were sleeping, I sent dozens of pictures of Kelly off to various people in the media. Kelly really does set a good example and I've learned to relax because of it."

"I don't feel right taking money from you, Kelly," Cara was saying after breakfast. "I mean, I'd do it for free because you're somebody I really like. You treat me like an adult and don't pass judgment on me."

Kelly smiled at her. The two had ended up outside so Kelly could enjoy a cigarette, while Laura was on the phone setting up what would be a private reunion performance of the Williams Sisters. Todd and Ami were, as usual, discussing cameras and lighting and the future of digital photography.

"But you provide a valuable service," countered Kelly. "If I didn't have you, I'd have to pay someone else. Believe it or not, but one day you'll want your own place to live, and wouldn't a nice bank account help that become a reality?"

Cara conceded the point but stuck to her guns on the fact Ami had earned her money doing something tangible.

Kelly laughed. "Ami was very lucky to have her first news shoot pay off. Did you see all of the other photographers that were there? It was luck that put her in the right spot at the right time. Pretty soon she'll be relying on a regular paycheck from the studio for being Todd's apprentice, if she wants to bank any money."

"Wow. I never realized that growing up could be so complicated," said Cara. "I think we've been sheltered for too long. Maybe sheltered isn't the right word, but you know what I mean. We've been too focused on the gymnastics, and haven't had to deal with the real world."

"That's okay, Honey," said Kelly. "You've done a lot with your life already and you have a good head on your shoulders. If you had to face the world right after you finished High School, I could see where you might have a problem, but you're going to University! You are going to become one of the best physiotherapists in the world! And when you turn 18, I will put you in touch with that place that will hire you in a flash as a masseuse. You'll earn more money there, part time, than most people do after spending a lifetime in a career."

"You really think so, Kelly?"

"Cara, with the strength and skill you have in your hands, I know so!"

"Thanks, Kelly," Cara said, giving Kelly a kiss on her cheek.

Kelly called Steve and set up an appointment for Wednesday. She told him of the contracts she needed written up, one for Robert, another for Vanetta. Though she disliked getting up so early in the morning, she made the appointment for before lunch so she would have plenty of time to get ready for the Williams family that night.

"Well," Kelly said after she got off the phone, "the girls have an appointment with Joanne on Wednesday, and we have one with Steve at the same time," she said to Todd and Laura. "Laura, can you take the girls?"

"Sure, I'd be glad to," said Laura.

"Take the Tracker," said Todd. "I'll ride with Kelly."

"I really should just give up my car," said Laura. "I barely drive it anymore, and I know that Kat would get good use out of it. If I need to go anyplace, I can always borrow a car or hitch a ride with one of you, right?"

"Oh, by all means, Sweetheart," said Kelly. "Go ahead and make your sister happy."

"I'll give her the keys and ownership tomorrow then," said Laura.

"If the girls are going to be all buffed and shined tomorrow," Todd said, "maybe I should start doing a dry run with them on their idea of poses today. Get it all done by the weekend."

"That sounds like a plan to me," said Kelly. "But on Thursday, Laura and I are going to treat ourselves to a day at the club. We'll probably eat there as well. Think you can handle those two by yourself for an afternoon?" Kelly asked with a smirk.

"I think I can manage," said Todd. So Kelly dialed again and made an appointment at the club and arranged for Laura to have a follow up treatment with Mistress Helga.

"We'll have to get Steve to draft up legal papers for our wedding in September as well," said Todd.

"I want to see the expression on his face when he hears that," said Kelly.

"Speaking of expressions," said Todd. "Have you bothered to look yet at Rob's salary request?"

"No," said Kelly as she prepared to leave for the studio. "Think we should?" she asked with a smile.

Todd laughed. "Maybe we better."

Kelly took the paper out of her purse and opened it on the table. Cara and Ami were still occupied in their bedroom, so only Laura and Todd got to read it with Kelly.

"Hmm... a 15% raise in the second year as well," said Todd.

"Yes," said Kelly, "but he gave us an option to renew for the second year so that if things fall over, we won't have to pay him for it."

"These business professionals," Todd laughed. "Always looking for a profit. I guess it's hard for him to understand we're trying to give it away."

"He'll learn," said Kelly, "though I notice he's also allowed room for a third year renewal as well."

"Ah, a glimmer of hope for him yet," said Todd.

"He's not asking for too much for the first year," said Laura. "Forty-two five doesn't seem like an executive's salary to me."

"It's not," said Kelly, "but this is what he wants, what he thinks he is worth and you heard how he feels about charity."

It had started off as such a peaceful morning for everyone, and then all hell broke loose. By the time Kelly, Todd, Laura, Ami and Cara arrived at the studio, Vanetta was jumping between phones. Robert was doing his best to help, but had limited knowledge of all the things the studio did.

Messages were stacking up on the desk in front of Vanetta. Robert was taking messages and writing down callbacks as fast as he could. Laura and Kelly took over, letting a relieved Bobby off the hook.

He walked over to Todd and said, "I'd have never thought this business could get so frantic."

"It has its own mood swings," said Todd. "Things will be quiet for weeks at a time, but when the tide turns, you need to paddle real fast."

"Well, I guess I better go to the office and give my notice, I suppose," said Robert. "I can give them the names of lots of good replacements, so I should be cleared out by the end of the week and I can start putting your plan to paper and start submitting it to the schools and teachers. I'll get my three musicians lined up and make arrangements to start practicing with Laura's sisters."

"That's fine, Rob," said Todd, "but you don't have to keep me informed of everything you're doing. This is your show now, Robert. The success will be your responsibility, and I can get back to doing what I do best."

Robert smiled a nervous smile.

"Don't worry so much, Rob," said Todd with a smile. "Things will work out. And if you really get stuck feel free to ask for help."

Robert snuck a kiss in with Vanetta and left.

Cara and Ami worked out with Todd for an hour while Laura and Kelly and Vanetta kept the phone lines open. Most of the messages were from advertisers who had heard through the grapevine that Kelly was going to do a 16-month special. Vanetta grinned to herself. Good ol' Jorge! It looked as if he had done exactly what Vanetta suspected he would, and when the first magazine got the pictures and then a potential client had gotten them as well, it became a race. Everybody wanted a piece of the action.

Kelly had a good idea of what was going on, but decided that since she had allowed Vanetta to come up with a proposal, she was just going to play secretary on this one and kept taking messages, though she was secretly pleased at the names of some of the companies calling.

Laura was having a ball just helping. She enjoyed the animated conversations she overheard, watching Vanetta gesticulate as she dropped her proper English at times to deliver a verbal barrage in patois to some potential client.

Seeing that Kelly and Laura were still busy on the phone, Todd asked Cara and Ami to help him pack up his personal stuff from the apartment.

"What about all the bedding?" asked Cara, looking through a closet.

"Leave it," said Todd. "It won't fit Kelly's bed and besides, Kelly has more than enough."

"Same with the towels and such?" asked Ami.

"Yep, we'll just take my clothes and personal hygiene stuff. A couple of personal items that I've kept all these years and we'll leave the rest."

"Jesus, Todd," said Cara after an hour. "We're all done. I can't believe you just packed up all your possessions in four boxes in an hour."

"I dress simple, I live simple," said Todd as if that should explain it all. "I spend most of my time downstairs in the studio anyway, or over at Kelly's. My important stuff is either locked up, or still in storage from when I moved down here. Remember that for years I lived on the road just like Kelly. It's hard to accumulate a lot of possessions when you're always moving to another location."

"And you're just going to leave your TV and stereo?" asked Ami.

"Do you see any reason why we should have double of everything at Kelly's?" he asked.

"No, I guess not," said Ami. You don't even have a lot of movies or CDs."

"I probably have more CDs in the truck and in the Hummer," he said. "You'll see that my DVD collection is mostly Star Trek. I did have it all on videotape, but DVDs are more compact. Now, let's haul this stuff downstairs and we can get to work on some of those poses you were telling me about."

Some of the calls had been for Kelly and Todd, and Kelly dealt with those directly. One was from Rachel. She had the paperwork for the apartment block completed and Steve had approved it, and now it was just up to Kelly and Todd to stop at the bank and pay the overdue loan off. Kelly just called that one in. She knew the bank wanted to keep her money, and she could see no reason to take another unnecessary trip. Rachel would stop off later on in the afternoon to finalize the paperwork. From there, Steve could take care of the rest.

Taking a break, she asked Todd if he had any ideas about management of their new building.

"I'd like someone to live in, if we're going to make it a seniors building," said Todd.

"That's what I was thinking as well," said Kelly. "But we'll need to interview people pretty soon so we can start renting the units out."

"Why interview?" asked Todd. "Why don't we keep it in the family?"

"Are you thinking of Meg and Harry?" Kelly asked.

"Yeah. I figure that Harry's got over 20 years in and can start collecting his pension from the force, and he'd be handy for some of the minor maintenance stuff. Meg's been working part time to help make ends meet, and before Laura moved in with us, they were struggling with a three bedroom house and four daughters."

"If they go for it, it would be ideal," said Kelly. "They'd have the three girls to help out, and I'm sure that they would enjoy the financial freedom. Everything I've seen says they are good people. Honest and hard working, and I especially like the idea that they've always given to the community."

"So, should we ask them ourselves, or send a letter?"

"I think we better do this one ourselves, Todd," said Kelly. She chuckled. "Whether they know it or not, these people are going to be our in-laws!"

Todd laughed and said he would bring it up on Wednesday night.

Kelly headed back to the phones and Todd joined Cara and Ami in the shipping bay.

Ami and Cara had picked a few outfits each to show Todd how quick and easy it would be for them to change between poses, and were chalking up.

Todd loaded his Blad with high-speed film. These shots weren't meant as 'keepers' but would show if there was any miscalculation in the lighting arrangement. It would be fun to develop the film afterwards with Ami, letting her see for herself how her plan had worked out.

Instead of using the springboard to mount, Ami had Cara give her a boost and soon, Ami was presenting Todd with exactly the poses she had promised. Her hair tumbled down as she did a handstand on the top bar. Balancing herself she opened her legs, and Cara gave Todd a running commentary on when to shoot.

"When her toes are like totally stretched out, and her feet are in line with her legs, that's what she would look like if she was in the middle of a full swing through," said Cara. "It takes a few seconds longer to do it this way, but Ami's got the strength to hold the pose."

"Now, Todd!" said Cara, and Todd hit the shutter release on the Blad.

"Okay, Ami," said Cara, "just a second longer. Turn and close your legs."

Ami balanced herself on one hand as she pivoted on the bar, bringing her legs together and with supreme effort pushed herself up to change the muscle tone in her arms.

Todd realized what Ami was doing. If she held the pose without the push, it would look like she was doing very difficult push-ups, but by pushing away from the bar, in a still photo, a person would be hard pressed to prove she was not in the process of coming out of a spin.

Ami's face showed grim determination and on the second push she heard the shutter click. She quickly relieved the pressure on her arms, allowed herself to roll forward and down till her hips were level with the bar. Then she spun and dropped to the mat below. Aside from a slight flush on her face, there was no sign of fatigue.

"That was great, Ami," said Todd. "I just hope the rest of the poses won't be that hard on you girls."

"Hell," said Cara, "The poses are nothing compared to doing a three minute routine where you have to keep moving all the time!"

Ami started to strip out of her suit. "I like these with the built in breast protectors," she said. "The panty part is just like a bathing suit. These should sell really well."

Todd looked at her nude body for a second. "If they sell well," he said, "it will be because of what you and Cara do in them," then he moved around to start snapping shots of Cara on the Balance Beam.

Cara had stopped in the middle of a parallel split, about 18 inches up, and Todd snapped one of her in that pose before she sank straight down. Her left foot was in front of her, toes pointed straight forward, while her right leg was behind her, foot flat to the beam. One pose while she was sitting up straight, and another as she brought her head down to her left knee. With her hair cascading around her face, she looked angelic, and Todd was already seeing the final print in his mind as he decided to add some soft effects to the picture.

Todd continued to walk around the Balance Beam and Cara seemed to know just what would present the best angle for showing off the uniform. In one shot, she placed her hands between her legs and lifted herself off the bar, spreading her legs, and pointing them slightly forward. As Todd continued to move, so did Cara, finished the maneuver lifting her entire body off the beam balanced on just her hands, her body in line with the wood beneath her.

"That's it, Cara," said Todd. "Good enough for government work."

Cara let out a sigh and lowered herself to the beam to catch her breath, her arms and legs dangling from the sides. Todd snapped a candid one of that.

Ami was all geared up and ready to tackle the vault and for the next two hours, the girls showed Todd all the possibilities for good shots.