Chapter 1

There is something very different about men and women, about the way that they hunt for sex. Most women come on to a man until he makes a move. Very rarely does a woman just come out and ask. I have no real idea about why this is, it's just 'the way things work.'

Nancy isn't like any other woman I've ever been with. I first meet her on a nude beach and she asked me if I would be interested in having her spend the night. No, that isn't right. She said, "You want to get it on?"

Now the answer to the question was yes, for only a fool would have said no. She's almost as tall as I am and I had been interested in fucking her from the moment that I first saw her coming out of the water carrying her mask and fins, brushing the wet hair out of her eyes. Her towel was just past me and as she walked by, she smiled and said hi. I said hi back and offered her a cold beer out of my cooler. One thing led to another and here I am, thirty years later.

Nance has an openness about her that always takes me by surprise. She is the most sexually aware woman that I have ever meet in my life and has a way of making things okay. She's put me into situations that made me pretty nervous at times, but they all worked out well. She doesn't have a jealous bone in her body and feels that variety keeps life interesting. There isn't much we haven't tried, but almost all of it has been good. And the stuff that didn't work out good wasn't bad.

We'd moved in together really quickly, I think about six weeks after we meet. Not having the faintest idea about how adventuresome she is, there was a period of getting used to each other, of learning about each others tastes and preferences in dozens of areas, from music to food and all the rest of life. She gradually got me used to Texas chili, spicing it up slowly to where it was edible by her standards. The first time I tried it, I thought I was going to lose the skin inside my mouth!

If you've been reading these stories, you've already heard about some of our adventures and know what we're like as people. This isn't one of our major breakthroughs, just one that I remember. Remember and think about from time to time. Occasionally I wonder how Papa Hemingway would rate it.

It was early 1973. McGovern had just gotten his ass kicked and Tricky Dicky was still in office. The fucking war was still going on and I got a phone call from a girl that I used to go with in high school. She was just finishing college and had applied to graduate school in California. She was someone that I had been in love with and when we broke up after high school, we'd parted on good terms. She had been one of those girls that 'were saving it for marriage, ' though looking back on it, there was one point that I think I could have 'gone all the way' with her if I hadn't been such a social retard. But I'd played by her rules and hadn't taken advantage of the situation and I think that was why we had remained friends after almost being lovers. She gave me a call just after the election, having gotten my phone number from a mutual friend of ours who'd stayed in our old hometown.

How to describe Connie? Pretty, bordering on beautiful. Somewhere in a box of junk in my parents' basement, I have a photo of her, but I don't need the photo to describe her. She had brown hair she wore collar length, a trim body with nice breasts, a wonderful ass and nipples that tasted of copper when she was aroused. When we would park in the drive in, she liked her pussy rubbed side to side while I kissed her and brought her to orgasm.

I was glad to hear from her and told her that of course she could come out and stay on my couch. That was in January and she said that she'd be out in the end of July. I got a letter from her in the spring, thanking me and double-checking that it was still all right. I wrote back and said of course it was. I hadn't meet Nancy and it wasn't obvious at the time that she would be the love of my life.

Connie was in an auto accident and called me to tell me she was going to be in traction for a while and I told her that she was always welcome whenever. Her plans changed and she went to graduate school in Chicago and it was one of those things that happens, y'know? I had mixed feelings about the whole thing. I was curious about how she'd turned out, hoping to have a shot at getting her into bed and didn't want to blow it. Old girlfriends have a lot of baggage sometimes.

I meet Nancy shortly after that and we moved in together. Three or four years go by and I get a message on my answering service I use for business. Connie called and wanted me to call back. I didn't connect who she was until I saw the area code for my old hometown. I called back and found out she was being considered for a job in San Francisco. Was wondering if my offer of couch space was still open? I told her it was. We talked about when she would be arriving and I told her that I would meet her plane. I made sure to mention that I had a girl friend. She said she was looking forward to meeting her.

Well, she was 'unfinished business', if you know what I mean. A girl I'd wanted and actually had a shot at, but hadn't 'taken advantage of.' We'd grown up in the same town, knew the same people and shared a burning desire to get out in the big world and make our marks. My hometown had been behind the times and when I'd left, it was still back in the fifties as far as the moral standards went. The sexual revolution just hadn't gotten there yet. I was curious to find out how life had worked out for her.

The day she was due to arrive, I'd gotten a last minute job I couldn't turn down and just caught her before she left for the airport at 6:30 in the morning. That was a 4:30 phone call in California, but I hadn't been to sleep yet. (God, to be twenty again!) I explained Nancy would pick her up and described her. 'Tall blonde Texan" isn't a great description, but I knew Nancy would be able to cope. She just made a sign saying CONNIE and held it by the arrival gate.

Nancy told me later that Connie didn't quite know what to make of her. Nancy had been at the beach and was just wearing a halter top, sandals and cut off jeans. Connie was dressed up in a dark blue conservative business dress, hair cut in a very styled manner and carrying her brief case. They must have made an odd looking couple. Connie's about five four and Nancy is six foot. Nancy has a really stunning body and she gets a lot of attention wherever she goes. Connie didn't have much to say and Nancy told me that she had been nervous and couldn't shut up, just kept babbling at Connie as they got her luggage and retrieved the 'rat mobile', the TR-3 that she had at the time. It was on its last legs and it was always 50-50 odds if it would start.

I got home ten minutes before they did and was half way through a beer. I'd had a really rough day, which wound up with a screaming argument with a bands manager. All I really wanted to do was get high and hang out in the hot tub with Nancy. I was pretty pissed off about the chiseling shit the s.o.b. had tried to run and anxious about seeing a girl I hadn't seen since high school. Six and a half years gone by and I was a little nervous, y'know?

I heard the rat mobile rasping up the hill and ran down stairs to help with bags. Connie was just prying herself out of the car when I got there. I don't think she recognized me at first, but maybe it was just a reaction to Nancy's driving. Any normal person would have their license revoked, but when you look like Nancy, well. Let's just say she got away with murder.

Of course, when I'd graduated high school, I didn't have the beard. I'd filled out some and my hair was now longer than Connie's. Let's just say that we'd changed. Any way, I kind of hesitated and didn't give her the hug that I was going to.

She looked much older than my age, which was 24 at the time. I knew she'd been hitting the books really hard in college from gossip the last time I'd been home. The glasses were new, thick plastic frames that gave her a very professional look (and this in a time when everyone hip was wearing wire rim granny glasses, ), but it made her seem very straight arrow. She came across as a social worker in her dark blue dress with the white blouse, flat black shoes, and briefcase.

Actually, she looked like a parole officer.

Guess who had a case of possession coming up for trial in a month and a half?

"Hi, Connie!"

She looked at me for a second, then smiled that smile I remembered so well. "Tony!" She gave me a hug, one of those quick ones that you give an ex boy friend in front of his girl. I grinned and we said some things and got her suitcases out. I grabbed one and Nancy got the other, leaving Connie with her brief case to follow us up the broken cement stairs that led around the back and up to our flat. They kept out those that don't know theirs a flat up there. We stashed her suitcases in my office/"our spare bedroom." I'd dug out a closet, moved a small chest of drawers in and my light table out. It was standing on edge in the hall behind the door to our tree balcony, as we called our second floor front porch. The flat was small.

Nancy showed her where the can was and asked her what she wanted to drink. I yelled at Nancy to pull me out another beer and checked that I hadn't left anything out. I work out of my house and it was my office. The only reason it was clean was Nancy had spent four days organizing it for our company and it was a bit odd, seeing my desktop. I didn't remember it being oak all the way across. It looked like my office, but then again, it didn't.

I went out to the kitchen and accepted the beer Nancy handed me. She had two big glasses of white wine poured and was busy setting out snack food. I gave her a smooch and she looked up and gave me a sympathetic smile. "Been some changes, since you saw each other last?" She drawled.

I nodded. Our houseguest might be a problem, might not. The jury was still out.

Connie came out of the john, dug some smokes out of her purse and accepted the wine. "God, I need this!" She knocked a good part of it back and Nancy immediately poured her some more.

"Rough plane ride?"

"Rough last night. The family going away scene dragged on forever, my dad kept telling me to 'watch out for them hippies' and mom did her 'trying not to cry' guilt routine. Cousin Johnny kept trying to hit on me and then getting up so god damned early, just so I could spend the day waiting around in St Louis in 103 degree heat. I'm sorry I'm so beat. I hope you haven't got any big plans for tonight, because I'd just like to sit down and get shit faced. Thanks Nancy, I don't mind if I do." That was Nancy with the bottle again.

"No, we were thinking of taking you out for dinner, but we got plenty of stuff here. You want to get out of those clothes?"

"Yeah, that's my next project. Be right back."

She wandered off to get out of her traveling outfit. Nancy asked if I knew what she liked to eat and we discussed firing up the hibachi or maybe just doing tostadas. When Connie came back, she was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. We stood around in the kitchen, watching Nancy put out food on trays.

"Lets go sit out on the deck, okay?" We all grabbed something and wandered out to the deck.

Connie was a lot easier to relate to in shorts. Nancy asked her why she'd been so dressed up for the plane ride and Connie explained her mother insisted she wear it as her suitcases were full. "And so men wouldn't bother me", she said with a wry grin. I knew her mother and laughed, picturing the scene in my mind.

The first bottle of wine was rapidly killed and the second was on its way as we sat around and talked for a while, mostly gossip about who was marrying or divorcing among the people we'd grown up with. There was a lot of catching up, as I hadn't been back home in years.

While we were kibitzing, there was a thump as someone came hurling over the back fence.

"It's just the Cat." Nancy explained to Connie when she turned to see what the noise was.

"Hey! Guess what I got today?" She called out as she came bouncing down the steps. "Oh, hi!"

"Cat, I'd like you to meet an old friend of mine; Connie. This is the Cat."

"Hi! Good to meet you. Wanna get high?" She tossed the shopping bag she was carrying onto the table and pulled a pack of orange zig zags out of the hip pocket of her jeans.

Connie was looking a little nonplussed by being confronted with a sixteen year old pothead, who was busy pulling her shirt over her head. She was all ready ripped before she arrived, which is only reasonable if you're buying weight.

Nancy looked over at me and then at Connie. "You want to take a tub?"

"A tub?"

The Cat was pulling the cover off the tub and Nancy pointed to it. "A hot tub."

Connie was getting hit with too many things at once. Nancy was opening up the shopping bag on the table and the odor of marijuana rolled out. She sniffed it and picked up the papers and began to roll.

"Might do you some good after being stuck in that seat all day."

The Cats cut-offs hit the deck and she flipped her legs over the edge and eased down into the hot water. "Ahhhhh..." she sighed.

A naked teenager, a bag of illicit herb, Nancy rolling dope like a pro and I'm sitting there calmly drinking my beer, just like nothing out of the ordinary's happening. I asked if her if she wanted to borrow a swim suit if she was uncomfortable with nudity?

"I brought one of my own." She said. "I've never tried a hot tub."

"Just like a bath tub, but you have room to stretch out and move around in. Be just the thing for you, after the plane ride 'n all."

"Okay. I'm game. Be right back."

She went in to change and I couldn't help but laugh when Nancy said, "I kinda got the feeling that she's figuring out she's not in Kansas anymore."

"Yeah. Well, I was going to get around to figuring out where she stood on them issues."

"Go get some mugs and I'll work on you both. You look like you need some work."

"Thanks. Powell tried to screw me."

"I figured he would after what Eddie said."

"Fuck it. I'll just talk to Bill Stuart."

I went in and got out the mugs we use in the tub and a beer and a coke. When I got back, Nancy was already in the tub. Connie came out dressed in a one piece and climbed in. I think that she was feeling odd about being the only one dressed in the tub. I stripped off and got in across from her. She was listening really intently to something Nancy was saying, but maybe it was just that she wanted to make sure that Nancy didn't get the idea that she was checking me out.

We soaked for a while and listened to the Cat tell her story about scoring the weed. She'd gotten a good deal on it and was enjoying her daring young adventuress role. Then she asked me some technical question about pulling development time and we talked about that for a while, getting a private conversation of our own going. She had a job the next day and wanted to know about an idea she had for to get an effect she wanted. I don't remember all the details, but we had our conversation going on and Nancy and Connie had theirs.

Nancy fired up one of the joints she'd rolled and passed it around. Connie seemed a little nervous about smoking dope out in the back yard, but we told her that it was private. "Except for that window up there," I kidded her. "The apartment the cop lives in."

The smoke and the hot water mellowed us out and the Cat finally calmed down enough to shut up. We just kicked back and relaxed for a moment. After a while, Nancy finally spoke up and offered to do Connie's back. She turned it down with thanks, but I could tell that she was half tempted. When Nancy offered to do me, I just turned around and leaned against the tub wall without a bench. Nancy stood and worked my shoulders out where I store stress. She has amazingly strong hands and knows what she's doing. In about ten minutes, I was feeling a lot better about everything.

I leaned there for a while and listened to the women talking. The Cat was grilling Connie about what I was like in High School and telling her how I had taught her photography. She asked Connie if she'd pose for her sometime and Nancy told her to back off and let her get her feet on the ground first.

I sat up on the edge of the tub to cool off. Nancy was sitting on the upper deck side of the tub and Connie was sitting next to her.

The Cat was still in the tub and she looked up at me and winked. I smiled back at her, having picked up that Connie was intimidated by Nancy's beauty. I'd noticed the sidelong glances she kept giving her. Nancy must have been aware of them, but she'd long since tuned it out of her general consciousness. She got it all the time and it was just background noise to her.

Both the Cat and I knew Connie wasn't used to the life style Nancy and I lived. It was pretty exotic to her, kind of exciting, kind of risqué, being in a tub with naked people in it. I noticed she was always looking at someone else while I was sitting up on the edge of the tub. But she was hanging in there.

Nancy offered to do her next and she declined again. The Cat and I cajoled her into letting Nancy work on her. She finally gave in and Nancy had her lean on the tub like I had been. A while later, she was sighing and groaning as Nancy's hands worked out her tensions.

Nancy and I talked about some everyday stuff while she worked. So and so called, Anne said she could make it Sunday, but Saturday was out. The lab wouldn't have the blow ups done until Tuesday. It didn't keep Nancy from doing her magic on Connie's body.

Well, what with the long day and all, Connie started to get sleepy a while after that and we shooed her out of the tub and into bed. She apologized and went yawning off to brush her teeth and get ready for bed. The Cat had something going on and took off about the same time.

When we were alone, Nancy looked at me and asked. "So, you wanna fool around?"

After that, we went to bed and talked about how seeing an old friend after so long was strange, then fell asleep.

Nancy has this way of waking me up in the morning. I took it as long as I could, then flipped her over and gave it back with interest. I forgot we had company and should keep it down. What the hell, the doors in the flat were old and thin. I'm sure that Connie must have heard us.

When we finally got out of bed, Connie was sunning out on the deck. It got morning sun and she was taking advantage of it. Nancy called out a good morning, y'all, to her and went to the john while I got the coffee going and popped some bagels into the toaster. I grabbed some bowls, granola, bananas and put them on a tray. Nancy took over while I had my morning pee and the first part of breakfast was out on the deck when I got back.

Connie looked better after catching up on her sleep. We talked about where she had to be for her interviews and when. Nancy and I told her about where places were and how long it took to get there from Fairfax. We have two cars in the family, but while the VW van was the more mechanically reliable, I needed it on some shoots to carry gear. We told her about a mechanic friend of ours who would check out cars for her and might be able to steer her to some good wheels that weren't too expensive.

The Cat came over to borrow gear for her shoot, dressed up in her khaki girl photographer jacket with all the pockets in it. She apologized to Connie for having to go into her room, but the gear she needed in one of my road cases in the closet. She got the lenses, filters and the flash head she wanted and had coffee with us. She was hyped about the shoot and bouncing off the walls mentally. It had been off and on for months and her first paid gig. I talked to her for a while about rapport development between photographer and model, keeping her self centered and taking the time to make sure she had her technical shit together before she started shooting. I told some horror stories about disasters I'd had and she loosened up a bit. I told her to relax, it was just Gwen. The Cat gave me a haughty look and said, "It's not just Gwen! It's a hundred and seventy five bucks worth of processing and development!" Then she grinned.

I had to laugh, but she had it right. It wasn't 'just Gwen;' it was a job.

"You'll do just fine," Nancy said.

The Cat grinned at her. "Betcher ass!"

The Cat took off and we took Connie sight seeing. We went to Sausalito, took a ferry to San Francisco and spent the day playing tourist. It was a Thursday and the crowds weren't bad. I had two gigs that weekend and that's the nature of my work. One was covering a festival for a travel magazine and I could bring both of them. The other was a studio shoot and the guest list was band only. Nancy said she could get them both in if Connie wanted to go.

She said she'd think about it. I told her that it could be a bore, as the band that I was going to be doing the shoot for were notorious no-shows. We had an early dinner in China Town and caught the last ferry back to Sausalito and had a couple of drinks in the no name bar.

We went home about eleven o'clock and there was the Cat, sitting out on the deck.

Now the Cat was looking like she was having a really shitty day and it didn't take a genius to figure that out. Her dad was a binge-drinker and she was a frequent guest of ours. "Can I sleep with you guys tonight?" She asked plaintively.

"Sure." Nancy said instantly.

"Thanks." She got up and went in to use the john.

Connie was curious about what was going on and Nancy told her about what the situation was with the Cats dad. I think she also explained that the Cat sometimes shared our bed, but I'm not sure. I know what your thinking, but it wasn't like that this night. The Cat wanted some cuddling and it wasn't sex, though it had been on other occasions.

Nancy and the Cat went to bed about a half an hour later, leaving Connie and I alone for the first time since she'd gotten there. I don't think she quite knew what to make of my household. Or me, for that matter.

"How old is she, anyway?"

"The Cat? Sixteen." I shrugged. "Sometimes she seems a lot older. She's good people."

She looked at me curiously for a moment and I figured I better amplify my remarks. "You're probably wondering about our sleeping arraignments. Sometimes she comes over and sleeps with us. Sometimes it's just sleeping." I said with a smile.

"Oh."

"I guess this must seem a bit odd to you."

She laughed and admitted, "A little."

I gave her a grin and said, "We told the real crazies to stay way until you get used to our 'regular' friends." She laughed again, but like she meant it a little more.

"Lots of changes since I saw you last."

"Yeah." We looked at each other for a minute. "You're looking good, though."

"So are you." I sipped my beer and let it lie there for a minute. "Look. I know that this must seem really odd to you. I don't know how to explain it."

"How did you and Nancy meet?"

"I was at the beach and she came out of the water. I offered her a beer." I shrugged. "Just lucky I guess. We moved in together about six weeks later. That was the summer you were supposed to come out, when you had your auto accident."

"She's gorgeous."

"Yeah," I said, "but it's only Nancy."

"As opposed to who? 'Only Gwen?'"

"Yeah. But you should see Gwen!" I said enthusiastically.

It took her a second, but then she laughed out loud, a whoop of delight that split the night. I grinned at her, happy that she was loosening up.

"Yeah, Nancy's great. Don't let that centerfold body fool ya, she's great people."

"Great how?"

"She's probably the smartest human being I've ever meet." Connie smiled at me, thinking that I was pulling her leg. Nancy can put up this bubble head appearance that fools a lot of people. "Smart in that she knows things about people. Smart in that sense." I could see that Connie didn't get it. "Stick around, clown." I said, teasing her with a nickname that I'd hung on her one Halloween when she'd gone as Charley Chaplin. "You'll see."

"She seems nice." I knew Connie hadn't 'gotten' Nancy yet.

"Yeah. She's a blue ribbon winner, all right." I peeled the label on the bottle and looked up at Connie. "I know that you're probably wondering what the hell she's doing with me." I'd caught her off guard. "Nancy's special. When I'm with her, I'm special too."

We changed the subject after that and picked up talking about people we knew and how they were doing. About an hour or so later, we turned in. Connie glanced at the empty couch and didn't say anything when I went to join the Cat and Nancy in slumber land.

The next few days went by and Connie got to meet more of our friends. She did a double take at meeting Katrina, which everyone does. Well, they do if we're together. Katrina asked her 'what I was like as a lover when I was in high school, ' which caused wine to shoot out of Connie's nose. Anne and Peggy came over and had dinner and invited us all out to Bolinas for the weekend. Connie was getting a lot of stuff thrown at her quickly, but it was fascinating her instead of freaking her out.

She went around and did her interviews three or four times a week, which gave us time to hang out. Sometimes I'd notice her giving me these speculative looks out of the corner of my eye. Nancy asked me one night if I was going to make a pass at her or not? I told her that I didn't think she'd be able to handle it yet and Nancy dropped the subject. I think she agreed with my assessment.

There was a lot of curiosity in Connie about our unusual sleeping arraignments with the Cat. She spent about eight days on our couch, or rather nights. Connie hadn't been sure about what was going on and I think it kind of 'sat on her mind', as Nancy would say. Finally I think she just decided it was probably very innocent, which come to think of, it was.

I don't know if Nancy had a talk with the Cat or not, but she dialed back a bit to give Connie some space to get used to her. Maybe it was just she'd caught her at a bad time, but the Cat became more at ease when she had the pressure of the shoot with Gwen behind her. That shoot had been hanging for about five months, so it was a lot of stress.

California, the land of the fruits and nuts: Maybe Connie just figured it's the way Californians are. Maybe she figured she just had a dirty mind and I really would never dream of nailing a kid like the Cat.

The Cat didn't engage in any of the flirting we usually did with each other. Didn't do any of the lewd things that she'd tease me with from time to time. We behaved ourselves, but would give each other hugs and affection like we always did. It wasn't the Cat that let the cat out of the bag.

Gwen came over with the enlargements from the shoot the Cat had done with her. She knew about the Cats home scene and they decided to meet at our place. She works in a photo lab and does really nice work in the darkroom. While she can appreciate good photography, she doesn't have the artist's eye. She's one hell of a photo tech though.

It was Saturday and as fate would have it, four people were over at house that Gwen knew from meeting them at our place. Also through developing various photos of them in their birthday suits and doing some very naughty things. So she didn't think anything of opening the envelope up and passing them around for us to look at while waiting for the Cat to get there. The photos went around and people commented on them favorably, talking about how great she looked, how well Cat had set up the lighting, how she'd captured 'the elemental expression' and passing them onto the next person. Connie got handed a couple of them and I could see that she was shocked. She looked at them for a second and passed them on to the next person, who handed them to me.

Well, there certainly wasn't anything innocent about those pictures, that's for sure. Gwen had a lot of imagination and known what she wanted.

She wanted to know what she looked like coming.

Did I also mention she's a bit of an exhibitionist?

I knew the Cat was getting good, but I was amazed at how good. She'd gotten everything right technically. The exposure was perfectly balanced between highlights and shadows, the fill and key lights were set just right. But those are just skills. She'd also caught something very elemental and human in Gwen, something that was so self absorbed and absolutely human about the way she played with her body. I looked over at Connie, who was furiously blushing as she glanced at the pictures and passed them along. Then I looked down at the pictures I had in my hands and went through them slowly.

I was sitting at the kitchen table and spread them out on the surface and looked at them for a while longer. I sorted them into groups and when the last of them went around and came to me, I put them in their piles and stacked them.

The Cat came in and everyone gave her a round of applause, which took her aback for a moment. Then she grinned sheepishly and bowed a few times. Gwen came over and kissed her on the cheek and hugged her. Everyone said something nice and she came into the kitchen to check out the blowups.