Chapter 6

Well, by closing time, we were all pretty smashed and lucky to have a limo to take us home. Gwen had to work on Monday, and we dropped her off in San Rafael. Making it up the old uneven concrete steps to our flat was a real challenge, but we made it okay somehow.

I passed out in bed and when I awoke in the morning, Nancy was freshly showered and just getting her clothes on to go to work. She'd cut back on her hours for the week, but had a medical referral client coming in at 11 and had to go take care of her.

I felt like the wrath of god and stumbled out to the kitchen and had some aspirin and water while I got the coffee pot going. When that was finished, I went out on the back porch and sat down and had a smoke and waited for my head to stop pounding. Who said you can't get a hangover from expensive booze?

After a second cup of coffee, I heard the toilet flush and a while later, someone else stirring around in the kitchen. A rather subdued Cat came out on the deck and sat down across from me. A few minutes after that, I could hear someone else stumbling through their morning routine and Kathy came out and mumbled something that could have been 'good morning' to us and sat down on the couch with me.

The Cat told me to remind her never to drink and I murmured something about someone should have told me that last night. I got up and got the coffee pot and refilled the cups and got cream and sugar for them on my trip out. A few cups and another coffee pot later, we were finally feeling up to facing bagels and yogurt and fruit for breakfast.

The Cat went into the guest room and came back a while later and put the black book of her photos on the table. "Just so you know I wasn't shitting you last night." Kathy picked it up, set it on her lap and opened it at random in the middle.

"Oh my god!" Talk about a real eye opener; it was a classic.

"Which one?" Cat asked me.

"The leather freaks." I told her.

"Is that really him? Or is this a trick photo?"

"It's really him."

"My god," she said in awe. "Whew! I had no idea that they came in that size."

"Well hung is kind of an understatement in that case, isn't it?" Cat asked rhetorically.

"I'll say. I bet there isn't a woman on the planet that could take all of that."

"Well, you'd be wrong," The Cat said drolly.

"Really?" The Cat gave me a side glance, asking in a microsecond about putting someone else's business on the street.

"Yeah, women can stretch out a hell of a lot down there. Delivering a baby, they have to." I said.

"Man, I would think that after that, they would stay stretched out forever."

I smiled wryly. "You'd be wrong about that one, too."

"Oh yeah? And how would you know, Mr. Expert?" Kathy asked me. Oh-oh. I had just shot myself in the foot here.

"One of my lovers made it with him."

"You're kidding! And she wasn't all ... ruined after taking that?" Kathy said in disbelief.

"No. But it wasn't an experience she was eager to repeat. Walking bowlegged for a day afterwards was a bit much."

"Holy cow!"

The Cat stepped in then and saved me. "If you want to see Tony doing something dirty there, go check out the Blond Twins series."

Kathy flipped to the table of contents, then flipped to the pages the series was on. She glanced at the first photos, then up at the Cat, then turned the page and looked at the image and then up to me with wide eyes. I could see a 'are you really okay with me seeing these' look in her eyes and I smiled and gave her a shrug and a nod. She looked at them and turned pages slowly. Then she looked up at the Cat and went, "Wow, you're really good."

"Thanks." The Cat said casually. "If you want me to take your picture while I'm here, I'd be happy to."

"I couldn't pose for something like this," Kathy said without thinking.

"I wasn't asking you to pose like that. I just said I'd take your picture."

"Go ahead and do it, Kathy. That way you'll always be able to say you had your portrait done by The Cat."

She looked at me and then the Cat, realized that she had made a mistake and blushed.

"Sorry. I'd love to have you take my picture."

"Cool. I'll make you look good, don't worry."

I knew that Kathy took pretty good pictures from using her as a subject in high school. Not nudes, just shots of her in clothes, so I figured the Cat could make her look great with very little effort. Some people are photogenic and some aren't and Kathy was more in the 'takes good photos' group.

Kathy looked through the photos and asked the Cat about some of the photos and she answered her technical questions and told some stories about things that had happen on the various shoots. She told about how her poor boyfriend at the time had his study time reduced to nothing some nights after particularly steamy shoots. Nancy wasn't there to verify the Cat's tall tales, but I could verify getting my bones jumped a time or two after the lens cap was snapped on.

I talked about the pictures that Nancy and I were in and she asked me about how I had felt about being observed in such intimate moments. "Well, it was perfectly normal having the Cat there with us. But the shutter clack was pretty distracting at first. Then I tuned it out and just got into Nancy." The series of four or five pages that lead to the question left no doubt as to Nance and I being able to tune out distractions. She gazed at them for a while, and I wondered what was going through her mind at that moment. Was she into the look on Nancy's face, or was it seeing someone she used to go parking with doing things that we just weren't socially advanced enough to do back then? She seemed pretty composed about it, then she flipped the page and another shot stared up at her. "Wow, powerful stuff," She said quietly. For once I kept my mouth shut and so did the Cat.

I got out a pitcher of sun tea and brought glasses and sugar out. The Cat asked me something and I got into a talk with her while Kathy flipped through the book and we had a conversation about some people we both knew who were going through some bizarre shit in their lives right then, and from there the conversation wandered off like they do and we caught up on bits of gossip and other mundane things. Kathy finally got to the end of it and put it on the table.

"So waddja think?"

"There very good." Kathy said. "I'm kind of jealous, actually."

The Cat cocked her head. "How so?"

"Well, there was some shots in there that just kind of reached out and grabbed me. That one of the woman's face while she was having an orgasm, that shot was just amazing. I looked at it and wondered how she could be so uninhibited to be able to do something like that in front of the camera, and yet it seemed it was a really private moment for her at the same time. It was awesome. I always wished I had to guts to be able to do something like that. But then, at the same time, I was wondering what it was like taking that picture? To be with someone going through something like that and not intrude, and to be able to compose the photo and get the moment without being swept up in it." She blushed a bit, and then went on doggedly. "God, it would have turned me on so much."

"Well, hell yeah." The Cat fired up a joint and took a hit and thought back on it. "Guess you can thank Tony for that one." She hissed out as she passed the joint to Kathy.

"How so?" She asked quickly, before taking a hit and passing it to me.

"Gwen dropped in one night while we were taking a bath and kinda joined in. I think that kind of loosed them up so nobody was uptight about the vibes on the shoot." I hit the jay and handed it to Cat.

"My first paid gig," the Cat said fondly. "It was really funny how Connie reacted when she saw those pictures, eh, T?"

I laughed. "Yeah, must of thought we were a bunch of degenerates."

Kathy thought a second. "Wait a minute. Gwen? The one we went out to eat with last night? That's her?"

"Yup."

"Oh, wow." Kathy shook her head; trying to fit the image of someone she knew into that face twisted unrecognizably in ecstasy she'd just been looking at.

"Have an idea that it was some far out kinky San Francisco sex queen?" The Cat asked amusedly.

"I guess. Wow: Gwen." She shook her head again, "Who would have thought?"

"What the heck, I bet you never would have thought you'd seen your old boyfriend in that kind of book, either, right?"

"Guess not," she admitted.

"If you want a picture like that, we can borrow Tony's studio. And since I already know what you look like coming, you won't be so self conscious about it."

"Hmm." She said thoughtfully. "Let me think about that one for a while."

"It's up to you. I can do a portrait, or one of you in your birthday suit, doing kinky things. Which opportunity might not come your way again?" The Cat laughed at her.

Kathy laughed right back. "It's not that, it's just that if I have you take my picture like those in the book, who would I show them to?"

"There is that," The Cat said. "Not your typical vacation pictures."

"Especially when they're printed 28 by 36. Not the kind of things you can hide away in the drawer." I said, just to needle her a bit.

"Well, I've already been through one of those trips, and I'd just as soon not go through another." Kathy said, sort of mulling it over out loud.

"Oh?"

"I shouldn't have said that."

"But you did. So come on, I told you a lot of shit about my trip. Let's hear about yours."

Kathy glanced at me, then back at the Cat. "Look. This involves someone Tony knows, and I'd just feel weird him knowing about it. How about I tell you later?"

"Aw, come on," I complained. "You've already seen me getting down and dirty. What's the big deal? I'm trusting you to not go blabbing to everyone in the ol' home town about my personal business, do you think I'd ever mention something you told me in private about someone else to anyone back home?"

"Uh, no, not when you put it that way." She drew in her breath a bit. "Well, growing up with a twin brother and living so far out of town, well, we were a hell of a lot closer growing up than the usual brother and sister."

"Far out. That makes two of my friends that fucked their brothers. Kind of makes me wish I'd had one myself." The Cat said casually, like it was the most normal thing in the world, and what was the big deal about incest anyway?

"Oh, no! I didn't fuck Mikey! We never went that far, but we learned a lot from each other. About sex, you know?"

"Well, what was it then?"

"I really don't know how to describe it. We played doctor when we were kids, but kept from going all the way with each other. That's way too long a story to go into here, but let's just say we learned how the others parts worked. Mikey and I were always very close growing up and when puberty rolled around, we learned what felt good from each other."

"Cool." The Cat said. "I did that with Tony and Nancy."

"You did?"

"Yeah, pretty much so." She glanced over to me and I added my two cents worth.

"Yeah. I think we got a pretty good idea of what you're describing."

"Well, anyway, I got involved with this girl in my junior year. And we had this freaky warm period in the spring and Mikey and I went out to the sink holes and I took some pictures and on the way home I said I really wished I'd taken a picture of him naked out there and he said he would have be okay with it. And the next day, uh, I'd promised my girlfriend we'd do something together and we all went out to the sink holes and I took some pictures of Mikey naked. And as we were fairly far away from my girlfriend, I talked him into jacking off for me."

"Far out." The Cat commented. "Makes it easier when it's someone you know, don't it?"

"Yeah. Anyway, I got some time alone in the darkroom at the high school and ran off the roll I'd taken that day. And there were a couple of my girlfriend that I wanted to show her and opened up the box I had the film in and flipped the lid under it and showed them in the car when they came to pick me up."

"Oh god, I can see where this is going." The Cat said with a chuckle.

Kathy shook her head. "It was awful. There was Mikey having an orgasm and it just blew everyone's minds. And damned if I could get the damn box top free with my gloves on." The Cat just lost it then. Kathy looked at her reproachfully; kind of hurt by the way she was reacting, but still able to see the absurdity of the whole thing.

"Shit, remember the look on Connie's face when Gwen brought over her pictures, Tony?"

"Oh, yeah." I replied. "Shock city." I laughed at the way it had come around so that two ex high school girlfriends had had the same experience. "Another one of life's billion to one coincidences." I said wryly.

"Well, it was embarrassing as hell when it happened." Kathy said, plainly expecting a little more sympathy for her story.

"Kathy, you have no idea of how much we can understand exactly what you just said. Believe me, we've all most definitely been there in your shoes."

"So what happened after your girlfriend found out you'd taken pictures of your brother yankin' his crank?"

"Well, later on, Mikey chewed my ass out for it. But some of the ones she actually liked."

"Cool. I'm glad it worked out okay. But it sure is kind of funny."

I smiled at Kathy. "That must have been hard to explain."

She sighed, then shot me a speculative look from under her eyebrow.

"What?"

"You know, you're the first guy outside of my brother and another lover that I had that knows I'm bisexual. And you're really cool about it. Thanks."

"Well, you're welcome, but my best friend and my old lady are both bisexuals, so it's not any big deal to me." I pointed out to her. Being as we were both from the same town, we had certain built in common ground feelings about how things were talked about back there and 'coming out of the closet' was something that you heard happened to someone that moved way out to San Francisco, not with someone you knew that was still living in our town.

"Well, thanks anyway for being cool about it."

"Da nada. If I can be cool about my mistress and lover jumping your bones, why would you think I'd be uptight about learning you're bisexual? Hmm?"

"Yeah, well, they weren't dating me back in high school, either."

"Point taken." After a minute, my curiosity got the better of me. "So who was your lover?"

"Well, what the hell, I've gone this far. You remember Johanna, the blonde that moved into town in our junior year?"

"The one Mike went out with for a while? Really?"

"Yeah. Only she and my brother were later on."

"Wow, that must have been weird." The Cat said.

"No, it wasn't really."

"Your brother was dating your ex and you weren't weird about it?" The Cat asked skeptically.

"Well, she wasn't exactly my ex, you see."

"Huh?"

"Oh, this will really teach me to keep my big fat mouth shut." Kathy said. "It's going to sound a lot kinkier than it really was."

"How so?"

"Well, shit. Listen, this is really telling tales out of class, but if I don't tell you, your going to think it was really dirty or something."

"Kath, we're not going to judge you. If you feel comfortable with telling us, okay. If you feel it's none of our business, then it's okay to just tell us to shut the fuck up."

"Well, basically the reason Johanna was into girls was that she was afraid of boys. She'd been raped and, well, you remember how good looking she was, Tony?"

"Yeah. One of the school foxes," I explained to the Cat. "She was totally gorgeous."

"So the way all the boys in school were hitting on her and everything, she would just date because her mom pressured her into it. She had a lot of problems with trusting any of them. But I talked her into borrowing Mikey for a show and tell dummy so she would be in a no pressure situation and, well, one thing lead to another and they got to be lovers." She drew in a deep breath, and went ahead with her confession. "Anyway, they were more friends than lovers but she was my lover all the way through high school, even when Mikey and her were going together."

"Wow. That really blows my mind." I told her honestly.

The Cat cut to the chase. "And none of you got jealous?"

"Mikey later on told me that he was pretty jealous of me."

"Hmm. I somehow would have expected him to be more pissed off about you being into women. Guess Michigan isn't all rednecks."

"God, Cat, I'm from there." I said with some amusement.

"Operative word in that sentence is 'from', buddy."

"You kind of make it sound like 'Deliverance.'"

"Yeah. Your brother sounds pretty cool."

"Yeah, he sure is. Much too cool for that cunt he's married to right now."

"It's funny. I don't know why I'm shocked, but I am." It was my turn to shake my head.

"What are you shocked about?" The Cat asked.

"Because I was dating Kathy while Johanna was dating Mike and I never had a clue that they were doing stuff with each other."

"Sorry." Kathy said, apologizing for her cheating on me a dozen years ago.

"No need to be sorry. I can see where you were at back then. It certainly isn't the kind of thing you'd want put out on the street." I sighed. "Wow. You and Johanna. Damn! But that must have been hot. Mike sure must have had fun."

Kathy snickered. "Yeah, he sure did."

"Far out."

"So tell me more about how the sex went? You guys ever get together and make it all at once?"

"Well, sort of. I never fucked Mike, but we certainly gave Jo a time or two she'll never forget."

Cat chuckled. "God, that sounds hot. Dating a brother and sister. Hmm..."

"Twins, yet." I fed the fantasy running through her mind, and giving her an evil grin while I did.

"And not doing each other." She looked back at me speculatively.

"Sound like your perfect date, Cat."

"Tell me more about your brother," the Cat asked as innocently as she could.

"Aw, come on!" Kathy cracked up.

"Think she's not serious?" I asked, almost keeping the laughter out of my voice, but couldn't deliver the line straight enough for it to be effective.

"Well, shit, Tony. How do you know I'm not serious?"

"I can just see you, hanging out at the local taverns, asking around for Kathy's brother Mikey."

"Who said anything about hanging out in hick town bars? How would you two like to be assistants on my next shoots?"

"Yeah, right. Mike's a truck mechanic. I can just see him on a shoot."

"Truck driver sex. Sounds like my kind of guy."

"Just say the word and you, too, can become a kept woman." I put in, needling the Cat at the same time.

"Well, while it's the best offer I've had so far today, I'd feel a bit odd pimping my own brother out while he's going through a divorce."

"Well, keep it in mind for after the divorce is finalized. Maybe we can get together and do Paris or something."

"I'll do that," Kathy insincerely promised.

"What the fuck. It's only a fantasy."

"But you'd still go for, sight unseen, wouldn't you Cat?"

"Tony-" Kathy began as the Cat said, "Like a shot."

Then Kathy said "Huh?" Plainly thinking she was putting her on.

"You remember what I said about comma price tags?" I asked her. "Thought I was kidding then, too, didn't you?" I was laughing as I said it.

Kathy looked at me, looked at the Cat, looked back at me, and then shook her head. "You can't be serious."

"Why not?"

"Well, I..." then she stopped for a second and shook her head again. "Cat, I've got an old man. I can't just dump him and take off."

"Well, bring him along, then."

"Come on Cat," I told her. "Lay off."

She gave me a look, one that had something not too deep buried that was kind of hurting her and I just opened my arms and she got up and came over and leaned down and I gave her a hug. Then I got her to sit down on my lap and just held her and hugged her for a while with my eyes closed and when I opened them, Kathy was looking at us with a slightly bemused expression on her face, like she was trying to puzzle out what had just happened here. I gave a little motion of my head and she nodded and got up and went into the house and gave us the space to sort out whatever was bugging the Cat in private.