Chapter 2

Our new home.

That had a nice ring to it. Enough of a nice ring that it kept me from running back down the street screaming the first time we opened the front door. If Chuck paid the "professional cleaning crew" more than a buck seventy-five and a case of beer he got screwed.

The leftover and broken furniture was gone and the closets had the abandoned clothes removed but the place was still a mess! Newspapers were scattered everywhere, food wrappers hid in corners like cowering mice and the walls were stained with who-knew-what. UGH!

I'd brought the camera along to chronicle our move but ended up using it to document the pitiful job the crew had done. I was sure Chuck would want some evidence when he nailed them to the wall—the wall with the large, unidentified stain on it, I hoped! At least there wasn't much of a smell. I guess the crew had dumped the garbage in self-defense. After all, they'd had to work in the place at least long enough to get the broken and abandoned furniture out.

"Dammit, Tommy, are we ever going to get this place livable?"

We'd been working for three days straight. Greg and Cindy had been helping out when they could, but they both had full-time jobs for the summer so their time was limited.

"Hey, we're almost ready to paint; just the one bedroom and we're done."

"Okay, let's get it done and then you're going to take me to the Palace for dinner, right?"

"Only if you shower first ... I'll even help."

I was trying to figure out the best way to get a glob of I-didn't-want-to-know-what off the wall when Beth stomped out of the walk-in closet gingerly holding something between her thumb and finger.

"What kind of a sicko would put a used condom on a closet shelf!? The thing's been there so long it's stiff!" I thought of making a wise-ass comment but reconsidered when I saw the look on her face.

We decided to haul all the junk we'd collected out to the dumpster we'd had delivered and call it a day. Then we drove to Beth's house to clean up and try to get presentable enough for Jeanie.

As I was scrubbing her back, Beth leaned back into me. "Tommy, are we ever going to get that place livable? Maybe I should just let the folks sell it and live in a dorm or at home."

"Come on, we're getting close. Tomorrow we'll start painting and pretty soon the place will be our home."

"Our home," she said almost reverently and I could feel the goose-bumps rise on her arms.

An hour later we walked into the Pizza Palace to find Jeanie with an ear-to-ear grin. Something was up.

"Hi, you two! I'm sorry, but your usual booth is already taken. Somebody snuck in when I wasn't looking." There was something about the way she said that...

We sat in one of the main room booths waiting for our pizza, just relaxing after busting our butts cleaning all day.

"I wonder who grabbed our booth?" Beth mused.

"Yeah. Did you notice that little grin Jeanie was sporting when she gave us the bad news? Something's going on."

Beth grabbed my arm when I stood up. "Tommy, don't go back there!"

"Back where? I'm just going to visit the john. Really!"

Isn't it unfortunate how suspicious some people can be?

On my way back to our booth I just happened to walk past the snuggle booth only to find Beth already sitting there ... with Gail and my brother!

"Oh, Tommy! You should see your face!" Gail giggled as my devious dear moved over so I could join the party while I made a mental note to have a heart-to-heart with my brother about just whose booth this was.

Just about then Jeanie came around the corner carrying a pizza.

"I see our table change wasn't a problem," I said as she put down our food.

"Hey, I've been doing this for forty-two years. I'm a professional. Oh, and this isn't yours," she said as she slid the pizza in front of the grinning pair sitting across from us.

"Too bad, Tommy, looks like you're going to have to wait for yours. Beth, would you like a slice? It's got onions," my brother offered.

As Beth took the offered slice Jeanie let out a yelp, "Beth! Is that a ring? Did Tommy finally ask you? OhmyGod! I can't believe he actually did it!" she exclaimed as she hugged my lady.

Gail pushed my brother out of the booth so she could join the other two in a hugfest. Kevin and I just stood there watching the fun. My brother had a curious look on his face, "Tommy, what's it like being engaged? I mean are you really getting married? When?"

"Kev, don't worry. We're not getting married until we finish school.

"As far as being engaged, I don't know, it doesn't feel any different. It just seemed like the right time to make it official."

Eventually Jeanie brought our food and for a few minutes conversation ended. As we ate I noticed Gail glancing in my direction.

"Um, Tommy, could you, um..." I didn't think I had seen her this nervous since that fateful Halloween night last year. She turned to Kevin with a pleading look.

"Tommy, can you get me, get us, some more condoms?" Kev said. Gail looked like she wanted to slide under the table. Beth reached across the table. "Gail, no problem."

Just before we were ready to leave my phone rang.

"Tommy, it's Sherry. I really hate to bother you but can we redo some of the pictures?"

"Sure. Is something wrong with the first ones?" I'd never had anyone request a re-shoot before, at least not for a portrait. I guess it was inevitable, but it still hurt.

"Oh, nothing you did, but when I was looking at the CD you gave me I realized I just couldn't give any of those to Steve. I never want to lie to him."

"Ah. I guess I don't understand. Lie?"

"Tommy, those pictures make me look like, like I'm naked, but I wasn't! It wouldn't be fair to Steve if I sent one of those to him." I wasn't even going to try to understand the logic behind that, but if Sherry wanted to try something else, I'd try to accommodate her.

"Tommy, is Beth with you? Can I talk to her?" I passed the phone to my lady.

After a few seconds Beth gave me a quick look, slid out of the booth and walked around the corner.

When she came back a couple of minutes later she sat down and just shook her head.

"What's up?"

"Oh, Sherry just wanted to talk about the pictures. I told her we could do the re-shoot tomorrow. Mind a day away from the mess?"

Mind? Mind not having to spend the day scraping crap off the walls and floors? "No, tomorrow's fine!"

"Tommy, could we come along? I've never seen you do a portrait before," my brother asked.

"Um, I don't think so. Not this time at least. This is kind of a private portrait." I glanced at Beth who was trying not to explode in laughter at the thought of ultra-shy Sherry with an audience. Then I saw Gail give me a speculative look. Now what?

When we got to the farm the next day Beth and I had figured out—we hoped—what Sherry wanted.

After I had the big diffuser put together and the Nikon ready to go I glanced back at Beth who nodded in Sherry's direction.

"Damn, I forgot my filters in the Jeep. Back in a minute."

When I got back Sherry was already in her first pose. Beth had draped her in the veil-like material we'd used last time but somehow she looked less nervous than before. I glanced over at the neat pile of clothes and saw her bra and panties on top of the pile so I knew she was nude under the veil but she seemed more sure of herself. Go figure.

She seemed to loosen up even more as she moved from pose to pose, not even waiting for me to turn around as Beth re-draped the material. By the end of the session she had even pulled it tight enough to show her nipples through the thin material.

Obviously Beth wasn't the only member of her sex I didn't understand.

In order to give Sherry a chance to get a first look at the pictures—and get dressed—I grabbed the big diffuser, dragged it up to the Jeep and took it apart. I'd already set up the DVD player and when I walked back the girls had run through the pictures. I was a little surprised when Sherry didn't ask to have any of them deleted. As we were driving home I promised her a proof CD for later in the week.

We were unloading the Jeep when my phone rang.

"Tommy, it's Gracie. Can I come over for a while?"

"Sure, what's up?"

"I can't decide!" she wailed. "Tommy, all these pictures look so good, I just don't know which one to pick!"

"Come on over. Beth's here and maybe between the three of us we can figure things out."

"Oh, thank you! Can I come over now?"

"Sure, see you in a few minutes."

Gracie pulled up just as we finished unloading.

"Tommy! You're too good a photographer! I don't know what to do!"

"Let's go upstairs and look at them on my big monitor. Maybe that will help," I said as I led both girls upstairs, not that Beth needed a lot of help finding my room.

I loaded all of Gracie's "specials" as a thumbnail page in IrfanView. I had to admit they did look pretty good.

"Okay, are there any you don't like?" She just shook her head. "Okay, are there any you like less than others?"

"Well, I guess this one, and maybe that one, and..." She ended up selecting four of the dozen on display. Eight to go.

"Okay, now for a tough one. If you could have more than one, which one do you like the most?"

"Oh, Tommy! I can't decide!"

Beth looked over at me and I could feel her ESP rooting around in my skull until she grinned and looked back at Gracie. "Gracie, I think I know what Tommy's thinking of. What if he could make a collage of the pictures you like the most? Which one would you like in the middle—the main image?"

Now why didn't I think of explaining it that way to start with?

As Beth was pointing out what she meant Gracie caught the glint on my lady's finger. "Beth! Are you engaged?!" Gracie jumped up to hug Beth. And that was that for a while as the two girls talked excitedly.

Once things quieted down Gracie sat back and started scanning the eight remaining pictures. I could see Gracie's eyes light up when she made her choice. "I think that ... no, that one!" she exclaimed as she pointed to her favorite. I fired up Photoshop and imported the image, resized to fit the middle of the screen. Then I added the other seven around it. It was a mess—too cluttered.

"Gracie, how about if we cut back to six of your favorites? We'll keep this one in the middle and have five smaller ones around it."

Half an hour later she'd made her choices and I had a quick and dirty sample up on the screen.

"Oh, Tommy..." Gracie whispered. "That's beautiful. That's what I want!" She jumped up and threw herself into my lap, almost strangling me with her hug.

I could tell the second she remembered Beth was in the room.

"Oh!" she said as she jumped off my lap. "Um, I guess I shouldn't have done that," she said, blushing furiously.

Beth reached over and hugged the red-faced girl. "Don't worry about it, Gracie." Then she leaned closer. "He's easy to hug, isn't he?" she said sotto voce. I'm not sure that helped.

I saved the working copy of the collage and was just about ready to turn off the machine when I remembered something. "Um, Gracie, which picture from the other directory do you want for the portrait? You know, the one for the front? Or do you just want this one?"

"Oh, Tommy! I forgot!" I made a note of the one she wanted and I told her it would take about a week to make up the finished collage and get everything back from the printer.

"Do you want me to frame it or do you want to take it in yourself?"

"Tommy! Can you see me taking that into a frame shop? I'd have to leave town! Please, you do it."

I had a frame catalog from the guy I used so I had her pick one she liked. As we walked out to the car I had a feeling she had something on her mind.

"Gracie, was there something else? Did I miss something?"

"No ... well ... I just wished I could have lost a little more weight before we took those pictures."

"Would you like me to shave a few pounds off for the collage? It's no problem."

"Oh, could you!" And I got hugged again. Being a photographer does have its perks.

The next morning Beth and I were back at the duplex, brushes and rollers in hand, ready to make our place livable—we hoped.

By noon we had the living room and dining room walls done. The hardest part was cutting in around all the wide molding. Some master carver must have worked for a month to create the designs for the two main rooms and I wanted to make sure no paint ended up on the beautiful wood. By the time we were done we were ready for a break. Since neither one of us wanted to clean up we opted for fast food. Luckily, the university area gave us a lot of choices, all with drive-thrus.

By four we had the first coat on all the rooms but the kitchen and figured enough was enough.

As I was hauling the last of the day's miscellaneous junk out to the dumpster an older guy walked across the alley.

"You the new renters for the Jones place?" he asked.

"Well, sort of. Their daughter is going to be living here while she's in school."

"Their daughter is old enough for college? Why, I remember when she was born!

"By the way, I'm George, George Jeffers. If you need any help or anything just knock on my door!"

"Thanks for the offer, Mr. Jeffers. I'm Tommy Randahl, I'll be living here too." I figured he didn't need to know the sleeping arrangements.

"Tommy? Glad to meet you. And call me George," he said as he pumped my hand. He may have been old enough to be my grandfather but he still had a hell of a grip.

"So little Bethy's going to college..." he mused as he ambled back across the alley.

"Who was that, Tommy?" Beth asked when I walked back in the house. I told her about George and that he remembered when her folks lived in the duplex.

"Mr. Jeffers? Is he still around? I remember my folks talking about him."

"He says he remembers you. When did your folks move?"

"Oh, I guess I was maybe two or three. Old enough so some of these rooms look sort of familiar. Maybe once we get furniture in here..."