A Wandering Muse at Camp

"You're so talented, my love."

"Imagine what I'm going to be able to do now with a muse of my own." Tess's purple hair was fading, with blonde showing, and was a nest of disorder. She had touched it up a couple times during the summer, but in the bustle of the last few weeks, Tess hadn't made it to the salon. It didn't matter. Her girl was simply stunning.

"Hey, uh, remember that photo that inspired you? With the roots?" Avery wondered if that came out far more awkward than she intended.

"You mean the perfectly shot pussy?" Tess smirked. "Kind of hard to forget. Notice how I said perfectly shot pussy, not perfect pussy. That's because the perfect anatomy belongs to you." She let the covers fall away. The patch of blonde above her womanhood, Tess's canvas, was growing out. She had plans to go vibrant pink when she got to school and was no doubt planning ideas for her next book already. Even if she was pledging to publish something under her name first, it didn't mean she couldn't start gathering material.

"Why don't you enter one of your works in a contest? You could be on the same wall and inspire another woman on a bad night." Avery fidgeted.

"You have an image in mind?" Tess was blushing. With as talented and beautiful as she was, Tess got embarrassed when she was complimented even though she was getting better about it around Av.

"Actually, I do. Two, but I don't know if you'd go for it, as it would give away Ms. Gossamer's identity."

"Which one's?" Tess pulled Avery over to the bed and draped herself over her shoulders to look at the book. Even through the cotton of Avery's nightshirt, the feel of Tess's bare breasts was hypnotic.

"This one, except not cropped." Avery pointed to the cover. "Your eyes are so sexy in the photo."

"Really?" Tess purred in her ear.

"Why do you think I fell for you? It's the eyes. The rest of you is gorgeous, but they're otherworldly in the best way possible. They looked lavender with all the purple going on." Avery explained as Tess tried to short-circuit her train of thought with kisses against her unguarded neck.

"Okay. Sounds like a plan. What's number two?"

"It's that easy to convince you?" Avery's query had a teasing edge.

"When you ask me? Yeah, it's that easy." Tess squeezed her harder. The spreading warmth and hard nipples were intoxicating. "Come on, what's two?"

"It's not in the book, but the one where you had the ribbon drifting in front of you and just your eyes burning with determination."

"I'll have to take you to check out the photo and figure out which contests to enter."

"You're not worried about losing your anonymity?"

"The most important opinion in my world is right here. Mom and Lewis wouldn't care either. I wish I could make love to you now, baby." Tess turned Avery's chin so their lips could meet. "Damn the thin walls." Tess shook her fists in mock outrage.

"We'll just have to wait for your apartment tonight."

"In that case, can I interest you in some pancakes?" Tess hopped off the bed to find her clothes. Avery watched in Awe until the woman covered her perfect nudity.

"Of course, we better carbo-load again. I gotta get dressed." Avery approached her backpack.

"You can just wear your nightshirt. You don't have to be fancy around my folks."

"I could, but..." Avery lifted her arms and up went her shirt to reveal the lack of panties. "Accidental flashes are just for you."

"Lucky me."

Breakfast was a pleasant affair. Belinda and Lewis joined them. They would start closing the camp today. The meal reminded Avery of dinner around her table as a kid. Melancholy tried to drift in from her periphery. Sadness and pain were going to be constant companions. Her mom had been a rock-solid foundation growing up, and now that was suddenly gone.

"Did Avery stay over last night?" Belinda asked Tess as she was cooking a second round of pancakes.

"She did, but she only slept with me, nothing else," Tess stated without embarrassment. She didn't need to add that they were too exhausted for anything else after their night at the tech building.

"The walls are too thin for anything else, but we know you two are having sex." Belinda didn't seem at all perturbed by the conversation. "At least I no longer have to worry about a surprise pregnancy. Though, someday, I want grandkids." She looked at Tess and then Avery. "But not too soon."

"Mom! We've only dated for a couple months!" Tess was the first to raise her voice. It sounded a touch bratty, like back at the beginning of the summer nearly three months ago. Avery stifled a giggle.

"That's not a no, though, Belinda." Lewis smiled sagely.

"Huh, I think you're right." Belinda returned the look and then leaned in for a kiss. "Got anything left to pack?"

"Nope, just need to pull Rex up to the house, move our suitcases and bookbags, and we'll be on the road." Tess sat down again with another stack of flapjacks in the center of the table.

"Leaving for the summer always hurts a little," Lewis sighed. "Carl and Molly will be down tonight to help me go through the checklist, and on Monday, it'll be back to school for me, too."

"I'm going to miss the place. I thought this summer would suck, and it did, but nothing was the camp's fault." Avery took the opportunity of the next break in conversation. "What? I'm going through internet withdrawal." She laughed.

"My nerd." Tess leaned over to kiss her on the cheek.

"We're glad you stayed, but sorry about everything with your mother." Belinda apologized.

"It was going to happen sometime. I'm sorry you guys got caught in some of the crossfire." Avery said with a sigh. "I'm a lesbian. I know that now. If Tess hadn't helped me figure it out, it would've been longer for me to live a lie."

"We hate what you went through, but we're glad we were here to help," Lewis said with a kind smile.

It didn't take long for breakfast to draw to a close and the girls to get packed up. There was a sadness that washed over Avery that was different than the constant companion since her mother had blown everything up. Av would miss the camp, creating things with her hands, teaching campers how to code, and the secluded hideaway that incubated her love for Tess. If it weren't for a nightmare driving her from bed, Avery might never have discovered the incredible beauty's private activities.

After a round of hugs and tears, Tess and Avery were back on the road in Rex. Avery's hand rested on her love's as it gripped the big T-shaped gear selector. The summer had been infinitely better and infinitely worse than Avery had imagined.

Avery was still dumbfounded by her mother's reaction to Av coming out, but talking to her dad, it sounded like the issues had been bubbling like rust underneath paint. It would look decent for a while, but eventually, the paint would give way, revealing the damage beneath. Guilt and personal responsibility crept in, but talks with her support group kept her injury from burrowing too far into her psyche.

"What if that suddenly happens to me?" Avery murmured as she thought.

"If what happens, babe?" Tess looked over at her with concern in her eyes.

"What if I go crazy someday and lash out? What if what happened to me is genetic?" Avery sighed sadly.

"Your dad told us that this was gradual, right?" Tess squeezed.

"Yeah," Avery confirmed.

"Then we'll face it together, my love. I'm here, rain or shine, good or bad. Be my muse, and let me be your light." The love was evident in her grey-blue eyes.

"As long as I get to do the same for you." Avery smiled, then leaned over the console to kiss her woman on the cheek.

The semester wouldn't be easy, and Avery doubted that her mother would be the only one to object to Tess and her relationship. Avery closed her eyes momentarily, imagining them with a house and a dog five years later and discussing when they would have children. What mattered, however, was their love for each other, which made everything possible.

Tess -- The week after graduation

"Are you sure you want to do this, babe?" Tess asked her stunning girlfriend as she was getting out of the relative shelter of Rex.

"Are you chickening out on me now, my love?" Avery turned around and kissed her.

"I've done this several times already." Tess intoned. "You've only done it once."

"Did I shy away from you because I'd never had sex with a woman? I'm clearly not one to scare away easily. Besides, you haven't done this outside." Avery spun out of Rex into the sun. She was minimally attired with a pair of dark hiking boots and a lattice of dark pink that wrapped around up to her mid-thigh. A matching sash intermingled with a second coral one and had a couple of tails on either side that helped highlight her shapely hips and prodigious, running-honed, firm booty. Av was dancing to the music drifting from Rex's speakers. Her swaying hips were making the ribbons bounce as she sang along. Av may have learned a thing or two about dancing in the last year.

Avery had been a touch insecure about her chest when they got together, but Tess's thorough worship of the perfectly shaped, though diminutive tits had finally convinced Av that they were at least as beautiful as Tess's. She had no tan lines yet on her smooth skin but looked to have a toasty tan thanks to her father's genetics.

Someday, maybe soon, or perhaps decades in the future, Avery would be her bride. Tess would be thinking of ways to propose to her princess, but the explosion of Miguel and Fiona's marriage had soured Avery on the whole institution. Like she had allowed Av to make the first move almost a year ago, Tess would let Avery be the one to pop the question when she was ready. Tess would be prepared with an unequivocal yes whenever that happened, be it tomorrow, months from now, or decades in the future. She already knew they would be together forever. A wedding would be a wanted but unnecessary formality.

The only time Avery had seen her mother in the last year was in a contentious divorce proceeding. She prayed regularly that her mother would get the mental help she needed and find a way back into Avery and her siblings' lives. Tess wasn't holding her breath but joined in the same beseeching to a higher power.

Miguel got full custody of the kids, and Fiona disappeared with the cheating pastor, Timothy's biological father. That revelation was another body blow in court. Avery thought simmering guilt had made her house more conservative as she grew up. The pastor had also been married and led a fiery, sin-fighting church the family had never attended. Miguel still treated Timothy as his own.

Tess's soulmate didn't want to trim a canvas like Tess had. Avery said she loved the look, but it belonged to her goddess. Instead, she had a new jewel hanging over her belly button. This one was a unique accessory for this shoot with the shape of a music note. Apparently, Av had always wanted a belly button ring, but her mom had been dead set against it. The sparkling jewel was a fantastic new addition. Pink nail polish had silver musical notes to continue the theme. All Avery's notes were beamed eighth notes, while Tess sported eighth notes without the beam and with a flourish of a tail.

Once they finished getting their shots taken care of for Quintessa Gossamer's third book, Tess and Avery would make love in the bright sunlight, and Tess was anxious to get to that part of the shoot. It didn't matter how often they had sex. The next opportunity was always something to happily anticipate. Tess got her violin out to lay on the hood of Rex while she got the cameras set up. She rented a second to ensure both subjects would be in the picture a good chunk of the time. They both liked to move on stage.

Before Quintessa's third book would be published, Theresa Hope Ernst's first would be on bookshelves. Her landscapes were an unknown quantity, but the first two volumes of 'A Wondering Muse' had her publishers going to bat for her. Her muse's terrific webpage likely helped convince them that Tess could make a decent living as a photographer alone. She was too ambitious to rest on that and had other roots to feed. The song they were playing was an original tune for which Avery wrote the lyrics.

Tess was adorned in royal blue this year. Her scarves were embossed with music notes as her fingernails and the canvas had been stained with blue raspberry and just a touch of cherry to darken it to the same tone as her hair. Avery's suggestion to wrap her arms in the same manner as her legs was beautiful.

Her muse was the one who helped her finish her book of landscapes over winter and spring breaks this last year. Once Avery had recovered her bank account, she tried to repay Tess's mother and Lewis. They wouldn't have it. After several attempts, Avery told them, "Fine then, I'm going to spend the repayment on your daughter." She put the money into travel for the pair. The insurance money was safely tucked away for Maxine's replacement when camp finished for the summer. They only needed a single shared vehicle until then.

Tess would be overjoyed to trade out one of the reasons for the pair wandering during breaks from school. Avery couldn't go home. Her father, brother, and sister would welcome her with open arms, but Av couldn't cross that threshold. Her family would still meet her elsewhere. They had joined them for Christmas and had cheered when Avery crossed the stage at her graduation. Tess's love accomplished her goal of carrying a four-point-oh throughout college and graduating summa cum laude despite the massive obstacles in the last two semesters.

Winter break was spent in a cozy village up in the mountains. Tess's mother had grown up in Colorado before her clan moved east when she was in high school. They found a spot for a wedding close to a ski resort without being inundated by vacationers and skiers. Lewis and her mother didn't want to wait until summer to say their vows. After the wedding, Avery bundled up and hiked with her as Tess collected several shots of the snowy mountains.

For Spring Break, Avery found a likely spot overwhelmed with blooms. Coupled with spending Thanksgiving with Tess's father, who adored Avery, they amassed a theme of landscapes in the four seasons. Her half-brother's arrival had been a few weeks earlier, and he, too, occupied much of a memory card. Those pictures were just for her family to share. Tess couldn't be happier with the first book to carry her name. An image of Avery for scale was taken at each of the locations.

At the end of the summer, Tess would take her place at her mother's firm on the ground floor. Her mother hoped Tess would be her eventual replacement, but she wouldn't let her advance without proving herself. Avery was thinking of following Dwayne's example and eventually becoming a college professor. They wanted to be able to work at the camp during their summers, and it was the only way that they could accomplish that. Avery's hands-on job couldn't be done in a work-from-home environment. She had a position waiting in August at a tech company only a few miles from their new loft apartment.

"Come on, slowpoke!" Avery giggled. "Today's the only day we can do this, and it might rain this afternoon!" Av seemed to glow in her bubbly, happy mood. The woman had more strength than most.

Their week had already been hellaciously busy. It started with graduation ceremonies. Then they moved Avery out of her dorm room and into Tess's apartment before making one more covert visit to campus to see the new photograph of Tess after it had been revealed in the college's hall of fame. Yesterday, they got their summer things moved into the old farmhouse at camp, along with Tess's bigger bed. Av wouldn't be staying in the staff cabins this year. Carl and Molly not living on the property for most of the summer meant Tess and Avery swiped the larger bedroom much further from the primary suite.

At the end of the week would be the first of two weddings using Inspiration Point as a backdrop. Lauren and Zara were getting hitched first, while Carl and Molly would wait until the middle of the summer when the day camps started. Lauren and Zara's wedding planner and all the hubbub would arrive tomorrow to start setting up. Avery and Tess would mostly stay out of their way so they could get the camp ready to open the day after the wedding.

Lewis and her mother were finally on their honeymoon and wouldn't return until the wedding. That meant that Avery and Tess would be in charge of the circus. Today, they took advantage of the only free time and a remote field to finish the photos for volume three.

"Was getting caught in the rain with me so bad last time?" Tess stepped over, grabbed one of Avery's flowing tails, and used it to pull her close.

"I did find a new root to nourish me." Avery smiled before coming in for a kiss. Delicate fingers wandered across Tess's skin.

Tess had revised her mental model of a pair of trees getting nourished and supporting each other through the strongest storms. It wasn't just the roots but a couple of women intertwined like Avery's belt that kept them standing strong.

The last year had been a crucible for the couple. On top of the tough divorce that Avery had to witness, she had a full course load and an internship. Rex managed to get Avery to her ventures reliably. Tess had to walk to class, but her apartment was adjacent to campus. At least she got to see her lover every weekend. Avery wasn't the biggest fan of returning to the dorms, but it was what she could afford while her bank account was tied up with legal proceedings.

"Come on, photoshoot first." Tess kissed her one more time before pulling away. "I know somebody would suck the blue off my nipples."

"That's a real risk." Avery nodded, but her fingers were still on Tess's quim. "You're so wet already, though."

"Look who's talking." Tess found her woman's pussy and dipped a finger between her folds. She then made a show of licking the plentiful nectar off her digit.

"I'm doing a photoshoot with Quintessa Gossamer and then sex with the love of my life. How could I not be dripping?"

"It could be better; you could be next to Avelina." Tess stepped toward her cameras to set up a pair of gadgets on intervals to take an image every ten seconds until the memory cards were full or Tess canceled it.

Avelina Gossamer would be the second name on the cover of Quintessa's third book. Avery had taken photos of Tess afflicted by her muse. This time, Tess was acting as a photographer in a studio as Av's lens captured her. That was during Spring Break in a rented space. Tess had neon orange hair then and a lyre plucked into the intimate canvas.

Quintessa returned the favor with Avery working on the website for Tess. The shoot may have been less dynamic than others, but no less beautiful. Tess thought that it was very telling that Avelina, Avery's pseudonym, was married to Quintessa in the fiction of their backstories.

When Tess started on her violin, Avery was ready to lend the vocals. Maybe someday this would be played for someone other than just the pair, but Avery had inspired Tess to write her own songs. Tess reciprocated the inspiration and got Avery to write the lyrics. They danced as the lenses snapped shots, ready to face whatever the world brought as long as they were together.