A Wandering Muse at Camp

"He didn't even pull out until after he filled the cooch once, as promised."

"I think that's just his thing. Let me guess, 'I'm sorry you're just so hot!' was his excuse." Tess leaned back with a grin, holding up her can for a commiserating cheer.

"Something about me being too tight. He's on the never again list." Avery toasted her.

"Same here. I would have warned you, but that was when I thought you had a stick up your ass. That or you needed one in your cooch."

"It was a week before you got here. Did he peep on you?"

"Yeah, in the showers. I can't prove it, though, or I would have kicked his ass."

"What's the fifth thing on your list?"

"You saw that too, though you may pretend you didn't."

"Was it the thing that didn't fall out of your bag?"

"Yeah, that's usually how I end my night with a nice orgasm. Getting caught by an adorable snoopy tech nerd put the kibosh on that." Tess gave her a devastating smirk.

"I miss those. I didn't bring my vibe with me as I thought I'd only be here a week."

"That's too bad. No wonder you gave Mateo a go."

"I can't cum with just these." Avery raised her hands. She never talked about masturbation, even with her closest girlfriends back at college. Tess's nudity and its aura of calm confidence seemed to be contagious.

"Surprised you're not going crazy."

"I'm up at midnight with a naked woman for the second time in a week. Can't prove that I'm not." Avery deadpanned.

"True."

"You're one of the few people with your own bedroom. Why not get your me time in at home?" Avery wondered aloud.

"Well, that old farmhouse's walls are paper thin, and I like to moan." Tess shrugged. "My bedroom is far too close to Lewis and my mother's."

"Makes sense."

"It's why I end up here often. Mom and Lewis are still like newlyweds, and I don't need to hear that."

"Understandable."

They gabbed and laughed as the computer silently did its work. Although Tess's nudity could never be ignored, it was impressive how little of Av's mental cycles were stolen by it.

"Forty-five more minutes. What are .NEF files?" Avery recognized .jpgs and .mp4 but was unfamiliar with the ton of .NEF files.

"Nikon raw image files. It'll be nice to get those back, but I need the .TIFF files from my completed images to get to the publisher. I could start over with the .NEFs, if I must, but are we finding any .TIFFs? Just having the .NEFs would mean zero sleep for me tonight."

"Two or three, but if they're all close to each other on the card, they'll all come in at once. Probably at the end just to increase the drama." Avery leaned back and stretched. It would be another early morning with extra caffeine.

"Too bad there are no commercial breaks to cut away at the last minute."

"Hey, you mentioned something else I was wondering about the other night. It's okay to tell me no if you don't want to get into it."

"What? I'm kind of an open book." Tess opened her arms to accentuate the statement.

"You said something about a freakout that made your fiancé leave. What was that?"

"Oh, you were listening. I'm so used to guys that don't remember anything after I get naked." Tess giggled but seemed forced, as if she were hiding pain.

"Really, I'd think you were unforgettable." Avery pursed her lips, wondering if she was pushing too hard. "Like I said, you don't have to if it's too much."

"That's actually another reason I was tough on you. I thought I saw a lot of myself in you. It was the summer before my senior year, and I was still trying to make the symphony with my violin."

"You have the skill from what I've heard," Avery said honestly.

Tess -- That same time

"I need to move to keep time, remember? They don't let you do that when you're part of an orchestra." Tess liked the way that Avery looked at her. Perhaps even more surprisingly, Tess was accepting compliments from the effortless beauty. She thought she caught the woman staring at her pussy earlier, but Tess wasn't about to embarrass the poor girl.

"Like I said, hard to forget." Avery's grin was intoxicating. Tess had already decided that if the Auburn-haired beauty made a move, she would roll with it. Her lips looked so kissable.

"Well, I hadn't figured that out then. When I got to college, I decided to prune dance and photography from what I had time for outside of classes."

"You tried to specialize?" Avery glanced back at the computer screen.

"Exactly. I thought the violin was the classiest of the three and chose it because I wanted to be a classy lady."

"Dance and photography are sophisticated in their own way."

"It was summer, and I didn't make the symphony. That's when my advisor told me he didn't think I was cut out for the violin. I'd given up so much to get as far as I could. I used to practice until I got blisters. And my best wasn't good enough." Tess pushed back tears. A few years later, the memory was still visceral.

"Their loss." Avery's attempt to be supportive didn't land right, but she was trying.

"No, they weren't wrong. I learned I couldn't cut off parts of myself to encourage growth elsewhere. So, I tried to explain to my fiancé what happened and blubbered all over him. I just wanted empathy, and he tried to fix it."

"As guys seem to do so often. I'll have to tell you about some of my arguments with Chip sometime. Go on, Tess. If you want to, that is."

"Well, there was yelling. I probably didn't handle it well, but the bastard told me to get over it. That life wasn't fair and never would be. He wanted me to concentrate on my degree and thought that extra-curriculars were wasteful." A tear fell from Tess's eye. "He had hidden everything to drop on me when I felt the worst."

"I'm sorry, Tess." Avery leaned in and hugged her. She seemed neither bothered with Tess's nudity nor was she exploiting her vulnerability to take advantage of the situation. The embrace was genuine.

"That, of course, led to more yelling and sobbing. We wanted different things in life, and it was probably a discussion that needed to happen sooner and when I wasn't devastated. His having a buzz going likely didn't make things any better. I'd given up too much of myself to get where I was. Looking back with some perspective, I was a spring getting wound slowly tighter until something snapped."

"You thought the same thing was happening with me?" Avery surmised.

"It seemed like you were eternally sprinting when life is a marathon." Tess nodded. "When I was in the middle of my dash, I didn't see it until it was too late."

"I think Chip fucking off without asking if I wanted to go along was the relief valve I needed." A sadness in Avery's eyes told Tess that the young woman was coping but wasn't over the loss. "So, what else happened with your guy?"

"We talked about things we butted heads on before but thought it was okay because we loved each other."

"Like?"

"He was a cat person. I wanted a dog. One of each seemed a good compromise, so that was easy enough."

"Big dogs or small dogs?" Avery questioned. It was a critical query, telling Tess already that Av was a dog person.

"Medium to large." Tess still hadn't processed why she hoped Avery was the same.

"I miss my lab mix named Sadie." Avery smiled briefly. "Give me a loveable, dopey rescue dog any day of the week."

"What about a farm dog that a farmer can't keep and not just a shelter dog?"

"That's a rescue dog too. What else did you argue about?"

"I liked the idea of church. It's an island of community if you find the right one. He was a vehement atheist. That worked for us as long as he didn't care that I went every few Sundays. Apparently, he decided that argument was the time to say he thought I was stupid for going." Tess sobbed again. Her fiancé had never shown a mean streak before that fight, but he probably harbored resentment for so long.

"Sounds like a jackass. I have no idea how we ended up being protestant with three Irish grandparents and a Mexican grandma." Avery rested a comforting hand on Tess's.

"That explains the auburn hair and perfect tan that I've been jealous of. Maybe that was another reason I was mean." Tess chuckled but hoped Avery saw some contrition in her words. "Methodist, but not too partial as long as it's a peace and love church, not hellfire and damnation."

"Similar tastes." Avery flashed a grin.

"The last one was something I'm stupid for thinking he would come around on someday."

"What's that?"

"Kids. I want a couple. I grew up an only child and didn't have a sibling until Lewis and Carl came into the picture. They might not be married yet, but Carl is already my stepbrother. He's a good guy, like his dad. I hope my mom says yes."

"He's going to propose?"

"Oh, shit!" Tess giggled even though there were still tears in her eyes. "I wasn't supposed to tell anyone else, but I already shared most of my secrets with you. Lewis asked for my permission. He's still working on a proposal."

"I will have naked pictures of you on my computer, at least temporarily." Avery shrugged as she teased. "Two or three, by the way. Siblings are annoying but make life better. What happened next?"

"More screaming. He questioned if we should be getting married. Before I knew it, I removed my ring, left it on the counter, and quietly walked out. The raised voices were over, and I was too wrung out to cry." A sob came from Tess, more from the sunk cost than their relationship. "I wandered through the campus, not knowing where I was going. I would need to find a place and move out of his apartment, but that would wait."

"Was it his apartment?"

"Yeah, I fell in love with a towny. He was an electrician. A tall, handsome, sophisticated electrician." Tess shook her head. "He owned the place, not rented."

"His loss. His place was better with a naked Tess in it."

"You're the only one that knows about all this." Tess pointed her hands up and down her body. "I doubt he would have liked me prancing around in only slippers."

"He's a dummy." Avery beamed. Something was happening between the pair that was more than friends, at least if Tess could read apparent signals. "What happened on your journey through the school?"

"I wandered into the art building as it was the only place unlocked during the late evening. After walking through the paintings and sculpture wings, where each piece of artwork won a national prize or contest, I found the photography section. Dad used to take me to see the fall colors in New England and gave me his old SLR camera. I learned on it, and my mom and dad went together to get me a digital one for my birthday. It took the same old lenses as my father had; it even autofocused them. That was a revelation. Learning on film taught me the ritual of making every shot count, as you were limited on the roll of film and wouldn't see the result for weeks or months.

"He even taught me to develop film in his buddy's dark room. It was only black and white, but there was something magical about dipping paper in chemicals and having an image appear. Digital is easier, though. I won't put the campers through hands-on developing, manual focusing, and metering. If my future kids are interested in photography, I hope someone still develops film or makes the chemicals. I'm getting off track, aren't I?" Tess stopped crying when she started talking about photography. Avery was hanging on her every word or deserved an acting award.

"We still have plenty of time, and it's fun to hear something you're passionate about." Avery patted Tess's hand.

"Like you and computers. It's cute." Tess said and blushed, wondering if she was going too far in her hints that she was digging Avery.

"Aww, thank you."

"So, after jettisoning parts of me to try and get better at one thing, it wasn't working, making me miserable. I'd been putting on a brave face for years and didn't realize it until a shitty day made me stop sleepwalking and look around. Before that day, my photography had mostly been landscapes with the occasional abstract fine art with shadows and lines. What I saw that day changed my path and has made me some money."

"What was that?" Avery kept looking back at the screen and then finding Tess's eyes.

"Amid the landscapes, portraits, and fine art photographs was this singular perfect image." Tess paused for the dramatic effect.

"What was the image of?" Avery took the bait of the pause.

"A pussy." More bait, messing with Avery was fun, and now it wasn't being mean.

"A cat?"

"Nope, a vulva, a cunt, a quim, a womanhood. One of these." Tessa couldn't help spreading her legs and pointing. "Except more elegant with the flawless lighting and a single drop of nectar on one of the labia in a perfect, wafer-thin slice of focus." She went back to how she was sitting before.

"Yours is plenty cute." Avery blushed and looked away from Tess, pretending to be reading something on the screen.

"Anyways," Tess let Avery get away with the look again. "I decided to start embracing all my loves. I had plenty of time without a fiancé. Mom let me start teaching photography at camp, and I learned that playing violin took movement."

"I'm surprised that wasn't put aside like I did with my singing after I didn't make the musical."

"It's all a part of me. I can't let any of it wither, or it won't feed my soul. To cut off one would be like cutting off a tree's root. Don't get me wrong, sometimes I have to put one thing down for a while, but it's never forgotten."

"That's kind of pretty." Avery's eyes shyly met Tess's. "So, when did you start nude photography?"

"That fall semester, I took a class with a unit that required it, and I don't know, people are more vulnerable. They can't hide as much."

"Yeah, no pockets." Avery laughed, but her hand pat told Tess she understood.

"Whew, who knew talking to you was better than therapy." Tess stretched. "I'm going to go tinkle. Are you alright in here by yourself?"

"The only thing that haunts this place is a hot naked woman, and both the keys to the place are here, so it's not like we're going to have a sudden Mateo infestation."

"Good point. How much longer?"

"Only a few more minutes. We do need to get some sleep eventually. I have to teach middle schoolers Python tomorrow."

"And I have a photography walk after I run into town to upload the pictures, hopefully. A week later, and I should have a paycheck." Tess skipped out the door.

After taking care of business, Tess stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. "What are you doing, Theresa Hope?" She mumbled to herself as she washed the trails of tears on her face. "You like that woman, don't you?" She asked her image. She nodded in reply. Do you even know what you would do with a girl like her?

No, but I want to take a chance. In a scant week, they had gone from butting heads to letting her in on all her deepest secrets. She's younger, and you're the daughter of her boss, well, future stepdaughter, but close enough. Let her make a move, only if she wants. Tess decided as she tousled her hair a little and headed back. Dropping hints is still fine, though.

"Do you still sing?" Tess asked as she took a seat beside Avery. The proximity seemed to wash a wave of contentment over her.

"Only in the shower or the occasional karaoke night, but that involves wine."

"Would you want to sing with me sometime? I mean, I'll accompany you with the violin. That's one skill I don't possess, and we have this place where we don't have to be judged by anyone else."

"That sounds like fun." Avery beamed.

"I can be here any day. Just signal me, and I can be here."

"Might give me a night to recover after you kept me up to two a.m. again." Avery paused and then turned to her screen attentively. "Holy crap! It worked!"

Avery -- That same time

This might have only been the second evening at the tech building, but Avery was already cherishing it. Tess was a unique and beautiful young woman. There was something more profound than friendship, but Avery didn't know how to proceed.

You have no idea if she's into women. She has only mentioned being with guys. Let her make the first move. Av had already moved past, wondering if she could date a woman. She was now very open to the idea. In a week, she had moved from never wondering if she was straight or not to praying that Tess would ask her out sometime. Though pushing her a little wouldn't hurt.

"Oh wow! Tess, these are..." Avery's brain shorted out when she stumbled onto a picture of Tess spinning. She could just make out the violin and bow as the purple ribbon shrouded the rest of her body. What made her stop was Tess's blue eyes, which seemed to have picked up violet tones and looked to be a scintillating lilac. Her stunning irises were in perfect focus. "Wow."

"The camera can autofocus on eyes," Tess explained as if the perfect image wasn't. "I can't use that in the book as I don't want to reveal my face, at least not from the eyes up. This one is just for me. And you now, Av." Her smile was intoxicating.

There were hundreds of the .NEF, but only a few dozen .TIFF files that had completed the editing process. Tess wanted to ensure all of them were alright, so Avery went through each. She now understood why Tess was messing with the camera between each song. There were a variety of zoom ranges. Avery didn't know if it was from a single lens or if Tess was changing them at some point, though Av hadn't seen Tess do that. She had no idea how long the beauty had been at this before Avery intruded.

"These are better than your playing and dancing!" Avery was mesmerized by a picture from a shorter zoom length. Her scarf was frozen mid-spin as if framing her leaping body. Her large breasts seemed weightless as the violin and bow were pointed toward the sky. The sides of her irises were again in stellar focus, with utter determination burning in them. Every muscle stood out with the slick sheen of sweat coating her. Avery was transfixed.

Tess's purple ponytail poofed out as if gravity had just now tried to arrest the angel's ascent. A closer look revealed that her nipples were purple. This was after Tess had let her coat them with lip gloss. Her hips were canted slightly, so the violet-colored heart of her pubic hair was highlighted while still hinting at the goddess's stunning ass.

"How is the focus so perfect?" Avery went to the next image, a crop of the same pose, but took out the eyes.

"That one's for the book. I took a thousand shots and ended up with thirty-six keepers. That's not a great average."

"Three-point six percent isn't a bad number if they're perfect, Tess."

"You did that in your head like it was nothing." Tess's smile was incandescent. "And that means a lot coming from you."

"It's a base ten number. I just had to move a decimal." Avery waved the comment away. "I'm glad you didn't prune this from you." She reached out and grabbed Tess's hand.

"So am I." Tess was blushing again.

Tess was simply the most magnificent person that Avery had ever seen. She squirmed in her seat as the photos made her wet. It wasn't just Tess's well-sculpted form. It was how Tess exuded competence in everything she put her heart into. She was special. Her body, dancing, and playing were all on complete display in all the pictures.

"Oops! Not that one!" Tess yelled out as Avery got through the .TIFF files and hit the first .mp4.

Avery only saw it for a couple seconds, but it was an up-close view of Tess's pussy. There was a vibrator positioned at the apex of her quim, and a purple dildo was placed in front of her. She quickly closed the window even though Av was curious to see where it was going.

"Sorry, that was for an old boyfriend. I did number five on camera for him. That program might be too good at recovering files." Tess was tomato red in color.