Delayed Exposure

I hadn't really thought about what was after those shots in the stream until I hit the next button and we were presented with a black and white shot, half in shadow, of a woman's naked torso and waist.

"Whoa." Jessica said. I jumped and started to close the laptop.

"Those are shots from a class I took that year, just a model we worked with. Sorry."

"Don't apologize. Can I see? Or is that weird?" I silently prayed for my own self-control - sitting next to her was bad enough given how hard up I was, and now we were going to look through some nudes together.

"Sure, if you want to. They're pretty run of the mill, though." I started moving through; there were closeups, a few of her full, naked body. My favorite was of the model seated, facing the other way, the light and shadow taking turns over the curves of her back and ass as she looked over her shoulder. Jessica stopped me at that one, commenting on how much she liked it.

"Those are really good, and the model is gorgeous. Was it weird taking them?"

"Oh, yeah. There were like eight of us in there, and it felt pretty awkward."

"Are those the only nudes you ever did?"

"Yeah - it was fine but I didn't have a burning desire to do it again."

"Never any with your ex?" I laughed.

"Nooo, Amy was definitely not going to let me do that."

"Really? If I was dating a photographer I totally would. Especially if they could make me look that good."

"I doubt you'd need much help." That one just slipped out, but I stood by it. The smile came back.

"Oh? Do you think I'd look good naked?" She turned and leaned in, coming perilously close to brushing my bicep with her left breast.

"That's my hypothesis, yeah."

"Hm... hypotheses require testing, if I remember high school science."

I was on the verge of inviting her back to test some things when Pam walked over.

"Ready for dinner? Or am I interrupting?" She said, and I greeted her.

"Sure, Aaron was just showing me some of his photos." I prayed Pam wouldn't ask to see the full frontal shot I still had up on my screen; she didn't. Jessica turned to me. "We have dinner plans. Are you doing the sunset trip?" I was. "See you there, then!" And they were off. I stared into the middle distance for a couple minutes, processing the rapid turnaround, then sighed and finished going through the photos before heading off to grab a bit. Sunset awaited.

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Sunset from the top of Cadillac Mountain was beautiful that night, with a few low clouds that glowed red and purple on an orange background. Everyone joined in, and Kelly gave us a bit of the history of the place before letting us wander the rocky trails at the peak. I had left my tripod behind, and took only the wide angle and my 50mm prime - no zoom, perfect quality and color. I had gotten really into experimenting with the wide angle earlier in the day, and lost myself a bit in it as the reds and oranges glowed on the mountaintop. After satisfying myself there, I switched to the prime, looking to catch the evening colors on close-up landscape details - grasses, rocks, etc.

I turned a corner to find Jessica, alone, just watching the ocean as the glorious hues started to lessen. She wore jeans and a light sweater, with a white button-up top below it, the top two buttons undone. It was a good look. Her camera bag was at her feet.

"No photos right now?" I asked, and she looked over her shoulder with a smile.

"No - I took a few but wanted to make sure I stopped and enjoyed it with my eyes too." She looked back out over the ocean, the warm light playing over her face as the breeze shifted her hair. Without even thinking, I lifted my camera and started shooting her, portrait style, shoulders and head in the soft light. She looked at me surprised.

"I should have asked first, but you looked..." I hesitated a split second. "You look beautiful in this light, and I couldn't help it."

I couldn't quite figure out the look on her face when I said it, but she ran her fingers through her hair, over her ear. "Thanks." she said, and smiled again, that same enigmatic smile.

"Can I take another, just like that?" I asked. She agreed, and looked right at me as I pressed the shutter. I captured that smile, just like I wanted to. I paused then, but she glanced down at my camera.

"You can take more, if you want. Not quite testing your hypothesis, but not bad." The light was starting to fade, but it was soft in a way that glowed on her.

"You sure?" I said, starting to snap away. "You don't even know what I charge yet." She laughed. Click.

"I'm modeling for you - maybe I'm the one who should charge." Her hand trailed down her neck. Click.

"I'm sure we can work out some kind of mutually beneficial arrangement." She unbuttoned a third button, and leaned down just slightly, giving me a great view of the tops of her breasts as they disappeared into a lace bra the just peeked up into view. Click. Click. Click.

As she was starting to reply, Kelly called from the top of the hill. The light had really faded, and the bus would be leaving shortly. I stopped shooting and we laughed - maybe a bit awkwardly, but in a good way. I felt ready to try to brush off Amy, so as we walked up the path I asked.

"Have a drink with me? At the hotel bar?" But as I asked, I saw her make eye contact with Pam, who had been walking with Hank. Pam waved.

"I'm sorry. I'd love to, genuinely, but... it's bad timing this trip. I already told her we could curl up and watch a movie tonight. But... give me your number so I can text you my email address - send me the photos? If they come out well. I'd like to have them."

Disappointed, I read off my number. A minute later I had hers, along with the email address. "I'll take a look at them tonight and send what I get."

"Thanks... I hope you enjoy them, too." She smiled again, and went to meet Pam.

Once inside, I took a long hot shower and thought of her. I dried off, and without getting dressed I popped the memory card into my laptop. All of the photos of the day started loading, but I went right to the end and found the shots I already knew I wanted: Jessica, smiling, the light on her skin, her chest, a moment of promise stuck in time. I imagined a different trajectory for that moment, and worked out my frustration while she watched from the screen.

Sunday

I decided to skip sunrise photos, choosing to sleep in instead. I woke around 8, and went to do some processing on the shots from yesterday. I chose some keepers from the Ocean Drive and Jordan Pond; I could see myself getting better with the wide angle as we went, and had some genuinely good photos from the pond. But when I got to sunset at Cadillac, I was stunned again by how well my photoshoot with Jessica had gone. Even in low light - and, I had to admit, with my hand shaking a bit - They were sharp and well-timed. I found myself hard again, imagining what could have been, and rubbed another out before sending Jessica an email with the shots, and the message "you can model for me any time."

The next time I saw her was during a light hike across a sandbar that was only crossable for a couple hours around low tide. The morning fog was still rolling out when we got there around 10, and it made for some nice shots, with sailboats moored and fog floating aorund them. I caught up to Jessica after a while trying to capture the scene.

"Did you see my email?" I asked. She leaned in conspiratorially.

"Yes, waiting for the bus - Lisa caught sight of one of the shots toward the end and had a couple pointed questions for me."

"What did you say when she asked?"

"Just helping a friend shoot his shot." I laughed awkwardly at that one, with a tinge of annoyance at how she was bouncing between open flirtation and understandable rejection. She must have seen something on my face, because she followed that up with an apology.

"I really do like you, and you're cute, and under basically any other circumstance this trip would probably be going really differently, so I'm sorry if I've seemed indecisive. I'm just trying to remind myself that no matter how much I might want to get to know you better, she's my mom and she needs me." She looked over at Pam, who was taking in another Hank story.

"I totally get it. You do what you need to do. I might keep trying though."

"I hope so." She traced a hand over my arm and walked ahead to meet her mom, glancing back once. I sighed, and took a photo of a seagull. It cawed at me. "Screw you," I answered.

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Jessica and Pam weren't on the afternoon short walk along Jesup Path, so I talked with Sue and Gary. They were serious birders, and while I was impressed, I was also bored. I took some nice photos of finches.

Sunset photos were at Bass Harbor, which had a lighthouse that made for an iconic photo, but Craig and Tim were grabbing dinner at a small Japanese spot they knew instead and invited me along. I went, partly because I like sushi, partly because the completely cloudless sky was likely to make for a less than spectacular sunset, and partly because it was an opportunity to not be jerked around again, intentionally or not. It was a good decision - they were excellent dinner companions.

I did, however, really want to participate in the evening's big activity: astrophotography. The previous night had been great for sunset, with partial cloud cover low and high. But those same conditions, even during a New Moon, made it more difficult to get clear Milky Way photos. Tonight's clear skies were a perfect setup for it, with Acadia being one of the few spots in the Northeast that allowed for it - light pollution was remarkably low here.

There weren't many of us for this excursion. Craig and Tim went along, largely because they knew the photographer Kelly was bringing along to give us some tips. Lisa said she never missed an opportunity to "commune with the universe." Ken and Yvette joined in as well. And... Jessica. Just Jessica.

I was a bit surprised to see her there when I got to the parking lot; astrophotography pretty much requires a tripod, and she didn't have one. But, she said, she was along more for the stargazing than the photos. She was in shorts and an Acadia hoodie that looked new.

"My mom turned in early," she said, "so I don't feel too bad about it. Plus, it'll be nice to have a bit of time without her - it's been a lot."

"Is she having a tough time?" I asked.

"Sort of? It's hard to tell." She answered. "That first night we talked a lot and she was pretty down. She's seemed a bit better the last couple of days for the most part, but... well, I don't know how it is with you and your folks, but after a few days I'm ready to have some time to myself."

"That I completely understand." I laughed.

The ride took about 20 minutes, as the twilight faded. Kelly explained that to get a clearer shot, it was best to wait until at least an hour after sunset, which meant that we were approaching 9:45 at night when we finally unloaded into a small parking area. The sky was incredible - I'd never been out west or really far enough from a major city to see the full effect of a dark sky, but it was breathtaking. I could tell Jessica thought so too, as we stood, arms touching, taking it in. Our guest photographer Ted led us to the beach and explained the basics - settings, types of shots, that kind of thing. This required long exposures - a few seconds for the sky, but as many as five to ten minutes for a good ground shot with smoothed water, which could then be merged with the sky for a really dramatic image. That's what I really wanted to try. I listened carefully as Ted explained his strategies; Craig added a few thoughts of his own. We spread out down the beach in order to not appear in each others' shots. Jessica hung by me as I set up my tripod, and arranged the shot, and we talked lightly about it all.

The first few minutes I focused on getting the sky exposure right. I loved it immediately - the glow of the sky translated well onto the little LCD on my camera. I took several, all with slightly different settings, as Jessica looked on. The ground shot was trickier: with light that low it would take a while to get it right. I started at five minutes, and clicked the shutter.

Jessica had sat on a larger rock behind us, and I went over and joined her. We sat in silence for a minute or so, then we sort of telepathically decided that my arm would go around her and her head would go on my shoulder.

"It's so beautiful... hard to imagine this is all hiding under our sky every night and we don't see it."

"Add poet to your list of skills." I chided her. She gave me a playful shove.

"You don't think this is beautiful?" She looked up at me. It was, and she was, and without thinking about it I kissed her, and she kissed back. We pulled apart just for a second, to mutually and silently check if that was okay. It was, and we started again, more seriously this time. I ran my fingers through her hair and felt her hand on my chest. It was then that I heard the shutter click, and I looked back - my shot was ready. She laughed.

"Go ahead and check it. I'll still be here." She kissed my cheek.

She stayed sitting while I checked what I had. It was a start, but too dim - I needed longer. I set the timer to eight minutes and tried again, then went back to her.

"I set it for longer this time." I told her, leaning back in to her mouth.

"Good strategy." She whispered, pressing her body against me. I ran my hand through her hair again, this time continuing down her face and over the soft skin of her neck, then down her back. Her hands roamed over my chest, my neck, through my beard. My hand found space between the bottom hem of her sweatshirt and her shorts, and I slid my fingers over the bare skin of her lower back, causing her to arch and press her breasts into me more. I heard her moan softly as I slid my hand up her spine and started to run my lips down over her neck.

I felt her move her hand down toward my pulsating cock, and I slid mine around her to squeeze her breast through her bra. But just before she reached me, someone laughed, not far enough away, and we broke to look around. Craig had come into view talking with Ted and Kelly behind him, and though it didn't really look like he'd seen us, he could have.

"I guess we got kind of lost there for a minute." I said, a bit out of breath.

"Yeah, I'd say so... I was pretty close to taking off clothes."

"I wouldn't have minded another couple minutes there."

"Hopefully you'd last longer than that..." She touched my arm again. I laughed, and kissed her again lightly.

"Come back to my room with me later and find out." I put a hand on her thigh, and she kissed a yes. My camera clicked again. I got up to check it, still tenting my jeans.

The second shot was better than the first. As I started to up the timer to ten minutes - and luckily after I'd calmed myself down - Kelly and Ted came around to us, and the four of us talked for a while as my exposure ran through. They gave us a fifteen minute warning for the bus. When my camera finally clicked, I checked the shot, and it looked exactly like what I envisioned; normally I'd be excited about getting back to my laptop and fiddling around with it, but I had loftier goals tonight. I was going to break the drought.

Jessica and I sat together on the way back, holding hands but managing to avoid ripping each other's clothes off with Ken and Yvette right in front of us. We said goodbyes fast and went into the hotel together. As we went toward the elevator, she told me she was going to swing by her room quickly to grab a couple things; I gave her my room number. We made out in the elevator briefly, and then she got out, and I went up to my room to wait.

I waited.

And waited.

After twenty minutes, I got a text: "I am so so sorry but my mom was awake and she really wants to talk to me about something and I think I have to stay here... I really want to be there with you. Sorry." I threw my phone on my bed, and crumpled next to it with a tortured groan a moment later.

Monday

The rain had started overnight, and was set to continue through the day, heavily at times. That pretty much killed the day's activity, a visit to Eagle Lake. I went down to breakfast, and Tim waved me over to their table. We talked briefly about the weather and the chance that it would clear before sunset. "Great sunsets after a storm like this around here." Craig had added. Then a pause.

"Wasn't expecting you to be alone this morning." He said, and Tim looked at him aghast. I must have too, but then I figured it out.

"You saw us at the beach." I said, more in confirmation than in question. He laughed.

"Only for a second, wasn't going to pry." Tim guffawed, and said "sure you were" under his breath.

"Yeah, well, she had to head back to her mom again, so..." I shrugged, trying to hide my annoyance.

We switched topics then, mostly because Tim was staring daggers at his partner, and passed through breakfast happily.

With Eagle Lake canceled, I decided to take a drive to clear my head. I wandered aimlessly over the roads around Acadia, and grabbed lunch at a little seafood shack in Tremont, before heading back. I went to the gym at the hotel for a bit, then went back to my room and took a shower. I dried off and put on running shorts, then opened the laptop. I worked on the dark sky photos for a while, and had started to figure out how to merge the shots, but my mind kept slipping back to her - the feel of her under my hands, her mouth on me. I tried to resist, but in the end I reopened those sunset photos from two nights back. A plan for some quality alone time in my early afternoon had started to form when there was a knock at the door. I frowned and got up to see who was there. I looked through the peephole to see Jessica.

I opened the door, and she glanced down my bare chest.

"Hi." she said.

"Hi." I answered.

"Can I come in?" I nodded, and she entered. She wore a green sundress with spaghetti straps and an apologetic expression.

"I'm really, really sorry about last night. I didn't want to lead you on. Until I walked in that room I had every intention of coming here and ripping off your clothes."

"It's fine. I grumbled about it internally, but it's fine. What happened? Is your mom okay?" She got a weird look on her face.

"So, here's the wild part: she's actually really good. Which is why I'm here."

"What does that mean?"

"Well... you know how Hank has been talking her ear off the last couple days?" She asked.

"Yeah..." I trailed off, then realized what she was saying. "Wait, for real?" I laughed, amazed.

"Oh yeah. We had a big emotional talk last night about whether she was ready to move on, and how she was really attracted to Hank, and they are spending some time together, and I really really don't want to think about it so I was hoping I could convince you..." She moved very close to me, "to help take my mind off it." She looked up at me, then pressed herself against me and kissed me. I kissed her back. She separated, and took my hands to pull me toward the bed, but then noticed her own photo on my laptop. I flushed with embarassment.

"Oh that looks even better on this screen." she said, then smiled at me coyly. "Did I interrupt something?"

"I'll go with 'pleasantly altered some of my plans.'" She lay on the bed next to the laptop and scrolled through the other photos from that night. I sat down on the other side. She looked up at me with a mischevious air about her.

"Do you... want to take some more pictures of me?" She closed my laptop and traced a finger on her chest, along the hem of the dress. My heart started to race, and I reached for my camera, sitting on the chair. I quickly switched out lenses to my 50mm and turned back to her. She lay on the pillow, her eyes staring back at me, lit by the diffused light from the clouds outside. I took a photo, then another, close up on her face, capturing every detail. Then I pulled back, putting more of her in frame.