Glamour Photography

Andreas allowed this invasion of his personal space, because he knew that it might never happen again. He remembered their brief time together, and wished he had made more of a move on Sally. Now it was too late.

That was the last thought he had in his mind before the effects of the massage made him drowsy. Andreas slipped into sleep while Sally keep up a steady, pleasant pressure on his muscles.

He didn't know how long he slept and the studio was very dark when he awoke. Sally was no longer massaging him but he felt completely relaxed. That is, until he remembered that he needed to find a new place for his business.

He couldn't see anyone, but had a sense that Sally was still in the studio somewhere. He dared to dream that she might follow up the sensuous massage with an encounter of an even more intimate and revealing nature.

He heard through the darkness an occasional hiss, like the deadly warning of a troubled asp. He didn't recognize the sound, so he investigated. He checked the changing rooms, but no one was there. He checked the kitchen, suspecting a bubbling tea pot, but it was empty as well. When he checked the shower room, he saw two women there, Sally and Roberta. Roberta had her naked back to him, but was covered in paint. Sally was designing a business suit not of cloth but entirely of paint. Sally raised her hand, a warning to him not to enter, to let her work.

Andreas retreated a bit so that he could not be seen by Roberta should she turn around, but he could still see her. Her hair was pinned off her neck and shoulders, where Sally had already painted a shirt and pinstrip jacket. The faux suit fell down her back and covered her deflated ass. It was the ass of a thin woman, which Roberta was, who spent a lot of time sitting on it. The thighs were a bit stringy, too, and there were folds above her knees and her hips. He tried not to imagine what her old lady chest might look like, or the area below her navel. Sally was spray painting every area of the old lady's frame, carefully, almost lovingly. She treated Roberta more tenderly than just a canvas on which to work.

Sally was talking to Roberta the entire time, in a low murmur. He couldn't hear what she was saying initially, but Roberta was listening. In fact, she was standing with her eyes closed, nodding slowly and periodically, agreeing with whatever Sally was proposing.

"Roberta, you have the perfect figure for this. The paint covers your few flaws, while highlighting your sensuality. You have such courage. I envy you."

And words to similar effect. The soft voice, the murmuring buzz of the words, the calm atmosphere in the studio, all seemed to have an anesthetizing effect on Roberta. Sally glanced at Andreas. Her eyes were a warm blue. Her lips were full and were moist with lip gloss. They were lush and inviting. He licked his own lips unconsciously, hoping to taste those perfect, soft, pliable, yet hesitant lips.

Sally kept her eyes on Andreas as she leaned forward and kissed Roberta on the cheeks, then on the lips. Roberta moaned at the touch. Sally was finishing the last touches of the trompe l'oeil business suit, careful not to disrupt the effect she had achieved.

"Come with me," Sally said to Roberta, leading her to the screen area. With a touch on the computer, a board room was displayed, complete with an array of handsome executives of various ages, whose attention was directed toward spot where Sally positioned Roberta.

"Look around you, Roberta. You are the center of attention. You are the focus of their desire. You have distracted these titans of business from their greedy pursuits, if only for a moment. I want to capture that moment. I want you to have that moment forever. Will you permit me?"

Roberta stretched out her thin arm, the hand dropping slightly, gracefully at the wrist. She posed with one foot on point, creating an arch. Andreas marveled at how skillfully Sally manipulated her into position before she retreated beyond the studio lights to a position behind the camera, where Andreas had already stationed himself.

"Are you ready, dear?" Sally called. She put on a loop of the Jerome Kern song, "The Way You Look Tonight," sung first by Tony Bennett, Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra, then by Rod Stewart, Olivia Newton-John, and others.

There were tears in Roberta's eyes. She sighed and said, "Fred Astaire first sang that song to Ginger Rodgers long before we were born. It still gets me."

"I know," Sally said.

Roberta took a deep breath. Her chest lifted, together with the obviously artificial breasts that might have been made of concrete. They were shapely, but had no pliancy to them. Andreas covered his mouth so he wouldn't burst out laughing, thinking of the other plastic surgery adjustments that had been visiting on that old frame.

He snapped the pictures. He took twice as many as he might usually have, then three times as many. Sally called to Roberta, giving her instructions on how to pose. More photos were taken.

The session lasted for nearly an hour. Andreas was surprised that the old girl had the stamina to last for the entire hour. Roberta seemed to grow stronger as the session continued, and became more malleable to Sally's instructions. By the end, every part of Roberta's body had been viewed and photographed. Her smile never waned.

At the conclusion, Sally ran to her and embraced her in her arms. Roberta collapsed against Sally, lifting her face to be kissed. Sally kissed her cheeks, her eyes, her forehead, and then a long, lingering kiss on the lips.

Roberta began to cry, desperately holding on to Sally. "I love you."

Sally said back to her, "I love you, too, Mom." She walked with her toward the shower room.

"What?"

Andreas could no longer contain himself. At the sound of his voice, Roberta curled like a pretzel trying to cover herself. Sally whipped around and gave him an angry stare. The yellow star on her cheek seemed to glow. She grabbed a few towels and draped them around Roberta.

"Did you say, 'Mother'? Is Roberta your mother? Roberta, is Sally your kid?"

"What have I done?" Roberta wailed, trying desperately to cover herself.

"Yes, she's my mother." Sally's whisper sounded more like a hiss. "We weren't close for a long time, though. Only very recently has that changed."

"It wasn't my fault," Roberta cried. "The soldiers were evacuating everyone. They told me you had left on an earlier convoy. I didn't know."

"So, you say. You left me in Beirut and I was just a child."

"What happened?" Andreas asked.

Sally pointed to the yellow star on her left cheek. "I was turned over to the authorities for safe keeping. They thought I was a Jew, and someone thought the yellow star would be a fun idea." Her eyes teared up and her lips were tense. "They gave me the tattoo with nothing to ease the pain. I cried, I screamed for you, but you were long gone. It took another ten years before I was released."

"I'm so sorry, darling. I sent men to look for you. I contacted the embassy, but they could find no record of you. I died inside when I learned you were not in the earlier convoy."

"This seems like an ongoing fight between you two. Is that why you wanted to embarrass your mother?"

Sally sniffed at Andreas. "You don't get it. She loved the idea of being photographed in the nude. Didn't you, mother? And she'll get a copy of these pictures for her own perverted use, I expect. But you don't get it. I did this for you, Andreas. For the studio. We have control over the pictures that we don't give to her, and with that we have control over her."

Sally turned to her mother. "Mother, I forgave you a long time ago. What was the use of hating you? After ten years of waking up and seeing that yellow star in the mirror first thing, the hatred eventually faded. But I won't let you throw out my friend. I don't care what your next tenant would have paid. Andreas will stay here. Or, those photographs will find their way to the most embarrassing events and organizations I can find."

Roberta looked at her daughter, and although there were still tears in her eyes, she began to laugh tenderly. "You are a terror, girl. You always were. I love you." She reached for Sally, and Sally relented a bit and they hugged.

Andreas scratched his head. "So, Roberta, you agree I can stay here, indefinitely?"

"I don't know about indefinitely..." Roberta began.

Sally began to pull at the towels that barely protected Roberta's modesty. "He stays as long as he likes."

Roberta slapped her hands away and tucked the towels tighter. "Alright, alright. So, you like this guy, huh?"

Sally blushed, then slid next to Andreas. Andreas held her close, finally looking deeply into those blue green eyes. Her lips were parted, and he leaned down and kissed them. They wriggled beneath his own, until her reluctant lips parted and her tongue explored his welcoming lips and tongue expertly.

Roberta started for the showers. "I'll leave you two alone." Before she reached the door, she stopped and called back to Andreas. "So, what did you think? Not bad for an old lady, am I? Whaddasay?"