Love Thy Neighbor

"That would be fabulous," Olivia said, quickly accepting the offer. "And perhaps in return I could photograph you, something for the back cover of your first cook book."

"I think I have a way to go before anything like that happens," Stephanie laughed.

"I don't think so," Olivia smiled. "Trust me, I have a sense about people and I can tell that you're going to succeed at anything you put your mind to."

Stephanie blushed at the compliment, hiding her embarrassment behind her wine glass as she took a long, healthy swallow of the delicious beverage. She could feel a light buzz coming on, the result of two glasses in a short span coupled with having only had a small snack all day.

"Is there a young man in your life?" Olivia asked, changing the subject.

"Well, I have a friend, but it's nothing serious," Stephanie answered. "He's just someone to do things with."

"Things, huh?" Olivia smiled, then added, "Well, it's good that you have someone, and I agree that you're much too young to take things too serious. Life has too many opportunities that you should explore and enjoy before you settle down."

"Have you settled down?" Stephanie asked, wondering why she had asked that.

"Goodness no," Olivia laughed. "I'm more of a love and leave 'em satisfied sort of girl. I can't ever imagine settling down with just one person."

Even though she'd kept her language gender neutral, Stephanie was now pretty certain which sex the older woman preferred the company of. Which made her again ask herself what she was still doing here.

"Does your friend live here in the city?" Olivia asked.

"No," Stephanie said, adding without thinking, "he lives in his parents' house out in Bayside."

"Oh, that must make things difficult," Olivia offered.

"Difficult?" Stephanie repeated, thinking that while it was a bit of a ride out to Queens and back, Jason seemed to manage it without any problem.

"I meant for the two of you to have some alone time," Olivia clarified.

"Oh, he just stays over then and ..." Stephanie answered without thinking about it beforehand, stopping midsentence when she thought she was giving out too much information.

"I see," the older woman noted with a knowing smile. "Like I said, it's good to have a friend to share things with."

Stephanie wondered if Olivia had someone in her life, but didn't get the chance to ask as she quickly changed the subject.

"Would you like to see the rest of the apartment?"

"I'd love to," Stephanie replied, having wondered how it compared to the one she was living in.

"Come along then," Olivia said as she picked up her glass and indicated that Stephanie should bring hers along as well.

-=-=-=-

They returned to the living room where Stephanie had the chance to more carefully examine some of the photographs she had only glanced at before. After the brief lesson in light and shadow Olivia had given earlier, she was able to appreciate much more of the artistry that had gone into the images.

Her interest in the photographs was quickly overshadowed, however, when she noted a ten-inch statuette resting on the center of the mantle over a fireplace. Bathed in the light of an overhead fixture, it was without doubt the centerpiece of the room. At first, Stephanie thought it was a copy of Rodin's The Kiss, which she had seen in her art class back in college. But then, after giving it a closer examination, she realized that while the marble sculpture did bear some resemblance to the famed work, it had one notable difference. Both of the nude figures depicted in the small sculpture were women.

"That's my favorite piece in the whole apartment," Olivia said as she came up next to Stephanie. "I met the artist while I was on vacation in Greece about ten years ago. She made that as a remembrance of our time together."

Taking in the details of both figures' faces, Stephanie decided that one of them did indeed resemble what she imagined a younger Olivia would've looked like. The erotic sculpture also brought back a memory of something that had happened only a year before, during Stephanie's last year of college -- something she had never shared with anyone.

During her college years, Stephanie had her share of sexual encounters, but had limited herself to the opposite sex. Gail Meyers, her roommate during her last year, hadn't been that restrictive. On at least a half dozen occasions, Stephanie had come home to find the redhead and another girl fast asleep in Gail's bed. A mutual state of undress left little doubt as to what they had been doing during Stephanie's absence.

The girls were usually gone by the morning, and since Gail had never said anything about the few times there had been a boy in the brunette's bed, Stephanie never voiced a complaint. At least not until the night Gail had brought Ella Park back to the room.

It had been about half past midnight and Stephanie was already fast asleep. At least until ever increasing noises from across the room caused her to waken. Noises she quickly came to recognize as moans of passion. The two girls were getting it on only ten feet away from her. She could hear their whispers and from the way they slurred their words concluded that both were at least a bit drunk.

Gail's bed was right next to the room's solitary window and, with the shade only partially drawn, there was plenty of ambient light to make both bodies visible -- or at least visible enough for Stephanie to see what they were doing in silhouette, if not in detail. The now fully conscious girl could've simply closed her eyes and tried to ignore them, but curiosity won out and she had watched them make love.

She watched as the two girls continued to kiss, with Ella's body spread across Gail's. From there, the small breasted Korean brought her mouth down to the redhead's large mounds, closing her lips around excited nipples. A soft moan spilled from Gail's mouth, only to be cut short by her own hand. It was almost as if, on some level, she was still mindful that there was someone else in the room. If that had been the case, however, any further consideration faded a few minutes later when Ella's head moved even lower, disappearing between Gail's legs. There, with a skill that Stephanie wished guys she'd slept with had possessed, the energetic sophomore brought the older senior to a body quaking orgasm -- one that raised enough noise to wake the dead, much less a supposedly sleeping roommate.

It didn't take long for Gail to return the favor, although her talents didn't seem to match her guest's. Nevertheless, Ella seemed to enjoy the results and the two of them soon fell asleep in each other's arms. It took Stephanie a bit longer to again find slumber, however, troubled not so much by what she had watched the two girls do, but by the realization that, some time during the course of it, the brunette's hand had found its way past the waistband of her panties, where her fingers had done a pleasing dance of their own. One which had ended in a much quieter, but equally enjoyable finale.

When Stephanie awoke the next morning, she found a bathrobe wrapped Gail sitting up on the edge of the bed across from her. For a few seconds, she wondered if it were possible that she'd dreamt the whole thing, only to have the notion dispelled a breath later as the bathroom door opened and Ella stepped out. She was already dressed, wearing the party outfit she had worn the night before.

"Oh hi, Stephanie," she said casually, as if she hadn't just crawled out of Gail's bed.

Not quite sure of what the protocol was in this sort of situation, Stephanie had wished her good morning as well.

"Well, I have to run," Ella said as she walked over to Gail and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. "I've got a ten o'clock study group over at Henderson Hall."

She headed for the door, then paused as she caught her reflection in the body length mirror attached to the back of it.

"I guess I really should stop by my room first and change," she said with a smile.

Neither Gail or Stephanie replied to the comment, or said anything until the door had closed behind Ella.

"Gail! Stephanie said sharply, her tone reflecting her dissatisfaction with her roommate's conduct.

"You know," Gail said, cutting her off before she could say anything more, "I think I really need to start paying more attention to how much I drink when I go to a party."

It wasn't really an apology, but Stephanie knew it was as close to one as she was going to get. And there was also the matter of what she had done while watching them. So, she agreed with Gail that that would be a good idea and they left it at that.

"Shall we go on?" Olivia asked, snapping Stephanie out of her memory.

"Of course," she quickly replied, suddenly feeling very warm.

Next came the bedroom which, unlike the rest of the apartment, was decorated in a very old-fashioned style, the center piece being a large wood framed bed, complete with four end posts and a translucent canopy. At first Stephanie thought it was a reproduction, but Olivia explained that she had inherited the bed and accompanying furniture.

From there Stephanie followed Olivia down another hallway, this one shorter than the one before, leading to what Stephanie knew down in the Konzynskis' apartment, was a guest bedroom. It was a surprise to see a keypad lock on the door but once Olivia entered the code and led her inside, its reason became obvious. The spare room had been turned into a miniature photo studio, filled with cameras and assorted other equipment such as standing lights and backdrops.

"Is this your studio?" Stephanie asked, impressed by it all.

"Not actually," Olivia replied as Stephanie walked around the room and took a closer look at everything, "well, at least, not the only one. I have a more professional place up on the East Side where I do most of my work. This is just something that I put together so that I could work on personal projects and for when I had a sudden inspiration."

Stephanie couldn't imagine what more professional might entail, but she had a very good idea what personal projects meant -- or at least a pretty good guess. The wall away from the direction the cameras and lights faced also held a number of framed and matted photographs. It didn't take more than a cursory glance, however, to see that none of these were intended for publication, at least not in any fashion magazine.

Like the photographs in the outer rooms, the women in these were a varied mix as far as age and race went. They were all beautiful, some even breathtakingly so, but what set them apart was that all of these women were totally nude. Also, unlike the photographs she had already seen, a few of the women here were immediately recognizable.

One had been part of the cast of a long running sitcom about a group of friends, her long blonde hair skillfully draped around the nipple of an exposed breast. Another was the celebrated star of a Broadway show, one that she and her grandmother had seen on one of their visits to the city. Then there was a dark-skinned woman who Stephanie recognized as having once been part of a popular children's show, but had since grown up to host her own daytime talk show. Finally, there was a mature Asian woman who had been the face of a local news show for over a decade. If she had to guess, Stephanie was willing to say all of them had been photographed in this very room.

She was taken aback slightly when she got to the last photograph in the second row, having seen the subject only yesterday morning. The topless woman, with her arms folded under her breasts, was her neighbor in 3B, Mindy Collins.

"These are beautiful," Stephanie said, her back still to Olivia so as not to give any indication that she'd recognized any of the subjects.

"Thank you," Olivia simply said.

Although she didn't realize it, Stephanie spent considerably more time studying these photos than she had the ones in other parts of the apartment -- especially those of the women she'd recognized. A fact that hadn't gone unnoticed by her hostess.

"You know, I just had a thought," Olivia said, causing Stephanie to turn around. "As long as we're here, why don't I take your photograph?"

The question gave Stephanie pause as she tilted her head back in the direction of the photos behind her, just enough to show what she was thinking.

"Oh no, nothing like that," Olivia laughed. "I was just thinking we could do something nice for that young man you mentioned before.

There was still a bit of hesitation on Stephanie's face, but she wasn't immediately ruling the idea out.

"It was just a suggestion, no big thing," Olivia said after giving her a few more moments to consider it. "So why don't we ..."

"Sounds like it might be fun," Stephanie finally replied, thinking, when was she ever going to get another chance to be photographed by an award-winning photographer?

"Wonderful," Olivia replied, her face lighting up. "Just give me a few minutes to get things ready."

-=-=-=-

As the photographer began to do so, setting up a tall stool in front of a gray backdrop and then adjusting one of the lights, Stephanie again glanced back at the nudes on the wall. It was probably the wine talking, but she wondered what it might look like if she did pose like that.

Olivia set Stephanie down on the stool and used a light meter to check her settings. Then she brushed the brunette's hair off her face, tilting her head just a little to the right. Taking a few steps back, she compared what was in front of her with the mental image she had formed in her head.

"Almost perfect," she said.

She moved back to Stephanie and pulled her blouse down a bit, pausing to see if the young woman had any objection. When she didn't, Olivia brought it down just a little more.

Again, stepping back, she nodded her head in approval as both images merged.

Stephanie glanced downward at her blouse, taking stock of the amount of skin exposed. It was much more than she normally displayed, but then again, the picture was supposed to be for Jason, not her mother. And if she decided the photo might give him the wrong impression about their relationship, well then, she'd just keep it for herself.

"I just want to take a few practice shots first," Olivia said as she picked up a small digital camera and began shooting.

As Stephanie watched Olivia take her picture, the unfolding tableau brought to mind a scene from an old mid-nineties film she'd seen on DVD. Josh Reid, a boy she'd dated a few times in high school, had invited her over one evening when his parents were out and had screened the erotic horror film down in the basement playroom.

The film was low budget and undoubtedly would've been soon forgotten had a former child star not decided to use it to make a dramatic transition to more adult rules. Not only had the now twenty-one-year-old actress, who was playing a college freshman in the film, gone topless, but she also appeared in a few soft-core lesbian scenes.

In the one Stephanie recalled, an older girl convinces the freshman to pose for her, taking off her top to reveal an impressive set of breasts. After taking a few more photos, the photographer caresses and then kisses them before moving on to the half-naked girl's mouth. At this point, the younger girl has a change of heart and, recovering her blouse, scrambles from the room.

Stephanie hadn't thought of that film in years, and remembered it only because it always struck her as an odd film for Josh to have picked, especially since he'd spent most of the night trying to talk her into at least a hand job. What was disconcerting about her recall of it now, was that, in doing so, she had visualized herself and Olivia in the starring roles, making her wonder if they were playing out a version of that scene.

As it turned out, Stephanie needn't have worried as, once she had a camera in her hand, Olivia Norton was a consummate professional. After examining the test shots in the small camera's viewscreen, she exchanged it for a larger, more elaborate one and carefully snapped off a dozen shots over the next few minutes, constantly changing her angle of view as well as giving Stephanie directions to slightly shift position. A few more photos followed, then she lowered the camera and smiled.

"All done," she said.

"Already?" a surprised Stephanie asked, sure that there was no way any of those photographs were going to be any good, given the distracting fog filling her head.

"I've been doing this a while," Olivia grinned. "I know what I'm looking for when I shoot, and once I find that, the rest is easy."

With that, Olivia pressed a small button on the side of the camera, sending the images she had just take from the memory card to the laptop sitting on a desk in the corner. One by one, the seventeen-inch screen filled with the fruits of her efforts.

"Come and take a look," she said to Stephanie, who was only now sliding off of the stool.

Running her finger across the touchpad, Olivia expanded the upper left exposure, causing the image to fill the screen. Then ever so slowly, giving Stephanie time to take in each one, she scrolled through the rest of the photographs.

"These are incredible," Stephanie said as they reached the halfway point in the presentation. "I can't believe how good you made me look."

"The camera only captures what's already there," Olivia said as she brought up the last few pictures. "And it certainly helps when your subject is a beautiful woman."

The compliment made Stephanie blush slightly. Enough people had called her pretty in her life for her to accept that, but beautiful was, she'd always thought, a term too far. That, in her mind, was reserved for women like those hanging on the walls of Olivia's apartment.

"Oh, come on, you can't tell me that you don't know how beautiful you are," Olivia said when she saw Stephanie's face redden.

Stephanie replied that the women Olivia photographed for magazines were the ones that were beautiful, not her.

"Oh, that's a load of horse hockey," Olivia said using one of her grandfather's more colorful expressions. "Yes, those women are beautiful, but few of them really look like that without the help of some of the best make-up artists in the business. You come by it naturally, and in my mind that's real beauty."

Stephanie couldn't help but smile.

"In fact," Olivia said as she stepped closer, cutting the distance between them in half, "when I saw you standing there on my doorstep, my first thought was how much I'd like to kiss you."

For the third time in as many minutes, Stephanie's expression changed, this time to a mix of surprise and curiosity.

"Have you ever kissed another girl before?" Olivia asked, studying Stephanie's reaction.

"A few times," Stephanie professed.

"Really kissed a girl?" Olivia clarified.

"No, I guess not really," Stephanie admitted, knowing full well that the few times it had happened, it had involved the urgings of friends and a fair amount of alcohol.

"But you've thought about it, haven't you," Olivia asked, again reducing the space between them, "what it might be like?"

"Yes," she replied.

"Would you like to kiss me?" Olivia asked, now so close that she could almost hear the excited beating of the younger woman's heart.

"Yes," Stephanie said, her voice almost inaudible.

With that, Olivia leaned forward and, placing her hands on the sides of Stephanie's face, softly kissed her. It was a short kiss, barely a long breath in length, but it lasted long enough for her to feel the blonde's tongue brush against her mouth and slip between her lips.

"So now you don't have to think about what it would be like," Olivia said as she took a small step back.

Stephanie stood silent, her fingers coming up to touch her still tingling lips.