Photo Shoot

Elsa, Angela and Petra walked away. I heard a door shut behind them.

Janet, still hidden behind the white beard, sat down on the bed.

"I think we can lose the beards, Dave." Her voice was different, familiar.

She lifted my beard off my ears and threw it aside. She pulled off her Santa hat revealing a mass of red-gold hair. She unpinned it and shook her head. It fell over her shoulders. I was almost sure that Janet wasn't her name. I knew that hair and that voice. She pulled off her beard.

This was Michelle. Michelle had been a colleague temporarily working on a project about six months ago until she left suddenly. We had been on a couple of dates but I had been warned off because she was married to a jealous husband.

"Well, Dave?" She said. "Why did you drop me like a hot potato the night after we'd made love for the first time. You ignored me. You cut me dead. Why?"

I tried to speak. Angela's scarf-tying was too effective. I couldn't say anything that Michelle could understand. I shook my head violently.

"OK! OK! I'll remove the gag but no one can hear you. The others are downstairs having coffee."

She leant over me. Her hair brushed my face. I remembered that wonderful hair and groaned. I had enjoyed kissing her with that hair caressing my face.

Michelle struggled to undo the knots. She had to get a nail file from her handbag to unpick the first one. I worked my mouth and swallowed.

"I was told that you were married..." I started to say.

"...Married? I'm not! Who told you that? I was told that you backed off because you're married and someone had told your wife about us. Then I found out that you weren't and never had been married."

"Someone's being lying to us," I said. "I was summoned to Human Resources, told you were married, had a very jealous husband who was making trouble and that I was to keep well clear of you or get fired for inappropriate behaviour at work. If I was seen with you I'd be disciplined."

"That's almost what I was told, but it was a lie. I was willing to take the risk but you ignored me."

"I had to. My manager was watching us. He had warned me as well."

"My friends set this up, tricked you into these bonds, just so that I could tell you what a bastard I thought you were and it seems we've both been set up. Why? Who?"

"I don't know but if we compare stories I think we might work out who if not why."

"Then I don't need you helpless, do I? But while you are..."

Michelle lowered herself on to me. Her face came down towards mine. Her glorious hair swung either side of my head as our lips met. We kissed, kissed again and made up for lost time. I tugged at the handcuffs securing my wrists to the head of the bed. Michelle moved up my body. Her soft breasts pressed against my face as I heard two clicks. The handcuffs were gone. I brought my arms around her back and buried myself in her cleavage.

"Hey!" Michelle protested. "You can't talk there."

I couldn't. I was enjoying myself too much. She reached around, unclasped my hands and slid back down so that we were face to face.

"Talk!" she ordered. "Other things might come later. Who told Human Resources that we were married and why?"

"Since we are not and never have been married, either someone told them lies or..."

"Or...?"

"Someone in Human Resources invented it. Who interviewed you?"

"Alan with Mary. Alan did all the talking. Mary was there as a chaperone."

"Alan interviewed me too, on his own. I think Alan was the villain."

"Why? Dave, why?"

"Who arranged for you to be on the project in our office?"

"Oh shit! Alan!"

"Did he ever ask you out?"

"Yes. A couple of times. I turned him down. He's a creep. He's old, unattractive and has bad breath."

"Could he have thought I was the reason you turned him down, Michelle?"

She thought for a moment, kissed me again and said slowly...

"I think on the last time I might have said that I'd prefer to go out with almost anyone else, even you, and I didn't know you at all. I didn't. Not then."

"And then you did go out with me. We didn't make it a secret, did we?"

"No, Dave, we didn't. I remember walking out of the office holding your hand. And I think Alan might have seen us."

"Well, now you know I'm not the villain you thought I was, can I get off this bed?"

Her answer was another long kiss.

"Not yet. I've got some explaining to do to my friends. Will you forgive them?"

"Of course, if you'll go out with me again, Michelle."

"That's blackmail," she giggled, kissed me, "but I will. Wait there."

She was gone about ten minutes. I tried to work out how to undo the cuffs around my ankles. I couldn't, so I was still manacled when all four women returned.

"I've explained how we were set up," Michelle said, "and that I'm not mad at you any more, if fact that we're together again. OK?"

I nodded. They smiled at me.

"But I don't understand how I offended you Angela, and Petra. I didn't mean to. What did I say, or do, that upset you?"

"It was back in October..." Angela started.

"...October?" Michelle interrupted. "That was when Dave and I were warned off each other."

"...and you weren't your normal self. You seemed depressed..."

"I was. I had met a woman I thought I loved and had been told that she was married."

"Shut up for a minute, Dave, and listen to Angela." Michelle said, sitting beside me and pressing a hand over my mouth.

"Petra and I hugged you because you looked so miserable. We intended it to be a short friendly hug but you wouldn't let go. A couple of times during the next few weeks you hugged each of us, too long and too tightly for a normal friend."

"Shh!" Michelle hissed in my ear as I tried to respond.

"When I talked about wanting a baby you offered to help," Petra said.

"That you can answer," Michelle said removing her hand, "and you should."

"I'm sorry if you got the wrong impression, Petra," I said. "What I actually said was that if you needed advice I'd like to help you find out about how lesbian couples could find a donor legally but I didn't know much about making babies other than the normal way. I never intended that I should be involved. That would be wrong."

"Is that what he said, Petra?" Angela asked.

"Now he's repeated it, I think that is was," Petra admitted.

"You silly girl!" Angela snorted. "He offered, as a friend, and you took it the wrong way! If I'd known exactly what he said I wouldn't have agreed to be involved in kidnapping him and tying him up. The hugs? Dave was unhappy and needed friends. If we'd known about him losing Michelle we'd have given him as many friendly hugs as he wanted and maybe found a hetero friend to give him more than we could. Will you forgive us, Dave?"

"Yes, if you'll forgive me for the hugs."

"I won't," Petra said firmly. "I'll just give you some more."

She pushed Michelle aside and hugged me fiercely. Angela came around the bed and hugged me from the other side.

"Hands off!" Michelle shouted. "He's mine! You can be friends with us, but no hugs except when I'm here."

"Well," Petra said, "You're here, so he's getting another one."

She pulled one of my arms around her body and rested against my shoulder.

"Get her off me, please, Angela," I asked. "Being friendly is one thing. Being squeezed breathless is another."

"And I want a hug too," Elsa added. "I need Dave's forgiveness too. I only did what I did as their friend but I'm the one who put the handcuffs on him".

Angela pulled Petra away. I opened my arms and hugged Elsa. I whispered in her ear.

"You put the cuffs on. Can you get them off me, now, please?"

"Yes," she whispered back. She stretched out. I heard two clicks and my ankles were free. I stood up and grabbed Michelle.

"This is the one I really want to hug," I announced. "I appreciate everyone else's hugs, as friends, but I want Michelle to be more than a friend."

"But friends can be useful, loyal, helpful," Angela said, "and what are you two going to do about the real villain, Alan? You might need our help."

"We won't," I said emphatically. "Alan was fired two months ago. Not for this but for inappropriate advances to another female colleague. I understand that he has moved to Scotland. I don't want any more plots, just a pleasant Christmas with Michelle."

We went downstairs for coffee and cakes. Elsa suggested that we shouldn't waste any more studio time.

I dressed as Santa Claus, without a beard. Elsa, Michelle, Angela and Petra dressed themselves as Elves, Santa's helpers, and Mother Christmas.

I have two albums of pictures of that session. I'll never show one of them to the photo club members. One or more of us is half-naked, apparently bound, and in very suggestive poses.

The two I like best are one of Michelle, red skirt flipped up, bare-arsed across my knee, my hand raised and fake red finger marks on her backside; and the matching picture of me, bared-arsed over her skirted knees, with her hand descending.

That Christmas studio session will always stay in our memories. Whether our kids will ever see that photo album? We'll wait until they are adults and decide then.