The two of them stayed busy taking photos until it was nearly dark, which was late on this early summer day. Finally, they decided to call it good enough for one evening; they’d gotten a lot done. When they got back to the car, Chelsea took off the dark-rimmed glasses she was wearing for her “Chastity look,” and let her hair down out of the tight bun it had been in – it fell to her shoulder blades. She didn’t look much like the same girl with it down like that.

She pulled the skirt back on, but left the top of the current swimsuit continue to show, not that Kyle could see much of her in the darkness of the car. “I think we did pretty well tonight,” she commented as they got under way. “I won’t know until I can get a look at everything on a computer screen, but I suspect we managed to get several weeks’ worth of updates done. You were a big help, Kyle. I feel like I ought to pay you for your help.”

“On the house,” he grinned. “Hey, I got to take pictures of a pretty girl wearing a bunch of different swimsuits. I almost feel like I ought to be the one paying you for the privilege. You’ve put together an interesting deal, Chelsea, and I’m just happy to lend what assistance I can. I just hope I haven’t been in the way too much.”

“No way. It really did make things go well. You know, Kyle, there aren’t very many people I know personally who are aware of the website and what I do with it. Of those, you are the only one who has taken me and my vision seriously. I really appreciate that. I know it sounds a little screwy and maybe even a little tawdry, but it’s working for me for the moment. I hope we can work together on this some more.”

“Anytime you’re ready and I’m available, which is most of the time.”

“How about tomorrow? I’d like to get some more usable photos, and the weather is supposed to be favorable. I want to build up my supply so I can be selective about what I put on the website.”

“Unfortunately, tomorrow is a bit of a problem,” he replied. “There’s an art fair I need to go to. A friend of mine, an art dealer, is going to have some of my photos on display and for sale, and I need to put in an appearance. But that won’t take all day and I can keep the fair visit to the middle of the day when the light is harsh. How about if I pick you up and take you with me? You can throw in some swimsuits, and maybe we can find some good locations on the way over and on the way back.”

“It sounds like fun,” she admitted. “I know you do some art photography but I haven’t seen any of it. It could be a good way to kill two birds with one stone.”

“I haven’t had the chance to show you any of my work. Most of it is pretty impressionistic and esoteric, not much like what you do, but working with you is giving me some ideas of new things to experiment with.”

“I have to admit, I’m looking forward to seeing what you’ve done of me tonight.”

“We can stop off at my apartment, fire up the computer, and transfer the images off the chip,” he offered. “Then I can put what I’ve taken of you tonight with my camera on a flash drive so you can take it with you.”

“That sounds like a good idea too,” she said. “I realize that mostly you’ve been working within my structure, but I get the impression you’ve done some things I haven’t tried. I’m pretty conservative in knowing what I want and staying within the limits, but I think maybe you’re pushing them a little.”

“Well, it’s fun when you have a pretty girl to work with,” he laughed.

“You know, the heck of it is that I don’t think I’m all that pretty. I feel like I’m not unattractive, but I don’t think of myself as a great beauty, either.”

“You’ve got a really clean-washed, girl-next-door image, even when you’re playing at being Chastity,” he countered. “I say you’re pretty, that’s my opinion, so you don’t get to argue with me about it.”

Back at Kyle’s apartment he pulled some soft drinks from the refrigerator and booted up the computer. They spent close to an hour going through and critiquing the images he had taken of her, and she seemed pleased and excited at the prospects. “You know,” she said finally, “I’m thinking I might not even take the camera and tripod tomorrow. You seem to be able to figure out what I’m trying to do, and not being tied to a tripod for selfie setups seems to give a lot more flexibility. I’d like to use some of those images on the website if you don’t mind.”

“I’ll be glad to sign the rights of them over to you,” he smiled. “They’re not the kind of photos I normally try for, although I have to admit that I really enjoyed taking them.”

It was nearing midnight when she went back out to her car, taking a flash drive with copies of the images. Kyle watched her go, and realized he was going to miss her, even though they’d be getting together again in a few hours. It didn’t seem quite right that she’d be driving herself home – somehow he thought he should be doing it. Well, he’d fix that tomorrow.

He turned to getting ready to go to bed, but she was still very much on his mind. She was a very interesting girl, and she and he seemed to have similar viewpoints on a lot of things. While he had to admit that he didn’t know her very well yet, he knew that he wanted to know more about her.

Though he tried to avoid thinking about it – it was much too soon, in his opinion – he couldn’t help mentally exploring what it would be like to be in bed with her. In spite of the fact that she was doing a rather sex-charged website, she seemed rather professional and perhaps a bit cynical about it. While he didn’t consider himself to be a great lover, and had a very limited and rather unsatisfying track record in that area, in person she didn’t exactly strike him as an easy lay. He resolved to take it easy in that area; while he wouldn’t mind a little action with her – perhaps even more than a little – there was something about her that indicated she might be worth more than a quick roll between the sheets. She was an intelligent, well-spoken, and rather intellectual girl, certainly no dummy.

When he got right down to it, he didn’t know a great deal about her, except in one rather narrow field that involved her website – and he was sure she didn’t know that much about him. But it seemed worthwhile to spend some time overcoming that. It had been a long time since he’d had a girlfriend – none since he’d come to town, of course – but maybe that was coming to an end. He was just going to have to wait and see what happened, but he figured the wait might be interesting.

Kyle got up about eight the next morning, ate a bite, then took a shower and made sure to have a close shave, then dressed in slacks and a polo shirt, trying to look nice without being formal about it. He pulled together a few things he knew he’d want, including his camera gear and took them out to his pickup. Rather than heading straight toward Chelsea’s place – he knew where it was now – he headed out to a big complex of storage buildings on the edge of town. He pulled to a stop in front of one bay, unlocked the door, then went inside and unrolled the fitted cover off of what he thought of as his “fun car.” He got in, drove it out into the sunlight, put the camera gear and a few other things in the trunk, and then parked the pickup into where the car was. He spent a few minutes going over the car to make sure it was in its usual immaculate condition, then got in and drove over to Chelsea’s, getting there just at the ten o’clock they’d agreed on.

She was ready to go when he arrived. She was wearing a tight-fitting but relatively conservative top that he was sure was really one of her collection of one-piece swimsuits, and a different skirt than the one she’d worn before. She had a small duffel bag that he was sure must contain more swimsuits. A little surprisingly, her hair was down and the glasses were nowhere to be seen. She didn’t look like the Chelsea-playing-at-being-Chastity he’d come to know.

“Are you sure you don’t want to take my car?” she asked. “It’s got to be more comfortable than that pickup you say you have.”

“No, we’ll take my fun car, and this is a perfect day for it,” he smiled. “I think you’ll like it.”

She followed him outside carrying her duffel bag, took one look at the dark green roadster, and said, “Wow! You never said you had something like that. What is it?”

“A 1965 Triumph Spitfire, all nicely restored and decked out in British Racing Green, and with historic vehicle plates,” he smiled. “There’s a long story behind it, but there’s no point in getting into it now.”

“Oh, wow, you’re right, and this is going to be a day for a convertible if there ever was one,” she said. “I’d better get my hair up or it’s going to be all over the place, but you’re right, I’m going to love being your seat cover.”

She reached into her bag and pulled out some hairpins and some other things Kyle didn’t exactly have words for, and in only seconds she had her hair pinned up behind her head, though still not in Chastity’s trademark bun. She put on sunglasses, and he helped her get into the low-slung car, then got in himself and backed it out onto the street. “Oh, this nice,” she said as he started down the block. “Doesn’t it get a bit windy?”

“Some, but not too bad. It is a little hard to talk at speed, though, and we’re going to be about an hour and a half getting where we’re going.”

“You said you had some kind of a story behind this car. Did it cost you a lot?”

“Twelve hundred,” he admitted. “But that was a long time ago, and it wasn’t in anything like the kind of shape it’s in now. See, my dad’s hobby is restoring old cars. He’s had one or another going as long as I remember. We worked together on this all though high school, and it gave me an excuse to not have to pal around with a jock crowd that he thought was looking for trouble most of the time, so I guess it kept me out of trouble. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was worth twenty thousand today.”

“Have you ever taken it to shows or anything?”

“Yes, but not often. Dad spends about half his summer Saturdays at car shows or events like them, mostly hanging around and talking with other old car freaks. There’s a limit to how much hanging around with old folks and listening to bad sixties and seventies rock music I can handle, though. I do it once in a while if I think it’ll be a good show or there’s otherwise reason enough for it.”

“I think I can understand that. So I’ll bet you used this car to pick up girls.”

“Not as much as you might think. Oh, I’ve given girls a ride around the block if they ask for it but it doesn’t happen very often since I don’t drive it regularly. My pickup is my daily driver, and I never took this car to college. You’re probably going to get more seat time in it just today than any other girl ever has.”

“Wow, Kyle, you’re making me feel like I’m something special.”

“You are something special, Chelsea. I realized that almost as soon as I met you.”

It was a nice day to be driving in the peppy, blatty little sports car with a pretty girl in the seat next to him. He had been right, it was a little loud to talk easily, even though he kept the speed down by taking some small country roads, rather than getting out on the state highways. Several times Chelsea commented about one spot or another that it would be a good place to do a photo shoot, but they agreed to let them go for now – they could do it on the way back, or do it another time.

As he had said, it was close to an hour and a half before they made it to the art show. It was a sidewalk affair in a small town, and a lot of the artwork ran to crafty items, not uncommonly on the campy side. There were a lot of rag dolls, and a lot of old rural scenes painted crudely on big rusty saw blades.

There was a booth set up on Main Street that had a lot more modern, impressionistic type works, and there were a dozen or so of Kyle’s framed photos on display. Kyle said he didn’t have anything to do with running the booth, but that the photos were there on consignment. Chelsea took some time looking at the photos while the booth’s proprietor was talking with someone. She’d seen some of Kyle’s photography the previous night at his apartment, and she’d admired it – told him he had the talent to draw things out of a landscape that most people wouldn’t notice. The photos looked different in hard copy and in frames, even more artistic than when displayed on a computer screen.

Eventually the proprietor, a fortyish hippie-looking woman with long, rather unkempt hair tore herself away from her conversation and came over to join them. “Kyle, I’m glad you could make it today. There has been some interest in your pieces.”

“Glad to hear that. So how have things been going?”

“Slow,” she replied. “Most of the people here are looking at the rural artsy-crafty stuff that’s twenty to fifty years out of date, but every now and then someone comes along who’s interested in something that shows some creativity. I have moved a couple of your photos, though. Somehow they seem to bridge the gap.”

“At least something helps.”

“That’s why I wanted you involved in this show,” she replied. “You’re sort of in a class of your own on this stuff, especially here. And who’s this you have with you?”

“Oh, Rianna, this is my friend Chelsea,” he said by way of introduction. “She’s a photographer too, but our methods and subject matter are a little different. We’ve been having fun comparing and contrasting techniques.”

“Nice when you can do that,” the woman smiled. “A lot of people think they’re photographers, but they’re really just point-and-shoot types. Not many people understand the techniques behind it these days.”

“I know what you mean,” Chelsea agreed. “I’ve often thought it would be interesting to get an old-fashioned eight by ten view camera and go out taking photos the way people like Edward Weston or Ansel Adams used to do. You know, big fine-grained black and white negatives, very picky focus, taking an hour or two to set up a photo and waiting for exactly the right moment to get it. It’s not very practical, it’s expensive as can be, and I’d need half a house full of mostly obsolete darkroom equipment to do it. I don’t know if I’d be up to doing it that well, but it sure would be fun to try.”

“Something retro like that could make for some interesting photos,” Rianna agreed. “And there’d even be a market for it, too, though maybe not a real large one. It sure wouldn’t be the same thing as taking a point-and-shoot, snapping the picture, and getting on to the next thing, even though there aren’t many people who would appreciate what’s involved in a shot.”

“Maybe if I win the lotto sometime,” Chelsea grinned. “It really would be sort of impractical the way things are now, but it’s something to dream about.”

Just then Rianna was called away by a customer wanting more information about one of the pieces on display. “Did you really mean that, I mean about the view camera?” he asked Chelsea in a low voice. “Or was that a put-on?”

“Oh, I meant it, not that I’d ever get to do it. I think it would be educational to do a series of pictures with that kind of equipment and see what I could learn from it,” she replied. “I honestly don’t think I have the eye for landscapes that you have, but it would be interesting to try and learn.”

“Chelsea, you continue to amaze me. Like you said, I think if I hit the lotto, that’s would be something I’d like to do, too.”

“Let’s make a deal,” she grinned. “If either of us hit the lotto, let’s take the other one on a trip like that, view cameras and all. I can see a motor home rigged out as a rolling lab. Let’s face it, that’s not the kind of thing that would work for Chastity.”

“If you hit the lotto, would that be the first thing you’d give up?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “I have had a lot of fun doing it so far, and I think it would be hard to let go.”

They stood around the booth for an hour or more, talking with Rianna, who also introduced Kyle to some of the customers. There was some talk about his techniques of processing photos electronically to bring out the somewhat surrealistic features he was looking for. Basically he liked to reach into a photo by increasing contrast and color saturation, but occasionally using other techniques to bring out in a photo things that the eye didn’t quite see that way, or that the camera saw poorly. “The trick,” he told several people, “is to take the original shot in a way that will respond to what I’m doing to it. That means that it has to be a good picture to begin with.”

After a while Kyle and Chelsea told Rianna they were going to check out some of the rest of the art fair, just to see what there was to be seen. “That was kind of funny,” she said softly as soon as they were well away from Rianna’s booth.

“What’s that?”

“Let’s face it. She’s selling art objects to hang on people’s walls, and I get the impression she doesn’t do too well at it.”

“It has to be a passion, or she wouldn’t be doing it at all.”

“What would you like to bet that I sell more photos every Sunday night than she’s ever sold?”

“You wouldn’t be doing as well if you were charging the prices she’s charging.”

“Well, true,” she grinned. “But I’ll bet I’d still outsell her. The point is, I don’t remember who it was, maybe W. C. Fields, who said that no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the people. Let’s face it, Chastity White isn’t appealing to high level tastes.”

“I don’t think it was W. C. Fields. It was either H. L. Mencken, or maybe P. T. Barnum, but whoever it was, you’re right.”

The point is, I can hardly imagine what Rianna would think if she knew she was talking to Chastity White, and what Chastity does in photography.”

“It would certainly not be up to her tastes. But then, I’m not either. Working with her was something I just fell into from fooling around with Photoshop. I’m not going to get rich off it at all, instead I’m doing it to learn what I can.”

“Maybe that’s what worries me about you a little,” she sighed. “I mean, on the surface of it, selling swimsuit shots of myself seems a little, well, slutty, I guess.”

“It would be easy to think that way,” he admitted. “But I see what you’re trying to do, and I respect it. Like I said the other day, you found yourself a profitable little vein of gold and you’re mining it. When it runs out, you’ll go on to something else. In the meantime, it’s paying off your college loans, and you’re having fun doing it. I certainly don’t disrespect you for it. In fact, I sort of like that you have the courage to do it. It’s not something every girl would do, especially to approach it in the businesslike manner you do.”

“Kyle, do you really mean that?”

“Of course I mean it. Look, in a few years Chastity will be history, but Chelsea will still be around. I can see you playing at being Chastity, but I know that Chelsea is the one who impresses me.”

“Thanks, Kyle. I really like to think I am Chelsea, rather than being Chastity. When I got into this, I sort of made up my mind I was going to stay away from guys for a while since it would be so easy for someone to get the wrong idea about who I am and what I’m trying to do. You can either see past it, or it doesn’t bother you, but either way I appreciate it. I wasn’t expecting you to come into my life, but I think I’m glad you did. I know we don’t know each other very well but I’m looking forward to us finding out more about each other.”

“I am too, Chelsea. I’ve told myself I want to take things easy with you since I don’t want to get too aggressive and louse things up. I think you’re worth taking time to let things work their way out and do the job right.”

“I’ve been telling myself that too, Kyle. But there’s no reason we can’t have some fun along the way. I’ll tell you what. Why don’t we check out the rest of this place, check in with Rianna again, then hop into your cute little car and go someplace where we can be ourselves and find out a little more about each other. We can do some Chastity photos if we feel like it, or maybe you can do some Chelsea photos. Or, maybe we can just ride around until we find a good place to sit and talk.”

“I’m not opposed to any of that,” he said. “But maybe we both need a little break from the Chastity photos, just so we don’t get her confused with who you really are.”

“Talked me into it,” she smiled. “That sounds like a great idea.”

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