“What are petal sessions?” I asked when she told me what the other woman had said.
“Let me put it this way,” she said. “What on a woman looks like petals and all women have them?” I shook my head and shrugged. Ears were my guess and she laughed and said, “Lower.” I almost gave her the old line saying ears with a deeper voice. “Think kittens,” she said.
I suddenly realized my stupidity and said, “Pussies, right?” She nodded and chuckled at her husband’s idiocy. “What would they take pictures…? Oh, oh yeah.”
So the best money comes from nudes, porn, and pussy shots?”
“Correct,” she said laughing at my brainless gaff.
“Anything in between?” I asked.
“That’s what I wanted to know. Shirley said boudoir sessions pay pretty well. They are only semi nude and you wear nightgowns and sleep wear in poses that you try to look sexy and no males are in the shots. I could do that,” she said. “I won’t do nudes, but posing in clothes is okay. The photographer gave me his card and said there is a bedroom session coming up. The only reason I took his card is that he has a female assistant. It’s next Saturday, all day in LA.”
We talked it over and she said she could make twice the money she did posing with the clothing store’s line of dresses and blouses. “You could make six hundred dollars?” I said with a gasp.
“Right, but it’s a two day shoot,” she said. “I could make a thousand dollars for two days work. “What do you think?” I said it was, of course, up to her, but for that money it gets easier to show it off.
“The thing about clothing shoots, they don’t show off your best assets. I mean everything of yours that’s most gorgeous is hidden, except your face,” I amended.
She said that was a good save.
“So you think I should?” she asked, going back to her original question, wanting me to help justify her going for it.
“You don’t have to take it off, show your pussy, or make love to anybody,” I said. “Why not?” She called and got the job, and the next weekend she worked for two days and made over a thousand bucks. Actually, the first boudoir session she was offered she had turned down, but enticed by the money, she went for the second.
“Semi nude probably means topless,” I said before she applied for the shoot.
“Well, I have pretty good boobs,” she replied. “Don’t you think? Might as well show them off, right?” Then she smiled.
“You have great boobs, and sure, show them off. It’s more money,” I encouraged.
“I wonder what they pay for showing your…, I paused. “Well, I mean, who knows. Money’s not everything,” I said. The lure was thrown out and we both wondered about the price of showing everything, having her pussy photographed.
“Shirley said she got ten thousand for a nude session for a magazine,” Claire said.
“Ten thousand dollars American, not pesos?” I said. For one shoot?” She explained it was a feature spread for a magazine, and it was her and another model.
“They each got ten grand, or ten total, for both?” She went on to say each girl got ten thousand dollars. She reminded me that it was a nude layout. “Damn, ten thousand for just showing your wares. Holy shit. That’s good money. That’s like three hundred bucks an hour.”
Claire was thinking about the money as well. I could see it in her eyes that she was considering getting naked in front of the lens. “Could you pose nude?” I asked my wife.
“No, of course not,” she said, slowly, thinking carefully through her answer. “Well, ten thousand dollars for a weekend. I don’t know, maybe.”
“Why not? You have a killer body. Yeah, why not show it off and get paid?” I said.
Claire took another boudoir shoot the next week and for a days work earned five hundred dollars. I knew it wouldn’t take long for a nude shoot to come along and catch her attention, to tempt her into going for it. I was right and she was offered a weeklong shoot in the Virgin Islands on the island of St. Thomas. “Should I take it?” she asked. Before I could answer she said, “It pays ten thousand dollars. They pay expenses, fly me there, and my hotel and meals are included at the Buccaneer Hotel. She looked at me like I needed to help her out and give an answer. “Well? Ten grand? For just taking your clothes off?” I said, “and standing still for a while.”
“For standing in front of strangers and getting your picture taken,” she said. “I did the topless and that was okay, but showing everything?”
“I don’t make that much in a month,” I said, lobbying for her to take it.
“You wouldn’t mind?” she asked, obviously attracted, clearly tempted. I told her I would, and she kissed me. “You want to come with me. We could afford… ”
“You make ten grand and we spend part of it for me to tag along. You want that?” I asked. She agreed that it wouldn’t be very smart, but I got the distinct impression that she was relieved I hadn’t gone for the idea. It was a weeklong shoot, but she called on her second day and said nude was not so hard, but they had offered double if I will do one or two days of X-rated stuff, you know, porn.”
“Double?” I gasp. “Twenty thousand dollars for having sex in front of the camera? Could you?” I asked. She was quiet for a long time on the phone. “Could you?”
“I think so. I think I want to. What do you think? Would you have a problem with that?” she asked. “With me having sex for that much money. We could pay off the house.” She clearly wanted me to say I would, to give her the okay, and of course I had a problem with it, but for that much money I began to think differently. I began to weaken. “It’s just sex, right?” I said.
“It helps that I don’t know what these guys look like. They’re ugly, right?” I said, knowing if she said ‘yes’, then they were gorgeous.
“I know. But yes, it’s just sex,” she said, trying to convince herself as much as me. “I’ll just try it this once,” she said. “Okay? Just once.” I knew if she just tried it this once, she got twenty thousand dollars, plus expenses, for five days in the Caribbean on beautiful beaches with handsome men, then she would “try” it many, many times in the future.
She left for the Virgin Islands having agreed to do at least two days of porn and the rest just nudes. When she got back she kissed me, then she handed me a check for twenty-five thousand dollars. “I thought it was 20,000?” I said.
“They added some incentives,” she said but didn’t elaborate. I didn’t ask and kissed the check, smiling and dancing around. I asked what they would have paid for a whole week of sex shots.
“They offered. For the whole week, in the same place, they said they would offer fifty thousand.”
“Five and four zeros?” I said. “One week for fifty grand? What did you say when they offered. She told them she would have to talk it over with her husband. “Holy crap. That’s more than I make in a year. For five days of sex pictures?”