Junior Year Box Set

I swear she sometimes just says things for shock value, but she wouldn’t be my mom if she didn’t. I just rolled my eyes and went back to my apartment to take a shower.

◊◊◊

As we pulled into Hill Advertising, their parking lot was full. Mom and I walked in and found the lobby full of models. I stepped up to the reception desk and saw there was the same girl who’d been the receptionist the last time I was there. This time she looked frazzled, so I didn’t ask her to detail the Charger. She looked up and gave me a weak smile.

“Mr. Dawson, they’re in Studio A,” she said.

Mom and I walked into the back. Studio A was the biggest studio at Hill Advertising; it was twenty by twenty with a fifteen-foot ceiling. I spotted Mr. Hill. He was busy with several suits who seemed to be giving him a hard time. He saw me and motioned me to come over.

“I’m sorry he didn’t work out, but I believe you’ll like his replacement,” Mr. Hill said, and then turned to me. “This is David Dawson. He’s under contract with Range Sports, Jade, and Dakora.”

“David, sorry for the sudden call-in. Would you please take off your shirt for us?” one of the men asked.

Mom started to say something, but I just winked at her and took my shirt off.

“He looks a little young, but I think he’ll do on short notice,” another one said.

“I need a decision,” Mr. Hill said.

He seemed irritated, so I kept quiet.

“Okay. We need to get a contract signed. Who represents him?” the third man asked as if I weren’t there.

“I do,” Mom said.

I guess she could be my agent. Mr. Hill’s lip twitched, but he didn’t react otherwise.

“He’ll need a bonus, and his normal fee is quite a bit more than what we’d arranged for the other model,” Mr. Hill said.

They all suddenly looked at me, and I just smiled. Mom stepped forward, and they turned their attention to her.

“Shall we get this done?” she asked.

The three of them put their heads together and came to a decision.

“Yes. Let’s get the paperwork taken care of,” the first one said.

They took Mom to a table and handed her a contract; she took her time and read it thoroughly. I appreciated Mr. Hill insisting that I get paid more and was sure Mom had noticed and would make me some money. I watched her point at something and shake her head. There was a heated discussion. While that was going on, I talked to Mr. Hill.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“FMan online magazine is relaunching. They want to recreate some of their more famous shots,” he explained.

“What is FMan?” I asked.

He gave me a quizzical look but decided I was serious.

“Oh. FMan is a men’s online fashion magazine that caters to a distinctive tone and aesthetic; it has proven to be the online source for the young and hip, the fashion-and-culture obsessed,” he recited as if he read it off a sheet.

“I should have known,” I said and rolled my eyes.

Mr. Hill didn’t comment. He wanted to talk about the shoot. He pulled up some of the photos they wanted to recreate.

“There might be some nudity,” he said.

“You think?” I said, flipping through the photos.

The good news was the male nudity was tastefully concealed. The women, not so much. One aspect of high fashion was that the clothes didn’t look like anything the average person would ever wear. The one photo that caught my eye was a group shot of two women and two men in black fishnet shirts. The weave was loose, and you could see the women were braless. What made the photo special was the auburn-haired goddess with blue eyes that seemed to pierce your soul and large round breasts which stood firmly on her chest. I instantly got an Adrienne vibe when I looked at her. Anything Adrienne-related had me half-hard in an instant. I really hoped that they’d hired the girl in the photo to recreate the shot.

“They want someone to be in almost all the shots, so I called you,” Mr. Hill said.

I was flattered Mr. Hill would pick me. Mom came back with a smile on her face.

“They didn’t want to give you resale rights,” Mom explained.

I didn’t get a chance to ask any questions. Mr. Hill had me in makeup and wardrobe and then on the set in record time. The rest of the morning was a blur. This was completely different from what I was used to. The guys from FMan had specific shots they wanted to recreate. They would show one to me, the other models, and the photographer. We shot everything with a blue screen because most of the shots were at specific locations that would have cost a fortune to recreate. Mr. Hill had software that would pull the background from the original photo.