Clear Skies Ahead, Chapter Five

Chapter Five: Old Enemies, Older Friends
Anastasia Prescott

———

The next morning, Skylar Wayne walked rather grudgingly into the Sand Dollar Cafe. The cute little coffee shop had not changed a bit during Skylar's years away, and Skylar went to the counter to order coffee. The barista wasn't the one Skylar remembered (and Skylar did remember her, mostly because of how ridiculously busty she had been), and instead there was a cute blonde girl behind the counter.

"Welcome to the Sand Dollar Cafe!" she said cheerfully. "What can I get for you this morning?"

Skylar didn't even glance towards the drinks menu, she ordered a very sweet coffee, full of various syrups and sugars. She couldn't stand black coffee, and liked it as sweet as possible. With the drink order placed, Skylar wandered over to a booth with a nice view out the window. The ocean wasn't visible from here, but she had a nice look out towards the 'main street' of town. It was a central road that a great number of shops and restaurants set up at, and even despite it being a Tuesday morning, there was still quite a few people walking around.

As she waited, Skylar impatiently tapped her foot. She had made an unpleasant call this morning, and to her dismay, Anastasia Prescott had suggested coffee rather than just talking over the phone. Which led Skylar to now, sitting at the Sand Dollar and waiting for the late Latina. Skylar had purposefully been a little late to make Ana wait, but Anastasia hadn't even gotten here yet. Now Skylar was the one who had to wait, and that pissed her off.

A few minutes passed before the cute barista brought Skylar her drink, and Skylar eyed the barista's shapely ass as she walked back towards her spot behind the counter. The barista couldn't be older than nineteen, and Skylar made the assumption that the girl had been a cheerleader last year based on the quality of that ass. An athlete was possible too, but the girl seemed sweet and cheerleader-like. She had amber brown eyes, was on the shorter side, and seemed to have little to no breasts, despite how pretty that ass was. She also looked rather familiar, but Skylar couldn't figure out how.

The door opened and the bell above it dinged, distracting Skylar. She turned towards the now open door, and her gaze fell upon the girl walking in. Anastasia Prescott's long brown hair fell elegantly over one shoulder, her dark green eyes taking in Skylar's appearance. Her perky medium sized breasts stretched out the tank top she wore, and from the very visible teardrop shape of them, it was instantly apparent she hadn't worn a bra to this meeting. Her tank top didn't make it all the way down, showing a strip of bronzed skin between the hem of her tank top and the waistband of her tiny black shorts. As Anastasia approached the counter, Skylar had a side view of the extremely phat-assed Latina. Skylar huffed slightly seeing that Ana's ass was as thick and voluptuous as ever. Part of Skylar had hoped that Anastasia's ass had miraculously flattened between high school and now. Maybe she sat down too hard and smushed it flat or something.

However, as Anastasia collected her coffee and came over to sit opposite Skylar, it was very clear that that was not to be.

"Good morning, I hope you weren't waiting long." Anastasia said smoothly, and despite her scrutiny, Skylar actually couldn't tell if the former cheerleader captain was being genuine or not. Skylar decided to presume that she wasn't.

"Oh, of course not. No, not at all a problem to be the one to insist this is an in-person meeting and then be late for it." Skylar said with a fake smile. Ana, damn her, just looked faintly amused.

"Some people never change, huh?" Anastasia raised an eyebrow. "I was surprised to get your message, I would have assumed you'd stay as far from me as possible."

"Yes, well, I heard you were a professional model, and that's the sort of thing I really need right now." Skylar sighed. "It was a choice of necessity."

"What every girl wants to hear." Ana said wryly. "What do you need me to do?"

"Not too much, just some bikini photoshoots and maybe some lingerie shoots if you're willing." Skylar said, trying to **** some professionalism into her tone instead of the exasperation she always felt when talking with Ana.

"Have you not looked at my modeling?" Anastasia raised an eyebrow.

"I've been busy." Skylar said reflexively.

"Well, I'm a lingerie model. So, yeah, I'd say some lingerie photoshoots would be fine. Fans would be in an uproar if I didn't appear in something lacy at least once." Ana laughed.

"Great." Skylar said tightly. "Everything works out great, then. I'm going to be finalizing the photoshoot schedule over today and maybe early tomorrow, but I'll text you when I work out what time your shoots will be at. Are you free this whole week?"

Ana looked thoughtful for a second, then pulled her phone out of her purse and started looking through it. "Hmm. I do have a shoot on Saturday actually, so not Saturday."

"No problem. I'm hoping to be done shooting by Saturday anyway." Skylar nodded, but she jotted down Ana being busy on Saturday into her notes app.

"And I assume the pay's pretty good for a Skylar Wayne production?" Ana lifted her eyebrow again.

"It's good." Skylar nodded tersely, and Ana seemed to take that as enough. Perks of being incredibly rich, she supposed.

Anastasia took a long sip of coffee, and Skylar fidgeted in her booth seat, antsy to be gone.

"Is that all the questions you had?" Skylar asked impatiently, and Ana had that faintly amused look on her face again.

"I don't know how it's possible that you haven't changed a bit in five years." Anastasia said, shaking her head. "The wayward daughter vanishes for five years, practically nobody in town hears a whisper about you, and then you show up in town again begging hot girls to model swimsuits and lingerie for you."

"I don't beg." Skylar scowled. "I'm offering a job."

"Right." Ana said. "And what have you been doing these past years?"

"Building my company." Skylar shrugged. "Clear Skies has been my passion project for quite a while, and now I'm realizing my passions."

"So you're choosing lingerie modeling over being a CEO?" Ana asked. "I remember the way you threw that in girls' faces all throughout high school."

"I'm getting business experience before stepping into that role." Skylar snapped. "Don't think you know me, Anastasia."

"I do know you, though. We used to be friends in our early high school years, until I got captain and you lost your shit." Anastasia said, looking at Skylar with a searching look.

"That's not what happened." Skylar insisted, but unbidden, memories of those times did rise up, her and Ana learning the cheers together, hanging out, laughing... she shut that shit down quick, she wasn't here to wax nostalgic.

"Oh? Then why did one of my best friends suddenly want nothing to do with me the very same day that I got chosen as captain?" Anastasia asked, feigned curiosity in her gaze.

"We were not best friends." Skylar said instantly. "My best friend is Isabelle."

"Isabelle, that's right... say, were you at her wedding? The birth of her kids, your niece and nephew?" Anastasia asked in a wondering tone. "I was at the wedding, and it was strange, Dana was her maid of honor. Would have thought it'd be you."

"I was stuck at Coral Sands, lots of work happening." Skylar grumbled.

"Weird, I didn't think you had your company back then." Anastasia said, giving Skylar a pointed look.

"What is the point of this?" Skylar shot back.

"I'm just saying. I don't know what happened to drive you away from town and all your friends, but it must have been crazy for you to miss so much." Anastasia shrugged.

"You're right, you don't know anything." Skylar snapped. "I'll have my assistant reach out when I have your shoot booked."

And with that, Skylar decisively scooted out of the booth and stormed out of the Sand Dollar Cafe. She stalked across the parking lot, drawing a slightly timid look from a random woman passing by, and Skylar got into her car and slammed the door shut.

Fuck this Latina bitch, coming in and bringing up the past like she was trying to psycho-analyze her. Skylar turned the car on, turned up the radio, and she tore out of the parking lot seconds later, blonde hair whipping in the wind. She made some quick turns out of the town center, and very quickly started pouring on the speed as she made it out to the perimeter road that ran along the coastline, the road with the highest speed limit in Amethyst Shore. Skylar's baby purred as it sped up, and she pushed the vivid green sports car harder, feeling adrenaline thundering in her veins.

This was what mattered, not some stupid high school memories. Freedom, the wind in her face, the purr of the car beneath her bottom, the sparkling Pacific ocean out on her left. She zoomed past other cars, tearing in and out of lanes to avoid people who were in her way. She'd been doing that her whole life, avoiding the people who just couldn't understand who she was, zipping around them. They were content with a normal life, living in stupid cookie cutter houses and living their stupid mundane lives. She'd seen it with Jace, who she had once thought was so interesting. Now he was just boring like the rest of them, with his stupid sexy wife and his stupid kids and his stupid family. Her brother and her best friend had shacked up, and Sam had gotten Izzy pregnant. Her Izzy. Another fucking wedding, another fucking family who were living like their boring lives were so fucking perfect.

She was Skylar fucking Wayne, and no fat-assed girl from high school was going to try to tell her who she was. She knew who she was, she was an heiress to one of the most powerful dynasties in America. She was the one who would one day inherit her father's company, who would surpass all these people from high school who thought she was like them.

She wasn't like them. She wasn't like anybody.

———

Isla Killian was having a great morning.

The gorgeous 27 year old had put on a pink and white striped bikini top and a tiny pair of cutoff denim shorts, and then she'd made her way to Arrowhead Beach, the most popular beach in town, as far as Isla had been able to figure out. Her dark brown hair blew lightly in the salty summer breeze, and she strode through the sand, a pair of pink flip flops dangling from her right hand, a beach towel slung over her shoulder.

While Isla was 100% here to relax and enjoy the beach, she also had a slight secondary objective of looking to see if there was anyone who might be willing to model for Clear Skies. Isla found a great spot out on the sand in relative solitude, and started laying out her beach towel. It being a weekday might have helped a bit if it wasn't summer break, but Arrowhead was packed today. She had solitude, but she had no privacy, there were people everywhere. Isla had never been one to be nervous in crowds, though, so she did not mind the throngs of people one bit as she laid out her beach towel and dropped her flip flops beside it.

From there, Isla's fingers found the button of her denim shorts and she undid it, shimmying out of them. They clung a bit too tightly to her hips up top, so it took a little bit of a push, but she got them off and they went into Isla's bag. Beneath her denim shorts, she had on a bikini bottom that matched the top, and it did a great job of flaunting her fit, perky ass. In Coral Sands, Isla had only felt bad about her tits a few times, but looking around the beach today, it was almost daunting how small her tits seemed in comparison to others out here. She had some pretty respectable B cups that could pass for a C cup in the right bra, but out here, it seemed like D cups were the norm.

She'd seen some Amethyst Shore girls back in college, and yes, they'd mostly been busty, but Isla had never considered that that meant the town itself was full of busty girls. Must be something in the water, Isla decided as she saw a girl who definitely could not be older than 18 walk past with some incredible DDs. As Isla cast her gaze around though, it landed on a pair of gorgeous ladies who were, yes, insanely busty, but most surprising was that Isla knew them.

With a plan already forming, Isla dropped her bag onto her towel so it didn't go anywhere, and she strode quickly across the sands.

"Cora! Chrissy!" Isla exclaimed with a smile, and the two women looked at Isla with smiles spreading on their faces as they recognized her.

Both girls were 28, and they'd been the year above her in college. Christina Valentine had dark brown hair, dark green eyes, and a pair of incredible very large breasts, not to mention some sinfully wide hips and a big round ass. She was super sweet, albeit a bit airheaded. She wasn't a study buddy, that's for sure, but she was absolutely the girl Isla wanted with her for a night out. Chrissy was great, and with tits like those, she often got lots of free drinks.

However, somehow, Chrissy was the less busty of this duo, as Cora McKinley definitely had her beat. Cora had been the president of the Rho Gamma sorority in Isla's junior year, and she'd been a great one. With long blonde hair, sky blue eyes, and a pair of huge tits, Cora was an absolute lethal weapon of sexuality. Oh, and that wasn't even counting her bubble butt and model-like shapely body. She didn't have Chrissy's fertility goddess hips, but she was still stunning. Cora was another girl who Isla had loved partying with, but Cora always went hard, and she could drink just about any sorority girl under the table. A lot of the fraternity guys, too.

"Isla, how's it going, darling?" Cora smiled, getting up to embrace Isla. Isla was both shorter than Cora and significantly less busty than her, so it felt a bit dwarfing to be embraced by her, Cora's huge titties smashing against her. Had those things gotten bigger since Isla had last seen her?

"It's going great, actually." Isla smiled, and released Cora so she could hug Chrissy. Chrissy was slightly taller than Isla, but she wasn't a super tall supermodel like Cora was. Isla was pretty sure Cora even had Skylar beat in height, if only slightly.

"I missed you!" Chrissy enthused, kissing Isla's cheek and beaming.

"I missed you too, Chris." Isla assured her. "How have you girls been since college?"

"Oh, it's been awesome!" Chrissy enthused. "I'm working for this very important law firm now."

"You... are?" Isla asked dubiously.

"Yup." Chrissy said brightly. "Got a great job as a secretary."

"She blows her bosses." Cora put in wryly. "Like, a lot."

"I do." Chrissy confessed readily. "It's a lot of fun."

Isla laughed. "That sounds a little bit more like you. How about you, Cora?"

"I'm trying to set up a modeling contract with Grayson Global, but I haven't gotten much response." Cora shrugged.

"Really? You? They're ignoring you?" Isla asked incredulously, making Cora smirk.

"My thoughts exactly." Cora shook her head. "Maybe they've got a blind person running the application process."

"You know, I'm also involved somewhat in the modeling field." Isla forged ahead. "I work for Skylar Wayne, I'm not sure if you girls know her."

"You work for Sky?" Chrissy exclaimed. "That's awesome, I haven't seen her in years! Is she here?"

Chrissy proceeded to whip around and scan the beach, tits jiggling as she did so.

"She's in town, but she's not here at the beach." Isla said hastily to the brunette. "In fact, she's here putting together a swimsuit and lingerie shoot."

"Oh, I see. You're here to recruit us." Cora realized with a laugh. "And here I thought you were just catching up with old friends."

"Well, I am." Isla said defensively. "I just also may have been here to find some sexy girls who fit the bill for the shoot, and, I mean..."

Isla gestured with her hands rather suggestively to Cora and Chrissy's incredible bodies.

Cora chuckled, and bounced up on her heels once, sending those mouthwatering melons bouncing. "Well, I'm definitely in. Does Skylar recruit models permanently or just send out feelers for each shoot?"

"Both." Isla answered truthfully. "Or, she wants to have permanent models eventually. Her company's still pretty new, but this week's photoshoots are really going to make the brand's popularity skyrocket."

"Especially if we do these shoots." Cora nodded, looking to Chrissy for confirmation.

"Oh, I'm doing it, too." Chrissy nodded eagerly.

"Great! And Cora, if it goes well, I can definitely get Skylar to sign you on if you want." Isla offered.

"Definitely." Cora agreed. "I've been doing some posting on the Pulse, but I want something more substantial."

"We can definitely give you that." Isla affirmed.

"Then we're in." Cora nodded.

"Great!" Isla smiled.

"I dunno where you got your stuff, but bring it over here." Cora told Isla. "Let's catch up, girl."

"I'll go grab it right now." Isla nodded, and she made her way back to where she'd left her stuff. As she did so, she spotted a pair of teenagers a few feet past her stuff. One was a really hot brunette girl with the same generous chest that seemed so commonplace in this town. The other, however, who really drew Isla’s attention, was a teenaged guy, maybe 18, who held a really expensive camera in his hands. He was snapping photos of the brunette, who kept changing poses, stretched out on a beach towel.

Isla made her way towards the pair, and looked appreciatively at the poses the boy was putting the girl in for photos. Isla didn't say anything as she approached, but her presence made the boy stop taking photos and look towards her. Briefly, she saw the boy check her out, which was surprisingly gratifying considering the busty brunette beauty he'd been photographing just seconds ago.

"Are we bothering you?" the boy asked, snapping his eyes up to hers. He was well-built, with sort of almond colored brown hair and green eyes.

"No, no, not at all. I was just wondering, are you a professional photographer?" Isla inquired.

"Me? Oh, uh, no, not at all." the boy chuckled. "I'd really like to be though."

"He's the guy to hire at our school at least." the girl put in. "He's making his way through the cheerleading squad right now."

"Making my way through photographing them." the boy put in quickly, making Isla laugh.

"Can I see some photos?" Isla wondered.

"Sure!" the boy grinned, and he quickly pulled out his phone, setting the camera down in his lap gently. He went to his photos app, and pulled up an album.

"I took these with my camera, but I upload them to my phone." the boy explained as he handed it over. His photos were really good, and of all different kind of things. Isla found landscape shots, found some animal photography of birds and a lot of what she assumed was his dog. She saw some respectable portraits and some much less respectable sultry photos of various girls who she assumed were the aforementioned cheer squad. The sultry photos had great poses, and the camerawork was done really well. Isla had done a lot of research into photography for Skylar, and she knew enough to be impressed.

"Say, would you be interested in doing some professional photography this week?" Isla asked, handing the boy's phone back. "It'd be a lot like that."

Isla gestured to the girl in her skimpy bikini, who was watching the exchange curiously.

"What, seriously?" the boy gaped.

"Seriously." Isla affirmed. "I work for Clear Skies Lingerie, and we're doing a summer shoot, it would involve a lot of bikini photoshoots."

"And lingerie photoshoots?" the girl grinned.

"Yup, those too." Isla nodded.

"Wow, I never expected this." the boy said, looking thunderstruck. "Uh, definitely! Where do I sign?"

Isla laughed. "I don't have anything for you yet, but I can get with my boss and show her your stuff. You got a name?"

"It's Ethan." the boy said, looking excited.

"Ethan, cool. Well, Ethan, if you text me some of your photos, I'll show them to the boss." Isla said, and Ethan offered her his phone. She took it, and quickly put her number in.

"I'm Isla, by the way." Isla said, holding out her hand, which Ethan shook quickly.

"Text me some of your photos you did of those cheer girls, they're a perfect portfolio for this." Isla told Ethan, who nodded.

"Are you looking for models?" the girl asked hopefully.

"Maybe." Isla nodded. "What's your name?"

"Ally King." she said excitedly.

"Huh, I think I've heard your name before. Aren't you a cheerleading captain?" Isla tried to remember.

"Yes, I am." Ally said, looking surprised to be recognized.

"Pretty sure Skylar already got your name from someone and planned to reach out, I saw it on our maybes list. If you're down though, we can skip that step." Isla offered.

"Wait, your boss is Skylar Wayne?" Ally asked, looking amazed.

"Yup." Isla nodded. "Did I not mention that?"

Ethan looked similarly starstruck, which Isla found very amusing.

"Well, I'm definitely in." Ally said, and Isla nodded, typing the girl's name into her own phone.

"Thanks, guys! Ethan, make sure you send me those photos, and put in some of Ally too, so Skylar can decide about having her in the shoot or not." Isla said.

"Will do." Ethan said with a grin.

"Awesome! See ya." Isla smiled, and walked back to her things. She gathered them up swiftly and then headed back to where Cora and Chrissy were sunbathing to join her old friends.