Meeting Jay

Tom had called Jay after Sam gave him his number. They arranged for Jay to visit in a couple of days time. Meanwhile Tom tried the wish again with success and tried taking pictures with his phone again. The difference was immediate. She seemed relaxed and even to be enjoying it and it showed in her posture and her face. "See honey I said a bit of practice would help". This had buoyed her mood and attitude completely and she even took a selfie shot that was largely covered and posted it as a preview of something she was working on on Instagram.

The next couple of days she was in creative mode as she restyled wigs and tried makeup. There were also packages arriving with unusual shoes or prop items. With her main cosplay she was eager to make everything herself but she was so keen to get started she had taken to buying costume items that could signify a character while not wearing much. There were also a few items arriving that weren't cosplay related but were geek cheque clothing. He watched her in the bedroom modelling some awesome crop tops, booty shorts and stockings. Every item she was posing and taking pictures of herself with mirror shots and selfies. Despite having enjoyed the show of her posing in person, there was something about seeing the ones she had chosen to keep, any of which she might be posting to social media for the world to see that got Tom hot. He was really hoping that she could be persuaded to have her pictures taken by someone who knew what they were doing rather than his own pathetic attempts.

They day Jay was coming over came around. He was going to drop in after morning classes. The lad was coming by bus as he still hadn't passed his test. Tom and Sarah filled the morning as best they could but there was a nervousness in the air. They were, after all, about to ask an 18 year old to take risqué pictures for them. As they finished their lunch the door went and Tom got up to answer it.

Sarah could hear their voices coming from the hall. "Hi Jay, how are you?"

"Hi Tom, I'm good thanks."

"We just had lunch but we could whip you up something if you're hungry."

"No thanks, I'm fine, I ate on the bus."

"Cool, well we're just in the kitchen." The door opened and Tom walked in "We were going to have a coffee, want one?"

Jay followed him in. He was a tall slender black boy with the slight hunch that is common in the unusually tall. He was wearing a very baggy t-shirt that had a metal band logo on that Sarah didn't recognise but had the indecipherable, flame riddled, jagged text that was favoured by the genre and some once black now grey jeans that had paint marks on them. He had a handsome but shy face that hid behind some thick rimmed, rectangular glasses and his expression was open and warm. Sarah was pleased by his appealing but somewhat awkward appearance and it put her at ease. "Yea, black with one sugar please" he said.

"Jay this is my wife Sarah. I don't think you guys have ever met."

There was a brief pause where Jay stared at her. She was clearly not what he had been expecting. Being a younger wife she was pretty used to this reaction. She broke the moment and reached her hand out to Jay "Nice to meet you Jay, Tom's been telling me about you."

Jay shook his head slightly as he snapped back to his senses after getting lost in this beautiful young woman who wouldn't have looked out of place on his own course other than she'd have been the hottest girl on it. "Yea, er, nice to meet you Mrs. Saunders."

Sarah laughed "Please call me Sarah, Mrs Saunders sounds weird especially as you call Tom, Tom"

"Yea, of course, sorry."

Amused by his fluster Sarah sat him down at the table and got straight to business while Tom bustled around making coffee. "Do you know why we wanted to talk to you?"

"Yea, Tom was pretty clear. He says you guys got into cosplay and now you want to do more modelling but you weren't happy with the pictures you took and weren't sure about hiring someone and wanted advice."

Once they got Jay talking about photography he stopped being nervous and instead became quite animated. He talked about cameras and studio set ups and photo editing. He got out his laptop and gave them a breakdown of pictures they liked. He did get a little flustered when he suddenly noticed that Sarah was sitting so close to him that she was touching him. When she realised his reaction she made a point of not moving, enjoying the poor young man's reaction. Tom who was stood behind also noticed and found it equally amusing.

They were sat now in the living room relaxing after the tidal wave of information that Jay had given them and there was still one thing Tom wanted to know. "There is still the issue that I just can't take a good photo and I'm not convinced all this equipment is going to help. I'm aware Sarah is a little shy about someone else doing the picture taking but I wanted to know Jay, if she was okay with it would you be interested in doing the photography? We'd pay you of course."

Jay, who had relaxed now leant forward, rested his elbows on his knees, steepled his fingers, and tapped his lips in thought. "Honestly, I'd love to. It would be great for my portfolio as I'm sure you are aware, art is great but most photography is a little more commercial and these types of shot would be great promotion for me. The thing is I have no experience in directing a model so I couldn't provide the guidance an experienced photographer could so I'm not sure I'd be comfortable taking money off you."

There was a brief silence of contemplation then Tom said "How about this? I'm just spit balling here so if you don't like it please say, but. I think we are going to need a home studio anyway. Even if Sarah doesn't get into the modelling side she is still going to be wanting to take pictures of her projects and finished costumes. If we get the lights and other paraphernalia set up then how about we say you can use it whenever you like for your own projects or borrow them when you want and in return you do the photo shoots?"

"Hang on" Sarah piped up "I haven't agreed to any of this."

" I know," placated Tom "I'm only talking hypothetically."

"Hypothetically, that sounds amazing" said Jay getting a little excited.

Tom caught his excitement "Excellent then maybe it's a go?" He turned enthusiastically to Sarah.

"Look, you seem lovely Jay but I'm just not sure. I've never done anything like this."

Undeterred Tom pressed on. "Maybe we could do a test shoot. Did I see a camera bag when you came in Jay? We could do it now."

"Er, Yea, in theory. I have my camera we could do a mini shoot right now and see how it went."

"Wow, okay, I guess that's alright" stuttered Sarah "But where can we do it, we don't have a studio."

"We can do it in the garden if you like" announced Jay "If you can get a white sheet we can use it to bounce light up to reduce shadows. Should be able to do some pretty good stuff on a nice day like this."

Tom could have kissed this boy for his enthusiasm "We've got white sheets, how about it honey?"

Sarah looked like a deer in headlights as she desperately searched for an excuse but with nothing springing to mind she just said "Okay, where do you want me?"