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I held my breath.
“You’re good. Very good. I’d like to see even more photos from you. This time with a theme. Imagine that you’re curating a show of some type. And, should you send these to me, and if I agree that the selection is worthy, then perhaps I’ll give you half a wall at my next gallery show this summer. It’ll be a small, but valuable place to put up some of your work.”
“What?” I gasped. This was so much more than I’d imagined or dreamed.
“But only if I like it,” he said sternly. “And only if it complements my own show, of course.”
“What’s your show about?”
“The theme is the male nude.”
“Oh.”
“Is that something you’re capable of complementing?”
“I can do nudes.” I swallowed hard. But who would be my model? I could take portraits of my own body, and I had many times before, but was that what he’d want to see? More importantly, was that what I wanted to show? “Are we talking erotic or tasteful?”
“Both, darling.”
“Right.” I had a lot of erotic pictures I hadn’t developed yet, but I’d taken the photos thinking just of the moment. I hadn’t gone into it trying to work with a theme, or to present the naked body in any particular way. “I’ll have to think it over.”
“Models must consent, of course.”
“Yes, of course.”
“Do you have a release form?”
“No?”
“I’ll send one to you and you can make knockoffs.”
“Thank you.”
“And Peter?”
“Yes?”
“Your mother…” he hesitated. “It was nice to talk with her for a few seconds, even if she doesn’t know who I am.”
“I’m glad.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m the one who should be thanking you!”
“Well, you can thank me by sending me solid work. None of the student stuff that my agent is always thrusting at me, as if I can’t tell art from shit.”
“No student work,” I breathed.
“You’re capable.”
I hoped I was. Marta seemed to think so at least.
When I put the handset back onto the hook, I danced a jig in the kitchen. Worries about Adam floated away from my mind. I needed to think. I needed to make a plan.
I always did that best with a camera in my hands.
So back out on the road I went, and the day flew by along with the click of my camera’s shutter. When the evening rolled in strong and dark, I decided to head back home.
