The Facebook ad said "Wanted: Male models for catalog, magazine and website photo shoot" Of course it showed a semi-provocative picture of a woman taking pictures of a man wearing shorts and no shirt at a beach.
He scrolled right past it and continued to mindlessly look at posts about movies, trucks and his "friends" on Facebook.
The next day the ad was there again, which he found interesting. He thought, "What on earth makes Facebook think I'm even remotely interested, or even qualified to be in pictures like that?"
This time he thought, "Well what the hell" and clicked on it. The next page said they were looking for male models for swimsuits, business suits and casual clothing for catalogs and websites. There was a "submit your photo" button to upload pics for consideration.
He looked at the pics and thought "Hmmm well I'm not built like those guys and I'm certainly not as good looking as some of them."
"He found a few headshots and full body pics (clothed) and submitted the pics along with his overall profile.
He wasn't expecting any response really to be honest. Growing up he wasn't told he was cute by most girls at school. He wasn't a jock who got all the cheerleader's attention. Oh sure there were girls who liked him, just not the ones he liked.
Within a week he got an email response to his submission:
Thank you for your interest in our ad and photo submissions. If you're available for an in-person interview next week, please provide your contact information and one of our agents will set up an appointment.
"Holy shit!" he thought. "They actually want to interview me?!"
He was nervous as he sent them his contact info, but excited nonetheless.
His phone rang the next day and the appointment was set for 2 days from then.
His mind and heart were racing. What were they going to ask him? What would they make him do on that first interview? Would he even measure up? He never even asked about if there was pay involved!
As one might think, he showed up at the appointment about 30min early. Nervous as hell but thankfully not sweating.
When his name was called he went to the office where the receptionist told him to go. He went in and there was a woman behind the desk, getting up to greet him as he walked in. Her office must have doubled as a mini studio since there was a section off to the right that had the backdrops and bright lights and a huge camera on a tripod.
She was a pretty blonde lady with a really nice build as far as he could tell from the clothes she had on, which were quite modest actually. Her hair was long and all on one side. He felt queasy as he looked into her green eyes. She commanded his attention and he was completely ready to give all his attention to her. She was very attractive and appeared to be in his age range.
She introduced herself and smiled from ear to ear, her eyes lighting up, "Hi I'm Olivia, and you're Liam?" Her handshake was firm and her hands were soft. He noticed her perfect red fingernails.
"Hi Olivia, yep I'm Liam" as he smiled. She wasn't bashful about giving him a very obvious good look up and down. "Part of the job" he thought.
"OK Liam, I'm sure you're nervous and that's OK so relax if you can. OK so what we do here in this phase of the selection process is a brief interview of some basic questions and we'll also take some preliminary photos. You good with that?" She pulled up a form on her computer and started to fill it out based on his answers. She put on some reader glasses which he thought made her look even sexier if that was possible.
"Yep, that sounds good to me" he nervously replied.
"OK have you ever done any modeling work before?"
"Nope, never."
"Are you comfortable with your shirt off? I ask that because we don't just cater to the chiseled, lean buff guys. We look for guys who, well, have some mileage on them -- no offense."
"Oh no none taken. And to be honest I'm shocked you guys picked me out of all the submissions you must get."
"Well Liam it's like this. The market is changing. It used to be that our models were super fit, flat stomach, abs, big biceps, a good C cup tits, etc. But now our clients want models that represent their customers, real everyday people if you will. We're not all the same size and/or shape. And that's one of the reasons we responded to your application. You represent a good portion of early to mid-50s men across the country. I'd say you're in much better shape than a good 80% of men your age. From a purely physical aspect and what I've seen so far, I think you're a perfect fit."
"That's interesting and thank you for having me come in."
"OK so...you're comfortable with your shirt off, that's great. And by the way, you do fill out that shirt quite nicely if I must say."
He instantly blushed and boy did she notice, giving him a sly grin and a wink.
"OK Liam, I'm sure you saw the sample pics on our ad of what we do here. Nothing risqué, this is all above board. We do underwear shots, swimwear shots, business suits and of course casual wear like jeans and t-shirts. Would you have a problem modeling underwear if the opportunity was there?"
"Um well, no but would it just be torso shots or would my face be visible?"
"It depends on the photographer really so I can't say for sure."
"OK I guess put me down for a yes on that, why not?"
She marked his file as she spoke, "OK this might sound strange, but we do ask our underwear models to wear something, which we provide, to...well...keep their man parts from being visible or even an outline."
He laughed and said "Oh yeah I'm sure!"
"OK last question -- if the opportunity were to present itself, would you be interested in something more risqué? We have a side business that is completely different from our main business. I always ask potential models if they'd be interested. It's quite a bit more money. A lot more in fact."
He was even flusher now and she knew it. "Um...well...how much more risqué?"
"In all honesty, we do it all. Semi-nude, full nude, solo male and female. If you've ever heard of Playgirl magazine, yes they're still around, that's our primary client. I can see by your build Liam, I think you'd be a potential candidate if you so choose. Have you ever had your picture taken while you're naked?" She bit her lower lip thinking about it.
He shifted in his chair, obviously uncomfortable. "Well, no I haven't."
