(As a non-English speaker it's sometimes difficult to choose the right words to express what I want to say. So many thanks again to Lit Editor A13579, for his corrections and suggestions. He edited several stories for me now and is no longer just an editor, but also became a -long distance- friend.)
Pingggg
The sound of an incoming message woke me up from my siesta. I grabbed my phone and read: "Just landed at the airport. In a few minutes I'll be off the plane."
Yesterday Liz, my wife, left for a three-day getaway with a friend. We thought our guest Carl wouldn't arrive until the day after tomorrow. We met Carl about 2 years ago, when he drove his bicycle all the way from England to Australia.
We are part of a network that hosts long-distance cyclists, and he applied for a one night stay. He finally stayed 4 nights because he liked the place and, despite the fact he's 35 years younger than we are, we got along with each other very well. So we did not hesitate a month ago when he asked if he could stay in our guest house for a short holiday.
But apparently we had not remembered the dates correctly, although our correspondence clearly stated today as the arrival day. And now he had arrived at the small nearby airport, where he would be outside in a few minutes. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, because I could drive there in fifteen minutes, but Liz had the car and I only had a bicycle available. I texted him, asking if he would call me as soon as he could.
The phone rang almost immediately. I explained the situation and said that the guest house was available to him, but that I could not come and pick him up. We agreed that he would first see if there was a taxi at the airport, and if not I would call one. A few minutes later he texted that he had found a taxi and asked if I could forward the location.
Fortunately, I always prepare the guest house for new guests immediately after the old ones depart. But in and around our own house it was still a mess, because as a temporary bachelor I had mainly occupied myself with hanging out and camming naked on literotica, silverdaddies and whereby, and it had turned into a kind of improvised webcam studio here. So I went to work like crazy to make it a bit presentable.
About half an hour later I welcomed Carl, and of course I apologized for our mistake, which I blamed on the fact that I am already approaching 70. Fortunately, he could laugh about it and said that even while he was barely thirty, he already made mistakes like that. We had a drink together, after which I showed him the guest house and explained how to deal with the off grid electricity and sewerage. As I expected, he wanted to take a shower and a nap first.
After about three hours he walked back onto the terrace, where I had just poured myself a beer. He didn't turn down my offer to grab one for him too.
"Did you get some sleep?" I asked.
"Not really," he replied, "but I was able to get some rest and leaf through some of the books there."
I asked him if he had any firm plans for the next 10 days he would be staying with us.
"Nothing is completely set in stone. In any case, I want to make a photo book of my work from the past year. And do some yoga and meditation every day. But if we spontaneously get other ideas, I can safely skip a day."
He continued: "I saw that you also make photo books. Where do you have them printed?"
We talked for a while about the quality and costs of different printing services and it turned out that we had been using the same one for a long time.
"I also saw some kind of magazine with beautiful naked pictures of you both," Carl said.
I was confused for a moment, because that shouldn't have been there. But otherwise I had no problem with him browsing through it.
"Yes, we used to do a lot of photo shoots together," I smiled, "but unfortunately Liz doesn't think she looks good enough to take nude photographs anymore. Wrongly, because she still looks really good. Everyone estimates her to be at least 10 years younger than her actual age. I do have some more recent photos that include her, but they are snapshots. Today I only pose naked myself. It's a shame, but I fully respect it."
"That's a shame indeed," Carl confirmed. "I am doing a professional photography training and our holiday assignment is to make a photo series of one or more people posing nude. They can't be snapshots on a nudist beach or something. It must be clear that those photographed know that they are being photographed. Of course, it's also about me being forced to ask someone to pose naked for me."
"It's very good that you also have to put that aspect into practice", I said. "I think asking a model is more difficult than photographing one."
There was silence for a moment. I knew perfectly well what Carl wanted, but didn't dare ask yet. No doubt he was hoping I would say I wanted to pose naked for him. And of course I wanted nothing more than that, but because his assignment so clearly included that he had to ask for a model himself, I said nothing.
"So, uhhhh, have you ever posed naked for a photographer?" he asked a little shyly.
"No, never together," I replied. "Liz absolutely does not want to take off her clothes for anyone other than me. All the photos of her are taken by me or with the remote control. I do have some photos of me, taken by men I had a date with, but those are not really posed photos."