Alisha: A dark Romance Ch. 01

I delivered the additional prints to David a week later.

"I'm glad you remembered the extra copies, I meant to remind you," he said as I laid them on a bench. He gave a little whistle of admiration, "Christ they're good Ben, and she's beautiful, who is she, a local model?"

"She's my fiancé, Alisha, and she's a student at the art college. She's only worked with me, but she's done the odd fashion show for the college."

David got out the other images, and I helped him stand them up around the edge of the room. He stood in the center and slowly turned, studying each of them intently.

He pursed his lips in thought and then asked, "How much more have you got that are to this standard?"

"With or without Ali?"

"Both, she's a great subject, but I can see you've got an eye for the landscape as well."

I thought for a moment before answering, "I've got over three years of work, a lot of it with her as the model. I guess there's at least another 50 or so that are at least as good as these."

"Then I'd like to host a one-man show of your work early next year. I don't want to dilute the impact of your work with other pieces. Is there any chance you could print some of these in a larger format?"

I paused, considering his request, "The prints from the negatives I can do myself, but the digital ones, well, this is the largest size my printer can handle." I pointed at the image he was holding.

"That's not a problem; I know a professional print shop that can handle those images," he said.

David showed me the gallery areas he was considering using. "We'll use these two rooms, and I'd like one larger piece on each of these walls. The best will go on this partition."

"That's," and I counted them off in my mind, "six large pieces then."

David nodded and picked up what I considered to be the best of the wedding dress and sunflower shots. "This one here," and he pointed at the wall facing the entrance.

"How much larger?"

He removed the painting that hung there and placed the framed photo in its place. We both stepped back and looked.

"Twice as large I think," David finally said. "You'll not lose any of the quality will you, at that size?"

"No, it should be fine, I printed a couple of cropped versions of her to that scale, and they didn't lose anything."

"Great." He removed the photo and studied it for a long time. "She is very beautiful, perfect face and body for modeling. I know a few people in the business I can introduce her to."

"Well, I know she's considering modeling as a career, but she wants to finish college first. I'm making up a portfolio for her to submit to some of the agencies next year."

David gave me a calculating look. "Be careful, Ben; I don't think I know of one model who's still with her boyfriend. Are you getting married soon?"

"Not for a couple of years, she was thinking about a teacher training course, but now I guess she'll see how the modeling pans out."

December saw Ali on stage in the drama department's end of term play. As usual, she was a powerful presence on the stage, yet for the first time that I could remember, I saw that her heart wasn't in it. She gave a great performance, and the critic's reviews were impressive, but it had been the fashion shows the week before where she shone.

I still have some of the photographs I took over those three days. Her presence on the catwalk made her seem twice as large. At the after-show party, she was almost bouncing off the walls; she was so excited. She clung to me all evening

"This is what I want," she said. "I feel so alive when I'm walking down the catwalk."

"I know you do," I said with a tinge of sadness in my voice. I'd taken David's words to heart, and I had a sense of foreboding that if she made this step, our relationship would be changed.

Ali sensed my thoughts, "You are the only thing that can match this feeling," she whispered into my ear."

"Just match?"

She turned to face me, arms around my waist and pulling me as close as she could. "If I was given a choice, you or this, I'll always choose you." She eased back a fraction and pulled the chain around her neck up, so the emerald pendant I'd given her for her 18th birthday flickered in the lights. "This, even more than the ring is my promise to you. I'll always wear it, so you know how much I love you."

The one-man show was a great success, David sold every photo, and I had numerous offers of work in the future, but yet, after the opening night's social event, I was left with a sense of foreboding.

The opening night event was an all ticket affair. David had obviously used all of his contacts and pulled in favors because as well as several well-known photographers, there were representatives of three of the largest modeling agencies based in London. While everyone seemed keen to meet me, it was Alisha who was the star of the show.

She wore a short dress that one of the fashion students had created for her. The ivory colored dress was embroidered with tiny seed pearls. The color of the dress enhanced the glow of her skin. Its length made her long legs seem even longer. The top cut so low at the back there was no way she could wear a bra.

Ali introduced me to different groups of people over the evening, introducing me as her photographer boyfriend and asked if I'd send her portfolio to them. I corrected her once, pointing out that I was her fiancé, but she didn't seem to notice and kept on calling me her boyfriend.

David kept me busy all evening talking to purchasers and potential purchasers. Ali was flitting about like a butterfly, circling the room, pausing to settle on a new flower before returning to her favorite plant.

When we got home, her dress and thong were on the floor no sooner than the door closed behind us. She wrapped a long silky soft leg around me, pulling me close, her face buried in my neck

"I love you so much, Ben; you're the best boyfriend ever!" Her voice was happy and bubbly.

The frustration from the evening surfaced again. "I love you, too, but why am I only your boyfriend? Not once this evening did you introduce me as your fiancé."

She pulled her head back to stare at me, surprise and anguish written across her face. "Oh, Ben, I'm sorry I didn't mean anything by that. I love you so much that it doesn't worry what I call you. You're my love, nothing else matters. For me, it's so sweet and simple."

I tried to put my thoughts into words. "I guess I get scared, you're everything to me, and I don't think I've ever envisioned a life without you, but sometimes I feel like I'm just a game to you and sooner or later you'll find a better one."

"Never love," she said emphatically. "There will never be a person I love as much as you."

She stepped back and sank on one knee. A naked woman still in her high heels. She eased her ring off her finger and held it out to me. "You once asked me to marry you, and I said yes, but... Now I'm asking you, will you please marry me with no buts or prevaricating."

"Yes, when?"

"As soon as we can, parents and church permitting."

"Why the change, you wanted to wait until you were settled?" I asked

"Because, as much as you were scared you'd lose me, I'm even more scared that you will find someone else."

We need to have a serious talk, and her kneeling naked before me wasn't helping my concentration. I reluctantly pulled Ali to her feet and wrapped a shawl she'd left draped over the back of a chair over her shoulders. We sat down on the sofa, and she curled up like a cat, resting her head on my lap.

"Why would you ever think that I'd leave you?" I asked as I ran my fingers through her long black tresses

"Because you are such a wonderful person, all night people were telling me how lucky I was to have a boyfriend as talented as you." She turned her face up to look at me. The shawl was sliding down her shoulders and exposing one of her perfect breasts.

She ran a hand down her body, "I've always known I'm pretty," she said, "but it takes someone as skilled as you to make me look as good as I did in those photos."

I shook my head in disbelief, "Every man and quite a few of the women tonight wanted you for themselves, and that's what scares me, I know I'm only average. I'm always going to wonder when you'll find someone better."

She gave a little laugh, "So we both think we're not good enough for the other. Believe me; you've never been average. That first day at school, the only thing the girls in my class were talking about was the fact that the amazing Ben had dumped his cheating girlfriend and was available. Girls were talking about dumping their boyfriends so that they could have a chance with you. I didn't need those photos; it was just an excuse to meet and then get you on my own. You say you've loved me from the first time we met. I fell in love with you as I stood in the doorway watching you sit in front of that computer."

I had to smile as I looked down at her earnest eyes. "And I thought I was the one chasing you!"

"Oh you were, only I was already caught. That just proves my point we need to get married so we can look after each other."

We sealed the agreement with a kiss, and then I picked her up and carried her off to the bedroom where we proved how much we loved each other until we both fell into an exhausted sleep.

Both sets of parents took over the wedding, finally grateful that we had set a date. We were married a week before Easter in the village church. I nervously watched my new assistant taking our wedding photos.

"Stop it," Alisha whispered. "You know how good Mia is, her photos will be almost as good as if you'd taken them."

She was right of course; Mia had been, by far, the best of the applicants who'd responded to my advert for an assistant. She was French, a tiny beautiful girl of Moroccan descent. Her boyfriend was a chef and was working in one of the best local restaurants. She'd studied art and photography in France. It had taken us less than a week to bond into an efficient team.

Still, that didn't stop me worrying about the images. I could see Mia shaking her head and smiling in amusement as I watched her set up the wedding party shots. Finally, she came over and showed me a few of the shots.

"Good enough, boss?" she said in her cute French accent. Of course they were, and I told her so.

Ali tapped the back of my head. "I told him he had nothing to worry about, but you know what a fusspot he is."

Mia laughed and stood on her tiptoes and gave first Ali then me a kiss. "Go and enjoy yourselves, I've got this, I promise you."

We spent our first night as a married couple in a small country hotel just outside of Copthorne, the honeymoon proper was two weeks in the Maldives, our flight leaving the next morning from Gatwick airport.

The honeymoon was everything we both hoped it would be. Both sets of parents had clubbed together to treat us. We had business class seats on the flight, and our room was the honeymoon suite, set at the end of a wooden walkway over the crystal clear waters of the Indian Ocean.

What followed was two weeks of frolicking in the water and lazing about on the sand by day, and nights of unbridled passion that never seemed to end. Ali allowed me to bring one camera, and I filled several memory cards with perfect memories of her.

Three months after our wedding, Ali was offered a contract with one of the big London modeling agencies, and for the first year, everything seemed rosy. Most of her assignments were either fashion shows or photo shoots in the UK, so she was only gone a couple of day at a time. I traveled with her for the only couple of foreign assignments she had. We treated them as holidays, staying on at the location for a few extra days.

By the end of her first year, she had gained a good reputation in the business. Photographers and magazines editors began to request her for specific shoots.

To be continued.