Naked Portraits Pt. 12

"I bought a condo down town," Li said, "I want to buy one of your painting to put in it."

She's here to buy some art! I thought with an inward sigh of relief.

My lizard brain sulked and pouted.

"I want something controversial that screams coming out lesbian," Li continued. She picked up the seated nude with the net float and put it on my easel to get a better look. "This is wonderful."

"It's based on an object I found related to the goddess Li," I told her. I would have shown her the glass net float, but it was at home adorning a shelf at my apartment.

A small smile touched the edges of her mouth. She said, "Li is the sea goddess in parts of China and Indonesia."

"I know," I said.

"My grandparents named me. They aren't Christians like my parents. In fact, my parents wanted to legally change my name to Linda when I was ten. Fortunately, my granddad would have none of that. This painting is karma. How much?"

My heart leaped with joy for I was flat broke. Without Betty in my life I was broke all the time it seemed. It didn't take me long to maxed out my two credit card. The Japanese in me deplored unpaid debt so all the money I had made with Meka in the last few months went to card payments. It's taken all of my will power not to run the cards up again.

Before I could come up with a price for the painting, Li said, "Why don't we do a portrait of me?"

"Um ... okay," I said.

"A nude! What could be more controversial than a naked portrait of me?" she said clearly excited by the idea. "How much for that?"

"Um ... nine hundred?" I said.

"Don't be silly," she said offhandedly. "I'll pay you four thousand, half now and half on completion."

"Okay," I said totally stunned.

She pulled an insanely large wad of bills held together with a thick rubber band from her black bag. All the bills appeared to be hundreds. Holy shit, I thought. That is crazy! How much is this chick carrying on her? She counted out some bills and handed me a stack.

Not even considering that it might be rude, I counted the bills. At forty I said, "Um ... you made a mistake. You said half and this is the full four thousand."

"I'm buying this one too," she said pointing at the net float painting. "Is two thousand fair?"

I nodded too shocked to speak.

"If you don't have a title can we call it Goddess of the Sea?"

"That would be perfect," I said. I had to sit down on the loveseat as my head swam from how quickly this had all come about.

"Can I take it right now?"

"It needs a coat of varnish then it's all yours," I said.

"I'm so glad I came," Li said as she ran her fingers over my painted figure's face and then down to her breasts. She quickly pulled her hand away, perhaps realizing she was being a bit blatant. "Thank you," she said looking at me again. "I have a thing to go to downtown. Give me your cell and I'll call later so we can set up a time for me to pose."

"You don't have to mess with your schedule," I said as I scratched my number on a piece of paper. "I can work from photos. I'm sure Meka would help."

"I want to sit," she said with a smile. She took the slip of paper and left.

I looked at Goddess of the Sea resting on my easel. My eyes welled with tears for she was no longer mine.

Chapter 55 Olympia and a Visit From the Psych Department

With my fat wad of money spread out on my desk, I stupidly chanted, "I have four thousand dollars," over and over again while doing an undignified jig.

I called Aly and told her about the sale.

"Cool girlfriend," she said happy for me. "I'm running a little late. Give me a half hour?"

"I'm in the mood to paint so I think I'll skip the game tonight," I said.

"Won't be as much fun without you complaining about the over inflated budgets of collegian male sports," Aly said.

"Can't ignore my feminist imprinting," I said.

Aly laughed. "Congrads on the sale. Have fun painting naked people."

I called Hawk next to share the news.

"Cool," he said. "but I'm going to miss that painting. I liked it."

"Me too," I said. "I'm in the mood to paint. Okay if I skip watching the game tonight?"

"Gonna miss your anti sports commentary," he said.

"Fuck you," I said sweetly and hung up.

I called Matt.

"Hey painter chick. Whatssup?"

I told him about the sale and that I was oping out of the the Mama Rosa thing.

"Bummer," he said. "And since you're so loaded, it would be cool for once that one of us poor folk paid for the drinks."

I laughed. "With the spectacular head you give? I think Aly is happy to pay for your drinks."

"What about Hawk?" he asked.

"I got him covered."

"Good. I wasn't looking forward to giving him head too," he said with a chuckle. "Gonna miss you ragging on the wasted money spent on the sports program."

"Like I told Hawk ... fuck you."

"Love you too," he said and hung up.

I smiled warmly. He tells me that he loves me everyday ... unlike Hawk. In too good a mood to emotionally corner myself, I quickly pushed the thought aside.

With a spring in my step, I headed to the campus book store with three crisp one hundred dollar bills in my back pocket. Two hundred dollars plus later, I struggled up the stairs to my studio with my new art supply booty. A gallon bucket of gesso seriously messed with my balance on the way up. At the top of the stairs, I lost control of a roll of canvas and as I shifted things around to hang on to it, the bag with all the tubes of paints burst open spilling plastic tubes down the stairs ... and then I dropped the canvas anyway.

"Fuck it!" I barked, putting the bucket of gesso down at the top of the steps and then marched down to retrieve the canvas and scattered tubes of paint. At the bottom, someone was already there picking up tubes. It was Nefertiti Ulamat.

"Hey, thanks," I said, surprised to see her back.

"I'm so glad it's you," Neffie said handing me tubes of paint. "I went all the way home and couldn't find a folder I need for a paper due on Monday. I think I left it on your desk. I've been hanging around an hour hoping you would show."

"Sorry, went shopping."

My arms were full with the roll of canvas and several loose tubes of paint. Neffie hung on to some of the tubes, took charge of the bucket of gesso and followed me to my studio door. I unlocked the door and threw the canvas and paints on the loveseat, Neffie put the gesso on my desk and picked up her folder that had blended in with the general mess.

"That's amazing," Neffie said as she took in the painting of me seated with the net float. "It's you. You're beautiful."

Forgetting that I had left it uncovered on my easel, I cringed. "Guess you get to see me naked again," I said sheepishly.

Neffie laughed. "My cousin Elmer will be so disappointed he can't see this." She studied the painting for a few seconds longer and then asked, "Can I watch you work on a painting one day?"

It was such an odd request that I didn't know how to answer.

"Sorry," she said with red cheeks. "That was too rude to ask."

"It's okay," I said, "it's just unusual. To be honest I can't think of anything more boring then watching someone else paint."

"I think it would be interesting," she said still looking at my painting.

Then I had an interesting idea. "If you're free for the next couple of hours you might get your heart's desire." I sought out my cell.

"Really?" she asked excited. "I wouldn't be bothering you?"

"You gotta help me set up, but sure," I said

"Awesome," she said with a big grin.

Five rings in, Aly picked up.

"Hey," I said, "Come to my studio when you're done. I wanna paint you."

"Really?" Aly asked sounding surprised and thrilled. "But I'm suppose to meet up with the guys to watch the game?"

"They'll watch their misogynistic game and not miss you one bit."

"Not if I swing my tits in front of the TV screen," Aly said with absolute confidence of the outcome.

I sniggered. "That would be a memorable moment at Mama Rosa's for years to come. Bring your ponderous tits here and we'll put them to better use."

"It's gonna be a nude?"

"You forget who you're talking to? Of course it is! And ... um a fellow artist will sketch you as I work if that's okay." Neffie looked both thrilled and panicked at the same time.

"As long as it's a chick, sure," Aly said.

"It's a girl and she's very nice. Just bring your impossibly tall body over here."

"I'll call the boys and tell them. I still have some paper work to do. Be there in forty five minutes tops." Aly hung up.

"My friend will be here in a little while," I said. "I've been playing with this idea for a painting of her based on Edouard Manet's Olympia. I have just enough time to rush to the library to get a couple of books for reference. Then we go to the drawing studio to get some stuff."

Neffie nodded, pulled out her laptop and in less than a minute, had the painting up on the screen.

"Okay ... never mind the library," I said and sat next to her on the loveseat.

Thanks to Wikipedia, Manet's famous reclining naked woman glowed on the laptop screen. The figure's only clothing were a black ribbon around her neck and a single short heeled slipper on one foot. She lay on her back on a bed of white pads and pillows with a creamy shall under her lower half spilling out at her feet. Her figure was voluptuous and curvy, her skin ghostly white, a pink flower nestled in her hair. The figure's left hand rested deliberately on her lap concealing her womanhood. A clothed dark skin woman with an odd expression on her face, holding a pillow, looked at the reclined figure. A frisky black cat stood at the end of the bed near the nude woman's feet.

"She's looking right out at me," Neffie said.

"That look caused a stir in it's time," I said.

"She seems so serious," Neffie said.

"More business like I would say. It's gonna cost you to move that hand in her lap."

Neffie giggled.

After a raid of the figure painting studio for pads and the like. Neffie and I took to setting up my studio for the pose. It was quite the squeeze in the tiny space and we had to move a lot of stuff around, but with Neffie's help, we got it all done just as Aly arrived.

Neffie's jaw dropped. "Miss Reese?"

"Nefertiti right?" Aly said. "You're in my Friday lab."

"Didn't think about that," I said. "Maybe this isn't such a good idea Neffie.

"I will leave," Neffie said with crushing disappointment in her voice.

"You will do no such thing," Aly said. "Gwen and I have talked about doing this thing for months. If she's comfortable with you being here then it's okay with me."

I nodded, not daring to tell Aly I had officially met Neffie just hours ago. The girl could be a serial killer for all I knew ... or worst, a total gossip.

"Besides," Aly said as she dropped her shoulder bag on the sofa, "I have someone of my own stopping over."

"Really? Who?" I asked curious.

Instead of answering, she asked a question. "Did you participate in a dream study at the psychology department a couple months back?"

"Yeah ... just one time," I said guardedly, wondering how she found out. Only Paul Gleason knew I went to the study, but I was pretty sure he hadn't told a soul. Paul was rough around the edges, but the dude was loyal to his friends.

"The money was good but things got hectic and I dropped out," I said.

That was a lie. The real reason I dropped out was because I was too embarrassed to show my face after recording in detail my explicit sexual dream. It had been total porn filth. No way could I look some male grad assistant in the eye after all that.

"Nelly wants to talk to you," Aly said.

"Who's Nelly?" I asked.

"Dr. Nelly Ling, she's head of research at the psych department. She's a friend, we met at a faculty social the first year I was here."

"How did she know that you and I are friends?" I asked mildly worried that someone from the psych department was hunting me down ... no, not just someone, but the head of research.

"You put Hawk down as an emergency contact on your forms," Aly said. "Nelly knows I'm friends with Hawk so she contacted me about you. I told her you and I are friends too. It's very unusual for her to approach someone outside her department about a study subject. The woman is skating on thin ethical ice coming to me like that." Aly gave me a curious look. "What happened at the study?"

I tilted my head toward Neffie who was fussing with the drawing supplies I had loaned her. Aly got that I didn't want to talk in front of the girl.

"Anyway," Aly said, "Nelly is stopping by to talk. If you don't want to see her, I'll call and tell her to back off."

Curiosity trumped my mortification and I said, "No, it's okay, I'll talk to her."

Aly tested the makeshift bed Neffie and I had created with a couple of foam pads and a beanbag chair stacked on top of my cleared desk. Covering it all were a light green comforter and a white sheet, items I kept in my studio for times when I slept over on crunch days.

Without being told, Aly started to strip. First went her white lab coat revealing a expensive looking salmon top and black snug slacks. She kick off her sensible flat black shoes. Aly never wore heels. At an even six feet, the last thing the chick needed was to enhance her height. Here in the Islands, the woman was an Amazon, taller then most men. She undid the slacks and let the garment slide down her spectacularly long legs revealing light blue panties.

With short stolen glances, Neffie watched Aly. She did her best to keep her eyes on her borrowed drawing board but she was clearly mesmerized with Aly undressing.

"Never worked with a nude model before?" I asked the girl, amused at her shy fascination.

Neffie's face reddened as she shook her head.

The salmon top went over Aly's head and her long sun streaked blond hair crashed back down to her wide shoulders. The bra matched the light blue panties below.

"Don't suppose you have hangers?" Aly asked with her lab jacket, top and slacks draped on one arm.

"What are hangers?" I joked.

Without being asked, Neffie stepped forward and took charge of Aly's clothes. Sitting on the loveseat, she expertly folded the items as neat as could be. Realizing Aly and I were watching her, Neffie said shyly, "My sister Cleo owns a dry cleaning service downtown. I worked there on weekends from age twelve through high school." She got up and put Aly's clothes on a relatively clean shelf near the door.

"I could uses a good dry cleaner," Aly said. "I'll check her out." Aly unhitched her bra from behind lending her breasts to the forces of gravity with a cheery little bounce.

Neffie eyes locked hypnotically on Aly's impressive pair as she stepped forward to take charge of the bra. Neffie was clearly an A-cup and I wondered what she was thinking. Then casually, Aly slipped off the panties.

Here comes the best part, I thought with amused anticipation.

Oh!" Neffie exclaimed at the sight of Aly's pale triangle of hair.

I let out a small laugh.

"Yes, this Asian chick is a real blond," Aly announced. She looked at blushing Neffie and couldn't help but tease her. "Please let the rest of the world know I'm the real thing. Okay?"

Neffie nodded solemnly and put the bra neatly on top of the stack of Aly's clothes. She looked a bit stricken, probably wondering if she should take charge of the panties too. Aly saved her the trouble by folding her shucked panties and putting them with her stack of clothes herself.

For the next half hour, I worked at arranging Aly for the pose and setting up the lighting. It wasn't so easy in my cramped little studio but Neffie's assistance made a big difference. I only had to tell her something once and she did it—a rare quality for a declared art major.

"You are so organized," I told Neffie as the girl fiddled with a spotlight to get it just right.

"Her work in my biology lab is outstanding," Aly said. "What's your major, kid?"

"Art," Neffie said, sounding proud and a little awed at her own statement.

"You're doomed girl," Aly teased making Neffie giggle. "Soon you'll be a clueless imbecile like Gwen here."

"Shut up," I said as I worked at getting Aly's legs just right.

Finally satisfied with the pose, I got to painting. Neffie moved around discretely, drawing Aly from different angles but made sure that she didn't get in my way. The girl was quiet as a mouse.

It didn't take long for Aly to get bored. "Please stay still," I told her for what seemed like the hundred time.

"This is harder than I thought it would be," Aly said. "Can I read a book or something?"

"No," I said flatly.

"Can I at least make conversation?"

"Go ahead but I tend not to talk when I'm painting."

"Then I'll talk to Nefertiti."

"Call me Neffie," the Filipino girl said shyly.

"And you can call me Aly."

Aly turned on her formidable charm, relaxing Neffie to a point where the girl could talk without blushing. Soon, the pair were chatting away. The banter didn't bother me, but I didn't say much as I floated in that place my brain goes when I'm focused on an art project. Matt called it the dusty mauve place after watching me for hours working on a painting with a glowing gray mauve background.

"Who posed for Manet's Olympia anyway?" Aly asked Neffie. "Was she a prostitute or a mistress of the artist? Or what?"

Neffie put down her drawing board and clacked at the keys on her laptop, her cheeks, nose and forehead smeared with charcoal.

"Victorine Meurent," Neffie said. "She was an artist too. Also, a musician, she played the violin and guitar and gave lessons in both. She had an extensive modeling career starting at the age of sixteen. She appeared in lot of Manet paintings. Most notable: Olympia, Luncheon in the grass and The Railway.

That last bit caught my ear.

"She's the same chick in The Railway?" I asked.

Neffie nodded.

"All my years of art history and I never knew that," I said with genuine surprise.

"I guess us models just disappear into obscurity while all you artists bask in the lime light," Aly said.

"And that's the way it should be," I said arrogantly. "Tilt your head the other way I'm starting in on the face."

Aly moved her face opposite of what I wanted so I stepped away from the easel, leaned in and adjust her head and hair. I looked down and saw that her hand was way off the mark too. Hands were hardest to paint and I needed that hand to be just right. I took her hand and moved it into place just above the swell of her pubic mound.

"In Manet's painting, the hand covers her belot," Neffie said.

"Her what?" Aly asked.

"Your pussy in Filipino," I translated. "I'm altering the pose. We get to see all her hairy glory."

"Hey, I'm bikini trimmed," Aly said, insulted.

"You're so pale down there I don't know why you bother," I said. I looked at Aly's neatly trimmed mound. I casually brushed my fingers at the upper region where the hair started. My eyes went back up to Aly's face to make sure her head hadn't strayed. Her left eyebrow was raised as she gave me a curious look.

Holy hell, I was practically feeling her up I realized. I looked at Neffie to see if she had seen my unintentional groping. She had. The girl looked at me and then her eyes quickly dropped back to her drawing board.

Fuck ... one more notch in the weirdo column for me. To hide my reddening face, I slipped behind the canvas. Anxious to distant myself from my brazen behavior, I quickly said, "Neffie? You see the cat at the figure's feet in Manet's painting?"

"Uh huh."

"Manet based his composition on a painting by Titian called Venus of Urbino from a couple of hundred years before."

I heard Neffie's fingers fly over the keys of her laptop.

"Got it up," she said. "Wow. It's the exact same pose as Olympia."