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By (user no longer on site) OP
3 weeks ago
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Nothing happened for a couple of weeks and I was beginning to think that would be the end of it. Then, one morning as I was making some coffee, my phone rang. I didn’t recognise the number, so I answered with a tentative ‘Hello’. The voice at the other end sounded bright and friendly. ‘Hi, I’m Mark,’ it said. ‘T think Linda mentioned me to you.’
I warmed to him immediately for his easy manner and politeness. So when he asked if I would pose for him I had no qualms about agreeing. He suggested clothed at first, and then maybe go Full Monty later. It all sounded good to me.
Mark explained that he had inherited his house from an aunt he hardly knew. Succession was tied up in family trusts and he only knew he was to be the beneficiary a couple of years before she died. ‘I actually feel pretty guilty about it,’ he said. ‘I even wondered about passing it on to a charity as it’s huge and it could be some kind of kids’ home or something. But it’s lovely and the more time I spend here the more I think I’ll stay.’
Mark suggested we should meet at his house so I would feel comfortable when I went there to sit for him. It was only about three miles along the coast from where I was living. Neither of us had anything else to do that day, so we arranged for me to go there about 3pm. Having been wary at first, I had concluded that he was actually a really nice guy and felt we would get along just fine.
I got there at 3pm on the dot. The house was large, pink sandstone with an imposing front, bay windows and a porch that was almost the size of my living room. Mark answered the door quickly, smiling broadly. ‘Good to see you,’ he said. ‘I recognise you from Linda’s drawings. She captured you really well.’
I suppose this took me aback. The vast majority of the drawing she had done were naked, so I suddenly felt exposed. ‘She showed you everything?’ I asked. ‘Oh, the lot,’ Mark laughed. ‘We have no secrets now!’
The fact he was so relaxed about it put me at my ease as well. All in a day’s work for an artist, I figured. After coffee and a lot of chat about nothing in particular, Mark took me upstairs to the room he had identified as a studio. I could see why as it also had a bay window and the light just flooded in. He had set up his easel on one side of the room and there were a few sketches pinned to the wall. So far so good, and I felt I should maybe set off home, but Mark surprised me with a suggestion. ‘Could we maybe do a quick drawing now?’ he said.
It wasn’t in my plans, but I couldn’t think of a reason not to. ‘How long do you need?’ I asked. ‘ About 15 minutes,’ he suggested. ‘I know how Linda works but I’m a lot faster. I suppose the stuff I do is a bit more impressionistic, less precise.’
I had already twigged that from the sketches on the wall, but there was no doubt he had talent. Mark captured the human form brilliantly and I was actually getting excited about sitting for him. Or rather standing, which is how he wanted me to pose, hands on hips and looking towards the window. As he set to work at his easel, there was almost a kind of urgency in the way he went about his work.
After a while Mark began to sound frustrated. ‘The problem is that shirt you’re wearing,’ he explained. ‘It jus kind of scrunches up and it’s hard to capture the lines. Would you mind taking it off? I’m sure I could do a better picture with you bare-chested.’
I was fine with that. I pulled my shirt over my head, threw it in one corner and settled back into my pose. ‘That’s much better,’ Mark said. ‘You have a good body for drawing, not too fat or too slim, not too muscled and out of proportion.’
I was happy to hear him. We had only spent an hour together, but I had this strange urge to please Mark, to give him what he wanted. Having fairly strong bi tendencies, I also realised that I found him attractive. Looking out the window to the sea in the distance, my mind wandered and I started to think that maybe I could do more than pose for Mark.
Suddenly, he broke my reverie. ‘Finished!’ he said, and called me over to the easel. I was astonished by what I saw, for his quick charcoal strokes had captured me in a way Linda never had. It was if he had given me life. ‘That’s remarkable,’ I muttered. ‘So good.’
‘Keep it,’ he said, tearing it off the easel. It’s really just a preliminary sketch. You have such a good body to draw and I’m really looking forward to having you pose properly. In the Greek style!’
I knew what he meant. Totally naked. And having felt uptight about the prospect a few hours earlier, I now felt excited about it too. ‘Can you come back tomorrow?’ Mark asked. ‘Same time?’ ‘Happy to,’ I replied. ‘See you then.’
That night, lying in bed, I realised that my excitement went beyond doing a good job as a model. I wasn’t quite sure where this was going to lead, but I couldn’t wait to find out.
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