Housemates, Neighbors and Workmates

by Bridy McAvoy

  Housemates, Neighbors and Workmates

  By: Bridy McAvoy

  ISBN: 978-10-908325-04-7

  All rights reserved

  Copyright © Aug. 2008 to Mar 2015 Bridy McAvoy

  Cover Art Copyright © Jul 2013 – Mar 2015 Brightling Spur

  Bluewood Publishing Ltd

  Christchurch, 8042, New Zealand

  www.bluewoodpublishing.com

  Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.

  No part of this e-book may be reproduced or shared by any electronic or mechanical means, including but not limited to printing, file sharing, and email, without prior written permission from Bluewood Publishing Ltd

  Dedication

  To everyone who helped me write this. Especially my husband, who encouraged me to explore my fantasies in print.

  Housemates

  Housemates and Friends

  Chapter 1

  “How the hell did I ever get us into this?”

  She sat at her desk looking at the clock which clearly displayed five minutes to five o’clock. She didn’t even realize she’d spoken out loud. Her boss sat at his desk on the other side of the front office, watching her impassively. She dragged her eyes down from the clock to see him watching her and struggled to suppress the shudder that ran down her spine. At that moment the glass door to the street opened and her two housemates walked nervously in. As the door closed behind them she watched the sign that read ‘Easy Option Property Rentals Ltd’ and her mind skittered back to that fateful point just six months earlier.

  * * * *

  It had started so innocently. The three of them—Carrie, Susie and herself, Lizzie—had been friends through college and had somehow managed to end up working for the same large pharmaceutical company in the same city. They’d had to move out of their student digs and this office had seemed to be exactly as it said—the easy option. They had rented the three bedroom modern townhouse just four doors up from the landlord’s office at a very good rent—even less than the student rents they’d been paying. For two months they’d had a ball and then the bombshell struck. Lizzie was informed that her probationary period was being terminated and that she would not be employed on a full-time basis after that. She was out of a job, with student loans over her head, and no income to pay the rent.

  * * * *

  “Please, sit down, ladies.”

  Phil’s words jerked Lizzie back to the present as she watched her friends sit in the two visitor chairs Phil was indicating.

  “Liz, please put the ‘closed’ sign up and join us.”

  Lizzie hated Liz as a diminutive of her name and she knew Phil knew it. He was continuing the dominance game and she was not in a position to challenge him. She got up from her desk, unconsciously smoothing her skirt down, moved across the office and put up the ‘closed’ sign and shot the center bolt home. She turned around to find all three were watching her, her friends with a look of sympathy on their faces, while Phil still gazed at her impassively.

  She approached the indicated seat to the right of her housemates, sat down and waited for Phil to speak. She didn’t have to wait very long.

  “Well, ladies. I think you know why we’re here, don’t you?”

  The three girls nodded.

  “When Lizzie lost her job I took her on in the office as Angela, my previous assistant, was leaving to have a baby. I thought I was doing a favor for a nice girl. How did she repay me? Why don’t you tell us all, Lizzie, just for the record?”

  Lizzie assumed he was running the tape recorder in his desk. On the record would mean exactly that, but he had told her she must do exactly as he said or he would call the police.

  “I…”

  She stopped, her lip trembling as she fought for enough control to go through with this.

  “I…I was in charge of reconciling and banking the rents.”

  “What happed then, Lizzie?”

  “Carrie… and Susie… well, they were laid off the same way I was.”

  “And the rents?”

  “It always takes time for the authorities to come up with benefit money so they were short for a while.”

  She’d reached that point; the next sentence would incriminate her and her friends. But she had no choice—now it came out in a rush.

  “I stupidly falsified the rent books and forged receipts so it would look like they’d paid their rent. I never intended for you to find out and I intended to pay it back as soon as the money came through.”

  “But I did find you out, didn’t I?”

  “Yes…”

  Again she hesitated.

  “Go on.”

  “The Department for Work and Pensions queried the rent payments and wrote to the company asking for confirmation of the amount being paid. I was off that day. If you remember, I had an interview and Phil wished me luck the evening before. He opened the post and saw the letter… He now knew you had both been out of work for a month, too. Because I wasn’t there for a day, he had to bank the rents and soon spotted the discrepancy.”

  “That’s a fair summary, Lizzie, but tell your friends what happened then.”

  “He… He… He kept quiet and simply watched what happened the next month. When I did it again, yesterday, he waited until this morning and confronted me. He told me you had to be here at five tonight so he could deal with us.”

  “Thank you, Lizzie. That was a good summary. What are you going to do about it, ladies?”

  They all tried to speak at once.

  “I’m very sorry, sir.”

  “Please don’t blame Lizzie…”

  “We’re all to blame. We’ll pay you back.”

  Phil smiled. He turned the tape recorder off and sat back, waving them to silence. As the protests subsided he simply looked from one to the other and let the tension build.

  “Well, ladies. Let me explain my problems with the situation you have placed yourselves in. Firstly, I trusted Lizzie to do a job for me; she has failed to do so. This hurts me emotionally.”

  Lizzie hung her head. Tears were not far away.

  “Secondly, I am not getting the income from the house you rent. This hurts me financially.”

  Susie was frantically biting her lower lip in an attempt to stop her own tears. Carrie had grabbed Lizzie’s hand in an attempt to support her.

  “Thirdly, my year-end audit is due in three weeks. The accountants are sure to notice the amateurish cover up job Lizzie tried to do. This will hurt my reputation.”

  Carrie glared back at him. She’s the one with the spirit, he thought.

  “We’ve said we’re sorry. We said we’ll pay it back. What more can we do?”

  Hard surface on that young lady, but very brittle, he thought.

  “You may think that paying the money back is enough, but you are not in a position to do so before the audit, are you?”

  The three girls looked at one another and slowly shook their heads.

  “So, do I have any other choice than to call the police?”

  For emphasis he picked up the phone and looked at the ‘Local Crime Stoppers ‘Shop a Crook’ poster on the back wall of the office.

  “Please Phil… It was my idea… Don’t blame them.”

  Lizzie turned her large brown eyes onto him, pleading sub-vocally.

  “Girls, you have all committed the crime. Lizzie might have done the fraud in the office but you conspired with her by allowing her to do it on your behalf. You will all go down,
not just one of you.”

  “There must be something else we could do?”

  Chapter 2

  This time it was Carrie who spoke up as Lizzie and Susie broke into loud sobs. Her tears were not far away but she was determined not to cry.

  “Such as? I don’t need extra people in here, and, under the circumstances, I couldn’t trust you to take Lizzie’s place. I’ve got to advertise that in the morning.”

  Lizzie’s sobs were achingly loud now. She knew he would have no choice but to fire her, but it still came as a shock when she heard him actually say it.

  “Lizzie says you own most of the property along this side of the street?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Could you get us a job with any of your tenants?”

  “Actually, none of them are my tenants; they are all my business partners. So, having defrauded me once, you want me to let you have the opportunity to do so again?”

  “Well…not in a cash handling position obviously.”

  “Let’s see. Next door is the photographic studio. What do any of you know about handling digital media or studio lighting? Thought not. Next door to them is the beauty salon. Any of you qualified hairdressers or beauticians or tanning consultants? No, that’s not a starter either. How about Ahmed in the newsagents? No, he only employs boys or girls to run his paper rounds. He certainly could not afford to pay adult minimum wage. Unfortunately, the next unit is empty and that only leaves the club on the end. Do you want to work there ladies?”

  “You mean Skins?”

  “That’s right, it’s my club too. Even Lizzie didn’t know that.”

  “A strip club?”

  “You offered to work in one of my businesses to pay off the debt.”

  The three girls looked at one another, two of them still blurry-eyed from the earlier storm of weeping. They seemed to come to a decision and turned back to face Phil.

  “Okay, it’s better than prison or a criminal record. When do you want us to start?”

  Phil chuckled. He got up from behind the desk and went over to the small stereo system in the corner and turned it on. He selected the third CD in the unit and a low volume heavy beat rock track began to fill the room.

  “One at a time then, ladies.”

  They sat and stared at him in shock.

  “Nobody works at that club without auditioning. Come on. This was your idea, Carrie, you first.”

  “But… But… But the glass windows of the office. People can see in. You can’t expect us to do this in public.”

  Phil roared with laughter and then took a few seconds to compose himself.

  “I can’t believe you just said that. I really can’t. You propose to me, to work off the debt by working in my strip club, taking your clothes off in front of anything up to three hundred punters, and yet you won’t do so in front of the three of us in case someone sees you?”

  Carrie went bright red in embarrassment. Phil walked over and flipped the music system off. When he returned to his seat behind the desk he continued.

  “I hate to disappoint you anyway, girls, but none of you are the type my punters want to see. You are all very pretty young ladies in your own right, but none of you have the right shape to work at Skins. The punters like certain things. Carrie and Susie, I’m afraid that although you have the legs, you don’t have—how shall I put it—the tits. The clientele want big tits. You are tall, slim and willowy—very nice, I’m sure—but not what they want to pay to watch unwrapping themselves. Lizzie, you have the tits but I’m afraid your legs are too short. I can’t hire dancers who won’t draw in the punters, can I?”

  The girls hung their heads.

  “I’m not saying you three aren’t attractive in your own right, because you are, but you don’t have the necessary equipment to work a strip joint even if you had the dance training, which you don’t. I actually think that a night on that stage would break all three of you at this point. Sorry, think again. Time is of importance here. If I’m going to ring the police then I’ll have to do so in the next fifteen minutes before CID leave. If I call after that you three will have to spend the night in the cells.”

  “We’ll do anything, Mr. Parker, anything…”

  “Yes, anything.”

  “I agree… anything!”

  Phil raised his hand to his face and pretended to cough to hide the little smile he could not prevent playing across his lips.

  “Okay, ladies, what do you mean by ‘anything’?”

  Chapter 3

  It was the following evening and the three girls stood nervously waiting whilst Phil walked round the cavernous looking studio at the back of the photographic studio he part-owned, next door to the office he shared with Lizzie, flipping on the lights. The bright and very white lights sprang on in series across the roof, illuminating a profusion of equipment scattered around, some of which was obviously lighting but others were simply strange to the three novices. Also scattered around the studio were several props, including chairs and a large black leather settee.

  All three girls had spent the afternoon in the beauty parlor next door, following a morning spent shopping for very specific outfits. They had their hair done, then legs and other areas waxed, and full manicures and pedicures. For the last hour they had their makeup skilfully applied by the professional beauticians there. Phil had to admit that, although it had cost an arm and a leg for the full treatments, it had been worth it—all three looked stunning. Susie, the only blonde-haired girl among them had even had a session in the spray-tanning booth as he thought the other two’s natural winter paleness would accentuate their beauty.

  Phil busied himself for a couple more minutes whilst the three young women watched him nervously in silence.

  “Right, ladies.” They jumped as Phil’s voice penetrated the silence.

  “On the bench in front of you, you will find three copies of the modelling contract you have agreed to. Please read it through and check that it is as we agreed verbally last night, and then sign it. Remember, all three of you must sign their contracts. If one backs out, all of you will face a fraud charge.”

  All three took a breath, picked up the contracts and read them through. When they signed them, and they had discussed it late into the night the night before—and it was when, not if—they would be signing their freedom away for five nights a week for the next three months. They each approached the prospect with slightly different feelings. Lizzie had worked for, and with, Phil for four months and had found him to be both charming and attractive. Now she just felt sick at what she was going to do. Suzie, the tall, willowy, slim blonde, was a little excited by the prospect, she actually felt a tingle of anticipation, and she had always been the most outgoing of the three friends. Carrie fell somewhere in between.

  The contracts were, for the most part, boiler plate model release forms allowing Phil to do whatever he wished with the material he took of the girls. The front section specified the number of, the times and duration of, the shoots and the period of the contract. The remuneration was simply the rent money, including arrears and also, in Lizzie’s case, that she kept her job and pay. The surprise for the three young women was the inclusion of two weekly hair and beauty sessions, free of charge, and repayment of the cost of any clothing bought for the shoots. Any clothing they wore became their property.

  They looked up at Phil and looked down again, picked up the pens and signed both copies. Phil gathered up the paperwork and filed them in the cabinet at the back of the room which he locked, pocketing the key. Tonight, at least, he was taking it slow and taking no chances.

  * * * *

  “Okay, girls. Let’s get started. I know you are not professional models but you will have to take direction just as a pro would. I’ll take it slow and easy tonight but you will have to learn to respond correctly as we go. I think you first, Lizzie, as you know me best. The other two can watch; it’ll be their turn in front of the camera soon enough.”

  Phil nodded
his head towards one corner of the studio where a high wing-back armchair was positioned in front of a roll of plain green paper, three meters or so wide. He indicated Lizzie should sit and she perched nervously on the front of the seat cushion. The other two watched from behind Phil.

  “Now, lesson number one. I am not paying out the amount of money, time and effort to simply photograph nervous and scared-looking young women. I am forking this much out to photograph relaxed, confident, beautiful, happy young ladies. Am I clear, Lizzie?”

  Lizzie nodded, bit her lip and tried to smile. It came out as more of a grimace but Phil had to admit she was trying.

  “Okay, now lesson number two. Posture is all important. You are always to present a lifelike pose which demonstrates the asset or element of you the photographer is trying to capture. Perched on the edge of the seat like that is doing nothing. Lizzie, sit back, square in the chair. Let your back rest against the back of the chair. Allow your legs to hang down naturally. If your legs don’t quite reach the floor it doesn’t matter. That’s better.”

  Lizzie had followed his directions and was now sitting in a naturally more comfortable position. Her body, whilst still tense, was more relaxed than a minute or so ago. Just past Phil’s shoulders behind the bright lights she could see just dimly the faces of her two friends, trying to smile encouragement to her.

  “Good girl, that’s much better. Now, turn your head to the left. Good, now, look up… good, stretch your neck as you are looking up. Good.”

  Each good was accompanied by the click and slight whirr of the shutter mechanism on the expensive-looking camera he held.

  “Now, look back towards me. Good. Lower your chin a little. Good. Broaden your smile. Let me see some more teeth. Good. Very good. You are doing well, Lizzie. Now relax for a minute.”