The card sat heavy in his pocket, almost burning a hole through the cloth. Colin didn't know how much longer he could pretend to ignore it. He'd looked at it. He'd examined it. He'd stood in phone boxes and prepared himself to dial the numbers. But he wouldn't give Vendice that satisfaction!
Suzette was happy and talking about clothes.
Colin didn't have to worry about her. She was taken care of. And Dean's little offering had certainly come in handy. He took some time off Mario's and went out to take photos again. Just normal photos of normal teenagers out in the streets. They didn't shine so bright in the sun, but they had their glow.
And that was where Vendice found him again- leaning against the lamppost of a street and taking pictures of a couple a few metres away.
The man didn't even have to say anything. He just pushed open the car door and beckoned.
Colin hesitated for only a moment before he slipped in and slammed the door shut.
Squeal of tire and the blowing of someone's annoyed horn, but Vendice Partners didn't seem to care all that much about who he might potentially have cut off.
"Nice to see you," Vendice said.
"What do you want?"
"You are certainly stubborn," Vendice smiled, almost talking to himself, "You could have it all, Colin."
"I'm not selling out."
"What exactly is selling out, Colin? Hmmm? Tell me."
The youth didn't answer. He was busy looking at the world again. A woman in the next car kept looking over at the two of them and smiling. He didn't recognize her and he wondered if she knew Vendice. She certainly looked his type- all lacquered and painted.
Vendice looked over to the woman for an instant before dragging his eyes back to the road. He habitually drove fast, but he was damned if he drove recklessly. Accidents cut terribly into his schedules. "Friend of yours?" he asked negligently.
"Don't know her," Colin replied. He sighed for a moment and then took the camera from around his neck and the card from his pocket. "Okay. What's going on? What happens when I call this number?"
Vendice grinned in a rather smug way. "I have new offices, Colin; expansion is the name of the game. But we're not going there."
"Where are we going?"
Vendice didn't answer.
Colin settled in. They were heading out of the City, zooming down the road with single-minded intent. Wherever they were going, Vendice certainly knew what he was doing. Colin didn't see the point in arguing. Besides, he couldn't stay at Mario's forever- he'd go mad! Or he'd turn into his father, which was worse. So he could stay quiet for a while and wait.
"Where are we going?" he asked again, when it looked at though they were headed out into the country.
Vendice jerked his head around in preparation to turn off into a dusty track but even in the midst of this swift action, his voice remained unperturbed and potentially energetic. "You've met me at a rather important moment, Colin. I'm on my way to another shoot. New product. Very big business."
"What is it?" Colin clung to the car for dear life.
Vendice actually tossed a quick smile at him. "Does it matter?" he murmured.
Colin frowned in perplexity at the man but didn't bother bringing up the topic. The reason why Vendice Partners was in such a good mood was not an issue he wanted to explore. The reason why Vendice Partners wanted his camera so badly was another issue he didn't want to explore.
Colin liked taking pictures. He was pretty good with them, even if he did say so himself. But then again, so were a hundred other men in London alone. What made him so special he didn't know, but he didn't like the implications of those few episodes in their mutual past that made him doubly suspicious of Partners' motives.
After all, there were men like that. Everyone knew it. They just didn't talk about it. But there were men who… appreciated young men? Even if he didn't know why Vendice would think he was worth something like that.
"Dreaming again, son?"
Colin was tempted to point out that he wasn't Vendice's son in the least. But then again, he didn't know how old Vendice was. It could well be that the man was old enough to be his father. Colin doubted it- unless Ven had been another like Baby Boom- and even then it was patently obvious that the man was not, in fact, his father at all. Ven didn't look that old.
Maybe in his thirties?
"How old are you?" he demanded.
"Never ask a man his age unless you're about to knock his block off," Vendice advised distractedly.
Colin sighed and settled back in his seat. Wherever they were going, he was obviously not going to be told until they got there. The only thing they could do was wait. Only, it was late in the afternoon and they had already been driving for over forty minutes. If the shoot took as long as a few of his summer shoots had, they were in for a long bit of work. It would be a while before they got back to London.
They eventually pulled up outside of a small barn.
Cameramen were there. Lights were set up. Underdressed girls were standing around in thick coats and bored expressions.
Vendice almost didn't wait for the car to stop. He pulled up, switched off the engine and was out of the car already issuing orders.
'Pile the hay; set the lights; go spread out, my dear, we don't pay you to stand around and do fuck-all.'
Colin had forgotten how fast his boss worked.
In next to no time, the first photos were being taken. The large man with the big black bear was sweating even in the weak sunshine, his shirtsleeves rolled up. He grunted and grumbled continually when he wasn't silently biting his lip. The second one was younger, even more earnest, and he stammered at the start of every sentence he spoke.
Vendice stood back, one arm folded, the other cupping his chin and alternately rubbing against each other in a show of enforced restraint. His blue eyes were hawk-bright, fixed unwaveringly on the two girls as they affected different positions with the big, shiny car in the hay. His expression never changed, he never once opened his mouth while the photographers were in progress.
Colin wondered if he ever picked up a cigarette in that mood.
Eventually the cameras stopped. The two men stood back and nodded.
Vendice nodded once and then seemed to be standing with them before anyone had even seen him move. "Shit," he threw out, "Complete rubbish. The pose was wrong. The concept is wrong. The girls are so stiff they could be statues. I don't want statues; I want living, breathing visions of fucking beauty. Alright? Colin!"
Colin started and raised an eyebrow.
Vendice beckoned him over impatiently. "Hurry up, son, hurry up. What do you think? What can you do with this?"
"I think it looked okay," Colin confessed.
Vendice obviously controlled himself from expressing his true opinion of that. "Give me something else," he invited, "What do you imagine people want to see in an ad for a car? You think a rich businessman will buy it if we just ask him to?"
Put like that, it did look stupid.
It was the girls, Colin decided. They just stood around and looked pointless. The point was to use the girls, or not to have them at all. Personally speaking, he always looked at least once at the ads that had the half-naked girls in them. And he knew first-hand that people liked naughty pictures. This could be similar, if a little more legit.
He made a few tentative suggestions.
Vendice ordered everyone into corresponding order.
Colin took the first few shots as if they might burn him. Certainly the accusing gazes at his back were burning into his neck. And Vendice was standing right next to him, once more with one arm folded and the other with the fingers rubbing in enforced restraint. He could feel the blue eyes gazing coolly at the side of his face.
So he stepped forward, away from that cool gaze. And discovered a wonderful state of affairs. The new angle put a whole new light along the car's sleek body. The brunette with the wonderful grey eyes had her long left leg neatly dissecting that new light. It was the perfect focus.
"Nice, nice," he called, hoping fervently that the girl wouldn't move.
She did. But only to smile and lean forward invitingly, grey eyes and small shoulders.
"You, erm, what's your name?" Colin emerged briefly from around his camera with a laugh.
"Betty," she said hesitantly.
Colin was damned sure it wasn't her real name, but what the hell. If she wanted to call herself Betty who was he to say no. "Alright, Betty. And yours?"
The blond opened big brown eyes and smiled with a perfect set of teeth. "Violet."
"Violet. That's a pretty name. Okay, now here's what I need you both to do."
He told them. They did it, but he could see what Vendice said about being stiff. And the car was already too stiff; the girls were meant to be warm, welcoming bundles of living flesh. He coaxed them and shouted at them and eventually just took to complimenting them to distract them from the fact that he was snapping pictures of them that would make their fathers see red.
Vendice didn't interfere until the very end. And even then he only nodded once as per usual and refrained from saying that he hated it altogether. He ordered the entire entourage packed up and the barn set to rights. Then he ordered everyone to leave as soon as they were done. Then he went back to his car, slipped fluidly into the driver's seat and waited patiently for Colin to join him.
He drove away without another word.
Colin hung on and watched the sunset with a morose eye. Suzette would begin to worry if he wasn't home soon. Home. Napoly. He hated himself for succumbing so easily to Vendice's whirlwind tactics.
"That was good work," the man suddenly complimented. He didn't take his eyes from the road. "You do have talent."
"I won't work for you, Vendice," Colin warned, "I haven't changed my mind."
This time Vendice looked at him. Whipping his head back in front, he twisted the wheel abruptly and pulled up on the side of the road. And then he leaned to the side, dug around in the glove compartment with his gloved hand and pulled out a silver flask. He offered it silently to his young companion. When Colin refused, he shook his head and put it back.
"Why not?" he finally asked.
"I don't trust you."
"You take the photos I want and I'll pay you well. We're in business, not in bed."
Colin flushed and didn't choose to answer.
"Unless you don't want the money."
Colin still didn't choose to answer. He folded his arms and stared straight ahead, willing himself not to turn around and put his fist to Vendice's nose. As Henley pointed out, there was only so much he could do. He had no power, no position, no money. Vendice could buy and sell him if he gave him a reason to.
"Suzette," Vendice continued softly, "Is a lovely girl. Beautiful. And I bet you she knows it. Girls like her want fine houses and fine clothes. They want cars and jewels and expensive furniture. Where do you have her now?"
Colin tightened his jaw.
Vendice didn't bother to press his point. He put the car back into motion and pulled it back onto the road. He didn't need to say another word. He could almost read the conflicting thoughts in Colin's open face. He hummed to himself and turned on the radio, settling in while the strains of a harsh piano thundered out.
He dropped Colin off at the exact point he had picked him up. He didn't say anything more and Colin didn't ask. The young man slammed the door shut as he stalked out. Vendice pulled out instantly and made his way home.
Dido was there, red hair glowing in the golden wash of light from his lamps. She stood up, glass in one hand, cigarette in the other, and red lips shaping themselves for a kiss before he was even in at the door. His latest present hung around her neck, catching the light and mangling it to glorious shards of light against her pale skin. At least, he liked to imagine that it did.
He kissed her, his thumb forcing her mouth open to his tongue. She bit his tongue in retaliation. And he only laughed about it and drew away, letting her go to smirk self-assuredly in her chair.
"Where have you been, darling?" she crooned, "I've been waiting simply ages."
"Business, Dido, where else?" He offered her a crooked smile. "Give me a minute and I'm all yours."
"I should hope so," she remarked whimsically, "I don't share, you know. I'm most awfully possessive."
"Hm. Yes, well."
Vendice sat down at his table. He unlocked the little drawer and drew out a few sheets of paper and his address book. He wrote out a cheque to Colin, slipped it into an envelope and addressed it as per the information his private investigator had turned up. Then he opened his appointment book. He scanned the dates for the next month, picked one that he thought might interest that particular young man.
Dido was getting restive. She stood up, drained her glass and swished over to her lover's back. Winding her white arms around his neck, she proceeded to blow gently his ear.
His only response was to bat her way irritably and continue with his task. "Get out, Dido," he snapped.
The woman drew back with a huff and flounced away.
Vendice finished the terse note, signed it, slipped it into the envelope with the cheque and sealed the lot.
"I'm going," Dido announced coldly, "You can sit there with your damned business and forget all about anything to do with me."
"Ah, now, you wouldn't go and do a thing like that!" Vendice grabbed her before she could get to the door, pressing her up against it with his hands on either side of her pretty head. "Forgive me, darling. I had to finish it first."
"You pushed me away," Dido exclaimed, spots of angry colour in her cheeks, "I won't stand for it."
"Would you have rather I didn't attend to these matters?" Vendice dropped his voice to a low growl, nosing intimately against her shoulder and kissing the curve of her neck. "I wouldn't have the money to buy you this." He drew out the little trinket from his pocket and dangled it before her eyes.
She squealed in excitement as she melted against him, both hands reaching for the slender gold chain with the ruby pendant spinning lazily on the end.
"How pretty," she crowed, "For me? Oh, Vendice, it's beautiful!"
"I know." He was quite proud of his selections. So far they had kept Dido happy and off his back. Of course, he had other ways too… He leaned forward and kissed her cheek softly, intimately.
She stilled instantly and giggled, lowering the pendant and turning her face. She even licked her red lips in clear invitation. "I'm not sure I should forgive you," she provoked.
"I think you should," he retorted, kissing the tip of her nose.
Dido smiled; it was devotion of sorts in Vendice's own peculiar way. "Convince me," she whispered, kissing him hungrily.
Vendice Partners was quite happy to oblige. After all, the day that had proceeded so well had to have a good ending.