The most thrilling night of my life, Part VII

Almost from the minute I arrived in Houston, I felt right at home. The city had lots to offer and I was making friends left and right. One of the bonuses that came with going away to school was for the first time in my life, I felt sense of complete independence. There was none of this telling my parents where I was going, what I could do, when I could go out, what time I had to be home, call if I was going to be late, what clothes I should wear out or anything like that. No, I could just about do anything I wanted and I came and went as I pretty well pleased. Even my older brother who was attending college and living at home certainly didn’t have anywhere near the freedom I did. And within just a few weeks, I had already developed a routine.

When the first semester came to a close my freshman year, I ended up making a 3.8 GPA (four A’s and one B). Of course my parents and Steve were as proud of me as they could be when I got home for Christmas break.

Before I knew it, school started back up in mid January for the second semester. This time I vowed to do even better and make straight A’s. I arrived a week before the second semester started so I could register and get settled back into my dorm again. When I walked into the lobby, Sean was there like he was my first semester to check my name off his list. This time however he informed me that, Don Hensen would be my roommate. I had known Don from the previous semester. In fact I had talked to him several times down in the recreation room and I would occasionally see him eating in the cafeteria. I knew he was a big time party go’er and skirt chaser. And without a doubt he was a big-time homophobe too. I overheard him remark several times in the past in front of his buddies down in the recreation room, “I sure wished all these faggots would just die of Aids”.

Needless to say, I sure as hell wasn’t about to out myself to him once we moved in together.

But little did I know our living situation together would be very short lived. About a month after the second semester began, Don got caught red-handed cheating on a major exam in his economics class. Needless to say once an investigation was conducted by the university’s board of regents along with the dean’s office, Don was expelled.

When I came back to my dorm one day after class, there was Don crying and totally dejected as he packed up his stuff while Sean stood over him making sure he was off campus no later than five o’clock that afternoon. And while I really felt sorry for him, I understood like everyone else that allowing him to stay would only tarnish the university’s reputation for cheating went right to the heart of any school’s integrity. I did give Don a big hug however and wished him the very best of luck just before Sean along with two campus police officers escorted him out of the building and off the university’s property.

A few days after Don’s abrupt departure and I had my own room again like I did the first semester when my roommate disappeared in Africa, Sean good naturally gave me the dubious slogan of : “Better think twice if you want Collin as your roommate at Rice”.

Everyone in my dorm got a big kick out of Sean’s motto and so did I after he posted it in huge letters inside the glass case bulletin board.

Then in mid February of that semester, I got the unexpected break of my life. Jim had picked me up on a Sunday morning because we were going to meet some of his friends for brunch. The restaurant we were all going to meet was located in the Montrose area. It was called the, House of Pies, but Jim told me the gay community nicknamed the place the, “House of Guys,” cause so many gays frequented the place.

After we all ate and then chatted while we digested our breakfast, this one gentleman, Alex who I had not met before asked if I had ever considered modeling for a living. By now I had grown about three inches since I my first gay experience with Trent some two and a half years before and was 5’9 with a slender, 150 lb. build. At first I thought he was kind of kidding. But Jim suddenly pinched my leg underneath the table and looked at me as if to say, “No, he’s serious-- listen up to what he has to say, Collin.”

Alex then said he had just obtained a rush job from a rather large swimsuit manufacture’s advertising agency. He told us the manufacture didn’t have much luck with their line the previous year for sales were off by over nine percent. He then said he felt I was a perfect fit to model their upcoming year’s swimsuit line. He went on to say the advertising agency was, as always, recommending professional and experienced male models be used to shoot the new line with. But somehow he felt what was needed was a fresh face like mine. Alex then put it in simple terms when he finally said, “What I am looking for, Collin is a fresh face to go along with a fresh product line. You know what I mean?”

When Jim asked why such a rush given it was winter and summer was still another five months away. Alex chuckled and replied that right then he was already two weeks behind. He explained just for starters there needed to be about a six month window for the advertising agency needed to sign contracts with all the various magazines vendors and before they could sign contracts, the magazine vendors needed to know what products would be featured, how big the add, what size add, the number of adds, the frequency of adds and so on and so fourth so the price could be negotiated up front just for starters.

So Alex said in essence summer merchandise was normally put together and marketed in winter, fall merchandise was put together and marketed in spring, winter merchandise was put together and marketed in summer, spring or Easter merchandise was put together and marketed in the fall.

Alex went on to say that if I was really interested, he needed a portfolio of photos made of me right away so he could show it to the advertising agency for they would be placing the adds in some 130 different magazines and other promo material. And he needed their blessing first before they would let him do a photo shoot of me for they were the one’s paying the bills.

Jim and I looked at one another first, then I looked over at Alex. I asked him when he wanted to shoot a portfolio of me. He quickly looked at everyone around our table and replied, “Look Collin, if you can do it today, I will call my makeup man and we will do an indoor shoot at my studio this afternoon. You will model a few sample swimsuits and we’ll shoot you up close against a blue and green background.

With that I looked at Jim and he looked back at me. Finally Jim replied, “Sure, why not, we don’t have any other plans today, Alex.”

It wasn’t but a few days after Alex shot my portfolio when he phoned to say that he got the advertising agency to go along with using me to model the swimsuit line. I was so excited, I immediately called Jim who just happened to be getting off a flight in Las Vegas. And while Jim was truly thrilled for me, he said I better call my parents first and let them know in case they had any objections. I didn’t think it was any big deal at the time, but Jim certainly did when he said, “You never know how your folks are going to react to something like this, Collin. So just call them to be sure.”

And sure enough Jim was right for when I first told my parents, my mom virtuously objected even though my dad thought it sounded great--especially when he learned how much money I would be making--around $10,000.

But at one point during our conversation, my mom got so upset with my dad when we were on a three-way conversation, she said, “Bill, I don’t care how the hell much it pays; I don’t want my baby being put on display for the whole damn world to see in just a swimsuit--he’s not a God damn a piece of meat you know, he’s our son.”

But my dad being the rational one of course, replied, “Honey, I don’t see what the big deal is. I mean boys, men, guys, whatever, normally wear bathing suits when they go swimming and people see them all the time whether they are at a pool or the beach. Would you prefer Collin tell them he will only wear a tuxedo around a pool for the photo shoot? I mean look at the money he will make and it’s very honest work too.”

Finally, my mom agreed to go along. It was the first time in the history of the world that my dad had ever won an argument with her. But she was still reluctant. My mom said in a kind of pissed off tone, “Ohhhhh, I hope this works out for Collin’s sake, Bill. Because if it doesn’t, I will never forgive you for letting him do this and I still don’t like it one bit.”

After I thanked my parents--especially my dad, I called Alex back and told him I would do it. I could tell he was excited as all hell for he exclaimed, “Great, can you be here tomorrow at say, one o’clock right after class--we’ll need to prep you and then do a four o’clock indoor shooting.”

I informed him that I didn’t have a car so he agreed to pick me up right outside my dorm.

When we walked in Alex’s studio the following day, I couldn’t believe it. There was a whole crew building an Hawaiian like setting complete with artificial palm trees, sand and outdoor furniture. Additionally there were two guys who were running lighting checks for the overhead lights that would be used.

Right away I was ushered off into a room where I was told to take off all my clothes except my underwear. A lady then put a robe on me and I was given a slight haircut. Once my hair was trimmed to her liking, my front teeth were whited and make-up was then applied to my face. I was then asked to remove my robe and a guy shaved what little body hair I had, then brushed skin tone color all over my chest and legs.

A few minutes later, I was given almost fifty pairs of basically the same kind of swimming trunks to try on only in different colors and sizes. Once the photo session began, I did my very best to follow Alex instructions, especially smile and look relaxed. I knew I was doing pretty good because he kept complementing me and so did the photographer while he rapidly clicked away one photo after another. The guy must have taken at least two hundred pictures of me from every angle and position each time I modeled a different color suit.

By the fifth shooting a few weeks later, I had gone from modeling the manufacture’s basic swimming trunks to modeling their upscale line of speedos, string-bikinis and even thongs. It kind of excited me for I felt like a bit of an exhibitionist in front of all those people. And there were at least five guys who worked on the set during each shooting that just about drooled over me every time I walked on the set.

When all was said and done that month, I actually ended up doing eight photo shoots. I couldn’t believe how much I got paid. Almost $12,000 for such easy work.

The first thing I did was take Jim out to this really nice French restaurant in downtown Houston where we partied and celebrated almost the whole night. When Jim asked what I was going to do with all that money, I told him I was going to save some of it and was also going buy a good cheap used car because I desperately wanted some wheels.

Jim just laughed, picked up his wine glass so he could toast me and replied, “Good for you Collin, good for you and here’s to your health.”

But more importantly, out of my career in modeling came my second and by far most memorable gay encounter in Houston just a few weeks later.

It all started when Alex phoned and asked if I wanted to stop by his studio that afternoon so he could show me some of the slicks ( the adds themselves) the advertising agency was going with in at least 100 magazines and other promotional material over the next five months. I could tell he was excited as all hell and so was I for I couldn’t wait to see them.

When I walked into his office later that afternoon, he was with a gentleman from the advertising agency. Alex quickly introduced me when he said, “Collin, meet Mr. Ellis, he’s the chairman and president of Landue Advertising Agency; the one who hired you for the job. We were just going over the slicks that I produced.”

As we stood there and shook hands, I knew he was definitely sizing me up just by the way he looked me up & down. And even though I didn’t think he was my type, I found him to be quite attractive for a man his age. I figured was in his early forties, about 5’11, green eyes, brown hair but slightly graying on the sides. A really sharp probably $800 to $1000 dollar business suit fitted his trim build perfectly. When he looked right into my eyes, a very pleasant smile crossed his soft and light complicated face.

Then he said, “Collin I’m very glad to meet you. I can’t tell you how proud I am of these slicks and I know they are really going to sell out client’s merchandise this year. And a big part of it will be because of all the hard work you and Alex did on this project.

I smiled at him and replied, “Well thank you, sir. I sure do hope they will be successful.”