Someone's Got to Pay the Mortgage (Patreon)

It had been a little over a year since Michael and Rachel Harper had ended up among that one percent of infected people whom the T-virus had left with no chance to simply recover and return to their old lives. In that time, Michael had first managed to hate his own reflection, then get used to it, and then learn to stand in front of a camera as if a young blonde named Mika had always existed, while Rachel, now Ray, had imperceptibly transformed from his wife into the person who chose the lighting, dealt with clients, and told him which way to turn and how to stand.

And if someone without any context looked at the two of them now, they would never have guessed that only a year ago the slim man behind the camera had been Rachel, his wife, while the young blonde in front of the lens had been forty-year-old Mike, who couldn't stand having his picture taken and grumbled even when Rachel merely asked him to look normally at the camera for a family photo. Now everything looked almost the other way around: Ray habitually checked the shot on the camera screen, while Mika, standing by their bedroom wall, turned her hip slightly without being reminded and adjusted a strand of blonde hair that had fallen over her breasts.

"You have a shoot at Bored Manic Ways tomorrow," Ray said in a completely casual tone, working the shutter and once again aiming the lens at the breasts Mika was professionally pushing out. "Don't forget that nurse uniform and, just in case, condoms. Although they said they have everything there, of course, but still."

"Uh-huh," she responded, and only frowned after the camera clicked. "Wait. What do you mean, 'you have a shoot'?"

"Exactly what it sounds like," Ray replied, lowering the camera and looking at the screen. "You shouldn't have lowered your chin in the last shot. Let's do it again."

Mika remained in the same pose for several more seconds, then slowly straightened up.

"Ray."

"What?"

"What fucking shoot are you talking about?"

"A movie," Ray replied and, seeing that Mika's expression had not changed at all, clarified, "An adult one. Not a photoshoot."

Mika stared at him for another couple of seconds as if waiting for him to continue and turn what she had just heard into something more familiar.

"What do you mean, 'adult'?"

"The usual meaning. They're filming a scene with you and another actor. You and I discussed it, and I've already arranged everything."

Mika opened her mouth, but immediately closed it again, feeling her breasts, already heavy enough, become especially heavy and alien at precisely those moments when her new body and position made themselves particularly stark reminders. Just a second ago, she had been pushing them out in front of the lens completely automatically because she had long since learned which angle her subscribers bought best, and now she suddenly lowered her gaze to her own cleavage and covered it with her palm.

"Oh, stay just like that," Ray suddenly perked up, clicking the shutter. "That expression is perfect. Just move your hand a little lower."

Mika slowly raised her eyes to him.

"Fuck you!"

She slowly lowered her hands and, no longer paying attention to the camera, looked at Ray.

"When exactly did we discuss this?"

"About two weeks ago," Ray said with a shrug, raising the camera again. "I asked if you were ready to try something more serious than the usual photos. You said, “If the pay is good, why not.”"

"I thought you meant a video!" Mika sharply turned her whole body toward him. "Our video. Where you're filming, and I'm..."

She faltered, suddenly discovering that even explaining the difference out loud was a little more difficult than she had expected.

"Four thousand bucks for the shoot," Ray finished for her as though that number alone should explain everything else at once. "For one day, Mika. One."

Mika froze with her mouth slightly open, then slowly looked away. Four thousand was far too specific an amount for her to simply tell Ray to fuck off again. That was almost three of their usual months, not counting particularly successful commissions.

"And what exactly am I supposed to do there for four thousand?"

Ray lowered the camera, and a faint smile appeared on his face.

"Whatever you want," Ray said with mild irony, watching a faint blush appear on Mika's cheeks after that and the sharp outlines of her nipples immediately show through the thin, almost transparent fabric of her bra.

"Whatever... whatever I want..." Mika said thoughtfully and immediately caught herself. "I mean, I don't want anything! What kind of offer is that anyway!"

Ray smirked and raised the camera, catching her in the lens again.

"Well, judging by your reaction, you still managed to imagine a few possibilities."

"I didn't imagine anything!" Mika instinctively hunched her shoulders, then noticed the lens pointed at her and irritably straightened them again. "I'm asking what's in the script, idiot. What do they want from me?"

"A nurse comes in to check on a patient at night," Ray explained, taking another shot. "Then there's about five minutes of dialogue, a little regular acting for the camera, and then you move on to the adult part. They sent over the script."

"And you read it?"

"Of course."

Mika stared at him.

"All of it?"

"Mika, I was negotiating your fee. It would've been a little strange not to find out what exactly they were planning to pay you four thousand for."

The words “your fee” sounded so natural that Mika did not immediately know how to answer. A year ago, she had been the one sitting at the kitchen table with a calculator, deciding which bills could wait until the next paycheck. Now Ray stood across from her with a camera, calmly discussing the price of her work tomorrow with some man she had never even seen.

"This is so fucked up..." Mika finally said, furrowing her brows and pouting her plump lips, which Ray immediately took advantage of by snapping a picture of that “hurt” little face of hers, especially popular with a certain category of her subscribers.

She immediately wiped that hateful expression off her face and straightened up.

"That's enough for today!" she shouted as if she were Mike again, Rachel's husband, that same forty-year-old man who could spend twelve hours wrestling with broken ventilation, changed the oil in the car himself, and was used to believing that he was the one who decided what their family agreed to and what it did not. Though the effect was somewhat spoiled by the fact that all of this was now being said in a high female voice, while Michael himself, still officially Michael according to his documents, but Mika to everyone around him, stood in the middle of the bedroom wearing almost nothing but lingerie, not resembling anything that could be called “dangerous” in the slightest, while Ray continued to hold the camera with perfect composure.

"Agreed," he unexpectedly conceded with ease and lowered the camera. "You need to rest before tomorrow."

"There is no 'tomorrow' yet," Mika grumbled, bending down for the robe thrown over the edge of the bed. "I haven't agreed to anything at all."

"Okay."

That calm “okay” made her freeze more than if Ray had started arguing. Mika straightened up with the robe in her hands and looked at him suspiciously.

"What's “okay”?"

"You didn't agree, so you didn't agree. I'll message them and say you turned it down."

Ray said it in a completely matter-of-fact tone, put the camera in its bag, and zipped it shut. Mika stared at him for a few more seconds, then finally put on the robe, but for some reason did not tie the belt.

"You're going to message them right now?"

"Why wait? They need to find someone else."

Mika's eyes flew wide open, and she blurted out nervously, quickly, and simply:

"I didn't say I was definitely turning it down."

And she immediately covered her mouth with her hand as if trying to physically shove back the words that had just escaped.

Ray slowly raised his eyes to her.

"Then what did you say?"

"I said..." Mika removed her palm from her lips and frowned. "That I hadn't agreed."

"Uh-huh."

"Don't 'uh-huh' me! Rachel, damn it, sometimes I think you actually believe I like being a big-titted slut."

Ray winced slightly at the old name, which Mika now used almost exclusively when she was angry, and said with a smirk:

"Don't you?"

Mika remained frozen with her robe untied, staring at Ray in sincere outrage for several seconds.

"What?!"

Ray burst out laughing, stepped closer, and looked into her eyes.

"I'm just kidding," he said, still smiling, and gently tugged at the edge of her untied robe. "Although four thousand dollars wouldn't even have made you consider an offer like this before."

"Before, I didn't have this," Mika spread her arms, demonstratively gesturing at her entire body. "Or the need to pay the mortgage with it."

"Your “this” is pretty profitable."

"Shut up."

Ray smirked but obediently fell silent. Mika pulled the robe closed and finally tied the belt, then walked past him to the bed and sat on the edge. For several seconds, she stared somewhere at the floor, nervously tapping her bare foot against the carpet.

Her mind flashed back over those same six months in which all of this had somehow managed to turn from completely unthinkable bullshit into an ordinary job.

First there had been the photo Ray took on his phone almost as a joke. Back then, Mika had spent another ten minutes arguing over the cleavage alone and demanding that he delete every other shot until Ray showed her the amount some guy had offered for five more photos in the same lingerie.

Then came proper lighting. A camera. Several outfits that Mike Harper would once have been too embarrassed even to carry to the checkout, and which Mika now chose herself before a shoot, considering which one would look better on camera. Then she caught herself for the first time fixing her hair in front of the lens without Ray prompting her. Then she noticed that she automatically sucked in her stomach and turned her best side toward the camera the moment she saw it pointed at her.

Each time, the boundary moved only a little.

'Only photos.'

Then, 'fine, a short video.'

Then, 'as long as my face isn't visible.'

Then it turned out that her face was exactly what brought in more money.

And a couple more months later, Mika was already irritably explaining to Ray that he had placed the light too high, which made her breasts look smaller in the video than they did in the photos.

She grimaced at the memory and rubbed the bridge of her nose with her fingers.

"God..."

"What?" Ray asked.

She raised her eyes to Ray. Without waiting for an answer, he casually took the memory card out of the camera, slipped it into the card reader, and sat down at the laptop as though for the last ten minutes they had not been discussing her possible porn debut, but just another commission for photos of her in stockings.

Mika had already opened her mouth, preparing to ask again about the script, the actor, the studio, and how the hell Ray had managed to arrange all of this without her, but stopped herself in time. She knew far too well how that conversation would end. Ray would say 'four thousand' again, she would say it was not about the money again, then she herself would ask what time the shoot started, and after that she would finally hate herself for being so predictable.

So Mika only shook her head and unexpectedly smiled.

"You know what the most disgusting part is?"

"Mm?" Ray did not even look away from the screen.

"That only a year ago, if someone had told me my wife would sit there choosing photos of my ass for men on the internet, I would've punched him."

Ray finally looked at her over the laptop.

"Technically, you can still do that now."

Mika stared at him for a couple of seconds, then looked down at her own hands and doubtfully clenched a fist. Yes. Punch him. Or caress him? The second option now even seemed like a more effective method.

She drew in a heavy breath. Her breasts swayed, pulling the bra straps tight against her delicate shoulders. Her eyes closed slightly.

Ray turned back to the laptop. Mika slowly ran her hand over her hair, tucking it behind her ear, and watched Ray calmly sort through today's photos for several more seconds.

Then her gaze slid to the bag of clothes for shoots lying by the wardrobe, with that same nurse uniform already inside among other things. She gave a quiet chuckle, rose from the bed, and headed for the bathroom.

"If I do end up going tomorrow, the four thousand is mine," she tossed over her shoulder.

Ray did not even turn around. "Of course."

"And you'll iron the uniform yourself."

"Okay."

"And this still doesn't mean anything!" Mika added from the hallway.

Ray smiled at the laptop screen and said nothing. Mika smiled too as she closed the door behind her: perhaps that silence was exactly what irritated her most right now.