Authors note: This story is different than any of my other stories or series. Although almost all of my stories contain some element(s) of an actual event in my earlier life, this story is completely true except for the names of the characters. As they used to say on the old TV series, Dragnet, the names have been changed to protect the innocent. These events took place in the early 1970s.
It all started on an unseasonably hot Saturday morning in June at the Houston Flea Market. I traveled to Houston from Long Beach, California to attend a technical writer's conference at the University of Texas but stayed to check out the Houston Flea Market. The conference leader, an avid amateur photographer, told me that I could pick up pro equipment there at bargain basement prices. I really wasn't in the need of anything specific at the time but I challenge you to show me any real photographer who can resist adding to his toys when the price is right. I was there waiting when the gates opened at 8 a.m. and had already bought several new lenses for my Nikon, a new camera bag to tote my finds out in, two new speed lights, an assortment of new filters when I wandered past a white van where two girls were selling cacti. I stopped dead in my tracks and made tracks over to the table displaying the potted cacti. The leggy brunette looked like she just stepped off the cover of Vogue. The blonde wasn't quite as beautiful as the brunette but they were both drop dead gorgeous in their Daisy Duke cutoffs and white halter-tops. You can imagine my surprise when they introduced themselves as being missionaries for The Foundation Faith Church. I had never heard of that church but I had never heard of women missionaries wearing Daisy Dukes and halter tops in public before either. Jessica and Veronica explained too me that they were selling the cacti to raise money to support themselves and their missionary church in Houston. As it turned out, there were two more members in their group, two guys, Mike and Roman. Jessica, the leggy brunette, was as American as apple pie, but Veronica was straight from the UK and her English accent turned me on. There's something very sexy about a pretty girl wearing Daisy Dukes and a halter-top, speaking with an English accent, at least there is for me.
I bought a dozen cacti that I really didn't want and accepted an invitation to attend one of their meetings. The meeting took place in an apartment in the Montrose area of Houston, an area bordering on River Oaks, the Beverly Hills of Houston. Actually, they rented two apartments, two adjoining apartments, in the complex. The two guys lived in the one and all four shared its kitchen, living room, etc. the girls lived slept in the second apartment and used it as their meeting place. The meeting was interesting to say the least but they didn't proselytize me but I hung around after meeting ended for coffee and cake.
The minute everyone else had left, Jessica and Veronica went into one of the bedrooms and slipped out of their dark blue pantyhose that they had worn during the meeting. Jessica walked over to where Mike was sitting and sat down sideways on his laps hanging her legs over the arm of his chair. Doing that made her dress slide high up on her thighs and Mike stroked her bare thighs as we talked. Veronica sat down near me on the small sofa with her legs pulled up beneath her, her knees pressing lightly against my thigh. Mike and Jessica told me then that they were planning to marry in another few weeks and were in need of a photographer but couldn't find one that they could afford. Jessica's parents, two very successful professionals from the City, were paying for everything else but didn't want to pay the travel expenses of a photographer from New York City to come to Houston. I told them that I do it for them as a wedding present.
Roman had disappeared into the apartment next door soon after Jessica had sat down on Mike's lap. Jessica and Veronica walked me to my car that night. They both kissed me goodbye. Jessica kissed me on the cheek. Veronica hugged me tightly and kissed me on the lips. I attended a few more of their meetings before the day of the wedding. Our evenings always ended the same way with Jessica setting on Mike's lap and Veronica setting beside me on the sofa. After the second meeting, Veronica sat with her body pressed against mine and laid her head on my shoulder. That night, as we kissed goodnight, she explained the reason for Romans behavior, he had hoped that they would become a couple just as Jessica and Mike had but he just didn't do anything for her. She liked his as a friend but they would never be anything more than friends. That night as we kissed goodnight she told me that she felt that she would like to be more than just friends with me.
Mike and Jessica's wedding day came before we knew it and it was a huge success.