Chapter 10: Ecstatic“Eighteen hundred dollars?”
“That’s minus my cut,” says Gary.
I’m in Gary’s studio office the next morning, sunlight shining through the window onto the white photo background. He’s just handed me a crisp cream-colored check.
“Just for a photo shoot?” I ask, in disbelief.
“That’s the business, baby,” he says. “It’ll be more as your name grows.”
I’m astonished. It would have taken me over a month at a minimum wage job to earn this amount of money. Instead, I went to a studio, put on some pretty clothes, and posed for pictures with beautiful men for just a few hours. I’m grateful, ecstatic, but at the same time remember that this was all due to luck. I was lucky to meet Mr. Night, to be introduced to Gary, to have a face that Gary liked, to be introduced to Leland, a
