…a model her age from Canada, she was sweet but innocent, experimenting herself with how the world of modelling worked, a night of fun but nothing special...
…a footballer playing in the Mexican Liga, she knew she was a trophy conquest for him, but she enjoyed herself regardless, and particularly enjoyed the stamina of a professional sportsman...
…an Australian fashion influencer turned model, visiting Mexico City, she had a body to die for and gave Luisa an enjoyable weekend after they met at a party, although it was Luisa's turn to be the experienced one, almost like the blind leading the blind…
There was the bad as well, the ugly side of modelling that Bel had alluded to and that Luisa had known existed. A photoshoot that felt wrong from the start, one that ended up with just the photographer and her in a deserted studio as evening fell and with no easy way to say no. An industry executive who invited Luisa to his hotel room to discuss creative plans and whose intentions became clear once the door was closed. In both cases the men involved were charming, considerate even, and would probably have been genuinely surprised to hear that Luisa hadn’t been entirely willing. She certainly didn't let onwhile she was with them. That was how it worked… the coercion was so wrapped up in flattery and opportunity that the people doing it rarely recognised it for what it was, and the people on the receiving end couldn’t quite point to the moment where they could have said no without it costing them.
Mercifully these were rare, and Luisa learned from them quickly. She built her own rules: if a shoot feels wrong, leave early; the hotel bar, never the hotel room; never be the last person on set. Easy to follow once she had enough standing in the industry to absorb the consequences of saying no, harder when she was starting out. But the experiences sharpened her instincts and, more than anything, reinforced her determination to operate on her own terms.
All-in-all though work gave her little time for anything romantic, and certainly not a relationship. She ended up being strategic in who she saw and when, always thinking through the frame of,would this harm my modelling career?
And in all that time still no sign of Bel, nearly two years on from Tulum. Bel still haunted her dreams and her fantasies, that night of indescribable pleasure still dominated her thoughts, but Luisa was starting to wonder if she might never see Bel again, realising that she needed to move on. It was, after all, entirely possible to never see someone you worked with on a shoot again, particularly if you modelled in different markets normally.
As she turned twenty she was happy with her career but knew that she needed something to accelerate it more, to be able to break out of the local market, while she was just as confused about her sexuality as she'd been when she first got back from Tulum... sometimes she felt quite straight, sometimes she felt quite lesbian, she really didn't know what she was still.
Oaxaca
But then she met Gabriela.
Gabriela was a lighting technician on a shoot in Oaxaca for a Mexican jewellery brand. Unlike the models and photographers Luisa typically worked with, Gabriela existed on the edges of fashion's glamour, one of the essential but often invisible people who made photoshoots possible.
Perhaps that was what drew Luisa to her... the way that Gabriela was refreshingly different to so many other people she’d encountered in the industry. She was thirty five, several inches shorter than Luisa, with a sturdy, practical build shaped by years of carrying heavy equipment rather than the mix of diet and exercise that lay behind models’ bodies. Her face was pretty, warm brown eyes that crinkled at the corners when she smiled, a slightly crooked nose that suggested it had been broken once and healed without medical treatment, cute in anI’m entirely comfortable in who I amway.
Gabriela wore her dark hair cropped short, more for convenience Luisa suspected than style, and dressed for comfort in well-worn jeans and simple t-shirts that revealed arms corded with lean muscle and covered in tattoos. She wore no makeup, no jewellery except a simple digital watch, nothing to call attention to herself. In a world where everyone was constantly on show, Gabriela simply was.
During the shoots themselves, while models and photographers did their thing and she was supposed to fade into the background, she’d sit off to one side either reading an old paperback or sketching in a small notebook. There was something refreshing about her complete lack of interest in being seen or admired, her focus on the work rather than the attention it might bring. She was there to do her job and nothing more.
On the third day, when rain delayed an outdoor shoot, Luisa wandered over to where Gabriela was sitting under a canvas awning, curious about what she was drawing.
"Nothing special," Gabriela said, showing Luisa a page filled with sketches of the crew in various poses... a makeup artist checking her phone, a model napping in a chair. And in the corner was a small sketch of Luisa herself, captured in an unguarded moment.
"You're good," said Luisa, genuinely impressed. "Have you studied art?"
Gabriela laughed. "No, not formally. But I've been drawing since I was young, a sort of hobby." She looked around and then leaned closer to confide in Luisa. "It's all that keeps me sane on these jobs..."
Their conversation flowed easily, picked up again at lunch and again when they had another rain delay late afternoon. It was so refreshing for Luisa to talk to someone without an agenda, with no politics or positioning or showing off as there was with the other models. Gabriela talked about lighting in that way that someone who genuinely loves their job talks, her eyes lighting up as she explained exactly why she'd arranged the lighting for the indoor part of the shoot as she had.
"It's the light that tells the story," Gabriela explained. "Without the right light, everything else is just an object." Luisa thought back to some of her recent modelling experiences and realised she was right. It was the light, sometimes, that turned the normal into something special.
Two days later, when the shoot ended, Luisa found herself reluctant to say goodbye. On impulse she sought Gabriela out and suggested dinner. "Just to continue our conversations," Luisa had added, suddenly acutely aware of how the invitation might sound.
Gabriela smiled, a knowing smile that said that she understood exactly what Luisa meant, even if Luisa herself hadn't quite understood it yet. "I'd like that," she replied simply.
Dinner turned into drinks afterwards, drinks into a walk through Oaxaca's historic centre, the walk into a moment stood at a crossroads, Luisa's hotel five minutes in one direction and Gabriela's apartment five minutes in the other, where neither could quite bring themself to say goodbye.
After an awkward few moments Gabriela leaned in to kiss her and Luisa responded without hesitation. All she knew was that she wanted Gabriela, wanted her right then with every fibre ofher being, desire and attraction that she'd not even realised all coalescing in that one moment.
The night that followed wasn't like Tulum and her night with Bel, lacking that almost supernatural connection and that sense of inevitability. But it was close, really very close. Genuine connection at an emotional level, a genuine connection without expectation or agenda. There was nothing performative, there was nothing to perform to. It was just the two of them in the moment.
They ended up back in Gabriela's apartment, clothes flying off rapidly in their desperation to hold and touch each other. Instead of the inevitable, subconscious mental comparison when with another model, seeing how their body matched up to hers, Luisa found that with Gabriela it was a journey of discovery, her body sturdy and soft in different places.
Luisa was stuck by how easily they communicated without words, reading each other's reactions, adjusting accordingly, finding a rhythm that felt natural. When Gabriela's mouth started to kiss her way down Luisa's body, finding her way between Luisa's legs, Luisa found that the pleasure built with what she could only describe as an honesty that had been missing from so many encounters since Tulum... pleasure because what Gabriela was doing to her was pleasurable, not pleasure because she felt like she needed to show she was enjoying herself.
"Is this good?" asked Gabriela, looking up at Luisa with genuine concern for her enjoyment, and the question itself, so simple and so attentive, intensified everything for her.
"Yes," Luisa moaned, breathless. "Please don't stop."
The orgasm built slowly, Gabriela paying close attention and making sure that it was neither too fast nor too slow, but when it peaked it hit unexpectedly hard, leaving Luisa shaking as the waves crashed through her, one moment begging Gabriela to stop and the next begging her to please, please keep going.
