a very smoky room dot com, Part 10

a very smoky room dot com
by Dromedary Joe

Part Ten: Bill the Cameraman

Bill lit another cigarette as he watched another wave crash upon the shore.
This was his weekend alone, he said to himself. He had decided to go out of
town and head for the beach so he could think about the inner turmoil he was
feeling.

 For the past year, Bill had been working as a cameraman for the largest
smoking fetish website on the web. He had been a freelance cameraman for over
5 years since he had gotten his college degree. He mostly did porn, which was
a somewhat unstable line of work for a cameraman, as websites tended to come
and go(or was it cum and go?), and wanted a job which he could have day in
and day out. He had done smoking fetish videos for several other sites and
had a reputation for doing a good job. 

So when a  website owner who happened to live in the same town he lived in
made the biggest smoking fetish video ever and was looking for a full time
cameraman, he knew that was the gig for him. He filmed his first video for
averysmokyroom.com   and Darren shortly after they had met. Darren offered
him the job full time, and the rest was history. They became the best of
friends and it seemed like a long time relationship, both personal and
business had been forged.

Then the unexpected happened and Cupid made things messy. Darren had a policy
of personally not getting involved with any models and while he had never
explicitly forbidden Bill to do the same, it was sort of a given that Darren
would frown upon it. Camille had asked him if he wanted to come over her
house after a shoot one night, they got drunk, messed around and started
going out. He had originally thought she was a bitch when he first started
filming her, sort of like a smoking fetish prima Donna who always had to get
her way. As he got to know her after they started going out, he realized she
was actually a very sweet girl. He loved her very much even though he knew
she loved someone else more...

For Bill, loyalty was a very important thing. He was loyal to Darren as an
employer and as a friend, but he was also loyal to his girlfriend
Camille/Mindy (or "Minty" as he called her, a play on her real name as well
as her fondness for chain smoking Newports which gave her breath a perpetual
minty taste). For a while, it had been almost exciting keeping the
relationship a secret from his best friend, Darren as they would make out in
the dressing room when Darren wasn't around and things like that. Lately,
though, Mindy and Darren hadn't been getting along too well. There had always
been some tension between his girlfriend and his best friend. Mindy felt that
she had been used her first month of working for Darren as he paid her meager
amounts of money while he was drawing in six figures. She had made Darren.
But it was also true that Darren had made her. She wasn't aware of the fetish
before Darren and after all Darren had come up with some of the best ideas
such as the one for Camille Solo X. Bill hoped that it could all work out- he
saw the three of them as almost a team. Unfortunately, Mindy had her mind set
on ending the whole thing.

"Darren is such an asshole," Mindy said as she exhaled another plume of
smoke, "We could both make a lot more money if we worked for another website.
Every smoking fetish site on the Internet would love to have me as their star
and you as their cameraman."

"Look, I know you and Darren have been fighting lately, but why don't we just
try to work it out? I love you, but you know he`s my best friend."

"Fuck that, why can't we just start our own website?. That fucker Darren can
go live at the old motel I used to live at on the east side and then he'll
realize he should have treated us both better."

So Bill decided it was a good time to get out of town for the weekend to
think about the future. So he went to the beach to soak up some rays and
maybe do some surfing, in peace. Bill frowned and looked at his cell phone
which was ringing. Didn't he tell her he needed time alone to think this
weekend? Mindy had promised to honor that. So much for that...

"Yes?" asked Bill waiting to see what could be this important that it
couldn't wait. 

"Bill, Bill, Juliet is missing. I don't know where she is," Mindy said crying
hysterically.

"Wait a second. Take a breath and slow down a little. It's going to be okay.
What's going on?" Bill asked trying to sound reassuring and try to found out
what the hell was going on at the same time.

"Juliet, she never came home last night. She said she was going somewhere and
she never came home. I don't know what to do. The police say she's probably
at a guy's house or something and they won't do anything unless it's been 24
hours and it`s not like her to do this and..." she started bawling. 

Bill was silent for a moment. "Baby, I can get there in a couple hours okay?"
He wasn't sure how he could help, but he wanted to be there for moral support
if nothing else. He loved her. She loved him too, but he knew if there was
one thing, one person she loved more it was her Jules...

Bill lit up another Marlboro as he started the drive back home. Mindy had a
strange relationship with Juliet. Here she was the biggest smoking fetish
model ever and she had somewhat of a smoking fetish herself. And not directed
at someone who actually smoked, it involved her best friend who was adamantly
non-smoking. He had heard enough about Juliet to know that she would probably
never even think about smoking and wouldn't ever think of watching her best
friend smoke, not in a sexy way at least. Then again, Mindy did have a way of
smoking which was very sexy. Bill himself didn't have a fetish for smoking,
but he had to admit himself that Mindy was extremely hot when she smoked.
Bill had never seen Juliet in person. He'd of course seen pictures of her in
Mindy's wallet and the usual pictures of Mindy and Juliet hanging around the
walls of their house. Like Mindy, Juliet was a very beautiful girl. He'd been
over there a lot lately, but had never seen Juliet as Mindy and Bill tended
to stay on the smoking side of the house which was no man's land for Juliet,
it seemed. Besides, Juliet was upstairs studying all the time. He spent a
whole night over there a week ago and she hadn't left her room the whole
time.

"Hey, maybe she's up in her room masturbating to one of your videos." Bill
suggested to Mindy alluding to the comments she had made in Camille Solo V.

They both laughed because they knew that was an absurd suggestion.

Bill was about fifteen minutes from town when his cell phone rang. It was
Mindy. He took a deep breathe. He hoped it was good news. 

He answered it and Mindy said, "Hey, Bill, she's okay. She was at a guy's
house overnight."

"A non-smoking guy's house no doubt," Bill said. He was kind of surprised.
Everything he had heard about Juliet  suggested she was  prude about sex. 

"Yeah, I suppose that's a given. I guess she was up all night because she
said she had to go to bed,"  said Mindy.

"Hmm. Juliet was getting some all night long. I guess they skipped the
post-coital cigarettes though," said Bill.

Mindy laughed and apologized for ruining his weekend at the beach.

"It's okay, baby. I have some editing to do at the studio, so I think I'm
going to be there for a few hours. Maybe we can go out to dinner tonight,
okay?

"That would be great. Would you mind if Juliet tagged along? You keep on
saying you want to meet her. Maybe she won't be so upset about me dating the
cameraman  at my website since she just got laid and might be in a good
mood."

"That would be cool. Hey, I'll talk to you in a few hours, Minty."

They both said their  obligatory "I love you," and Bill hung up.

Bill got to the studio and unlocked the door with his key. The studio was
always very smoky, but this day it seemed smokier than usual, which seemed
odd since the last film had been made Thursday, three days earlier. He got
into the living room where most of the filming took place. It was really
smoky in there and he noticed the ashtray was filled to the rim with Newport
100's. No, not just filled to the rim, but with some butts on the floor
because they had spilled out of the ashtray. It smelled of sweat in the room.
He thought back to the last shoot. They had had a new model and the last
scene was one where the new model smoked Marlboro Lights 100's. Newport 100's
were Camille's favorite brand, the ones she smoked most often. Had Darren
filmed without him? Maybe he was being replaced as a cameraman. He was
starting to get paranoid, but then reason took over. Darren knew Bill and
Mindy were close, although Bill was sure Darren thought it was all platonic.
If for no other reason, Darren would probably never replace him because
firing him meant Camille would go elsewhere. When you factor in the fact that
Darren and Bill were best friends and that Bill was a damned good cameraman,
Bill knew he had job security. Still, this was all odd.

He looked at the camera and noticed that the camera's memory was full. It was
a top of the line digital video camera and it had a lot of space, it could
record for 10 hours before a download to the computer would be needed. Maybe
whoever used it last just turned it on, but forgot to empty the contents onto
the computer leaving it running the whole time. He hooked it up to the
computer where they usually did editing. He would watch this film...

He downloaded it to the computer and what he would see and hear shocked him.
He started it and quickly paused it when he saw the girl who was sitting down
on the couch.

"Juliet?" he said out loud to no one in particular. He rewound it to watch
the beginning again. He had seen that face on pictures which Mindy showed him
before. That can't be her, just a girl who looks a lot like her, he thought.
Then he saw a close up of her face. It was Juliet. She had just pulled a
cigarette out of the pack of Newport 100's in her hand. She was about to
light up.

She lit up and Bill noticed she wasn't a novice. She must have been smoking
for a while. What amazed Bill- and he knew details like this as a cameraman
for a smoking fetish film company, was that her style of smoking was
strikingly similar to Camille's- almost as if she had patterned it after
Camille's style of smoking. Did Mindy know? She must not have known- she
would have told me, Bill thought to himself.

He watched the entire video or at least up to the part where Juliet ripped
off Darren's clothes. He knew where this was headed, Bill laughed to himself.
So, his best friend was now an item with Mindy's best friend, Juliet. He was
dieing to call Mindy...

He picked up his cell phone, and thought for another minute. He would wait
for a while before he told Mindy. He would call Darren first. He wanted to
know the scoop on this.

He called Darren and Darren picked up after about eight rings.

"Hey what's up? How are things at the beach?" asked Darren sounding groggy. 

He had interrupted Darren's sleep, Bill thought. He almost forgot Darren had
just had an all night fuck-fest with the queen of anti-smokers who now
happens to be a chain smoker.

"Well, I left a few hours ago. Camille called me upset because Juliet hadn't
come home last night. So I thought I'd help her any way I could and came back
home."

"Really," Darren said trying to sound surprised, "Is she okay?"

"Yeah, she's okay. Apparently, Juliet was out all night with a guy." said
Bill trying not to give away that he knew what guy.

"Really," said Darren, "Did she say who the guy was?"

"Nah, I don't think Camille knows," Bill said, "But you know how much Juliet
hates smoking so it's probably some non-smoker." Bill sounded convincing and
laughed at the irony of Juliet going out with a non-smoker who had a smoking
fetish and being a chain smoker herself now.

"Yeah, he's probably a non-smoker," and Darren laughed.

"Hey, let's do lunch, Darren." Bill suggested.

"Alright, give me an hour and meet me at the usual spot," said Darren.

Bill got there first and wondered how he should bring up all the things he
wanted to talk about. Darren got there a little late and asked Bill how his
weekend went. "Pretty good, and yours?" said Bill.

"Not bad," said Darren obviously not wanting his friend to know too many
details. "Actually it was a really good weekend."

Bill knew a good opening when he saw one and laughing said, "Yeah, I know- I
saw the video."

Darren's jaw dropped open and Bill laughed a little more.

"Don't worry, I stopped it right when she ripped off your shirt," said Bill,
"I really hate movies which become too predictable before the climax"

"Does Camille know?" asked Darren.

"No, I haven't said anything. I'm kinda surprised, though. I mean you're
Mister I-don't-get-involved-with-my-girls."

"Come on, Bill. It's not as if you and Camille aren't a couple or anything.

It was Bill's turn to be surprised and he said, "You know?"

"Of course I know. I've known since you went over her house for drinks. I
just figured maybe you'd let me know eventually. I mean we are best friends."

"And now our girlfriends are best friends," added Bill. And he thought to
himself how ironic it was that their girlfriends were madly in love with each
other.

They talked for a little while and then Bill got the courage to say what else
was on his mind. 

"You know Mindy's getting restless and looking to leave your site. She feels
you don't appreciate her enough."

"I know that. And she probably has a good point. Without her, I wouldn't be
living the good life."

"But without you, none of this would have been possible," Bill reminded him.

"You know, you've been a big part of the success too Bill," Darren said, "And
I've thought a lot about this. I want you and Mindy and now Jules to all be
happy, so I thought up this plan..."

He told Bill and they both agreed this was a good idea. No this wasn't a good
idea, it was a great idea. They were already the biggest smoking fetish site
ever. What they would do next would blow the lid off the whole thing and make
it famous outside the fetish community...

Bill got on the phone with Mindy.

"Hey, you know how you were talking about having Juliet hang out with us
tonight? I talked to a friend and I found her a date for tonight," said Bill.

"Who is it? It's not someone who is a smoker, is it? You know how Jules is
about these things. Is it someone I know?" asked Mindy.

"Maybe," said Bill, "But you'll see when we get there. Call me back if she
doesn't want to come, okay."

Bill gave Darren a high five after he hung up the phone. Tonight would
totally fuckin' rock...

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