“I’m all for taking the pictures you girls want me to take.” Chance admitted as he checked over his camera. “But I don’t know shit about setting up a website.”
“Do you know anybody that does?” Trish asked.
“Only my Dad, and I’m sure as hell not going to him with this.”
“Fair. I don’t know of anyone else though.”
“Ask Mandy or Ilyana?” he offered.
“I don’t know anyone.” Ilyana said.
“I’ll text Mandy and see if she knows of anyone.” Trish said, picking up her phone to send the text. A few minutes later, she had an answer.
“Mandy said the only one she could think of was Jakob, and as she has a lesson with him in a bit, she’ll ask him to contact me.”
“That’s handy. Hopefully he can do what you girls want.”
“With any luck.” Ilyana said
“Time will tell.” Trish said, adjusting the top to Ilyana’s two piece. Chance set his camera on the desk and reached behind the girls, pulling down a green screen. Heading into professional mode, he directed the girls on how to pose, while he proceeded to take pictures of them in their swimwear. When he felt he had enough, he let the girls get dressed while he ported the pics from the camera’s sd card over to the computer proper, then screen in any of a variety of backgrounds while he waited.
Ilyana was the first in the room, as Trish had stopped to check on the baby. “Well, how do they look?”
“Almost as good as the real thing.” Chance said with a smile. Ilyana playfully nudged him, while Trish went up to him and put her arms around him. “You’re such a sweetie.” she said, giving his cheek a kiss.
“Yeah yeah.” he said, smiling. The three of them went over the variety of pics they liked best, and Ilyana worked with her laptop and drawing tablet a rough layout of what the site they wanted to make should look like. Between both tasks, they were at it a couple of hours before Trish received the call from Jakob.
“Is this Trish?”
“Yes. Jakob, I presume?”
“Yea. Mandy told me you need some computer help?”
“Well…I don’t really know how to do what I want to do, so some help would be appreciated. I can pay for your time.” she added.
“Don’t worry about it – gives me something to do. Where should we meet?”
“Is my place okay? The rest of us are already here and the baby is sleeping.”
“That’s fine. Text me the address and I’ll head over.”
Trish hung up with him, and texted her address. “He’s on his way.” she said, pocketing her phone and stretching. She’d just straightened up when the baby began to fuss. “Go ahead and make yourselves comfortable while we wait on Jakob. I’ll tend to Emily.”
Ilyana took this as permission to raid the fridge, and Chance just worked on touching up the rough edges of the photos as best he knew how. When Jakob arrived, Chance was the one to answer the door, as Trish was still upstairs with Emily.
“Thanks man.” he said, giving Jakob’s hand a shake before letting him in. “Have a seat.”
“Thanks.” he said.
Next to Samuel, there was a gasp. “He looks like so much the same.” Tara breathed beside him. “I’m not…I wasn’t ready for this…” she stuttered, looking almost panicked. Samuel placed a hand on her shoulder. “I am sorry you weren’t prepared. He is here – he’s in good spirits. If you wish, I can guide you elsewhere.”
“No…no…I don’t want to be lost.” she said. “I’ll deal with whatever comes.”
Samuel nodded, and turned his attention back to Trish, who was finally heading downstairs.
“Sorry that took a while.” she apologized. “Emily didn’t want to settle down.”
“Wanted mama?” Chance asked.
“I think so.” she said. “Thanks for coming Jakob.” she said, greeting him with a friendly peck to the cheek.
“No problem. So what can I help you with?”
“I want to make a website for an event. Ilyana has a mock-up idea of what we’d like it to look like. However, we only want certain people to access it. Is it possible to do, I don’t know, like a one time use QR code or something?”
“Shouldn’t be too difficult. Let me see the mock-up, and tell me what content you want on the site.”
Ilyana passed over her laptop after she pulled up the mock-up.
“Well, in short, it’s for another party.”
“Another one?” he said, looking up from Ilyana’s laptop.
“Why not? Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves last time.”
“True enough – but are you sure?”
“Definitely. I’m inviting a few more people this time around, and hopefully going to have a little more to it.”
“Fair.” he looked back at the site. “Do you have any images you want me to put with this, or should I work on that?”
“I took some photos earlier.” Chance explained, then handed over the SD card with the touched up images to Jakob. With Ilyana’s permission, he put the SD into the card reader slot and downloaded the mock-up onto it.
“Is this all the information you want?”
“It should all be there. If anything changes, I’ll let you know.”
“Sounds good. Give me a few days? Might take a bit to work with the QR codes.”
“Fine by me.” Trish said. Jakob smiled, popped the SD out of the card reader, and handed the laptop back to Ilyana. Afterward, he stood.
“I’ll get right on this, and keep in touch throughout the process. Is the number I got earlier the best one to reach you with?”
“Yes.” Trish admitted. “Ilyana and Chance can give you theirs if need be.”
“Couldn’t hurt to have ’em.”
They handed their numbers over to Jakob, and he saved them to the phone. “Got it. Catch you later.”
“Later.” Trish said, showing him out.
“So.” Chance said, now that they were alone again. “I can tell you girls have something devious planned. Are you going to let me in on it, or do I have to wait and see?”
“Wait and see.” they said in unison, then laughed together.
~~~~~
As promised, a few days later Jakob sent a URL and QR code to Trish, to make sure it was to her liking. The background of the site was a picture of Trish on the left, facing right; Ilyana on the right, facing left. Between the two of them was a translucent box, detailing the following information:
You’ve Been Invited! centered at the top, in a fancy script font. Below that, a sentence: August 5th is National Friendship Day – what better way to celebrate it than with another party?. Below that was the time and place, and under that an area to RSVP. In a disclaimer at the bottom, it was noted that there would only be safe sex, that no one had to do anything they didn’t want to, and offered up more options than last time – for instance, in addition to condoms there would be lube, and some instruments, such as riding crops, cats o nine tails, handcuffs, and blindfolds.
Trish exclaimed the site perfect, and Jakob then emailed her the QR code. Trish got to work on drafting up the invitations. They were very simple – You’re Invited! in the same fancy script font the website used, with the QR code centered beneath – no other markings would be present. Next, she worked on elaborately printing out the names and addresses of all the recipients before preparing to mail them out.
The following people were invited:
Adrianna, Avery, Billy, Brandon, Chance, Charles, Claude, Ilyana, Jakob, Jacqueline, Jett, Lucas, Mandy, Mercy, Michael, Petra, Sergei, Timur, Tony, Vince