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Annie stepped aside to welcome the girls into her apartment. Her husband, Dan, was away on business, and this was the new bride's first opportunity since the wedding for a 'girls' night out'. Joss, her maid-of-honour, smiled tentatively as she entered, followed quietly by the three bridesmaids, Leah, Krissy, and Mallory. The subdued atmosphere felt strange. Joss, Leah, Krissy, and Annie had grown up buds. They had gone through school together, and, in many ways, were as close as sisters. Mallory was a younger friend from work. Usually bubbly, her restrained demeanour seemed out of place.

Annie's wedding had been three weeks ago, followed by a week's honeymoon in Mexico. But her staggette had been the week before the wedding. And that was where it all happened! That was the current 'elephant in the room"!

Annabelle 'Annie' Fairchild was everything her name suggested: wholesome and genuine, with a charming country-girl innocence. Not glamorous, she was slim ? small, though not really short ? and small-busted ? shapely, with long, wavy, off-black, slightly auburn hair. The roots of much of her family tree had been in India, although its branches had spread, first to Fiji, and, several generations back, to Canada. Pretty in a homey, honest sort of way, she had a cute figure. But her real beauty danced in her eyes, and in her gorgeous smile. Annie was, however ? or had been, anyway ? naïve to a fault ? almost to the point of being pathetic ? but not quite.

Engaged to a truly nice guy, so happy, she had been walking on air. The first of her close friends to get married, she was also the first to get taken on a 'staggette'. Her friends teased her: "How could Miss Innocent end up being the first to tie the knot." "Maybe she has some secrets she's not sharing!"

While it was all in good fun, her best friend, Joss, the one who arranged the bachelorette party, harboured just a tiny bit of resentment.

Fairly tall, with an athletic build, Joss had shoulder length, mousy brown hair. She carried herself with a sort of sharp, no-nonsense poise ? a kind of mask, covering up a deep insecurity. Big-busted, she generally wore baggy or shapeless clothes to disguise her bosom. Often more a spectator than participant, she often seemed rather stand-off-ish, radiating a don't-mess-with-me attitude; notwithstanding, her friends knew that she was, in fact, a real softy beneath the hard-shelled exterior she presented to strangers.

Maybe because she'd been disillusioned too many times, had bailed out of repeated bad relationships, Joss was feeling kind of tired of Annie's effervescent smile and ever-sunny disposition. Although she knew she shouldn't be, Joss was jealous of Annie's enduring innocence.

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The staggette night's activities were to be a session of 'boudoir' photography with a professional photographer. A friend of a friend was apparently experienced with that sort of thing and had a studio in Gastown. "But," Joss had announced, "we'll have to start of with a few drinks, just to loosen everyone up a bit!" And so they did.

Annie had found herself getting increasingly intoxicated, almost uncomfortably so. Her condition was, in no small part, due to the fact that Joss had surreptitiously spiked her drink ? along with Mallory's.

Mallory, the new-kid-on-the-block, was somewhat of an unknown among the group. She had really just met the other bridesmaids, and felt a little intimidated by their age, shared history, and experience together. At 23 years old, Mallory was small, and young looking, but with a great figure. Her small breasts boasted large, prominent nipples ? often conspicuously high-beam. Her long, wavy, ebony hair, framed a cute face ? suggestive of an alluringly innocent Hispanic heritage. Mallory was excitable ? almost hyper ? and gullible.

For whatever reason ? Joss told herself she was just assisting the two innocents in tempering their inhibitions; and it probably was mostly innocent ? Joss had secretly conspired to drop a little GHB into a couple of their drinks. So, especially for Annie and Mallory, the night had been a whirlwind ? a miasma of lights and sensations. Indeed, all of them were still coming to terms with the whole thing.

In the end, nonetheless, the boudoir album had turned out great. Rather naughty and sensual, but classy and tasteful. It had been viewed somewhat apprehensively by the girls, just prior to the wedding, while they were getting dressed. They all agree that, in and of itself, it was pretty tame ? pretty harmless. And though all five girls had found it a little awkward, the wedding had gone off without a hitch.

"You know," Annie began, as much to break the self-conscious silence as anything, as the guests looked about and chose a seat, "I took the boudoir album on our honeymoon."

"You showed Dan?" Joss asked, a little skeptical.

"Yep."

Leah asked the question on everyones mind. "How'd that work out?"

"I was more than a bit worried, but he liked güvenilir bahis it. He was impressed with the quality and professionalism. He liked the studio logo ? Bedroom Secrets." Annie shrugged in a kind of 'who knew' sot of way. "He was really almost proud of me, it seemed. He actually chuckled about me 'displaying a bit of a wild side!'"

"If you only knew," she remembered thinking. But, she'd decided then and there that guilt achieved nothing; what's done is done. She intended to go on from there ? but first they'd all see what really happened.

Joss interrupted her reverie by holding up two USB keys and asking, "Out-take album or video?"

"Video," came the unanimous reply. Then they all sat, uneasy, agitated, as Joss approached the TV. None of them had seen it yet. They really had little idea what actually to expect.

They all sat, waiting in a charged silence as Joss inserted the flash drive, and returned to join Leah and Mallory on the couch. When they were settled, Annie, beside Krissy, on the love seat, pointed the remote and started the video.

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It began with, as they remembered, the only staged scene; them arriving at the door of the studio, and being welcomed into the foyer, by Grant and Simon, the photographer and his assistant. Grant was a friend of a friend of Leah's.

Relieved of their coats, they were escorted onto the studio floor, and seated on couches, while the gentlemen explained how the 'Boudoir shoot' would work. That was the extent of the staged part. The rest of the video was real! During a quick Q