He leaned around the camera, put his face in the loose hair near my ear, pressing his rough cheek against my jawbone, then moved back behind the lens again. The shutter clicked. He smiled. “That was a good one.”

“I want to watch you move around the room,” he said. “Take your time.”

He backed away and I hesitated, wondering what to do in that empty space. I realized I’d liked his directions; I felt far more uneasy without them.

I walked over to the table, touched the edges.

He smiled, said nothing, put his face behind the camera.

I sat on the table. I felt I had to make something happen in order to hold his interest. I took the X-Acto knife and poked the pad of my index finger, just a little at first, idly cutting through the first few layers of skin, then harder, until blood came. Carlow moved closer, looking at me through the eye of the lens. I smeared it across the hem of the dress. The shutter clicked. I peeled the dress up, gathered the skirt around my waist and he moved closer still. I lifted one leg up on the table, leaning back on my elbows. The shutter clicked. I shucked the dress off entirely and lay down on the table, my limbs splayed over the sides. He leaned over, photographing my torso on top of the green grid, close enough for me to smell the citrus of his cologne.

“Get up,” he said, backing away. “Go somewhere else.”

I moved toward the ladder, scaling it up to the ceiling beam. I lay my body out along the beam and let my arms fall open. The wood was the same width as my back and I felt like I might fall if I moved at all, so I spread my legs, putting one on each side of the beam, feeling more secure that way. Carlow stood below me, his foot between my legs. I could hear the shutter. I imagined my arms and feet cut off by the beam in a way he’d find interesting.

He climbed up after me, standing at my feet, hunched over with the angle of the ceiling, looking down at me and snapping the shutter button. I could see the eye of the camera open and close. Then he pulled a flash out of his pocket and the light blinded me. I closed my eyes. I didn’t feel sexy exactly, though it was what I’d intended. I felt more dizzy than anything, high up on that thin beam, unsure how to get down without falling.

When I opened my eyes he offered me a hand to help me sit up, so I could climb back down.

On the floor again, he loaded his camera back into its case.

“That’s it?” I said, standing in the middle of the room, looking at my naked reflection in the windows.