Page 17 of Triplet Tease

I opened the web browser on my phone and typedin the unlikely search term. I wondered if it was a typo. TwelveAngels seemed more likely.

The first page of results told me immediatelythat the exhibition was called Twelve Angles and had gotten a lot ofpress coverage.

The gratuitous headlines gave me some idea ofthe controversy, and I clicked through to read the coverage.

A small scale photography exhibition by anup and coming young local artist stirred up controversy. There havebeen numerous complaints that the photographs are nothing more thanpornography. However, this and other work by Simon Bretton, son ofthe well-known billionaire, has been highly praised by many artexperts who have described the images as creative, expressive, andimaginative.

And so it went on.

The newspaper coverage didn’t show any of theimages in the exhibition, but it described them as being abstract anderotic, so that at first it wasn’t clear what was going on in thepictures. From the account, I guessed it was arty photographs thatweren’t what people were looking for when they wanted to look atporn. It was probably a lot of fuss over nothing.

Some of the more sensational headlines wereintriguing, so I read further. The issue that bothered the journalistwasn’t the photographs themselves but the relationship between themodels and the photographer.

Son of local businessman invites the worldto view photographs of his girlfriend having sex with his brothers.

That line plastered a broad smile on my face,and as I read more in the same vein, I found myself laughing.Newspaper journalists wrote pulp for prudes. There just wasn’t areal story at all, just titillation for people to tut at. Good forSimon and his brothers if they had sexy fun and photographed thething. They certainly weren’t the only ones. If the porn sites wereany measure of human desires, then I’d guess threesomes and groupactivities were pretty common.

Even though I hadn’t found anything shockingor surprising, I still read on.

The most curious thing was that at first, itclaimed the woman was Simon’s girlfriend and was having sex withhis brothers. But in another paragraph, it said she dated one or bothof the brothers, and finally that she was involved with all three menin a poly relationship. The article was confusing, probably becauseit confused the journalist.

It gave me something to think about, but Ididn’t have time to sort through my thoughts.

I swiped back to my messages and dashed a replyto Siena.

Me: “That was interesting. What do youthink?”

Siena: “About what?”

Me: “The photographs.”

Siena: “I’m not an art critic, but itdoesn’t worry me what he takes photos of.”

Me: “Me neither. If they aren’t hurtinganyone, then live and let live.”

Siena: “Good point. I don’t want to judgeother people’s life choices, and I’d like them not to judgemine.”

Me: “Right. Who are we to judge other people?It’s just harmless fun.”

Me: “I say, if you don’t like it, don’tlook at the photos.”

Siena: “Exactly what I think. Like if youdon’t want to see a stripper, don’t go to the lap dancing club.”

I couldn’t argue with her logic, although itwas a strange coincidence that I’d just signed up to go to one thefollowing night.

Me: “Yes. Exactly that.”

Me: “Like, if you don’t love animals, don’tget a pet.”

Siena: “Ooooh. That’s good.”

Siena: “If you don’t like your girlfriend,don’t move in with her.”

Me: “Makes sense.”

Me: “I wonder what’s the true story aboutthe woman in the photographs.”

Me: “I mean, is she really dating any ofthem?”

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