UPDATE: Thank you all for your input. I read every comment more than once, and I also got more than one email and IM. Readers gave me very very considered thoughts here. I want to express my appreciation.
I have decided that I am not going to say anything. And that’s not because I’m afraid of confrontation (you all know that). It’s because the younger one’s comfort and security must take priority. If I bring this up with him, he’s just going to be mortified as fuck. He knows what he saw, I know what he saw, he knows I know what he saw. I mean, what is going to be good about re-hashing it? This isn’t burying my head in the sand, it’s just trying to give younger one some privacy.
I am really worried this is going to screw up my relationship with younger one. I like him so much, and he is very much a kind young lad. He did nothing wrong.
THIS IS WHAT WORRIES ME:
The Collector is not a man who makes mistakes. This is a very calculating individual. He is not sloppy.
What worries me is that he left that folder out on his desktop because he knew his son would see it. That folder did not get there by accident.
* * *
Well, I have a fucked up situation on my hands and could really use some advice.
Some months ago, the Collector took me on a vacation to Thailand. We had a blast. It was a really fun trip and he was the perfect boyfriend the entire time. Good sex, good food, beautiful hotel, rode the elephants in the jungle, watched Muay Thai fights two nights in a row, did the tourist thing and drank snake blood, all that good stuff.
Well, one day it was raining hard all day long so we just stayed in the hotel suite and played around all day. I went down to the salon and got my hair and makeup done, and then I let the Collector take photos of me in different lingerie outfits. He has a great camera and I’ve done some modeling, so I know how to pose. Some of the pictures turned out great. I seriously considered posting them here or in my prodomme ads, but it was an intimate time with my partner, and I didn’t want to violate that.
The pictures were not pornographic, but they are definitely provocative. I would not want my Mom to see them, even though I’m dressed in all of them. Think Maxim magazine or Playboy‘s lingerie issue. Me on the bed, me on the couch, me straddling a chair, cupping my boobs over my bra, silhouetted against the window. You know what I’m talking about.
Fast forward to recently. The Collector’s youngest son, who is now 15, flies in from Switzerland to visit Dad and his brother, who is going to a college in the Tristate area.
He had to finish a paper for school and e-mail it to his instructor. Well, he spilled a drink on his laptop and fried it. Laptop is ruined. Thank God he saved his work on Dropbox.
He didn’t have time to go to BestBuy and get a new one because he was working under a deadline and HAD to finish this paper, so he asked if he could use Dad’s computer in the library. This is a “public” computer–it’s not the one the Collector uses for business in his office. I’ve used this computer, the boys use the computer, guests use this computer.
Young one worked on that computer all day long.
(You see where this is going, right? I know you see where this is going.)
That evening, the young one started to act strangely around me. He was withdrawn and didn’t want to hang out and chat with me, or play chess or a video game (the video games drive the Collector crazy, but as long as the boy keeps his grades up, he doesn’t nag about it too much). I felt kinda like he was avoiding me. And his Dad, too, for that matter. Not that the Collector noticed–or, if he did, he didn’t say anything.
It took me about two days to realize the problem was ME, for reasons I will explain. I just assumed the kid was having some personal issue–maybe a problem with a girl, or a friend, or a bully at school, though I couldn’t imagine him getting bullied, since he’s good-looking and big for his age. Or, hell, maybe he was just being moody. Teenagers get moody sometimes. Hell, everyone gets moody sometimes.
“Is something troubling you, (Younger One)?” I asked. I thought we’d spent enough time together that it was appropriate for me to inquire. “You seem a little upset. Is it just my imagination?”
“No, I’m fine,” he said.
So then–THEN–I went to the computer to look up a restaurant menu to order some sushi delivery.
Guess what is there, my 8 readers! Guess what is there on the fucking desktop.
A folder named “Margo’s Sexy Vacation Pics.”
I clicked it.
YUP. About a hundred photos of me in my sexy underwear looking seductively at the cameraman who is obviously the younger one’s father, the Collector.
The desktop is immaculate. The desktop on my computer is complete chaos–it’s so cluttered that if that file was on it, it would probably escape notice. On THIS computer, though, it is practically the only file there.
My stomach flipped over and my heart started pounding.
The younger one HAD to have seen those photos. I mean, “Margo’s Sexy Vacation Pics?” How could he resist clickbait like that? I know I couldn’t! I can’t even blame him! I would have clicked it, too!
I deleted the entire folder and then emptied the recycle bin. I felt sick to my stomach. I felt humiliated.
Then I went to see the Collector and told him that I needed to speak with him in private. We went to his bedroom.
“Why the fuck did you have our vacation photos on that computer? On the desktop? I thought they were supposed to be on your private computer and password protected! The young one SAW those photos!”
The Collector just chuckled. Unbelievably.
“Relax. I’m sure he sees much more explicit content on the internet on a regular basis. Besides, you look great.”
That sound you hear is my jaw, hitting the floor.
“He sees more explicit stuff on the internet, but not of his father’s girlfriend!” I yelled.
“I am sure he did not mind seeing those pictures,” he said, still smiling.
“Of course he minds! That’s why he’s acting weird around me! Those pictures sexualized me to him! And they also suggest something about his father’s sex life! The last thing any kid wants to think about is their parent’s sex life! He’s probably freaked out! Collector, you could have just ruined my relationship with younger one!”
“I doubt it. He may look at you differently from now on, though. You are right about that. I’d be surprised if he hasn’t noticed you that way before, however. He’s not blind.”
I was so fed up that I just walked out.
This is my question, readers. Please advise:
Do I approach the younger one and say something like, “Oh, hey, I think you might have seen some pictures of your father and myself from our vacation in Thailand. Of me in my bikini and stuff. I’m sorry that you saw those photos. They were supposed to be private. I really hope it doesn’t make you uncomfortable.” And just leave it at that?
OR do I just say nothing and wait for it all to blow over? HOPING that it ever blows over? Pretend like it didn’t happen?
Readers, what do I DOOOOO?