I knew that meant she had something planned for us. Exactly how far was she going to make us walk around naked? I turned around, and then anger turned into shock.

“Mia…” I said, “You’re… you’re dressed?” The blood drained from my face.

I stared at her and she looked down at herself. She was wearing dark leather boots, a long, tight skirt down to her ankles and a long-sleeved roll-neck sweater. She had a camera around her neck. She looked beautiful and sophisticated as she opened the large golf umbrella and held it over us.

“Yes,” she said in her matter-of-fact way, “You made me think, about seeing how it felt on your side. I wondered what it would be like.”

“But… that’s… that’s not what I meant!” I protested, “I didn’t mean ‘see what it’s like hanging out with a naked woman’!”

Mia shrugged. “Come,” she said, “this rain is perfect.”

She started to walk away but I stopped still with my hands on my hips.

“Uh-uh,” I said, shaking my head. “Let me in. I want to get my coat.”

“My coat, you mean,” she said with no trace of humour.

I sighed in frustration. “Mia, you know what I mean.” Surely she’d show some sympathy?

She shrugged again. “You may wait here, if you like. Or you know the way to your hotel.” She turned and began to walk away again.

I looked around: it was better to be with Mia than to wait here naked for her to return. I knew that compromise was not something that Mia understood. No wonder she was single. I scuttled after her.

The umbrella covered our heads but I could feel the rain splashing against my ankles. We walked in silence and I resigned myself to following Mia around until she had decided that my ordeal had lasted long enough. Except that, for her, this wasn’t an ordeal: it was an experiment, and an experience to be savoured.

“I envy you,” she said, “It’s wonderful to be nude in the rain.”

Read the rest of Interview With An Artist, and 11 other ENF stories, in Naked Women in Shorts