“Yes, I got her to admit that she’s an evil girl. In any future cases, she can’t claim innocence. We’ve established that she’s devious and mean.”
“Yeah, right, just keep living in that fantasy world. You forget she gave me a grandchild.”
I sighed, knowing that trumped a lot of my cards. Then I brightened and Mom gave me a dirty look.
“David Allen Dawson, you will NOT be getting a girl pregnant just to win your cases. Judge Mom would not be pleased.”
I winked at her and dodged when she tried to swat my butt. I made a hasty exit before it got worse.
Monday February 17
I FOUND MYSELF IN THE conference room at Tom and Kendal’s offices. I noticed my butt picture had been replaced with my wolf one. I found the fridge in the cabinet and got myself a Coke. I heard someone clear her throat.
“May I ask what you’re doing?” she asked.
I spun my chair towards her and saw she was in a business suit with her arms crossed over her chest. She had dark hair pulled up off her shoulders and looked to be in her late twenties or early thirties. I gave her my winning smile.
“My Uncle Tom said he had some work for me. I snuck in to get a Coke.”
“Those are for clients only. Now let’s go find your uncle so that you’re not wandering around bothering people.”
Just then, Tom and Kendal walked in. Tom had heard the end of the exchange.
“What was young David doing?”
“I caught your nephew taking a soda.”
I sat down to watch the show. The tattletale had the nerve to give me a dirty look.
“Listen, David, we have a meeting with a client in a few minutes. Why don’t go hang out in your uncle’s office?” she said.
Tom gave me a wearied look. I kept quiet. Kendal sat down next to me, opened a folder, and pushed it in front of me. It was my latest financials. Tom spoke first.
“David, I’d like you to meet Angelina Hargrove. She’s the newest member of our team. She’ll be mentoring Kendal. I must apologize to you, Angel. I called you to this meeting and didn’t tell you who the client was. If you look at the picture on the wall, you might recognize David Dawson.”
“Well, hang me! I made a fool out of myself,” she said, and she came over and shook my hand.
Before Kendal could start going over my financials, Tom held up his hand to stop her.
“We’re waiting for one more. Before we get started, I want to tell David what Angel will be doing and get you updated on Eve. Angel comes to us from Stone Mountain Records. She started out promoting the label to radio stations to increase airplay for their artists. She also worked in talent acquisition before her latest position, which was talent development.
“She’ll be working with Eve Holliday. She, Kendal and Eve went and met with Stone Mountain Records last week. They didn’t tell us anything we hadn’t heard before. Eve needs to write some songs. They did like the sound of her voice and agreed that she has talent. We have her working with a voice coach. Angel requested some of the songs Eve has written, and she has some suggestions to make them more commercial.”
“Eve must trust you a lot. She doesn’t let just anyone look at her music,” I said.
“We get along very well. She’s a great girl with a lot of potential. I hear similar words about you,” Angel said.
Dad came into the room. I hadn’t expected him and didn’t realize he was interested in my modeling work. Mom had been more involved up to this point.
“Sorry I’m late. I had to drop David’s mom off at her appointment.”
“Mr. Dawson and I recently had a discussion. The result is that I asked Mr. Dawson to become more involved in David’s career,” Tom said, answering the question in my head.
“I believe you know Kendal,” Tom said as Dad shook her hand. “This is Angelina Hargrove, the newest member of the team. Angel has a varied background that will be a good fit here at Rigby, Thompson and Associates.”
Dad took a seat next to me while Kendal passed out a set of financials to everyone at the table.
“As you can see, David did well with his New York trips. He was able to cover Mrs. Dawson’s medical treatment to date. We would like to suggest that a portion of the money that David earns be put into a separate account dedicated to that treatment,” Kendal recommended.
I jumped in before Dad could say anything.
“Go ahead and do it.”
Dad just nodded.
“We’ve been looking for medical coverage that makes sense for Mrs. Dawson. I apologize for being presumptuous. We would suggest that you look for other employment.”
“I love working for the park district. I’ve been wrapped up with the care of my wife, but it’s time I pulled my weight. I can’t have David supporting the family and paying his mom’s medical bills. If you have any suggestions, I’m open to them.”
“I’m on the board for the Dunns. They have a golf and tennis center. The current manager of that section wants to retire. If you like, I can get an interview set up,” Tom told my Dad.
“Yes, thank you. That sounds like a terrific opportunity,” Dad said.
I knew Dad would do well in that setting. People liked him, and that was key to running any service operation.
Kendal got back to the financials.
“We’d like to set up two other accounts, one for college and another for a car. David has shared that his goal is to play college ball. We realize that he could get hurt. If he gets a full ride, then he could use the funds as a down payment on a house.”
That would work.
“That sounds fine to me,” Dad said.
“We’ve gotten your taxes back from the accountant. As you can see, we’d set aside enough funds to pay this year’s bill. The accountant made some recommendations. The first is that you pay yourself a salary, instead of just pulling funds out of your LLC. Another suggestion is that you begin to donate money to charities. I know you want to support your educating teen mothers program. We could move funds towards that. We need to set up a nonprofit to do it right. Donating money to charities will reduce your tax burden.”
“Yes, I want to do that, but my mom has some ideas also. She wants to help cancer patients. She’s probably not going to want to do anything over the next few weeks while she goes through chemo. Can I have her contact you when she’s feeling better?”
“If we set up a nonprofit with your mom at the head, we may be able to get some grant money to help. The government prefers to give their grants to women and minorities.”
“If that’s the case, could we put Angie in charge of the teen moms nonprofit?” I asked.
“Good idea,” Tom said. Kendal took notes on all of this.
“Let’s talk about your modeling. The first issue we have is that Ford went ballistic over your New York trip,” Tom said. “I didn’t tell you about it because we were seeing how it all shook out. Adrienne didn’t sign her new contract last Monday. I think Deb Thomas has all but guaranteed that this will be Adrienne’s last contract.
“Ford caught wind of the payday you and Adrienne pulled in,” Tom continued. “They demanded their cut. I actually got to be a lawyer and point out some relevant case law. They eventually backed down when I pointed out the language in your contract and the fact that they hadn’t procured the business.
“The other factor that had Ford in a tizzy was that Adrienne booked several jobs last week. She agreed to give them a small piece of it and Deb Thomas finally agreed. By the way, you’re getting a piece of it too, because it was your contacts that produced the work. We also get a cut because we’re stepping in to facilitate everything for Adrienne. We’re in negotiations with her to do her back-office work when she opens her new company.”
Tom looked at his calendar.
“She plans to sign a short-term contract and will be free of her obligations with Ford on August 17.”