He didn’t want to admit to it, so he changed the subject.
“Sandy wants to go look at china.”
“Oh, shoot. Aubrey and I went last night, and I’d promised your sister I’d take her. I can tell her the places we went. They have a great selection.”
“That’s nice, but what I need, though, is for you to keep Lana busy while Sandy and I go shopping.”
“No problem. I’ll take her to check on the two princesses. That should be hours of fun for me.”
“So where should we go first so I don’t have to shop all day?”
I told him which store had more of what he was looking for. I also shared Aubrey’s advice about buying extra place settings and all the extras that went with them. I suggested he get three or four of the extra stuff because he threw bigger parties.
THE PHOTO SHOOT WAS a struggle. It’s hard not to show how you feel about someone, and my body language was showing through. The princesses were beastly, and Colin wasn’t happy with how the shoot was going. Finally, by lunch, Clare had had enough. I only heard snippets of her diatribe.
“Do you know who he is? ... Adrienne! ... Went out with Aubrey last night! ... Head out of your ass! ... Last day with Ford!”
Lana came strolling out.
“I think your ‘princesses,’ as you call them, will be better behaved after lunch, if they come back at all.”
“That’s great news. You want to get out of here and go grab a bite?” I asked her.
She looked at me and smiled. Once she saw me with Aubrey, she’d quit hitting on me. We were actually getting along. I wondered how long that was going to last.
“Hey, I’m buying lunch if anyone wants to go!” I told everyone.
I had seen what the caterer had brought, and wasn’t interested in salad and fruit for lunch. Clare, Colin, Kendal and the Range guy that demonstrated everything all joined us. We went to a pub around the corner and got some fish and chips. Turns out the Range guy’s name was Lou. He and Devin had been childhood friends. Lou and Kendal had hooked up. I totally missed that one.
When we got back, Devin and Sandy were smiling, until we all learned that the princesses had bailed. Ford had just opened their Paris office, and they were supplying the talent for Range Sports. Clare called the Paris office and they couldn’t get anyone till tomorrow. I pulled Devin aside.
“Hey, why not have Sandy and Kendal do it? They may not be rail-thin like the models today, but they’re both attractive and look more like your buyers. Plus, they’re both here, and I can help them if they get stuck.”
He thought about it for a moment and then smiled. Clare cut Devin a deal because her models had left us in the lurch. Sandy surprised me; she actually did well. Kendal was okay, but we had the chemistry of us all being friends, so that made up for a lot.
Towards the end of the shoot, the head of the Paris office showed up and had a long talk with Clare and Devin. When we were finally done, Clare waved me over and pulled me into the meeting. She introduced me to Vivian.
“David, you saw how Yvette and Raina acted the last two days. I need to train them to work with the American market. Can you give me some suggestions?”
I looked at Clare to see if it was okay or not.
“Tell her what you think. Yvette and Raina are two of our best faces, but no one’s calling them back. You’d be doing Ford a big favor to give your perspective. She needs to hear it from someone who’s worked with them.”
“For me, modeling is really simple. The first photographer I ever worked with told me how to be a good model. He said if I showed up on time, had a good attitude and followed direction, I would go a long ways. That sounds like common sense, but Yvette and Raina showed up late, had terrible attitudes, made rude comments and didn’t follow the photographer’s directions. They were perfect ... perfect prima donnas!
“Clare talked to them yesterday, and they straightened up for a few hours, but it didn’t stick. She confronted them again today because the work-product was suffering. We had better results this afternoon with two amateurs. I would suggest you look at the difference in photos and decide for yourself.”
Clare and Colin showed her the photos. By the time they were done, she was red in the face. Devin had paid a premium to get the cream of the crop from Ford. Kat had been a joy to work with, and he made a point of telling her that. I told her that Kat wanted to go to modeling camp in New York this summer. I had mistakenly told Kat it was in August. Clare gave her the actual dates in July. She said she’d make sure Kat was able to go.
ONCE THE MEETING WAS done, the head of the Paris office took me to the pub where we had appetizers.
“What can I do for you?” I asked.
“Ford has a strong image worldwide. Our office in Paris just opened and we need a jump-start. Deb suggested that I talk to you.”
“About what, specifically?” I asked.
It was a little mercenary, but I didn’t have a lot of time to mess around.
“I don’t know; what can you do for me?”
I called Kendal and had her join us.
“Kendal, this is Vivian. She is the head of the of the Paris office for Ford. Could you tell her what you do for the Chicago office?”
Kendal spent fifteen minutes going over the different ways they collaborated with Chicago. She pulled up a report that showed the increased profits Chicago had seen since the first of the year. The numbers weren’t huge, but they showed steady growth. For the Paris office, being a start-up, the additional revenue would make a difference.
She looked at me.
“What do you get from this?” she asked.
“David makes five percent off the top.”
“Kendal, would you show her what we did in New York?”
Kendal explained the leads I had produced from the industry party and showed her how much I made that weekend.
“David is still making money off of that. Adrienne is picking up another job every week or so from the contacts David helped generate.”
“I’m doing something similar with Aubrey tonight. If you want me to show you what I did, you need to work something out with Kendal.”
“I’m in. What’s this going to cost me?”
“First you need to get to know Aubrey. She’d be the perfect person to train your models. I’m not requiring that you hire her, I’m just making a suggestion. I think after you meet her, you’ll agree.”
“Fair enough.”
“Since this is a one-night deal, I want a premium. There’s a significant chance that nothing will come from tonight, but you’ll learn what I did to help Adrienne. I want twenty percent of your take for any contract that you sign within one year that’s the result of a lead from tonight. I’m also free to work the leads through Adrienne and Kendal. If we sign them, you get ten percent. That way it’s a win-win.”
She told us she needed to call New York to get approval. I told Kendal I wanted to make sure that Aubrey had a chance at making some money tonight because she was taking us to the parties. We decided on the standard 5% for bird-dogging business. She called Tom and had him get the contracts together. He also made plans to come to Paris and sign Vivian’s office up as a partner. I would bet that Mary would be on the plane with him.
AUBREY AND VIVIAN HIT it off. Aubrey had picked a nice place for dinner to start the evening. There were a few paparazzi, so we made a point to get Aubrey some publicity. During dinner, I set up their phones to scan business cards and send their contact info back. All three of us would get the lead. While we waited for a table, I took them into the bar where there was quite a crowd.
We came up to a group of three guys who all looked like they’d come straight from work. I put on a smile.
“Hi, sorry to interrupt, but I’m doing a little networking before dinner. I was wondering what line of work you were in.”
“Bits ’n bobs, why do you ask?”