We hurried over to the main house because it was freezing out. We entered to find Adrienne talking to Devin. I could tell from Tiffany’s body language she wasn’t happy. Adrienne had supplanted Ford for finding one-off talent. They still had me under contract, but their other talent had left something to be desired at times. I personally thought Range was just unlucky. I’d found most of Ford’s models were very good at what they did.
When Devin saw us, he motioned Kara and me over. I looked at Kendal and she grinned, so I knew I’d like what he was going to tell me.
“Adrienne has just consented to work with both of you on this shoot.”
I now knew why Tiffany was upset. Adrienne’s offer to model almost assured that her company would have a lock on Range Sports for the foreseeable future. They would have to pony up someone like Hannah Minacci to combat that. I was hoping that was exactly what they’d do. I suddenly had a brilliant idea.
“Tiffany, could you come over here?” I said as I motioned to her.
“Did you hear that? Adrienne’s going to do the shoot with us. Do you think you could get Hannah to fly in?”
Devin stiffened. He was as bad as I was. Adrienne just whacked me on the back of the head for my efforts. Tiffany scurried off to make a phone call.
“You’re a genius,” Devin crowed.
“You might go broke with the caliber of talent David’s requesting,” Sandy warned.
Devin and I both glared at her voice of reason. Then Devin got a worried look.
“Don’t listen to her. Get your board of directors in here to watch the shoot. That should make everything okay,” I suggested. “I think we’ll need to do your bikini line. I’ve got about a week’s worth of ideas we could do with Hannah, Adrienne and Kara. We could even shoot a video like Victoria’s Secret does. We could call it ‘David’s Big Adventure!’”
That got everyone laughing. Tiffany came back with the bad news that Hannah was already booked.
For dinner, we had bison tenderloin stuffed with a cornbread stuffing with onions, wild mushrooms and pine nuts. I admit I pigged out a little bit. When we were done, Sandy tried to talk me into going into town and to go dancing. I begged off because I was still tired. Kara, Tiffany and Kendal all agreed to go. Devin decided it sounded like fun when he heard Kendal was going. I think he still liked her.
Adrienne, Tyler and I went back to the bunkhouse and I made hot chocolate. Adrienne started the fire, and we relaxed on the big leather couch. When we all were settled, she explained what was planned.
“Devin has given me some latitude to help with the shoots because I want to work with both you and Kara. I looked at some of your recent work, and I have some suggestions. As good as you two are, I really think I can make you both better models.”
This fell in line with what we talked about last spring. Every time I worked with Adrienne I learned something new. She went and got her tablet and pulled up all my photos I’d been doing with Mr. Hill over the last few weeks. I asked her how she got them and she told me Kendal sent her the photos. I kept forgetting I had the resale rights, giving Kendal access.
Spending a couple of hours with Adrienne going over photos was educational. I realized once again that I was a relative newcomer to the business. She explained how the photographers weren’t doing me any favors. She told me I needed to insist on better-quality people. Adrienne convinced me by showing me the difference between similar shoots that had been done in New York and my most recent ones. If money was the issue, I should offer to pay the difference. She guaranteed me it would be worth it. She showed me how I’d be able to resell shots for more money.
Adrienne also wanted to talk about what I had planned moving forward. I explained about the movie. She told me one movie could make me very marketable. She knew I wasn’t willing to commit a lot of time to modeling because of sports, but she suggested I focus on higher-exposure shoots. She said that while working for Mr. Hill was a steady income, it was holding me back. She wanted me to move beyond doing newspaper insert advertising.
She then offered to take me on and get me to the next level. I had a little bit of sticker shock when she said it would cost me 40%. With Tom and Kendal’s cut, I was at 50% of the total earned. When I worked for Mr. Hill directly, I was making 90% after Tom and Kendal earned their 10%. Then Adrienne showed me the price sheet for one of her clients she wanted me to work for.
It turns out I would actually be ahead financially, plus I would have Adrienne as my personal coach during the shoots. I told her to set it up with Kendal. For the work Adrienne was showing me, I would be clearing fifteen grand plus per shoot. I was making around forty-five hundred per shoot with Mr. Hill. This was a no-brainer.
Adrienne was going to take the modeling world by storm as an agent. I couldn’t wait to work with her.
Friday December 19
“GET UP! GET UP! GET up!” Kara shouted as she ran into my room and bounced on my bed.
I think somebody was a little overexcited for six-thirty in the morning. Of course, somebody had flown in from Italy, and her internal clock was messed up. I guess I should feel lucky that I got to sleep this late.
“Should we go wake everyone up?” I asked, getting into the spirit.
She nodded with a gleam in her eye.
I got up and went to put on my boxers.
“No, let’s go naked and wake them up. It’s more fun,” Kara said, as she pulled off her shorts and t-shirt.
We decided to wake up Adrienne and Tyler first. They were already awake when we came bursting in. The image of Tyler between Adrienne’s legs will be burnt into my memory forever. I tackled Tyler and Kara went for Adrienne. Adrienne had Kara pinned in record time. I don’t think she was trying very hard.
“No boys allowed!” Tyler told me.
“What? I promise to be good,” I begged.
Adrienne had Kara in a lip-lock as Tyler pushed me out of the room. What the hell! Life is so unfair. Mr. Happy was so hard he hurt. I went back to my room and abused him twice. For some reason, he’d remember seeing Kara and Adrienne rolling around on the bed, and from there my imagination would take over and my problem would spring back up.
I finally got up to go work out. The bunkhouse had a full gym, indoor pool and hot tub. After my workout, I went and made breakfast. The smell of coffee and bacon lured Tiffany and Kendal out of their room. I found all the fixings for omelets, so I made my agents breakfast.
Tyler came out first and gave me a kiss on the cheek. Kara was out next, followed a few minutes later by Adrienne. I ended up making them all omelets.
I made myself a six egg-white scramble with ham in it and had some of the leftover bacon and a hot tea. I’d sliced up some tomatoes to replace the normal potatoes you ate with eggs. I was back on my protein diet to help build up muscle and to reduce my overall body fat. After I’d eaten, I made a protein shake and took my supplements. The supplements were easier to take after I’d eaten.
We all went out front where Tiffany had a van for us all to ride in. On the ride to the shoot, I was in the very back with Kara and she snuggled up to me. She didn’t even feel bad that I got kicked out earlier. I can’t say that I blamed her; if Adrienne had pinned me to the bed, and Kara had been kicked out, I would have just gone with the flow.
WE DROVE TO PARK CITY, with Tiffany taking us through the downtown area. It reminded me of a Norman Rockwell painting of old Americana, as the old buildings were all decked out with Christmas decorations. We pulled up to a photo studio and everyone got out. Tiffany led us in, and the receptionist escorted us to the back where Bev, the photographer from last year, was setting up.
“David!” she called across the studio, came over, and gave me a hug.