“I hear good things about your movie. Are you and Halle really dating?” she asked.
Hannah wasn’t sure who she was, so I showed her a picture of Halle.
“We’re friends. She wanted some publicity, so we went out a few times,” I said, working it like a seasoned fly fisherman putting the bait right in front of the big fish.
Hannah seemed to be thinking about it. My only problem was, Hannah didn’t need me, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to give it my best shot. She finally looked over at Adrienne and the jig was up. Hannah blushed.
“Did he just do that to me?” she asked incredulously.
“Yep, that’s my boy,” Adrienne crowed.
“Hey, you both owe me a Prom date!”
“In your dreams, Buster,” Hannah said with a big grin, while Adrienne stuck her tongue out at me.
I could tell I was wearing them down. It might not be this year, but I would get one of them to go to a prom with me.
GREG AND ANGIE DID their tour of the room. I asked Adrienne if she wanted to join me. She talked Hannah into meeting people with us. You’d be amazed at the number of people who are willing to talk to you if you have a supermodel on each arm. Then, to top it off, if you ask them for money for your nonprofit, they would whip out their checkbooks and give you lots of it. I figured out pretty quickly that if Adrienne or Hannah asked, the checks were bigger. I would need to get them both to the next fundraiser I was involved with.
They were also very good at convincing the talent to donate their time. I personally wasn’t given a choice, but I think I’d get over it. I was already scheduled to meet with Hannah and Adrienne after I finished up at Dakora tomorrow.
GREG AND ANGIE WERE exhausted when we got back. Angie had talked to the other directors of the nonprofits to get ideas. They all seemed to have the same problem: not enough funding. They hated the constant battle of trying to do good things while having to spend a large part of their time working to get the money to get them done. They were thrilled about some of the ideas they had learned tonight. I could tell Angie was excited.
I went downstairs to the apartment. Tyler had given each of us a key, so I snuck into bed with Kara. I hadn’t seen my friend for a while and I missed her.
“You smell like perfume,” Kara accused me after she’d given me a kiss. “Go take a shower.”
I crawled out of bed and did as ordered. I think it was all a ruse to get me naked because she attacked me in the shower. I liked how she thought. She used me in several pleasurable ways. I really wished (again) that Kara wasn’t working full time. I would have loved to be her boyfriend, but not part-time. She finally was able to slay the beast.
“Are you sure you can’t get it up again?” she asked.
“Give me a minute,” I answered.
“While you’re reviving, I need to talk to you.”
Not her too!
“I’m worried about Gina. What happened between her and Alan?”
“Neither of them really said. I think they just decided it had run its course. I haven’t heard either one say anything bad about the other. If there was anything earth-shattering, Alan would have told me,” I shared.
“Does she seem happy?”
“I think she was a little unsure of how we’d all treat her. At lunch, Alan made a point of making sure she was welcome at our tables. She doesn’t call me a slut as much as she used to, but I don’t know if it’s because she’s worried about what I think, or if it’s just a function of me being gone so much.”
“So, you measure people’s happiness by them calling you a slut?”
“Pretty much,” I said, showing her that Mr. Happy had come out of his coma.
“You are a slut,” she said, and then squealed as I jumped on her.
Chapter 6 – Only the Lonely
Sunday February 8
I bounced out of bed early and started making a racket to wake up all the girls. They apparently had been out showing Gina the town last night, based on the drunken noises they’d made at two in the morning.
“David, shut up!” Olivia complained.
“If you get up, I’ll buy you breakfast,” I offered.
“I think I just threw up in my mouth,” Gina complained.
“We can then go to my shoot,” I said as the models all threw stuff at me. “We’re shooting accessories.”
That was code for underwear. I heard a bunch of grumbling, but they were soon up getting their showers. Kara had to explain it to Gina, but then Gina ran into the bathroom, to the amusement of her sister. I went upstairs and crawled in bed with Greg and Angie. I was entertained when she snuggled up to me. Greg cracked an eye open.
“What are you doing with my wife?” he grumbled.
“I thought I’d wake her up so she could go to breakfast with me and then I’d take her to my photo shoot. There’ll be five good-looking guys in their boxers.”
That got her to sit up.
“I think the breakfast thing sounds okay, but I don’t think she’d want to see something like that,” Greg pondered.
“Think again,” Angie told him.
She went and took her shower. Greg gave me a hug and then joined his wife in the shower. I made sure Chuck was up so he wouldn’t complain about missing breakfast. When we got downstairs Tyler talked to the doorman about getting us a minibus. You’d be amazed at what a New York doorman can get you if he was properly motivated. In his case the motivation was cash.
We went to the place around the corner. Bagels seemed to settle the girls’ stomachs. I had steak and eggs. Greg and Chuck went for the waffles. I was a little jealous because they looked good. Angie joined me in getting steak and eggs. She had decided she wasn’t going to put on as much extra weight this time. My understanding was that a woman’s body would do pretty much what it wanted during pregnancy, so I just bit my lip. She might be able to keep a few pounds off, but her goal was to be healthy. I noticed she made Greg give her some of his waffle.
The girls had been bad last night. They had flirted shamelessly with a group of guys. Gina had suggested they give them fake names and numbers. That had just emboldened the bunch. Not that they needed any encouragement, but Kara had warned them that they were there with her little sister. All in all, it sounded like tame fun.
WHEN WE GOT TO DAKORA, you could feel the models were more relaxed, due to the management team not being there today. It was just the photographer and his people in makeup, wardrobe and lighting. I introduced the girls to all the models.
The photographer even seemed to be more relaxed. He made a point to talk to Adrienne and apologized. Tyler filled me in later, saying he’d been ordered to do the shoot a certain way. He was even gracious to my guests. I normally try not to bring anyone to work. I had to think, but I don’t believe Greg or Angie had been to a shoot like this. They’d participated in the one that turned into a snowball fight at the Range Ranch, but they had never seen the entire process for a studio shoot.
It very quickly became apparent who the pros were in our group because they were all chatting with each other. Meanwhile, Angie and Gina watched every move we made. Thankfully Kendal noticed and talked to them. While we’re used to stripping down in front of a group of people and letting them take pictures of us, it’s not the same as being ogled like you were part of the Chippendales.
When we finished, I talked the photographer into taking a group shot of all my friends. I wanted to have a picture to show Craig when I went back, to show him what an entourage should look like. When I explained what it was for, the photographer and models were on board. I had to laugh when the female models all stripped down to their underwear. Kara even got Gina to go along with it, and I about fell down when Greg and Angie joined us for some shots in their underwear. It seemed like the only ones not doing that were Kendal, Tyler and Adrienne. I did get them in some of the shots, though.