“Look, I know you’re not happy with this. Take her to New Orleans and try her out. If she doesn’t work out, she can work at McDonald’s for all I care,” Mom said.
I agreed to give her a try and walked back into the kitchen. I nodded my acceptance of their plan to Cal, and he turned to talk to Cora.
“David and Pam tried to be nice to you and asked you to join them on Pam’s date. You repaid that kindness by trying to strap David with you and your friends’ bar bill. It’s apparent we’ve failed in teaching you right from wrong. As of this moment, we will not be providing you with any further financial support.”
Cora watched in horror as Lacy pulled Cora’s purse from under the table and opened her wallet. She took out Cora’s credit cards and cut them up. She then took her car keys. Lacy even pulled out the money that was in her wallet and took that as well.
“You can’t do that!” Cora said.
“You’re eighteen. You’re old enough to make your own way,” Cal said.
“But, Daddy, please. I’m sorry. It was just to get back at him for being a jerk.”
“How was he being a jerk? Was it because he protected your sister from those frat boys you hang out with? I can’t believe you left her alone with them!” her father roared.
Cora looked from her father to her mother and saw nothing but contempt for her actions. There was a long silence as Cora began to realize the extent of her parents’ displeasure. I saw tears start to form, but she fought through it. She then stiffened her spine and looked at me.
“David, I was wrong. Please forgive me.”
“We’re good,” I answered her.
“David seems to be more forgiving than your mother or me. We were ready to kick you out of the house after your most recent stunt. You need to learn to work for a living. If you show us you can act like a young adult, and work off your debt this summer, we’ll discuss paying for your next year of school.
“There are two conditions, though. First, you have to drop out of your sorority. This is a deal-breaker, for now. Your grades have suffered, and we suspect you’re spending too much time on activities other than studies,” Cal said.
To her credit, Cora didn’t protest.
“The second condition is you have to work for David this summer.”
Her head snapped up and she looked at her dad.
“You’ll be his personal assistant. Since you’re eighteen, you can sign off on contracts for him. This will free up his agent so she can be more productive. You’ll be going with David to New Orleans this Sunday, and learning everything she does for him.
“When you aren’t working for David, you’ll be working for his mom in her real estate business.”
Cal stopped to let her absorb everything he said. She looked at her mom, and then at her dad. I think she was seeing if they were pranking her. I think she always got her way, and this was the first time they were saying ‘no.’ She looked at me.
“You’re not going to make me do stupid things, are you?” she asked.
“Cora, I’ve never had an assistant before, so I really don’t have any idea what I’d have you do. I will tell you I don’t plan on being mean to you nor will I try to humiliate you. You might have to do some things you don’t enjoy, like my laundry, if I don’t have time.”
“No, you wouldn’t take advantage of me,” she said, and then turned to her dad. “Okay, I’ll do it.”
I’m glad she was happy because I had a reeeaaalllyyy bad feeling about this.
Monday June 1
I WAS BEGINNING TO understand the meaning of the word ‘entourage.’ I was a little embarrassed when I saw how many people were boarding the plane to New Orleans for my Range Sports photo shoot. From Ford Models, I had Tiffany Edwards, my agent, and Deb Thomas, their vice president of talent development for their Chicago office. Deb had arranged to join us because she wanted to talk to Devin and Sandy Range about their corporate relationship. It had been on shaky ground ever since our shoots in the UK when Ford had sent what they thought were their best models from their Paris office.
Because they were on shaky ground, Adrienne was now supplying Range with their one-off models for projects like this week. She and Tyler, her partner, were also on the plane. They happened to be in Chicago because they’d just finished wrapping up a shoot for another client.
Then there were the people I brought with me. Kendal always went, so she was expected. Chuck was my security guy. Dad made sure that if I was going somewhere like New York or LA, I had security with me. I’d gotten lucky and Chuck was always available for me. Then I had my tag-alongs. Tami wanted to spend the summer with me so we could reconnect. The final member of the team was Cora. Her parents and mine had forced her to become my personal assistant. The theory was she would learn from Kendal. I wasn’t holding my breath.
I was a little apprehensive about this photo shoot. When I was in Park City, Sandy had told me that she would be handling these shoots because of Devin hitting on Nancy. Since then I went through Sandy for anything I needed. Sandy, the big chicken she was, sent me a text that told me Devin would be in New Orleans. He wanted to fix things between us.
Nancy and I had agreed we were better as friends. She did tell me Devin followed up and was pushing for them to go out. I knew Nancy was considering it. The truth was she and Devin would make a good couple. They were both driven, and she would make an outstanding partner for him.
It wasn’t that the two of them might end up together that bothered me. It was how he did it, and how he handled it once he was confronted with me knowing. If he had manned up and talked to me, I think we could have worked it out. Instead, he had played the whole ‘it was a misunderstanding’ line. At that point I no longer trusted him.
I heard the call for first class, and Tami and I boarded. I wasn’t surprised to see Adrienne and Tyler join us. I was surprised that Deb Thomas wasn’t in first class. I made Tami switch seats with me because I wanted the aisle.
The guy across from Adrienne recognized her and started to chat her up. She shot me a look when I chuckled at her predicament. She was stuck for the next couple of hours listening to him prattle on about what a great guy he was. I would guess that by the end of the flight he’d be either a brain surgeon or an astronaut. I put my money on astronaut.
We were off the ground and had just settled in when Tami decided it was time to talk.
“Now that you can’t run away, I want to tell you about my trip to the UK,” she started.
Aww, shit! Maybe Kendal would change seats. I’d rather be stuck in a center seat in coach than have to listen to this. By the grin on Tami’s face, I think she was going to enjoy it, too.
“You’re such a baby sometimes,” Tami said. “We need to get past this if we ever expect to work out our issues.”
“I know, but I don’t have to like it.”
“I never said you did, but we’re talking about it, and you’re going to talk to me.” I could tell I wasn’t getting out of it this time.
“We should start with Trevor, since he was the reason we ended up taking a time-out. We ended up sleeping together and it was a disaster. It was his first time, and two minutes later it was over. The poor guy then had stage fright and left me in the lurch. He was so embarrassed he broke up with me,” she said, and then punched me in the arm because I tried not to laugh and failed.
“It happens, but I can’t say I’m sorry,” I said, and then stuck my tongue out at her.
“I’m surprised you’re taking this so well. A year ago, you threw up on the side of the road when I told you about it.”
“A year ago, I thought we were getting married someday,” I shot back.
I could tell instantly I’d said the wrong thing. The color seemed to drain from her face, and she looked away from me. I gave her a moment.