Chapter 3

“Get her in here tomorrow and we’ll do up a couple of shots,” Carmen enthused, leaving Bonnie’s office.

“Dianne?” Bonnie called out. “Get Brookes in here.”

“Yes ma’am,” Dianne said, her distaste of Michael Robert Brookes, their in-house attorney quite evident in the tone of her voice.

“Hey, I don’t like him either,” Bonnie muttered to herself.

Yeah?” Bonnie heard Michael’s preening voice a moment later. “Hey Dianne; you doing okay?”

“Hey Dianne, what’s the difference between a rabid dog and a lawyer?” Bonnie asked.

“I’d rather be bitten by the rabid dog?” Dianne guessed.

“People actually feel bad about having to put a rabid dog down,” Bonnie said.

“You asked for me?” Michael sneered, entering Bonnie’s office.

“Contract. Need to put a model under our exclusive domain. We will probably get Parasols to do a pictorial on her, but I want that to be at our discretion, not hers,” Bonnie said.

“Length? Salary?” Michael asked, clicking on his recorder.

“Model’s name is Kelli Breaux, spelled ‘K E L L I.’ Length? Mm, three, thirty six months with a renewal option. We retain full use of any and all materials for sixty months, five years after the termination of her employ with Surewill Group,” Bonnie thought aloud. “Salary, four, five thousand a month.”

“Five?” Michael verified, glancing at Bonnie.

“Mm hmm,” Bonnie said, turning her attention to her computer monitor.

“You know, Ms. Valasko, my contract is…” Michael started.

“Mr. Brookes, if I thought I could get away with paying you minimum wage, I would,” Bonnie said, pulling her attention from her computer monitor. “You want a raise? Then show me you’re worthy of a raise. Sitting around, stroking yourself to bisexual pornography and cruising dating sites all day on my server doesn’t exactly inspire me to pay you one penny more than I absolutely have to.”

“Want a raise? Earn it,” Bonnie said as Michael stormed from her office. “And I want that contract on my desk before I leave here this afternoon.”

Bonnie smirked as she heard Dianne’s laughter. A moment later, she clicked on Cassie’s station to see what her designer might be working on. Apparently, Chad had been busy; Cassie was doodling lenses and frames in hot pink and bubble gum pink colors.

“No frames. Those eyeglasses that don’t have any frames,” Bonnie suddenly blurted out and picked up her telephone.

“Design,” Cassie answered a moment later.

“Frameless eyeglasses,” Bonnie stated. “The Flamingo should be frameless.”

“I, yes ma’am, the, yes, yes I’ve seen them,” Cassie said, growing excited. “That, Trapezoid…no! No! Parallelograms; single hot pink, bubble gum? Bubble gum pink metal screw, bye…”

From her monitor, Bonnie watched as Cassie deleted everything she’d been doodling out on the computer generated design grid and then had the frameless lenses in bubble gum pink parallelogram shapes.

“Genius,” Bonnie smirked, already approving the final product before Cassie finished sketching the Flamingo.

Bonnie was sure most of the contract was simple cut and paste, but read through what Michael Brookes had provided carefully before putting it into a plastic folder with SureWill Group emblazoned on the outside. She placed the folder in her briefcase and got to her feet.

“Other than Michael Brookes, who’s the worst lawyer you ever heard of?” Bonnie asked Dianne, pausing with her hand on the door knob.

“Daniel Eichenbach,” Dianne said after a long moment of deliberation. “A friend of mine? Said Daniel had handled her dad’s divorce and even the judge asked him whose side he was on. I heard he had to take the bar five times before managing to pass.”

Bonnie found the man’s phone number and called as she drove to the apartment complex. If she did not hate yard work so much, Bonnie would have moved from her apartment years earlier. She also had an irrational fear of being alone and isolated.

“Wonder if weed makes you paranoid?” Bonnie giggled as she listened to the garbled classical music on Daniel Eichenbach’s answering service.

When Daniel Eichenbach returned her call, Bonnie placed him on retainer for Kelli Breaux. The contract Michael Brookes had formulated was typical cut and paste, but Bonnie did not want Kelli going to a shark of an attorney that would somehow nickel and dime her and SureWill Group. She wanted an incompetent attorney that would help rubber stamp the contract while representing the beautiful and sexy young woman.

Parking in her usual space, Bonnie pursed her lips in annoyance. Wade Savoie had once again parked in two parking spaces. That was aggravating enough. What was more aggravating was Bonnie did not see Kelli Breaux outside; she would have to march up the stairs and knock on Wade’s door. And she would have to deal with a sullen Kelli and an arrogant Wade.

“Yeah?” Bonnie heard a male bark out when she knocked on the door.

Bonnie looked at the peeling exterior of the door. She wondered why she’d never noticed how think and flimsy the doors of the apartment complex were. She could not remember the last time she’d had the exterior of the apartment building painted.

“Bonnie valasko. I live right downstairs. Looking for Kelli Breaux,” Bonnie called out.

“She ain’t here,” Bonnie heard Kelli screech.

“You sure? Got a job for her if she wants it,” Bonnie cajoled.

“What kind of job?” Wade demanded, flinging the apartment’s door open.

“Ass hole!” Kelli screamed at her boyfriend. “Told you, I don’t want talk to her.”

“What kind of job?” Wade demanded again, ignoring Kelli.

“By the way? That shitty park job of yours? Need go down and put the car between the two lines before someone calls management, hear?” Bonnie said to Wade.

Wade glowered at Bonnie. She regarded him coolly; the swaggering, posturing man did not intimidate her.

After a long moment, Wade snarled, “You going call them?”

“Might. Instead of worrying ’bout it, why don’t you just go move the car and park like you got some sense?” Bonnie said.

“Why don’t you suck my dick?” Wade spat, preparing to slam the door in Bonnie’s face.

“Whip it out, big man. Come on. Whip it out,” Bonnie challenged. “Kelli, about this job…”

Wade slammed the door in Bonnie’s face.

“Move the car, Savoie or it won’t be there tomorrow morning,” Bonnie called through the door.

Five minutes later, just as she was about to light her hookah, Bonnie heard a knock at her door. Bonnie again wondered why she’d never noticed how flimsy the door sounded.

Bonnie peered through the peephole. Seeing Kelli’s scowling face, and thankfully, no sign of Wade’s puffy face, Bonnie opened the door.

“Wade just keyed the fuck out of your car,” Kelli announced when Bonnie opened the door.

“Did he now?” Bonnie smiled a satisfied smirk. “Oh, he’s going be sorry he did that.”

Bonnie pulled up the security system on her cell phone and watched as Wade not only keyed her car in a maniacal frenzy, he also kicked in her headlights and taillights. After his rampage, Wade got into his own car and moved it in between two lines. Bonnie watched as he again keyed Bonnie’s car, writing ‘Bich’ on the hood with the tip of his car key.

“Bitch has a ‘T’ in it, shit head,” Bonnie smirked as she called 911.

Bonnie was almost giddy as she realized, thanks to the clause regarding Police, arrests, and destruction of property in the lease, she could now evict Wade Savoie. And, Kelli’s name was not on the lease. This meant, thanks to Wade’s actions, Kelli would potentially be dependent on Bonnie for a place to live.

Before the police arrived; it was, after all a minor violation, Bonnie outlined the contract with Kelli, outlined what would be expected of Kelli.

Kelli read through the contract. She still had her head down, reading through the document when the police did arrive at Bonnie’s apartment. Looking at the security footage, the two officers went to have a talk with Wade. He was drunk and belligerent and earned himself a trip to the Bender Lockup for the night as he made threats toward Bonnie, toward Kelli, toward the police.

“Daniel Ei…Eiche… Eichenbach; he any good?” Kelli asked.

“I think so,” Bonnie lied. “My PA recommended him.”

“‘Cause I want to add one thing to this contract,” Kelli said, holding up the few pages.

“Hmm? And what would that be?” Bonnie asked, pulling the hookah out from behind the couch where she’d hidden it while the police were in the vicinity.

“Oh, I want some!” Kelli enthused when Bonnie lighted the marijuana.

“And what do you want to add to the contract?” Bonnie asked as Kelli took a mammoth hit off the hookah’s mouthpiece.

“I get to keep all clothes and sunglasses I model,” Kelli declared.

“Okay,” Bonnie agreed, thinking that Kelli might actually be a little smarter than she’d given her credit for.

After two bowls of potent weed, Kelli said she was sick of Brick’s Pizza and was dying for a good hamburger. Bonnie arranged with a ride share to have two burgers and one order of French fries and one order of sweet potato French fries from Clark’s Drive-in delivered. Forty nine minutes later, when both Kelli and Bonnie had forgotten about even ordering the food, there was a knock at the door. Kelli squealed and dashed out of the living room while Bonnie pulled on a pair of panties and answered the door.

“Hi uh, um…” the young girl said, looking at Bonnie’s large breasts.

“Oh! Hey Kelli! Our burgers are here,” Bonnie called out, giving the girl a twenty dollar tip.

“Yeah, thanks lady,” the girl said, still mesmerized by Bonnie’s dark nipples.

In the morning, it was the same young Uber driver that brought Bonnie to the office. Bonnie was too busy with some messages from Cassie to notice the looks the girl kept shooting into the rear view mirror.

“Oh, hey, this, oh, oh, shoot, what, what used be here?” the girl asked as she pulled up in front of the Flowers property.

“Cal’s Western Wear. Thanks; have a great day,” Bonnie said absently, getting out of the car.

“I don’t care, I don’t know and I don’t care,” Bonnie said before Dianne could say anything.

Bonnie got on her cell phone and called Polly Chastaine, the attorney she used for all actual business. She gave Polly the details of Wade Savoie’s willful vandalism of her BMW and gave Polly Wade’s apartment number. Ending the call, Bonnie looked up to see Dianne in the doorway, smirking.

“Really? You don’t use Michael Brookes for your personal business?” Dianne asked, placing the first of many cups of green tea onto Bonnie’s desk.

“Michael is adequate at cut and paste contract law. He is not good at actual legal matters,” Bonnie said, and nodded with satisfaction. “Just the right amount of honey; thank you.”

“Now. Dot wants to see you ASAP,” Dianne said. “No. I don’t know what the little midget wants.”

“Thank God Michael runs the HR department,” Bonnie smirked. “If Dorothy Amindi ever hears you…”

Just after sending Dot, Cassie’s Personal Assistant on her way, Bonnie looked up in surprise as Daniel Eichenbach’s phone number popped up on her cell phone. Before she could utter a greeting, Daniel was requesting an appointment for himself and his newest client to meet with Bonnie and whomever else would make decisions at Surewill Group.

“Thought you said Daniel Eichenbach is a dumb ass,” Bonnie asked Dianne.

Daniel Eichenbach was a dumb ass. Daniel Eichenbach was smart enough to listen to Kelli Breaux when Kelli made suggestions and demands.

In their four thirty meeting, Keli Breaux danced circles around Michael and Daniel. She and Bonnie did most of the sparring. In the end, Bonnie agreed that Kelli would keep any clothing and accessories, including sunglasses and shoes that Kelli modeled. In the off-chance that Kelli should prove to be non-photogenic, Kelli would be compensated three months’ salary.

“Ever think about going into law?” Daniel simpered after all paperwork had been signed and notarized.

“Yeah right. Dropped out of high school,” Kelli snorted.

Ten minutes after the Uber driver dropped Bonnie off, Kelli was in Bonnie’s apartment, demanding to know why there was an order to vacate taped to Wade’s door. Bonnie showed Kelli the lease Wade had signed, and showed the girl the clause about police and willful vandalism of property.

“Well, I can rent the apartment?” Kelli asked hotly.

“You could,” Bonnie agreed.

Bonnie hugged and kissed Kelli. Kelli tensed up for a moment, then melted against Bonnie’s embrace. Kelli opened her mouth and sucked hotly on Bonnie’s tongue.

“Or, you could just move in here,” Bonnie whispered into Kelli’s ear.

The Flamingo series print ad and social media campaign started off with just a head shot of Kelli, blonde hair tipped in pink, Flamingo sunglasses perched on the tip of her nose so her luminous eyes were visible over the parallelogram lenses. Her bubble gum pink lips pouted playfully.

“She is fucking perfect,” Carmen gushed, showing Bonnie the proof.

The Wolf series sunglasses ad campaign showed Kelli from just above her pubic mound, dressed in an unbuttoned Barragona men’s dark gray blazer, gray sunglasses obscuring her eyes. Her blonde hair had been done up in a severe bun on top of her head. It was quite apparent that the blazer and the sunglasses were the only things Kelli was wearing.