119: Agence Portes du Ciel

Two weeks later, on Doreen’s birthday, I was introduced to a very nice guy named Tony Durand, Sandy’s new boyfriend. She hadn’t explicitly said that our Valentine’s night was a goodbye fuck, but I certainly wouldn’t be doing it again while she was dating someone.

“Don’t be angry,” Doreen said. “She was still deciding if she wanted to let anything develop between them on V-Day.” I was slipping in and out of Doreen. I guess I’d been a little rough. It wasn’t being mad. We all knew that Sandy wanted a man of her own. I just felt she hadn’t been completely honest with me. “I don’t think they’ve done anything yet,” Doreen continued. “He’d asked her to lunch at the office, but they hadn’t become more than friends. She’s always been a little confused. She wanted to be a part of us and loved Doug, but I think I drew her in. She’s such a good kisser. I was making love to her weeks before Doug did. She kind of accepted that he was part of having me. And then she got Rachel, too. But we’ve always known she really wanted her own fairy tale. I think she’d have left us if Doug hadn’t gotten sick.”

“Doreen, I love you and Rachel. I always have. I accepted Sandy as part of the package. You have far more claim on her than I do,” I said. “I should pull out. I didn’t put on a condom.”

“It’s okay, darling,” she whispered. “I had them tied after Doug died. I have three children from two of the most wonderful men who ever lived. That’s enough. You are always ... Brian, now and forever ... always welcome to come in me.”

“I didn’t know he bought them out himself,” Joanne complained. She was steaming over Conrad’s latest manipulation. “Now I’m stuck with him. He’s pushing us to go public.”

“I never trusted Conrad a bit. You know that’s why we’ve never welcomed him at the ranch,” I said. Joanne had just found out that her manager, with whom she’d managed to sever nearly all her ties, had bought out the remaining share of the modeling firm in Paris that Joanne was part-owner of. What was worse was that he was the majority shareholder now.

“He did well for me, but he’s always done better for himself. He actually suggested that I’d own half the company if we got married in a community property state. Married! As if I’d ever consider marrying a man who was fifteen years older than me when I’ve got this perfectly good man here in Corazón who is the same age I am. Since by Elaine’s reckoning I’m still officially twenty-nine.” She laughed a little. She saw the irony of her situation, at least. She had a sizable sum of money tied up in the agency, but fortunately not all her assets. Even if she walked away from it, she’d be a wealthy citizen of Corazón.

“At least you have some options,” I said.

“Yes. The thing is, if I stick it out for six more months, I can exit with my investment intact. He wants to take the agency public.”

“There is such a thing as a publicly owned modeling agency?” I asked.

“Anything can be a publicly owned corporation, Brian. I don’t trust Conrad as a man, but as a business person, he is solid. Believe me, I’m having another attorney go over the whole proposal with a fine-tooth comb. Your IP attorney recommended him,” Joanne said.

“Just be very careful, sweetheart. Make sure Amy is with you whenever you travel.”

“I don’t know what I’d do without her. But I’ve delayed you long enough. I know Whitney is on her way. I’ll come spend the night with the casa in a couple days, after she’s settled in,” Joanne said. She got out of my car and walked up to her house. She’d be here for a couple weeks, she’d said. Then she had an orientation for new models in New York. I went on home and Whitney arrived in Josh’s little plane on John’s airstrip about half an hour later. He’d flown the tail-dragger to Indianapolis to pick her up and bring her home at the same time I’d driven up to pick up Joanne. Amy was meeting a certain Marine sergeant for the weekend in Indianapolis.

“Are you going after them now?” I asked. Whitney had a week’s leave.

“I’m heading out to join my unit. We’re closing in. I expect that in a few weeks we’ll be ‘consulting’ with the state police in Mogadishu. It definitely looks like the kidnappers are tied into Somalia. But there is so much crap involved in going into that country. Somebody might tell you it’s the Horn of Africa, but it’s really the asshole.”

I made love with Whitney every day that first week of April. I didn’t want to let her go. Somehow this assignment seemed even more remote than her embassy work in South Africa and Turkey. She was actually going after the bad guys.

One night, after we’d made love, I felt Joanne spoon behind me as I spooned Whitney. I don’t know how I knew it was Joanne, exactly, but I was pretty good at recognizing my lovers. This was different. And encouraging.

Whitney left a week before Easter and flew to a base in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

It was just before Memorial Day that we got the big news. Nicki had been flying back and forth between here and New York regularly to meet with her agent and publisher. Lately, the trips had included flights to Los Angeles. Rose had gone with her on the latest trip and they just got back.

“We did it!” Rose said. “Or I should say ‘Nicolette did it.’ We could have called, but we wanted to be here to see you all. Nicolette?”

“You tell them, Rose. I can’t. I just need to be held.” She stripped off her traveling clothes and practically ripped my gi off me. As soon as we were in the big chair so I could comfort Nicki, Rose continued.

“Reason to Fight, Céleste d’Chevalier’s newest book, was optioned by Universal when it was released before Christmas. Mademoiselle d’Chevalier’s screenplay adaptation was accepted and budgeted during our trip to Lala land.” We all applauded and I kissed Nicki. She hung onto the kiss desperately. For a minute I thought we would be making love right there in the big chair.

“That’s wonderful, love. I’m so happy for you.”

“That’s not all,” she whispered. She gripped me tighter.

“You all knew we were going out there to finalize Nicolette’s agreement. But none of you really asked yourselves why I was going. To support Nicolette, yes. But that’s not all. The movie will be co-produced by Hearthstone Celebration Entertainment Network.”

“Wow!” Jennifer said. “That’s wonderful!”

“What does that mean?” Courtney asked.

“It means, beautiful, that not only has Nicolette’s screenplay been purchased, but that Rhonda Gordon has been hired to direct. And two local actresses are being asked to play mother and daughter. Elaine Frost and Melanie Dennis,” Rose said.

“Does she really look old enough to play my mother?” Elaine asked. We all laughed. Elaine was thirty-one and Melanie would be eighteen in July. Stretching a little bit, but not impossible for Elaine to be the mom.

“Part of the conflict in the story is the perceived competition between the daughter and her mother, even when young men are concerned,” Rose laughed. “But my dear sweet Miss Frost, I’m sorry to say you get to play the mother.”

“Well, at least Melanie is a sweetheart,” Elaine sighed. “Just the kind of calm collected child I would have if I were prone to raising progeny. Which, I’m not.”

“We’ll talk to you again about that when you’re forty,” Cassie said. “It will catch up with you.” Cassie was seven months along and was sitting next to Mary. I was surprised to see Liz sitting on the other side, petting Cassie’s baby bump.

Rhonda quietly padded across the room and crawled on top of Nicki and me. I braced. Most of the time both girls were emotionally stable, buried in their work or in all the children. But this was an emotional moment and either one could lash out at the other or at all of us.

Nicki held out her arms and Rhonda pulled her to her in a shaking sob.

“What do we do?” Rhonda whimpered. “I don’t know how to direct a movie.”

“We start with improved meds,” Nicki said. “Better living through chemistry. That’s my motto.” I laughed and bounced both girls on my lap. Neither Nicki nor Rhonda was the smallest or lightest of my mates, but they bounced in very nice ways.

“You two are the most amazing team I’ve ever seen,” I whispered between the girls’ faces. “It almost makes me wish I was crazy.” They both looked at me with a storm in their eyes. Then they looked at each other.

“Brian made a joke!” Nicki said. Rhonda sputtered out a laugh.

“And it was funny!” Both girls peppered my face with kisses.

“These aren’t all the ways that the production will affect our casa and our business,” Rose said, “but they are the most important ways. Each of you has to negotiate your own contract. We haven’t even talked to Melanie yet. HCEN is putting up a bundle of money. It is going to be a huge amount of work. It’s not like our miniseries. It’s a third the length and will take six times as long to produce. We won’t be the only investors. And we might all end up broke at the end of it. But I have confidence in our team and in our family. This is going to be very big.”

“I need to find a class in movie-making,” Rhonda said. “I’ve only ever worked with video. I don’t know anything about film.”

“Have you been keeping up with the new professional high def video specs?” Courtney asked. “It’s amazing. Give me a couple months and I think we can take our digital editing software up a few notches. Why waste money on film?”

“Even for a movie?” Rhonda asked. “One that’s not made for television?”

“Did you see The Abyss? All the effects were digital. They had to transfer film to tape and back again to get them. And that Steven Soderberg movie about sex. Parts of that went straight to video. I hear he’s working on a film that’s going to be all amateurs and all shot in hi def video. If he can do it, you can,” Courtney declared. Having called attention to herself, Jenny Lynn toddled up to Court and started patting Courtney’s breast. I could see droplets of milk start to form on her nipples immediately as she lifted our fourteen month old to her lap and sighed as she latched on.

“Oops,” Samantha said. “I need a baby. As soon as she latches onto you, my milk lets down.” Dani brought Junior to her and he happily started sucking on Sam.

“If he doesn’t take it all, I’ll have some,” Rhonda sighed. “I love you, Samantha.”

“I love you, too, honey. Do I get to assist on your movie?”

“Are you sure? Someone needs to produce something new for HCEN. You are next in line. Working on a movie could tie us up for a year or two,” Rhonda said.

“You don’t have to quit doing other projects you love just because you are working on something big,” Liz sighed. She’d moved so she had her head pillowed on Cassie’s bump. “Look at Brian. He’s on television, has a bakery, and teaches our kids every morning.”

“I just do what I love,” I said.

“Mmm,” Rhonda said as she fished for my cock between Nicki’s legs. Nicki opened them to give her better access. “I’m thinking of doing what I love right about now. First or second, Nicolette? I’ll share.”

“I have to go back to Paris,” Joanne said when she came into the bakery early in the morning on June twelfth. “It’s not like I don’t like going to Paris, but it feels like I’m working harder now than I ever did as a model. And it is nowhere near as glamorous.” Xan took her hand and led her to one of the café tables that the kids cleared for her. I brought her a cup of coffee and one of the breakfast crepes Dani had prepared for the kids’ breakfast this morning.

“What’s taking you back this time?” I asked.

“Conrad has acquired two more agencies and merged them into Agence Portes du Ciel. That means that I have two more staffs to weed out and a hundred new models to interview and assess. And while I’m in Paris, he’ll be buying another agency or two in New York. When we go public in September, we’ll be the largest international agency in the world.”

“And then?”

“The day we go public all my shares go on the block. With luck I’ll be out of the business by the end of the year. I’m a model. I wasn’t cut out to work for a living,” she said with a straight face. I looked at her and we both burst out laughing. I’d been to one shoot with her three years ago, just before she quit modeling. I couldn’t believe how hard they worked and for how long. It was easily a twelve-hour day.

“Est-ce que je peux vous accompagner à Paris, Tante Ciel?”

“Your day is coming, Xan. But not this trip. I need to talk to your mommy about coming with us. Let me get through the mergers and IPO and maybe I can convince your mommy and papa to all come to Paris for your eighth birthday. There are wonderful fireworks in Paris on New Year’s Eve,” Joanne said, smiling at my daughter.

The more I thought about it, the more I couldn’t imagine Joanne with a baby. But with an intelligent little girl Xan’s age, she was truly becoming Tante Ciel—Aunt Heaven.

Jennifer took charge of Jenny Lynn and I took charge of Courtney. The twentieth, summer solstice, was Court’s thirtieth birthday. Elaine, Renee, Lamar, Donna, Joanne, Dawn, and Cathy had all passed that milepost, but most of us who were in the original agreement would turn thirty in the coming year. Courtney was the first.

“Am I getting old, Brian?” she asked plaintively as we lay next to each other in the master suite.

“I don’t think so, sweetheart. Pretty soon we’ll all be thirty-something.”

“Maybe we should shoot a revival of that show. Thirty-Something on the Ranch.”

No one would believe it.

“You are as pretty as the day I met you. Only now when I look at your breasts I really do want to drink the milk.”

“Oh, you! Better slurp it up while there’s still some left. Jenny is eating solid food and only coming by for a snack occasionally. I’m drying up.”

“I love you, my courtesan.”

“Then give me a birthday bump, lover. I still love it when you play with my bottom.”

Whitney called on July Fourth.

“We had fireworks,” she said.

“Did you get them?” I asked.

“Well, we got some of them,” she said. “It’s like that kid’s arcade game, Whack-a-Mole. You whack one and one pops up out of a different hole. You just keep whacking them until someone says ‘game over.’ They’re sick.”

“Are you bringing them back to the U.S. to stand trial?”

“There are no extradition treaties between Somalia and the United States. The police in Mogadishu, though, were very thankful for our assistance in breaking this ‘dreadful ring of sex traffickers, ‘ as they said. Well, there were a couple of scum who were actually in the act of raping our people who chose to jump out a fourth floor window rather than be taken into custody. The fall totally crushed their testicles before they died. But the Somali State Police took the rest into custody. Sadly, there was an accident on the way to the prison. The driver of the police bus barely escaped with his life. None of the other fuckers made it to trial,” Whitney said coldly.

I listened to my friend, my master, my lover. I wished I could see her eyes. Whitney had seen death. In fact, she’d dealt it.

“You’re coming home now? Back to Leonard Wood?”

“No. We did such a good job we are being rewarded. My unit will be joined by several others as I’m taking command of the Marine Corps Security Detachment at Camp Lemonnier. It’s a new Naval Expeditionary base and will become the home of the Combined Joint Task Force—Horn of Africa. We’ve had too many catastrophes in Africa and they’ve finally decided we need a permanent base there. It’s in Djibouti. We’ll be a small detachment with a skeleton staff for a while, but eventually, there will be Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines stationed there. We’re the police. Only in this instance, we’re also the grunts who do most of the work moving supplies and cleaning latrines.”

“That’s a reward?”

“It keeps my unit where we can still respond to further incidents. And in a year, if I do well, I might get my oak leaves.”

“You know, you could have had a master’s degree and be well on your way to a PhD for as much time as you’ve spent in school since you became a Marine.”

“It’s hard to believe it’s been over seven years. It’s what I was made for, Brian. To do whatever is necessary to protect and defend the ones I love. Unless I could coach basketball.”

Rhonda’s twenty-ninth birthday almost slipped by unnoticed in the chaos of working on the new script and production plan. Staffing and location research were eating into everyone’s time. But Rhonda grabbed April to bring her to bed since she was afraid I would not suitably celebrate April’s thirtieth the next week. April was pretty relaxed in her role as a career girl and felt no need to have a full-time man around as long as Rhonda and I, or Jason, were willing to satisfy her urges occasionally. I had a feeling that even with the baby, Rhonda was satisfying April’s urges as often as Samantha’s.

Of course, we had a big celebration at the Cortales’s for Melanie’s eighteenth birthday. That celebration did not include sex. Even Lily and Sly knew that Melanie was not pure and had quite a hot affair with her co-star in the last miniseries, but seemed to forget about it as soon as the show was finished. Even though she was now eighteen, she’d asked if Sly could go with them to LA for the initial read-through because she wanted her daddy nearby to protect her. Lily rolled her eyes a little but grinned at her daughter. Stephanie was simply happy to be a kid in rural Indiana. She and three of her girlfriends were showing horses at the 4H fair. She had no interest at all in being anything but a happy, free, twelve-year-old girl. I looked at her and thought that Xan and C-Rae would be twelve-year-old girls before I knew it. I sighed and Sly looked at me. He just nodded like he understood what I was thinking.