Chapter 30

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.

I finally rose and grabbed my phone, and almost tried to use the snooze function. I was a good boy and just stared at the time. I had to roll out of bed even though I only had less than four hours of sleep.

My hygiene stuff didn't take long, and I kissed the two girls when I was dressed and ready to leave the room.

The cooks had some waffles with maple syrup this morning, telling me that it would give me a sugar boost. They made me take a couple of bananas with me for extra energy. Yori was chuckling at Donte and me for our late night. I was feeling fairly refreshed by the time I was driving us to work in the BMW.

Rebecca and Kelly had beaten me to the office, as did the sweet full-figured, buxom, Georgia. I loved her smile and her soft, gentle, voice. Saying good morning to her was a treat, because she smiled so big that I thought I had won a prize.

Kelly and Rebecca gave me a little shit about how late I was, so I had to fess up and admit I had been at the Rack until almost three. I told them that I was sure Katie would give them a call to tell them that she won the tournament.

Rebecca, Kelly, Yori, and I did the good morning tour through the departments and heard about how the Sales department had brought in almost sixty sales over the weekend. That was so ridiculous I was going to wait until they were all given to Finance and have a count from there. Rebecca said to me, "I was out at the new development, and I personally witnessed and helped with five custom home sales. People are really getting off on buying a home in a gated community."

There were only a hundred and twenty lots in this development, so we should probably begin the infrastructure on the next high-end development soon. I would call the home office to advise them of what was happening.

I talked to Dan about the need to begin prep on the infrastructure on the next high-end development about ten in the morning. He said for me to proceed with the prep of the next place. Dan said that I could promote Fred if I was satisfied with the Florida region after my visit next week.

I was transferred to Dot so that I could advise her of my plans the for next two weeks. Dot asked me, "So your bodyguard is now an Assistant? How are you doing that?"

"I have three Assistants right now, Dot, but that doesn't mean I'll keep them all. I'm going to send one up to Oakland. Shoot, I'd love to be an Assistant up there. They have more fun than should be allowed in business." I should send Rebecca to Oakland, and I should be able to handle two, and keep Yori and Kelly here for a while because of their lack of experience. I have a few more candidates, but I'll hold off bringing them up right away."

The woman told me, "Are you going to do anything else this week?"

"Sure, I'm going to go up to Seattle, Portland, and then to Salt Lake City, to check on all three locations and make sure that they are doing okay. I'll send Rebecca down to San Diego to check on that operation and maybe to Las Vegas to see how that's working out. She needs to be pushed a little and I think she can be a Regional Manager if we want to give some of my territory away."

"I need to tell you that I have a new bodyguard by the name of Donte Kamatsu, Dot. I think he's a relative of Hideki's, something like a grandnephew or something like that. Yori is going to do some of the work, but wants to become a full time employee and Assistant in training for Mooney. He's very sharp and has been working with me for the entire time that he's been guarding me. He'll probably be ready for a branch in a short period of time."

Dot told me, "The partners are going to be completing the purchase of the San Jose office property and the development land. I know they've been working on it and have a group out there learning the area and where to build. Who do you think you'll bring in to work that branch?"

"That's easy. I want to send Rebecca to Salt Lake after she works with Dino for a while and to bring Sheila either to San Diego, Las Vegas, or maybe even San Jose. I could use the man in San Diego there, but he isn't very strong with his people. The new man in Las Vegas is doing well, and I like his drive. I have to say, though, that Sheila has shown the most initiative in getting her low volume office moving up very rapidly. She may not need an intermediate office before pushing her off the cliff into a killer situation like opening a high volume office."

Dot told me, "Just keep teaching and encouraging her. She'll do the rest."

I was almost afraid to ask the next question, "Truthfully, Dot, how long can I continue to use the airplane? It's really helping me get around, but I know they will pull the thing soon."

Dorothy laughed, and asked, "You didn't know? That thing belongs to the Western Region. It's your nickel, Honey. Just keep the volume up out there and you'll continue to pay for it along with the crew and maintenance. I doubt they would pull that airplane even without your numbers by the way you've rebuilt all those offices so fast. Do you know that Dan is working with Hideki to continue your bodyguard and we'll be picking up at least half the cost? Dan is actually working with a man named Dai. Do you know him?"

"Yes, Ma'am, I know Dai well. He is Hideki's Chief of Security."

Dot became softer and said, "The way you go in and out of offices and they begin producing almost overnight has the partners wanting to put you over all the offices. They know you couldn't supervise sixty offices, but they would sure love for you to try. Keep training those men and women who can be Office and Regional Managers, and your influence will continue to spread. Just don't overdo it so that you get burnt out."

I had to stop and think about the big picture when I hung up with Dot. So the airplane was mine to do with what needed to be done. I needed to get an accounting of the costs it represented. I knew those things cost a lot to fly, and a pilot and hostess aren't chump change. I know that I couldn't cover the territory with commuters and cars, so the home office should be picking up a chunk of the costs. I could cover my region okay, and might even be able to cover the Northwest area, but add in the South Central and it was all over. No one could do all that with commuter airlines. My hotel expenses would skyrocket and Regional Managers needed to travel with their secretary. I had an extra with a bodyguard, but I could probably personally handle paying for him. It would be very difficult to go through security a couple of times a day with our weapons but they would eventually recognize us. I still couldn't see myself carrying forever.

Joan handed me some numbers fresh from Connie. It was astounding to see this kind of productivity. I kept wondering if I could push Tampa or Orlando into this kind of volume. Jacksonville very often showed signs of surging ahead, but doing a hundred twenty sales a week was unheard of. The construction crew now consisted of over two hundred men. Julio and four area supervisors were handling them, along with the crew foremen. There was never any pushing to go faster, just to do it better. Julio knew I preferred perfection over speed.

I told Joan to have Georgia get orders for Subways. I figured a free sandwich was in order with as good a weekend as we had. She obviously was used to that request, and soon had a salesperson on the way to pick up almost eighty subs.

I took Connie's up to her when they came in, and sat with her while eating. "The home office tells me that they have transferred the airplane cost and expenses to the Western Region, Connie. I need you to do some investigating to figure out how much that thing is costing us. We have to do a comparison for commercial flights, the extra hotel nights, and meals. The cost of that thing should be spread over all the offices I'm working, and that now includes the South Central region. We should include Florida in that as well, depending on how long they have been charging the region for the aircraft. You know the number crunchers in the home office, so get a handle on what they are doing. I can go back to commuters for most of the offices, but I can't make it to all of them in a week if you include the South Central offices. We may need to set up a separate budget just for regional expenses. They keep talking about me taking care of more branches, but I don't know how I can do it. You know that I rely on numbers to make decisions, so help me with this one."

We sat back after I had gotten both of us a fresh cup of coffee. Connie told me, "Barry up in home office, the head bean counter up there, told me a little about what was going on. He said that you were being given more and more responsibility, and that the airplane needed to be assigned to you full time. He didn't say your region was going to have to have cost responsibility for the plane, but I suppose that would be fair. I can see your point that the airplane cost needs to be spread over all offices being covered, though. I'll get all that clarified for you and work up some comparisons. Using the airplane may not be as much as you think, especially with you always carrying a bodyguard."

That had me feeling better. I was going to be able to see what the real costs were.

I led the group of Assistants through the departments to see that sales had already exceeded twenty-five and could possibly hit thirty. Matt and his new man were working with five secretaries. I checked the two new ones out, and went to Ginger, "Have the new girl in the soft yellow blouse button up or cover herself with a handkerchief, or I'm going over there and play with her tits."

Ginger gasped, and then laughed. She got up and whispered in the girl's ear who then acted alarmed and turned to me with a smile and pulled the side of her blouse aside, showing me even more. Damn, that didn't help. I waved a finger at her, and gave her my best frown. She covered up, but still was grinning at me. Willy wiggled a finger as I got ready to resume my tour, and said to me, "More fun in the brewing with these two new girls. They are both ex- ... ahh," she couldn't find the word, and then said, "Ex-girls from the industry we tried before."

I want some of those videos.

We tried to check with the decorators who weren't there, and went upstairs to visit with Jimmy in Finance. He was in his 'I'm done for today' posture, leaning back in his chair. He leaned forward and told me, "I have thirty-two approvals that include five for Century 21, and four for Morgan Realty group today. Damn, but we are good."

Connie was in a good mood and told me that the Insurance department had written an ungodly amount of premiums the past week and were worn out placing the policies with the customers. Most of the sales were for business coverage, but they had also been instrumental in getting coverage for several pre-owned homes. That was a big deal. She told me that she would see me at the Rack later.

I really wasn't up to playing tonight, but I knew I should. I told Joan, "I'm going north to see the people in Seattle, Portland, and Salt Lake City tomorrow," before it was time to go home. "We'll leave tomorrow, possibly after work, stay in Seattle overnight, then go to Portland and Salt Lake. We might stay in Salt Lake for the night if it's really late by the time we get done, but I doubt it. These are just 'how are you doing' visits. I then told Rebecca what I wanted her to do. She was shocked that I wanted her to go to San Diego, followed by being driven or taking a commuter to Las Vegas. She should try to fly there early in the morning and come home in the late afternoon if she could get the flights lined up. I told her, "You will get a lot of good experience by checking on both offices. Both have been given my formula for success the same way you did, so you know what to do. Go through the working parts of the office and note anything that you think could be better. Go over them with the Manager and discuss them. Make notes of what you talked about and his responses. I'll know what was talked about on the previous visit that way. You've read my reports, so write me a report. You've talked to Fred and I'm sure he's talked about all this."

I think this stunned Rebecca because she didn't seem confident about going off on her own. This was an important step toward getting her own office. I had a dozen Assistants before Fred, and over half of them were in their own offices now. The ones that weren't were gone because they couldn't make the grade. Some thought I was too tough on Assistants, but I really wasn't. I worked with them and dragged them around with me while teaching them. They had the opportunity to show me they were capable of handling an office when I put them on their own. Those that screwed up were replaced.

I knew that it would be a bad choice to play tonight when the beeps finally came to tell me it was time to say goodnight. I was really dragging. I told the girls, "I'm going to call my captain to see if the other team has any high skill levels," when Donte, Yori, and I arrived home. "I'm going to go to bed very early if she can play one of our strong players."

I called the team Captain and she told me to stay home as it would give her and their skill level seven a chance to play. The opposing team didn't have anyone over a seven, and only one of those.

The girls and I had a light supper and then I had a drink at the bar in the saloon. I went up to our suite before seven-thirty and stripped down, took a shower, and was in bed sleeping before eight.

I know the girls tried to wake me up, but I wasn't budging. The previous night had taken a lot out of me and I needed to regenerate.

I was stiff and sore from lying in one position all night long, but ready to get out of bed when the alarm went off in the morning.

I smacked two luscious bottoms with an open palm and kissed both beauties. "It's time for our workout. Show me how we do it this morning."

Both girls said they had stayed up playing a while the night before, but knew that I would want company while working out. We were running on the treadmills down in the gym room when Donte and Yori came in. They stretched out and began using ellipticals to warm up. The guys used the treadmills for some running when I switched to weights and the girls to the Nautilus equipment.

We three went up to shower and get ready for the day. Jules made the comment that they hadn't been worth a shit yesterday because they were still tired and didn't exercise. Katie said the exercise workouts made her feel better and that she felt she was more effective in analyzing a buy or sell.

Donte and Yori had showed up by the time I was downstairs having breakfast. I told them, "I'm going north to check out Seattle, Portland, and Salt Lake City today. There will be at least one night out of town. I want you to use the BMW and drive Rebecca to San Diego, Yori. Let her lead and you follow her as she goes through the office. You know what I look for, so you do the same. This is Rebecca's show, and you can help by driving her. I want you both to go to Las Vegas for the day tomorrow. Joan is getting you an early flight there and a late afternoon flight home. I've given Rebecca a credit card for a rental car, so go there, do an office tour, listen to what is said, and come home. I'll want to see your reports for both San Diego and Las Vegas."

There was some panic in Yori's eyes, but this was his chance to show me that he was capable of handling what was in his future.

"Pack for two nights, although we shouldn't be gone more than one, Donte."

I had told Cindy what I needed for possibly two nights, and she had made up a small suitcase and hanging bag with my needs. I told Yori when we went for the cars. "Use the BMW. I'll use my Escape. It needs to be driven anyway. I thought it funny that Yori automatically parked in the 'Boss' slot. I parked next to him and probably looked out of place to the California types who were pulling in with newer Mercedes, Caddy, Mustang, and Lexus automobiles.

Joan was excited that we were going on a trip. I wanted to leave Kelly in charge so that she had an opportunity to oversee the office for a couple of days. Rebecca came in and was prodding Yori to immediately get going toward San Diego. I made sure everyone was ready for me to be gone after I made an office tour with Kelly, and left with Joan, making sure to get her bag in the car.

I had her call the pilot to tell him that we were on our way. We arrived at nine and were in the air by nine-thirty. It was going to be a two hour flight to Seattle-Tacoma Airport, and then a half hour or so to the office. They knew to expect us about noon. Donte went right to the cockpit and sat in the right hand seat.

We went over the data Joan had for me, and I read everything since I had been there the last time. The place looked like it was not only progressing, but settling down to do business. We made good time and we were at the office by eleven-thirty even in moderate traffic.

Kurt Hosto had been working hard to build sales and the sales force. He had almost fifty sales the previous week, and said that he should exceed that this week. He was particularly proud that Tod, the Sales Manager, was working hard to build up his listings. We went over his advertising folder to see if he had been able to get the three areas of advertising in place.

George Carter, the Finance Manager, told me that he wasn't having any problem getting approvals for our customers or for the outside real estate brokers wanting to do business with us. Brooks Jennings in Accounting told me that Kurt was really doing well and had been asking good questions about how costs of construction and labor affected the cost of custom and inventory homes. I had a talk with the Title Office Manager, Mary Jane Turner, who said she was now doing title work for a couple of banks as well as the Navy Savings and Loan. June Mackenzie, the decorator was out on a call, so I couldn't say hi to her but left a note to let her know that I looked for her.

Kurt was surprised that I remembered his staff, and then asked, "I'd like to increase our construction crews in order to build more inventory homes and to get our custom home orders done faster. I know that we have to make sure our custom homes are as nearly perfect as possible, but we need to be moving forward faster."

That Kurt wasn't happy with his progress was good, and I felt his operation could handle a major increase in labor costs, especially if it was accompanied by an increase in inventory homes sales. I told him, "Give Dunaldo a call, and ask Mr. Funica why he hasn't hired those extra crews yet."

Kurt was surprised and did exactly as I suggested. When he had made his request, he softened it with, "Brad just told me what to do, and I did it. Yes Sir, he's right here with me, smiling at our conversation. I'll tell him. Now get some more men."

It was only three thirty and we had completed everything we should. I shook hands with Kurt and told him to be sure to keep reporting to my office via e-mail and phone, and to be sure to call me with any questions. We were out of there and on the way to the airport by four. Joan tried to call ahead so we would have reservations to stay in Portland overnight.

Donte told me on the way to the airport that he had talked to the day plainclothes guards who told him that they didn't think the place needed daytime roving guards any longer. I would put that in my report and wrote an e-mail to tell Kurt to cut that cost. I wanted to keep the night people, though.

The flight to Portland was up and down. Joan was busy getting us a car and confirming rooms for us and the flight crew. Kelly had told her where we had stayed before, and we went there again. The first thing that we wanted was food since we had skipped lunch. I used my phone to create a hotspot as soon as we were on the ground and sent the report to the home office and the e-mail to Kurt.

I called LA and spoke to Kelly before we left the room. She had heard from Rebecca and Yori, and they were on their way back. Everything at the office had gone smoothly and she had heard from several offices wanting to find out what my schedule for this week was. They either had a problem or enjoyed my visit. They could also be scamming me by trying to set up the office to make them look good, of course. That's not a bad thing, but they were wasting too much time trying to be something they already were.

The pilot and hostess were at the same hotel, and ate with us at a very nice restaurant. They had a good variety of foods, including dishes for the girls so that they could watch their weight. I had a leafy salad with shrimp, pieces of broiled fish, and small pieces of chicken breasts. I loved the mushrooms, grape tomatoes, and chunks of various cheeses mixed with it. The pilot had the same as I had, looked at my large Beefeater, and asked me, "What do you think? Will we be leaving before eight or nine in the morning?"

"Not a chance. We'll check in at the office at seven-thirty and probably work until ten, so have that drink. I'll call you as soon as we're done so that you can get us to Salt Lake City. We'll be home tomorrow night if we do this right."

Joan asked me, "Do you always push so fast and hard when you visit offices?"

"I do. The reason is that I often have more than one place to visit in a day, and I'm at those offices to see if they are following the guidlines I've laid out for them. I use their reporting to tell me what I need to look at and for. New Managers are trying hard to do everything I've suggested, because any failure would be my problem. I keep giving them ways to progress, and they should succeed as long as they keep following those directions. I can usually find a bump if there is one, and we can smooth it out and get right back on a winning track."

Donte told me, "No wonder Yori became so interested in what you do. He told me to make sure I had plenty of reading material, but watching you makes me want to be a part of everything and help."

"Listen, Donte. Be that proverbial fly on the wall and listen. You'll know when I need to hear what you've heard. Be the unseen, be the one who sees and hears all. Joan talks to the secretaries when there is one, and talks to the receptionist because those two people hear what's going on and can keep us ahead of any problems. The offices don't gossip between each other much yet, but we've been having whoever the receptionist in LA is do some gossiping with the other receptionists so that they get into the habit of having almost daily conversations. It takes constant updating of information to remain successful."

We went back to the hotel and enjoyed a couple of drinks at the bar. I made sure that the rooms were arranged with Donte to one side of me, and Joan on the other with all our connecting doors open when it was time for bed. I was almost apprehensive that Joan might want to sneak in, but it didn't happen before bed time. The little woman crawled in, snuggled up to me, kissed my back, and fell back asleep sometime during the night.

Beep, beep, beep, beep.

My phone was doing its wake up call. Joan also sat up and rubbed her eyes like a little kid when I sat up. "Is it already workout time?"

"Let's dress for it and go get excited about a new day." Joan looked at me funny, but got out of bed. She wore a T-shirt and I saw the rather mundane pair of panties she had worn. She did exactly as she had said, and didn't push. She was going to be a good secretary.

We all did our morning personal hygiene stuff after our workout, and met in my room before going to the first floor for breakfast. This was the place that had a decent breakfast, and they had some biscuits and a big pot of gravy on a warmer, in addition to decent bacon and good scrambled eggs this morning.

It would have been easy to overeat, but all three of us wanted to be alert and not drowsy from digesting a heavy breakfast.

We were at the office at seven thirty and pulled in behind Eloise, the receptionist. Phil pulled into his slot a few seconds later, followed by a several cars with people streaming into the building. Phil motioned us to his office and said, "Eloise will have coffee for us in a minute. Meanwhile let me get my pad of questions and we can get started."

Phil was organized and began with asking what latitude he had to expand his construction crews. He told me that he was selling inventory homes at a very fast rate at full list price, as well as selling custom homes at a good rate. Phil said, "I've had to push John Beckham to get more and more listings so that the salespeople have more to sell. Our sales have been so good that I've begun estimating when our two developments would be full. I think we're going to have to prepare a new development, maybe two, soon; probably one high-end as well as one similar to what we're selling now."

This made me very happy. The man was exceeding what was expected and that would get him fat very fast. I told him, "I'll get the next two properties released to be prepped for infrastructure, but don't begin selling until we get the land prepared and a couple of models built. We're running into to trouble where we've pushed to open a development before it was ready."

That really wasn't the case, but LA was selling the high end development out before the first model was complete.

We made the office tour, including seeing Kitty in her office with two other decorators and an assistant. She took my arm, led me to the break room, and asked, "Are you staying in town tonight? I'm really in need of some fun and hate to hook up with some traveling cheating jerk."

I told the luscious Kitty, "I promise to call you so you can devastate my entire crew next time I'm in town. I still have to get to Salt Lake City, so I have to disappoint you this trip."

Kitty pleadingly looked at me, "Can I have the kid? He's single, only a couple of years younger than me, and I'll bet he would love to be someone special to me. Please, let me have him?"

"What if he falls for you? What if he becomes totally enamored of you? What are you going to do then? That would be very awkward for the office."

Kitty smiled and said, "I might like to settle down with just one man. I'll tell him of my fixation for what I like and maybe he might volunteer to be my supplier for life."

That was really something from someone as aggressive as Kitty.

"I'll talk to him and give him the go ahead, but for him to be circumspect at the office and to retain his business posture with you at all times."

Kitty grinned and said, "I can do that, and I can make sure that he does that too. Thanks, Brad; you've made a happy purring Kitty."

I had Phil follow me out of the office toward Construction after I had gone over his advertising. I told Phil on the way to see Sherman, "I'm going to give you permission to do something that could be good and bad. Kitty, the decorator, has told me she is nuts about you and wants the restriction of employees enjoying each other lifted. The lady may have a history, but probably not anything horrible. Ask her out to dinner when you have a private moment, and see what happens. The deal is to not let it impact the office and for you to manage so that it has no effect on the business you do."

Phil colored and said, "Damn, I've been wishing that I could get closer to that babe since I got here. I keep getting these really good, sexy vibes from her. I promise to be discreet and promise to not make a fool of myself. I've had a few girlfriends, but never one for a long term. I'll make sure I take it very slow."

Right ... Sure... , like Kitty is going to let the man moon over her. Phil was in for one hell of a night.

I said that we would be on our way to Salt Lake City when we had gone over everything one last time. Joan alerted the pilot and hostess, and we were at the plane within twenty minutes. It was just a little longer than up and down once again, but long enough for me to complete my reports and read the numbers for Sheila's office.

Joan asked if Kitty had been a good girl since we had been there. I was surprised to hear she knew about her, but Joan said, "We girls have all known others who are like Kitty and just can't get enough. Enough in her mouth, that is. Sandy was like that until the directors and producers were using her as a kid and then she had all she could handle or rather stomach. Willy was like that when she first got into the business, but soon learned that she could entice men through film with just a look or a gesture. I'm sort of in between. I can take it or leave it, but get off on doing it at the same time as my partner, you know, like in sixty-nine."

The hostess was choking over the frank, open, disclosures Joan was making. Joan turned to her, and said, "You'd find out about me and some of the others sooner or later, so it isn't a big deal that you know. However, you need to know that I'm not in that business any longer, nor are any of the women working with Brad. They all want to be successful for what's between their ears, and not what's between their lips, upper or lower."

That tickled the hostess, and she broke up laughing. Joan laughed with her and I just sat there thinking that I should stay over and pair the two up tonight. Such naughty thoughts. Sheila pushed us through the Sales department as soon as we were in the office, and then followed the sale with each department. Every department head had a simple question that Sheila answered before we advanced until we had finished with the Title Office.