Chapter 58

The alarm beeped a couple of times letting me know the world needed my presence. I was already thinking of getting some more sleep on the plane. It didn’t take me long to shower, shave, and dress. A travel bag was hanging with a small pull suitcase that already included my laptop and cell phone charger below it. The girls were very well organized.

I went downstairs and found coffee in the kitchen with a smiling Brindle waiting for me. She poured two mugs of coffee and told me that she would bet Donte would walk in within five minutes. Brindle would have won as Donte came in a minute later. We had some coffee and went out to the car that was in front of the door. Brindle locked the front door and told us that she told Charles and Steven not to bother getting up and that she would lock the door.

We pulled up to the operations building and took our bags toward the aircraft that already had its rotating beacon turned on since the right engine had been started, and had a lady standing at the stairway. It’s amazing that someone had already found a hostess. I introduced myself to the lady and she said her name was Margarete but everyone called her Maggie. She said she would introduce me to Conner, the pilot, as I followed Donte onto the airplane.

The hostess closed and locked the door, then pointed toward the pilot. She touched him on the shoulder and said, “Meet your new boss, Conner. This is Brad Johnson, the man you heard so much about from Tom.”

We shook hands and then he turned back to his duties as Maggie motioned me toward the seats. I knew this plane and sat in the communications desk seat. I could sleep there as well as in any of the big comfortable seats. Donte went to the back and immediately reclined his seat that I knew the hostess would make him put upright for takeoff.

We were quickly off the ground and reaching our assigned altitude. The pilot said over the intercom that we should have a smooth flight all the way through, but to stay buckled up if we wanted to nap.

Maggie asked me if I wanted something to help me go to sleep. I smiled and told her, “Wake me an hour before we land so that I can have some coffee and maybe some of what I saw you store up front to eat. I won’t want a lot, but something. Donte may want something too.”

I watched Maggie as she settled in her seat. She was an attractive lady who might be a little older than me, but seemed to be very well composed. She settled down with her seat belt loosely buckled and took a book out. This was an experienced hostess.

My focus on life quickly left, and I was asleep within twenty minutes after taking off.

“You should wake up now, Mr. Johnson, Brad. We should land within fifty-five minutes. I have coffee and some great breakfast croissants with bacon that are probably very good for you. I like the ones with Canadian bacon that is similar to ham, and have already eaten them. The pilot enjoyed the sausage ones.”

I was smiling as I said, “This is great; a happy crew with their bellies full. My downtime is probably going to at least be all day. They are thinking I might stay overnight. I need all your cell numbers so that I can reach you to let you know what my schedule will be.”

Maggie blushed and said, “Sandy said that you were a dream to be a hostess for. Thank you for hiring me. My former employers wanted more than I was willing to give. Who knows? I might have wanted everything they did if they had been gentler.”

That was an honest answer. The pilot announced for us to buckle up as we were preparing to land. I used my cell phone and called the home office to let Dot know we were landing. She told me that a car was waiting for me and the crew of the airplane had been advised of their accommodations. Nothing gets by Dot.

A company car came to the aircraft as soon as we were parked. Donte and I moved our luggage to the car and let the driver take us to the home office. There had been some remodeling done since I had been here. The entrance was more opulent, with the receptionist sitting behind a high counter, greeting customers as if this was one of the big Wall Street offices. The company had never been pretentious before, so I wondered at this type of remodeling.

The receptionist was having a fit because I was going to walk right into the main office area. She demanded that I wait for someone to accompany us.

I leaned over the counter and told the girl, “I’ve been coming to this office for the last ten years and have never had to be escorted. What’s going on that you are keeping me away from who I need to speak to?”

“That’s the way I was taught, Mr. Johnson. I’m sorry if I upset you, but I have to do what I’ve been told.”

I used my cell phone and called Dot’s direct number. When she answered I said, “Listen to me ‘Triple D’, I’m in the office’s reception area and being restricted from going through the doors to ogle your gorgeous tits. Have one of your delicious floozies come for me or I’m going back home where I’m welcome.”

The receptionist’s face was flaming and almost catatonic that I would talk to someone in the office the way I did. She was trying to get an escort, when Franny, one of Dot’s very sexy black secretaries came through the double doors. She threw herself into my arms and gave me a kiss that told me who could be my bedmate tonight if I wanted one. Franny said, “It’s so good to see you. You used to come around every month or so to tease all us girls, and now we don’t get to see you any longer since the bosses have given you so much to do. You have to tell us all about your ladies. I’ve spoken to Jules and Katie, and they both told all of us to take you to your hotel room and do to you what they would do. Come on, come fondle your big-boobed fantasy.”

I turned and winked at the receptionist whose mouth was hanging open as Franny pulled me toward the doors.

Dot’s women always made me feel like a prince because they would hang over or on me while I was in the office. One of them would sit on my lap if I sat anywhere, and wiggle enough to know that I was male. I received kisses and hugs from women up and down the aisles even though I didn’t know them. We knew each other through our correspondence.

Dot was standing in her doorway as I approached, and I swear, she unbuttoned one more button to let me view all that wonderful female cleavage. “You tease; you’re always making me remember that you’re my home office fantasy woman.” We hugged in a gentle very warm embrace that had me growing against her belly.

Dorothy said, “Let me give you some background information before you go into hibernation with the lords of the joint. Come sit down and I’ll get one of your girlfriends to bring you some good coffee. What should we do with your bodyguard? That’s Donte, right? What does he need?”

“Find him an empty desk and he’ll read a book or something. He knows how to wait for me.”

The darling redhead named June came in with coffee for me. She put the coffee on Dot’s desk, sat on my lap, and gave me a very warm kiss. She said, “You need to come to see us more often, Brad. We girls all wanted to be your one and only, but now we’ll have to accept only being your Indy sleepover partner. Franny says your ladies are very open-minded.”

“Get out of here, June. Your husband wouldn’t appreciate hearing you talk to a guy this way.”

June said, “I’ll just fix him up with one of the other girls, and he’ll be fine while I’m getting my ashes hauled. Just think, Brad. You could have what only one other has ever had.”

“Up, June. You’re too much.”

I received another kiss before the small redhead swung her hips out the door.

Dot said, “You still get these girls all riled up when you come. You’re no movie star quality guy, but you have something that they all get all hot and bothered by. I’m just as bad and about to slide off my chair.”

“So what’s the deal, Dot?”

The lady with a chest rivaling Katie’s leaned back and spoke, “Ken, Forest, and the retiring partner, Kurt Stillman, got together to try to figure out what the problem was when Dan went off the deep end. The only thing they could figure is that things were happening so fast in your areas that you had to make decisions on the fly. Dan was jealous because he wasn’t a part of the decisions and Dan wanted to wait until you had sent a proposal that we could evaluate when you would call in to get a decision. You didn’t have time to wait while they thought about it and needed to do something, so you went ahead and just did them while you were waiting for a home office answer. That was too much for Dan. You obviously tried to talk to him, but he became combative and wasn’t open to discuss the real heart of the issue. Dan isn’t in yet, but he’s coming. Go talk to Ken, Kurt, and Forest so that they can set up what the discussion is about.”

I walked through the office toward the conference room remembering all the good times I’ve had here. I had a lot of good memories of this place.

Ken and Kurt met me on the way to the conference room. Forest was already there, and Dorothy followed me in. As soon as we all sat down, Ken said, “We’re not going to sell you the west coast. You’ve already settled down most of the offices since you agreed to stay, and I hear the new condominium office is coming along very well. You have two condo complexes about to open for sales and custom build-outs. Your north LA office is a month from opening and you feel that you’re ready to open it when you can move in.”

Ken squirmed around in his chair. “That’s the problem, Brad. How can all this be happening although you were almost gone? All of us here only know about how much there is to do to open an office, and you’re going to open the north LA office and the only thing we did was to buy the land for the office and the land for the developments. It’s taken us six months to plan and build the San Jose and San Antonio projects and they were screwed up anyway. You’ve saved our asses in San Antonio with your temporary office and are already catching up to our timeline for San Jose. How are you doing this? What do we at Mooney need to learn to do this same thing?”

Kurt told the people at the table, “Art Mooney, the founder of this company, said that you had to let the leaders lead and let them bring the bacon home to be successful. You created that person in Brad, who was willing to push ahead in every situation. You kept giving him more and more for whatever reason, but you never scared him. You only challenged him a little more. Brad isn’t afraid of the work, and from what I’ve seen, his decisions have been to the benefit of the company. I know I’m on the way out, but listen to me for a few minutes.”

The older gentlemen looked around at those there and smiled when the door to the conference room opened and Dan walked in.

I stood and shook Dan’s hand, and commented that he didn’t look bad considering his recent bout.

Kurt told Dan, “Have a seat, Dan. I was about to make a profound statement and it’s good for you to hear this.”

Dan settled in a chair, Kurt stood at the head of the table, and said, “This is something I want each of you to consider. We set the commission and bonus structures so that we could get the maximum available from all our people. It was almost unfair because we didn’t pay very well in the beginning. We learned to pay a little more and kept adjusting commissions so that the office could make a nice profit, the employees could make commissions and bonuses, and the home office received a fat piece of the pie. The field began to bring in bigger sales because of inflation and our ability to sell more expensive homes. I think it was Brad who began building the sale by using a decorator and architect to entice and excite the homebuyers into improving their new homes even more. Brad has more recently encouraged us to sell pools, and has brought the offices into the insurance market.”

“Let’s see, the sale size has increased, so the commission has proportionally increased at the same percentage. We’ve reduced our pre-owned commission to six percent, but the dollar value of what we’re selling has grown to over twice what it was at seven percent at the same time. A hundred thousand dollar home at seven percent yielded a gross of seven thousand dollars in commission. The same home sold for two hundred thousand a year later and we reduced the commission rate to six percent, so we received a twelve thousand dollar commission instead of a seven thousand. That’s some major dollars and we’ve all enjoyed the increase in our paychecks.”

“California, or at least some parts of California, screws this all up because houses are selling for a million and up instead of a hundred or two hundred thousand. Commission on a million dollar home is now up to sixty-thousand dollars. That skews up all the numbers we’ve been using. We really can’t change the commission or bonus structures as that is what we say we will be paying. Guys like Brad and some of the other California folks are knocking down some God-awful money. They are working hard to increase their volume, therefore increasing their commissions and bonuses. We did it to Brad by giving him more and more responsibility and more offices that he receives a ride on. He’s increased the volume of all the offices, so it follows that his commissions have proportionally increased. Oh, and I don’t know if you guys have noticed, but the monthly bonus money we give ourselves is way over the top. I made more money these last two months than I did for the entire first twenty years here at the company. I’m having trouble figuring out how to invest it.”

“What I’m trying to say is that we get a piece of every dollar Brad brings in. Some of the wheelbarrows are dumped in our beautiful lobby with the snooty receptionist if he’s bringing in wheelbarrows full of money. Brad doesn’t continue to learn how to make more money and he isn’t around to teach all our Managers how to do it If we kick him out. He is increasing some costs, but so what if we are selling ten million dollar homes with six hundred thousand dollar commissions? Let him create Regional Assistants to do it and teach the other Managers to do it if he can make us better by doing it.”

Kurt turned to Dan, “Think about this, Dan, and don’t answer right now. I think Ken is on board with my way of thinking. I’ve decided to stay on for a while and enjoy some of the big bucks that are coming our way. I love those huge checks, and want to go out to kiss Brad’s ass every time I get one.”

Ken addressed Dan, “I’m with Kurt on this, Dan. Who cares how much Brad is making when you and I are knocking down some of the biggest checks we’ve ever gotten? Brad’s actions have influenced the other offices to follow him and increase sales, so everything is growing. We’ll figure out how to make it another way if business takes a downturn.”

Dan wasn’t getting excited and didn’t seem to get antagonistic. He looked right at me, and said, “I do owe you an apology. Both Mika and Dorothy talked to me about the same things Kurt just said. I had failed to look at it that way and could only see you making a couple of million a month as a Regional Manager, and then the two million that you received as a bonus. I didn’t make that much, nor did any of the other partners. None of us worked that hard or came up with ideas of how to bring more in, either. We were sloppy by the way we decided to open offices by not paying attention, and that has cost us a lot of money. You’ve led the way to getting everything back on track timing wise, and decided to make some money without a nice office, or custom and inventory homes to sell in San Antonio. The idea that you could come up with that idea on the fly and get it all started really torqued me off. Why didn’t I or we think of that? You thought of it, and went after it knowing that we could create condos in the block of buildings we were buying. It was my idea in LA, and you took it and ran. You ran so hard that you created a sixteen square block condo and commercial area that will rival DC, Seattle, San Francisco, and even New York. I’m sorry I was so juvenile, Brad. I admit to petty jealousy. Every time you bring a check that’s more than mine home means mine will just be as big or bigger next time.”