Chapter 84

Wednesday

I was looking into some beautiful brown eyes when mine opened. June leaned into me and our lips met in a loving way. She pulled me from bed and said, “Put your workout clothes on, but we can’t do forms today. It’s raining too hard to go outside, so we’ll use the gym. I’ll get the sleepyheads up.”

We were met by the aircrew and the Westfield group, and I explained that we would use the gym this morning. There were only four treadmills, four ellipticals, four stationary bikes, four Nautilus, and various free weight benches with racks of weights around the walls. I reminded everyone to stretch out good before using any of the machines. I only used the treadmill for thirty minutes, but had worked up to a fairly steep incline. I went to weights to do most of my muscle groups, using lighter weights than normal to be sure not to pull anything. All those who were exercising were waking up now and began joking with each other.

The aircrew said that they had a very lucrative charter to fly a group of golfing couples who didn’t want to fly like cattle in the plane that normally transported the golfers to Hawaii. Maggie said, “We even have a return fare of some movie execs. Conner and I won’t even come close to exceeding our flight hours. This is better than lazing around doing nothing. We’ll prep the plane to be ready to go back to Hawaii Thursday evening when we get back this afternoon.”

We all went to our suites to shower and dress for the work day. There was no sense in wearing a suit today as I would be spending the day looking at properties. I selected slacks, a knit shirt, and a favorite sport coat.

Danni and Kelly had several locations that would be good for home developments and condos. The partners needed to find someone to look for property out here. We were going through home sites faster than expected. I would talk to the partners and Westfield if they finished early enough. Our interim answer to the problem would be to campaign for listings. We should be able to come up with several hundred listings a week with ten million people in the LA area. Our average price per sale would go down when we don’t have enough development homes to sell. That will affect commissions and bonuses, but everyone in this region will hardly notice at our rate of growth.

I anticipated that everyone would be going in different directions as the two groups would have all the details for the City Civic Center worked out, so I had June drive the big white limo with the Mooney people, Mitsi drive the old limo with the Westfield folks, and I would drive the Beamer with Danni, Chica, and Harriet.

We didn’t get to the office until seven fifty-five which was late enough for the smartass twins to greet me with ‘Good Afternoon,’ Boss. The crazed pair immediately took Harriet on the first tour of the day.

Gloria had a striking African American woman sitting next to her desk. They both stood when I entered the office. Wow, this was a big lady. She wasn’t heavy at all, but had a full chest and a nice set of peaches. Her outstanding feature was her height. This lady was much taller than me, probably close to six foot five. Now, that’s a big babe.

I was smiling at this magnificent woman when Gloria introduced me. “This is May Williams, the lady I told you about, Brad. This is Brad Johnson, the Regional Manager who is in need of someone to help him with his responsibilities, May.”

We shook hands while I had to tilt my head up to look her in her eyes. “Please help May get settled and then introduce her throughout the office, Gloria. Kelly and I are going out to look at some property and our two new office sites, May. We’ll be back to go to lunch before noon. I need to check on some people in the conference room who are working on an important agreement. Juanita and Gloria will begin showing you around.”

I made sure that the Mooney key people and Westfield folks were comfortable in the conference room, with Ken and Alec sitting as contributors. They will hopefully be able to have a completed working agreement before noon.

Danni walked into the office and stood in front of Kelly’s desk as soon as I was back downstairs. She said, “Are you ready to go? We have a lot of territory to cover. I have the plat maps for the open property that we need to see. Let’s get to it.”

We drove east to see the location of the new East office first. I was in a state of shock when we pulled into the construction access road. The main building was already being framed with the steel needed for the three story building. A smaller building that I was informed would be the construction office was a hundred yards away. “Holy smokes, Kelly, I didn’t know that we even had the permits for this yet. How in the world did Ken get all the permits so fast?”

Kelly said, “Who knows how he finagles things with the County. The man knows how to manipulate the bureaucrats and keep them smiling.”

We walked around the construction site noting several men clearing all the brush from around the building area. There would be no natural fuel if there was a wild fire nearby.

There was one of the sites that Danni was interested in that had good highway access and had sufficient land for a combination country club/condo complex. Danni said that the property was being offered at fire sale prices. The area had suffered two years of wild fires as a matter of fact. Danni said, “We wouldn’t suffer a repeat of a burn off if we clear the area we want to build on and all the underbrush around our development,. Danni added, “There is enough property here for one of our developments too. This could be a good purchase.”

We drove south until we were near the Orange County county line. I had the same shock at this new South office location as well, but more so because this building was having its roof installed. The walls were going up fast. The entrance and parking area were already paved, making this location appear to be farther along. This location also had a separate building for a construction office. Walking around this site excited me as this was going to be a real complement to the company.

Kelly directed me back toward Hollywood, but had me turn down a rutted farm road. Kelly said, “Keep in mind how close to here the feeder highways are. This property is over a thousand acres and is for sale through a family trust. They are willing to negotiate, so we could have a huge development here that at least three offices could sell from. We could even build a condo complex on the periphery without devaluing the homes. We might have a shopping area between the condos and homes, but landscaping will make the difference.”

Kelly offered, “Its eleven fifteen. Let’s get back to the office and take everyone to lunch at Johnny’s. I’ll call Gloria to have her make reservations for fourteen or fifteen people. They’ll probably put us in their private room.”

Traffic was with us today, letting us get back to the office before twelve. Kelly relayed that Gloria said she made our reservation at Johnny’s for twelve thirty to me. I went to the conference room to announce a lunch break

All the people sitting at the conference table had a glazed look on their faces. Forest said, “I think that we’ve agreed on everything. Hanna knows the business, and I do believe that she’ll come up with even more locations than we planned for entertainment.”

Ken asked, “Are you going to take us to your favorite place? I’m ready. We can review this one more time after lunch, and you can review it with us, Brad. I think that we’ve done a good job on this.”

June had taken the big white limo home and brought the small bus with the wives and all the luggage back in preparation of the Mooney people going back to Indianapolis and the Westfield folks going back to San Francisco. I think that even Fred and Nita wanted to go to have a breather before arranging to leave Tampa. I cautioned the two by telling them they needed to work with an architect and decorator so that construction can begin working on their new home.

Lunch with so many people became a production. First, it was getting everyone on the bus which was a problem, as Nita, Ann, and Ken’s wife just had to get off the bus to wander through the office and talk to people. Kelly helped me herd everyone onto the bus so that we could leave. The bus was jammed. There was a lot more than fifteen people, probably over twenty. The lady at the restaurant told me that she had settings for twenty-five because she knew how I always brought more than I planned.

We had three waitresses getting us drinks and taking orders. It was amazing how so many people from the office wanted to tag along when a large group went to Johnny’s for lunch. Too bad that it was only lunch time. I could have used one of my favorites.

I was sitting between Gloria and May, answering questions from May about what she would be doing. I really couldn’t answer that because she would have to come up to speed in understanding the business and to understand the relationship that I still had with all the offices in California and the West Coast Region. This lady was asking more questions than a three year old. You know, what, how, where, and why. May wanted to know if she would travel with me the same that Gloria and Kelly had. I had to answer, “You are filling a position that was just created, May,” once again. “I’m in the same position because there is a lot for me to balance and juggle before all the operations begin to run smoothly. Hang with me, learn the business, get to know everyone I deal with, and enjoy having a job with some very diverse responsibilities.”

Gloria said, “I’m going to be so envious if you begin traveling a lot and taking May with you.” I didn’t even bother to comment.

I asked Gloria and Juanita back at the office to help May look at the company website and become familiar with what I want her to see. I also asked Juanita to have the crew for the small airplane to prepare the plane to take the Westfield people back to San Francisco later. I left those in that office to go to the conference room for the final review of the agreement to manage our lease space.

I was invited to sit next to Hanna across from Forest and Ken. Hanna and Forest began going through each item, discussing how we would handle normal issues between building owners and the property managers. It was agreed to meet here again, or maybe in San Francisco or Indianapolis in two weeks. I could smell a ploy by the partners to cut into my weekend by scheduling a meeting to begin in Indy on Thursday knowing that all the issues couldn’t be covered in a day. Screwing up my weekends in Hawaii wasn’t going to happen.

Everyone was sitting back in their chairs happy to have come to the important agreements. The Westfield legal person was going to prepare the formal document and send copies to each of the partners for signatures. I advised Hanna and the two men with her that our King Air was ready to take them back to San Francisco. All three said that they would rather stay and enjoy my hospitality. Going back to San Francisco would be going back to the salt mines. They did agree that they needed to get the final documents prepared and reviewed by their full legal staff.

I asked the partners, “Do you want to stay one more night? You could always get eighteen holes in and fly back in the morning.”

They all looked at each other, wanting the other person to decide whether to go back tonight or enjoy one more night here. Forest said, “I’d like to play another round at one of your special courses before going back. None of us have anything happening, so we should stay another night.”

Mika said, “I’m for staying until tomorrow morning. I love how well-kept these courses are, besides Brad’s picking up all the greens fees for us.”

I made it easy for everyone, “All who are staying go back to the house, and those wanting to play some golf, change clothes, and get Charles or Stephen to get you some tee times. They will know what courses are carts only today. You have Ken and Alec here right now, Fred and Nita, so why not work with them for a couple of hours to get the a basic floor plan started.”

Fred and wife were beginning to look worn out, so I suggested, “All four of you go to the house. Play with Fred Jr., have a snack and drink, and do some serious talking about what you want in a high rise home. I’m sure the people going to Indy will let their plane take back to Tampa, Fred. We’ll talk on Monday.”

Georgia called the house to let the staff know that the partners, Fred, and Nita were going to stay another night. This didn’t interrupt any of their plans, so it didn’t ruffle any feathers.

May was looking much more comfortable at her desk than before. She was clutching a handful of pink message slips wanting to hand them to me. The long, tall, May said, “The three girls and the twins have been educating me about you and how you work. They are saying that you’ll get restless and fly off to resolve any company issues. Kelly said that I should keep a bag packed to be ready to fly out of here at a moment’s notice. I’ll have all day Friday to begin learning what each department does. Thank you for hiring me. I’ll do my best to be your personal secretary.”

Maybe my desk should be separated from May’s so that I could get to work. May has become a motor mouth now that she’s comfortable. Kelly, Gloria, and Juanita were all sympathetically looking at me, wanting to say something, but didn’t want to chastise May in front of me. I shoved the messages into a folder and said that I’d be back shortly. I needed to talk to Connie.

Connie seemed to be buried in some kind of research and was on the phone when I walked into her office. I smiled and pointed to an empty desk with a double monitor and phone. Connie smiled and waved at me to use it. I sat, turned the PC on, and began sorting messages. There was only a couple out of a dozen messages that needed returning. One was from Danni about the property that we looked at earlier. She said that the owner was offering us the property at an even better price if we could close by the end of next month. I called Danni, “I’m with you about buying that property. There is enough there to have three or four courses, a large clubhouse, plenty of pools, tennis courts, and a major condo complex. We could check on the property next to it for a development. You may have found a winner. I mentioned that you needed to put a proposal together for the Indy people to evaluate. Do it quickly, and show it to them tonight while we have a captive audience.”

Danni said, “Got it, Boss. I’m already working on it,” in her business voice.

The other call that was probably important was from Dot. She lowered her usual loud firm voice and said, “I have someone who needs to be in one of your offices. She is an assistant in an office with a manager and first assistant who are total chauvinistic tyrants. She’s willing to relocate on her own dime just to get away from there. She has an MBA and scored really high in all areas, Brad. She’s not gorgeous like most of the women you have out there, but she’s no ankle biter. She might learn some beauty secrets from the movie stars out there. Help me and her, Brad.”

“Tell you what, Dot. Have her pack up and head out here. I’ll put her in my office here, the North office, or in the condo office with Sheila. There’s always room for another assistant. I think the twins will become office managers at the City Civic Center as soon as the buildings are complete.”

Dot said, “Her name is Rosalinda Presley. She just moved out of a dorm room and is renting a room from someone from that office. She doesn’t have a car, so she can ship a few boxes of stuff and fly to you. I’ll give her Kelly’s and Georgia’s telephone numbers for her to call before she takes off.”

I asked, “Where’s she coming from?”

“New Jersey, Brad. This office is one of the pair Kurt sent out there that didn’t work out.”

“Send her. I’ll let her stay at the house for a couple of days until she can get settled. There are several of the single girls who have roommates. I hope that she likes the hectic schedule we have here. I’ll be gone Friday and be back Sunday night. You know what I insist on now, I need to play with my kids.”

The next task was e-mails. There were a couple from the Northern offices that gave me some concern. Some unsavory people had been coming by the Seattle and Portland offices. These people had proposed that the managers could make some easy money by selling some of their magic pills in both cases. I thought we had eliminated that shit, but apparently not. I called the two managers instead of an answering e-mail. I told each of them to go buy a handgun if they didn’t own one, and apply for a concealed weapon permit. I told them that I always carried and it had been beneficial before. My advice was to try and have a witness at one of these visits and make that sure your receptionist calls the cops to come get the guy with the bag full of pills. The other thing they could do was to bring a plainclothes security person back during the day and let them hold a visitor for the law. Both managers said that they had sidearms and one had already applied for a carry permit.