Chapter 85

Thursday

I was reaching for my phone just when it made its first beep. Chica was still wrapped around me with her lips on my ear. My movement to get out of bed made her open her eyes and smile at me. She told me, “I had you all night long. I’m going to wrap myself around Jules or Katie and enjoy being in their arms tonight. I’m so excited about spending time with your women in Hawaii. June and Mitsi are extremely loving with Danni and me, so Sumi must be the same way. We’ll get to play with the babies too. Get up. Let’s get this day started as we have a lot to do today.”

The four girls immediately dressed to exercise. We went downstairs and outside to begin our wakeup forms. The houseguests had followed us out, so we had the flight crew in a group and all the Mooney people lining up with Fred and Nita. I did the warmup forms before doing some of the more strenuous forms that led to faster execution of each position. We all had perspiration streaming down our faces.

We all went into the house and the saloon for some coffee. The Mooney folks, along with Fred and Nita, had to hurry to get on the bus to the airport. The Westfield people were riding that same bus to catch their plane going back up to San Francisco. Danni made sure that the Mooney partners had her presentation. She reminded them that it was very time sensitive.

Whoosh, and they were gone. Only Harriet remained. I told everyone to get ready to go to work.

The house staff was called to meet in the kitchen. I confirmed with everyone that they looked to Charles when decisions needed to be made before I spoke of my plan. I told the group, “I will be gone Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday. This is your chance to get away. This is in addition to your regular days off. There will be the outside security for Harriet, and one of you kitchen people can show Harriet where food that she can prepare is. Don’t be apprehensive about leaving household work for a couple of days. It will be here when you return. You all have outperformed what I could ever expect. Thank you. Now make your plans and go do something fun.”

My office plan for today was to make sure that the twins had a plan to bring Harriet rapidly up to a good understanding of all aspects of our business. This could be an ideal time for them to include May in the early learning. I told May in front of Kelly, Gloria, and Juanita, that she would need to cover the reception desk for breaks and lunches. I told her how lunches were usually informal enough that she could learn from the receptionist while eating Subways together.

I was going to touch all my former offices and new Regional Managers, including the Texas group this morning. I wanted lunch with Ken, Alec, and Matt. June announced that she would accompany me for lunch as we had been too lax on security lately. June said, “Dai thinks that you could be approached or stalked if the crazies from up north were to decide to come after you. He said that he had his operatives hunting these people down, so he might be able to eliminate the problem at its source.”

The rest of my day was going to be answering e-mails and phone calls. I wasn’t going to be worth much because I was too excited about seeing the rest of my women and playing with my son and daughter. I should be worried about Danni and Chica blending in with Jules, Katie, Willy, and Sumi, but I wasn’t. I somehow knew that all these women were a match made in heaven.

I had brought Kelly a mug of coffee and sat in one of her comfortable leather side chairs. “How’s it going today, Kelly?”

“No problems anywhere. You took the problem makers on by taking the condo admin away, plus you’re gearing up for the City Civic Center. I was in a panic before you separated everything. This makes what I have to do a lot easier. The Westfield people seem to be the answer to a lot of your downtown marketing.”

“Don’t forget, Miss Kelly, you have two offices that will be ready to staff in ninety days or less. Julio is bringing men up to be in charge of construction at each location. You need to get with those men and direct them as to what kind and price point of the models and inventory homes that you want built in each development. You might want to have a talk with Matt to see how many of his salespeople are living in these two areas. You can get some valuable information from those sources. You know how we did it for the North office. Let’s do it again two more times.”

Kelly grinned at me as she said, “Something like this was your plan all along, wasn’t it? You had me jumping through hoops long before I even knew what the hoops were for. You were cleaning up the messes that Mooney had let fester, and I learned to handle everything on the fly. You are a sneaky SOB.”

“Hey, it’s all working out. You should already have your first supercharged commission statement that makes you a multi-millionaire. Make sure that you let Jules and Katie make it work for you, and be sure to ask Connie to watch your commissions and bonuses to make sure that the numbers are correct. I already told her to watch your accounts, so that will tell her that I was concerned. Just enjoy your newfound wealth.”

I told her, “Most young guys would be at a fancy car dealership, but you already own the car of many men’s dreams. You could order it up if you wanted a fancy driver, and the company would pay for it. Please note that Matt is still driving that fancy leased Cadillac, although we both know that he also owns a ten year old Bentley that he thinks is his fantasy car.”

Kelly lowered her voice and said, “I don’t want toys. I want solid rewards like the house we girls collectively own. I want futures for those girls who don’t want to earn a living doing what others like to watch. Just think, Brad; we’re helping twelve to fifteen girls a year break away from that industry. That’s my reward. You’ve been a helping part for a lot of women breaking away. Your continued support will be what makes what we do mean something. Help me to continue to do what I need to do.”

“I’ll have my phone and I’ll monitor my e-mails should you need me tomorrow or even over the weekend. Help May get up to speed. You know what to do because I had you do everything that she needs to do. Make her your clone.”

I went to my desk and began by calling Taz in Reno. He said the managers in Seattle and Portland had discussed their problem and he had suggested they contact me for direction. My regional man said, “That’s the way to handle that type of problem. Considering the increased sales, the extra security during the day won’t hurt their budgets.”

Next was to Dino. You have to get past his crazy wife at reception, but that is always worth a smile. I asked her who she was today. She told me that she was sweet Millie this morning, so Dino would come to work with a smile, but turned into Wombi, her wild animal persona, as soon as she was positioned to protect the office. Dino said, “I might consider a vacation if he could find at least one better assistant. You taught me how to get this place running smoothly while increasing sales, so all my offices are beginning to run as smooth as yours.”

I thought that Andy was worth a call since it seems that we had a large chunk of his family in the LA area. “How are you doing, Andy? Are you running out of relatives to work for you yet?”

Andy smiled as he said, “Absolutely no returns, no refunds, you took ‘em, you keep ‘em. I’d let Chica come back, but she is still teaching her ‘how to get listings class’, so you can keep her too. Have Anita and her sister, Rose, worn out their welcome yet? You didn’t fall for their sneak attack with those two little girls, did you? I was told that the girls were not properly shopping what’s between their legs and were giving it away to all the young men in the area. Their moms wanted to reel them in a little and to try redirect their hormones. You know that you don’t have to keep Anita and Rose. I’d like my wife back, but then I don’t get lonely at night with all our sisters.”

I told Andy how I was going to be working a four-day workweek and flying back to Hawaii on Thursday nights for some time with my women there, as well as my new son and daughter. “I’ll send your wife and sister back to you when we get back Sunday evening, so expect your women back sometime on Monday. The only reason for them to go to Hawaii is to meet the parents. The house over there is crammed with my Katy’s sister’s and brothers’ kids. The place is a madhouse, but it is a lot of fun. Your numbers have been really good these last few months. What do you attribute that to, Andy?”

“It’s easy, Brad. We have incorporated all your suggestions, opened a top of the line development, added pools to our add-ons, and have a thriving insurance department. Keep sending your suggestions and publishing your ideas in our monthly newsletter. I have my construction supervisor in front of me wanting some attention. Send Anita home. You can keep Rose, she’s a pain,” and he hung up.

I needed to talk to Jim in Dallas, but I wanted to tell him that the partners had agreed to fund properties for the Fort Worth office, but they were dragging their feet in finding locations. I’d mention that during their Friday bull session the next day.

May had a notebook that she was writing down key people and their phone numbers for various situations. Gloria and Juanita were supplying May with the endless information that makes our organization work. I heard Juanita calling Johnny’s for the reservation that I wanted.

May had answered my line on her phone because I was confirming our lunch appointment with Ken, Alec, and Matt. Her face was turning purple while holding the handset away from her ear. She very sweetly said, “He’s off the phone now. I’ll transfer you.” She put the call on hold and rolled her eyes, and said only one word, “Mika.”

“How are you doing, Mika? Did you finally get a chance to read Danni’s presentation? The big chunk of land isn’t critical, but the smaller one needs to be addressed immediately.”

“Why didn’t you tell us about this while we were there? Now we’ll have to come right back out there to handle this. Tell me why you didn’t discuss this yesterday?”

“This is going to upset you, but you guys weren’t listening to me when I said that I wanted and needed to talk to you. You were more interested in bringing three new men on as partners. There are a few things that I’ll bring up on our Friday evening call that you need to discuss among yourselves. You do know that I can negotiate with the property owners as a partner, and you guys can co-sign the escrow and purchase funds. I can do it all Monday and meet with the large property owners to begin working on a deal. See, there is an advantage to having me out here.”

“You know that you should have been in that meeting this week. You are more familiar with the property and what our goals are. We came out there to help you work with Westfield.”

“You were taking over the negotiations when I introduced Westfield to you, Mika. There was no reason for me to just be an observer. I had other things to do. I made an attempt to give you all a feel for how immense this project is, and I think that I succeeded. Both sides had the feeling of what we wanted by the time you settled down at the conference table.”

The lady who was assuming the queen’s crown said, “I’ll talk to the others and see what they think. This is a large enough purchase that we all should be a part of it. See what you can do about making an appointment with the principals for Monday morning. We’ll have to fly Sunday again, so get us some tee off times for Sunday afternoon.”

“See, Mika, you didn’t even listen to me when I suggested that I could get the land committed for you. I guess that I’ll see you Sunday. Go talk to the guys.” I hung up on her, totally disgusted with her attitude.

May waved to get my attention and remind me of my lunch appointment. Standing in the doorway were Matt, Alec, and Ken in his chair.

We rode to Johnny’s in Matt’s Escalade. The receptionist seated us in our favorite booth. Ken put his platform down, rolled up on it, set his brakes, and raised himself up to our table height. A waitress didn’t ask us what we wanted to drink, but she brought glasses of water, glasses of ice, and two big pitchers of tea. Her only question was ‘sweetened or unsweetened’.

Being used to the quick service here, we all ordered. I opened with, “We are going to open the City Civic Center for sales, Matt. Fred Turfing, the new Regional for that complex, will have a home built for him on the fiftieth floor. I’ll have Julio build another just like it on the twenty-fifth floor, along with two other models Alec and Ken will design. Your job is to sort through your staff to find five salespeople who will be our initial sales force, Matt. We’ll probably be ramping that up to nearly a hundred. Keep the hundreds of other condominium locations in the small buildings in mind. The second tower is rapidly coming up, so there will be a glut of housing very quickly available to sell. Alec and Ken, you two will need to have at least a dozen decorators and architects to work with the new owners.”

“We need a sales manager for this first phase, Matt. It needs to be someone just like you who can handle a hundred salespeople. All three of you remember that we will be opening the East and South offices where we will also need people. Kelly is going to be in charge of getting them ready, so work with her and remind her about how imminent those openings are.”

We ate our lunches while enjoying the rich Italian dishes. Ken said, “You know, Johnny’s should open a place downtown. I’ll bet it would become just as popular as this place. I think that I’ll talk to the owner about that.”

“Matt and Alec, keep your ears cocked for a few small realtors with salespeople who might want to work one of our offices. You hear a lot when you are bargaining for permits, Ken. Ask around for any building crews that could be Julio’s answer for all the craft people that he needs.”

Alec said, “It hasn’t been that long ago that I met you here to begin working with you. You told me that I would be busy and I have been. You’ve really given Ken and me a stable and busy future.”

Matt said, “Brad’s given everyone one in all these offices a hell of a future. Thanks!”

We returned to the office where most everyone was eating a Subway sandwich. It’s a good thing that there are so many ways to have one of their sandwiches made so that it doesn’t get old having about the same thing every day. Connie says that I probably more than pay for the cost of buying lunch with the time savings of everyone going out to get something. The cost was irrelevant to me because our sales volume justifies it. I noticed that May was at the reception desk with the current receptionist eating their Subways and discussing what to do while working the desk. It was all working out.