Chapter 61: West Coast Visitors

I got home about seven o’clock from work. Today’s work had been in our Atlanta office. I got away on the early side, finishing the rest of my phone calls and clearing of emails on the corporate plane on the way from Atlanta to Sarasota. The flight was shorter than the commute from the Atlanta office to the airport.

The limousine dropped me at the front door. These days there weren’t reporters and paparazzi hanging around any longer. I wasn’t the news item that I’d been a year or so earlier when I did in the Satanic Virus. I remained a curiosity, but not enough of one to warrant assigning a full-time photographer or reporter to, and certainly not enough of one to even attract the attention of a free-lancer.

Just inside the front door, Alice met me with a glass of white wine over ice. My assistant gave me a kiss. She was only wearing her bikini bottoms, so I gently pinched one of her nipples as she pushed her breasts into my hand.

Alice said, “You have visitors, or I should say that Crystal and Carol do. They’re entertaining on the back deck. You’re to join them.”

I said, “Do you know that you actually have the same first name as Crystal?”

“Really?”

“Yes. She’s an Alice Crystal Wolcott, before I changed her name. She dropped the Alice long ago, so that’s your exclusive moniker now.”

“Whew. I thought I was about to become a confusion factor.”

I kissed her, “You are, but not in that way. Who else is around the house?”

“Cory took Heather and Elynn out to dinner. They’ll be back by eight o’clock. Tara is, of course, with Alan at his condo. I’m just hanging out and helping Crystal with hors d’oeuvres and such.”

“Great job.” I kissed her again and headed out the door for the patio.

Crystal and Carol were seated at one of the tables with another couple, who were in their mid-thirties. They all smiled and the man stood up as I walked up.

Crystal cheerfully said, “Dave, this is Matt Volpetti and Tracy Belle. They’re surprise visitors, but I asked them to cancel their hotel and stay overnight. I put them in Tara’s old room.”

“Welcome.” I said all the right words to make them feel at home and joined them at the table. Alice brought out a plate with various hot and cold hors d’oeuvres on it. She was a gem. She had an aside with Crystal about dinner.

Matt was dressed in ‘Florida visitor’ clothing – a wild sport shirt, and Bermuda shorts. He wore leather shoes without socks. He was handsome and I could see his appeal to the producers of pornography – his main career until a couple of years prior.

Tracy was wearing a tennis skirt that showed off her great legs. She had on flip-flops and a colorful top that suggested she’d gone braless if she ever even wore one. She was busty and also pretty. I vaguely recalled Crystal saying they met through their work in the adult entertainment industry, but that they’d both moved to working behind the cameras.

After some small talk about my work and even my encounter with the Satanic Virus, Crystal explained their visit. “We’ve been talking about more of a partnership between ADS and CBP – Adult Distribution Systems and Crystal Blue Photography.”

I commented, “I’ve been doing a lot of that lately. What’s the nature of the link up?”

Matt said, “We’ve been getting some interesting videos from people that have heard of us. The availability of cheap video recording equipment and editing software is the cause. But people want outrageous prices for their stuff, so initially we have to give them a dose of reality. A thirty-minute video, poorly acted in, and poorly edited, is not going to get them $20,000. In fact, in only extraordinary circumstances would I pay more than a hundred or two for that – say $500 at most, if I took it at all.”

I gestured and he went on. “A well-edited video with a ‘hot’ potential porn star that did a good job in front of the camera might get $2,000, and that’s top dollar. I don’t have to do much with it other than create a one- or two-minute sampler and then I can trot it out to the big guys. They won’t even talk to an unknown.”

“And CBP’s potential role?” I tried to sound curious and friendly, but I was ready to politely put the kibosh on anything that sounded flaky and wouldn’t work to CBP’s advantage.

Matt said, “My editing skills only go so far. I can extract a scene or two and make a sampler, but I can’t shine shit. So, I get an hour video with a hot girl and guy or a threesome, and there’s really not much I can do with it. I’d probably turn it down. Such a video wouldn’t be a turn-on for viewers, at least based on what I can do with it.

“There’s room, however, for a video like that to be made into something meaningful and profitable with some good editing. This is where CBP could come in. Crystal and Carol have assembled a really talented editing staff. We were talking about them taking the video, even the raw stock, and turning it into something.

“They wouldn’t be involved in the videoing or assembling the talent, or even paying them. That’d all be invisible. They’d get the feed stock and try to turn it into something worth watching.”

“What if even they don’t like the material?” I asked.

“Then it goes in the scrap heap. I’d just return it to the submitter and turn them down for any payment. We’d both lose a little time spent reviewing the video and seeing if there was ‘anything there’. On the other hand, if there is, CBP produces a final product, and I hit the streets with it. If I can sell it, we give the producers-actors something, CBP gets something, and so does ADS. If the thing really pops, there are ways we can all get a little more money, since I like to keep a ‘share of the profits’ clause in what I sell forward.”

“How long between their ‘shining shit’, as you say, and getting payment?”

Matt waved his head back and forth. “Today, I’m guessing about three months, maybe four at a minimum. Usually longer. If somebody upstream likes it, it could be a few weeks before it goes online and starts to generate revenue.”

Carol asked, “What if the girl or guy in the video become ‘hot’ and in demand for more.”

“If I take them on, I get to act as their agent until they’re unhappy with me. I have an exclusive distribution right with them for two years. In this industry, that’s a long time. I arrange with CBP or somebody to produce additional raw video maybe according to some broad script, CBP maybe films, edits, and we all hopefully make more money when I sell it upstream. IF they are hot and keep me as an agent, I make more money.”

“What’s to keep CBP from going around you?”

“Our partnership agreement and trust.” Matt said. Crystal nodded.

Crystal said, “I’ve come to realize that I do not want to sell to the guys that Matt does. He’s the right front-end for what we do, and will be for these other people. I don’t mind him being my agent, for instance. For one, I’m too small a company and even though I have some stars in my stable, the big guys want what they buy to come from a reputable source that they already trust and have a contract with – like Matt.”

I shrugged, “I assume you’ve both got escape clauses and have thought through the downsides.”

“We have. Tracy gives it her blessing.”

I turned to Tracy. “Sounds good. What’s your background?”

“Besides being a fuck doll for seven years in over a hundred full-length videos, I happen to also be a lawyer specializing in contracts and negotiations in the entertainment industry. That includes the adult entertainment industry.”

“Wow!” I gasped. “I’m impressed.

Carol asked, “What law school?”

“UCLA School of Law, and I passed the bar the first time. That was about eight years ago.”

“So, you worked and went to school at the same time?” Carol posed.

“I fucked and went to school at the same time,” Tracy laughed. “I still like to do the former, but not in public. There haven’t been any disbarments for moral turpitude, but I don’t want to be the poster child for one of the first tries in the state. I know I’m not the first lawyer who has done porn, so I’m not forging new ground here on that score.”

Alice came out and let us know that dinner was ready to serve. I wondered when my regional AA had become the chief maid, cook, and server for CBP’s important client. We’d talk about that later.

We got up and went into the dining room, where the table was set and looking formal and gorgeous. As soon as we sat, Heather and Alice appeared serving salads to the five of us. I at least got a wink in with Heather to show my appreciation.

Matt said, “You seem very well off, what with house staff and such. Maybe I’m paying you too much for the videos.”

Crystal said, “There are extenuating circumstance and the rate of pay for the help is off the scale, so to speak.”

Matt looked puzzled, “How’s that, if I may ask?”