Chapter 123

I watched Nell as she headed for the store. I was about to start a new phase in my life, and her comments of a minute ago had been sobering. She wanted me to charm a girl into contacting her friends and getting them to come to Burgers to spend money. This is obviously one of the things that I was hired to do, but the fact that I now actually had to do it was kind of a shock.

I drove over next to where the girl was stacking the brochures and stopped. Her back was to me and she was bent over organizing things on the table. She had a great looking butt, and I sat for a few seconds waiting for her to notice me, but she was busy so I said “Good morning, Carol,” to get her attention.

It startled me when she turned toward me. She was stunning, around five-five, with honey-blond hair that was parted in the middle. It hung past her shoulders and framed the face of an angel. She was a knockout and had a killer body, including tits that looked like they were trying to jump out of her Burgers shirt.

She looked at me for a second, then her eyes got big as she recognized me. She was about to say something when I pulled away and parked the car. I could see that she’d been watching me when I got out, so I went to her and said, “He wasn’t kidding, you really are beautiful,” then I put my hand out and said, “Hi, I’m Pete Baker.”

She stuttered, “W-Who did? Uhh, how did you know who I... , “ when she took my hand to shake it.

I once read an article about ‘Invading someone’s personal space and the effect it had on people’, so I didn’t release her hand. I moved so close to her that she had to crane her neck to look up at me instead, and I interrupted her with, “I talked to one of the truck drivers yesterday. He told me to be sure to look for you when I got here because you were the prettiest girl in the store. Shame on him, he should have said that you are surely the most beautiful girl in Fresno.”

Her jaw was moving, but no sound was coming out, so I continued, “Are you married?”

“N-No, I’m still in high school.”

“Gee, you look so mature. I bet that you’re a cheerleader.”

She nodded, “Uh huh.”

“Yours is a year-round school, isn’t it?”

“Y-Yes it is.”

“I bet that you’re the head cheerleader and all the other girls are jealous of you, right?”

“Yes, I mean no. I’m the head cheerleader, but the girls aren’t jealous of me, I’m just a-a regular girl.”

I let go of her hand, moved back a step, and looked her up and down, then gave her my best smile and added, “There’s nothing regular about you, you’re amazing. Do you have a boyfriend?”

“Uh huh.”

“Darn, just my luck.”

She just stared at me, so I smiled again and said, “It’s been great talking to you, but I have to go to work now,” then went to the front door.

Nell was standing next to the guard when he let me in. They were both grinning and shaking their head, so I said, “What?”

Nell took my arm and said, “We were watching and listening to you. Don’t ever tell me that you don’t know how to charm someone,” as we walked away. “A couple more words from you and she would have dragged you into the back seat of your car.”

“You don’t think that I laid it on a little thick?”

“No, you did just fine.”

“She seems like a nice girl and I feel kinda bad about doing it.”

“Don’t be. No one has been hurt, and she’ll probably remember that conversation for the rest of her life. We try to put a girl like her in every store. We go to the local schools and pick the best looking ones. Irate customers are mostly male, and always want to speak to a person in charge. We send someone like her to escort them to see the manager when that happens. You’d be amazed at how a pretty girl can defuse a situation.”

“Do you guys think of everything?”

She shrugged, “We try; take a look at this.”

There was a table, a bunch of chairs, and my cutout sitting under a ‘Welcome to Burgers’ sign that faced the front door. You had to pass by it going into the main part of the store.

A sign reading ‘Sign up for your free Burgers credit card, get a free gift, and have your picture taken with Pete while you’re here. You’ll get a copy and you’ll be in our next newsletter.’ was on one end of the table.

There was a stack of boxes containing DP-420 cordless phones, including one that was displayed on a stand, on the other end of the table. There was another sign with a big FREE on top of it next to the stand that read ‘Sign up here for a chance at a free cordless phone. Drawings every hour’. ‘Must be present for the drawing’ in smaller letters was below it. Next to it was a barrel with a slot in the top, and stacked between the two signs were piles of the two different handout packets that we filled yesterday.

There was another table off to one side. It had a color printer and a monitor on it, and a tripod holding a professional-looking camera was next to it. It was pointed toward the ‘Welcome to Burgers’ sign, and it had cords running from it to the stuff on the table. Jim had me stand under the sign when he saw me looking. There was a flash of light after he adjusted things, then a hum from the printer and it spit out a surprisingly clear, five-by-seven picture of me and the sign a few seconds later.

I was inspecting everything when the manager came up with two guys wearing Burgers shirts and he introduced me to them. One was named Gabe, and the other was Charlie. The manager had Gabe sit behind the credit card sign and he put Charlie behind the DP-420 sign, then he said, “Direct them over to the phone if someone asks you a question about computers,” as he pointed to the bank of ‘Ask Pete’ phones. He then added, “Have them talk to Gabe if they want to know about the credit card thing, and have them see Charlie if it’s about the drawing. They’ll know what to do.”

He left and I began looking around the store. Some things had changed since we left yesterday. There were signs in other parts of the store now, reminding people to sign up for a credit card and telling them about the free drawing, so I said to Nell, “Tell me what we’re doing here again.”

She answered, “Jim will take their picture with you if they want to when they sign up for a credit card. He’ll print it and they’ll take it home with them. Remember what happened at dinner last night? Like it or not, you’re a celebrity, and this is only the beginning for you. I bet that picture will be on their mantle for a long time, but what’s important to us is that three things happen when they sign for that credit card. The credit card is a Visa, and it has Burgers name all over it, so they’ll be reminded of us every time they use it. Second, their name will be added to our e-mail data base, and third, they’ll start getting our monthly newsletter. All these things are reminders to come and shop at Burgers and they all work.

“I didn’t realize that there was so much to it, but how will they know about signing up for the credit card besides the signs that are spread around the store?”

“It’s been on local TV all week, plus it says so on the brochures that Carol is handing out.”

“Why is that DP-40 sitting on a display stand with a free sign next to it?”

“It’s today’s special. We’re giving one away every hour.”

“To who?”

“To the people who sign up for the drawing. They’ll be reminded to fill out a slip for the drawing when they hit the checkout counter if they haven’t noticed the signs.”

“I see, and the slip will have their name, their home and r e-mail addresses so that you can start sending things to them, right?”

“That’s right.”

“And they have to be here for the drawing because they might see something else they want to buy while they’re waiting, eh.”

She smiled, “You learn fast.”

The doors opened at nine o’clock.

Dad once took me to Burgers on a Saturday. We got there just before they opened, and there was a crowd waiting to get in. It was the same thing here and it was like flood gates opened when a bell rang and the guard opened the door. People looked at the tables and the signs as they passed, but it seemed like this early crowd was in a hurry to get something specific and it was fifteen minutes before someone came over and began talking to the people at the table.

There was a short lull after the first rush, then a steady stream of people started to filter in and Nell, the manager, and I watched a line began to form in front of both Gabe and Charlie as we stood off to the side partially hidden by a large display. The manager spoke into a handheld radio as soon as he saw it, and two people showed up a minute later and began helping.

Nell squeezed my arm at ten o’clock, and said “Go get em,” so I walked over and stood beside my cutout. I got a lot of looks, but nothing happened for a while. I looked to see if Nell was watching at one point. I finally spotted her. She was standing about twenty feet away and she was talking to someone. He seemed familiar but his back was to me and he was partially hidden by a display.

A fat guy finally came up and asked, “What’s this all about?”

I answered, “Would you like a free Burgers credit card?”

“How much does it cost?”

“Nothing, it’s free.”

“Nah, I don’t need no credit card, what else you got?”

“How about filling out a slip for a free portable phone?”

He looked at the phone for a minute then he looked at my cutout and said, “Izat you?”

“Yes.”

“You a movie star or sumthin?”

“No.”

“Then how come yer piture is...”

He was interrupted when a woman who was even fatter than he was stepped between us and said, “Shut up, Clarence,” and asked me, “We came here to look at a new fridge. Can we charge the fridge on it if we get a credit card?”

I pointed to the table and said, “Gabe is the expert on that, have a seat and he’ll get to you in a minute.”

She barked, “Shut up, Clarence,” when ‘Clarence’ grumbled “We don’t need no new fridge,” as she flopped into a chair and waited.

Two guys came up next, and asked about the drawing, so I pointed them to Charlie.

Gabe motioned me over a few minutes later and introduced me to a woman he’d been helping.

This was it and I was a little nervous, but I picked up a welcome packet, walked her over until we were standing under the welcome sign, and Jim took our picture as I handed the packet to her.

I’d practiced this at headquarters and talked about it with both Tom and Nell, but this was the real thing and it happened so fast and went so smoothly that it was sort of anticlimactic and the lady turned out to be more nervous than I was.

I looked over to see if Nell had seen what happened. She had, and so had the person she’d been talking to. It was John Burger and he smiled and gave me a ‘Thumbs up’ sign when he saw me looking at him.

The store was starting to get busy and people were lining up at the tables, so they sent two more employees to help. I soon got busy too, and I actually began to have fun. I guess that it was because of all the advertising, but the people went out of their way to be nice to me. I never heard from Clarence or his friend, so I guess that they didn’t get a credit card approved, but I got my picture taken with a bunch of other couples and a number of women. I know that some men got credit cards too because I handed them their packets, but most of them acted embarrassed when Jim asked if they wanted their picture taken with me.

The manager came over at eleven o’clock and picked a name out of the barrel that Charlie’s people had been putting the slips in. His handheld radio was hooked up to the store’s speaker system this time, and he announced ‘Sandra Jones’ as the winner of this hour’s prize. There was a loud shriek when he read the name, and a woman came running over waving a slip. She was a tall redhead with giant tits and a killer body. I must have been busy when she filled out the slip because I hadn’t seen her at the signup table.

She leaned toward me when I smiled at her, smiled back, and said, “Hi, Cutie, do I get my picture taken with you?”

She wearing a loose fitting blouse with the top three buttons undone and I could see almost everything when she leaned over, especially that she wasn’t wearing a bra. I wasn’t told if drawing winners got their pictures taken, but I couldn’t see any reason why they shouldn’t, so I nodded to Jim and we went over to stand under the welcome sign.

Other people would stand facing me when I was with the them so that there was a slight separation between us when I handed them the packet, but I was holding the box containing the phone this time, and she moved over until she was leaning right against me when I turned toward her. So I looked down at her. She gave me a kind of half smile and turned a little so that her breast was pressed against me. I tried to backup a step, but she moved with me and kept herself tight against me.

Her loud shriek and the way she looked had caused a crowd to stop and look at us, so I was being careful and pretended not to notice what she was doing. I pushed the box in front of her, turned toward the camera, and smiled. Jim looked down and was adjusting the camera and she moved her arm behind me and grabbed me by the butt just as he was about to press the button.

I had a feeling that she was going to do something like that so I didn’t jump, but I twisted away from her and shoved the phone box at her as soon as the flash went off. I moved away as soon as she took it. I expected her to do or say something, but all she did was turn and walk away. She didn’t even wait for her picture.

I looked for Nell to see if she’d been watching, but I didn’t see her and there were other people waiting for pictures, so I went back to work.

There was another drawing at noon, but this one went on without a hitch and Nell came by after we took the picture, put a sign that read ‘Pete will be back in 30 minutes’ down, then Jim and I followed her to the manager’s office for sandwiches and soft drinks.

Nell left, saying that she would be right back, so I grabbed a sandwich and said to Jim, “Did you see what that redhead did?” as I was wolfing it down. He just smiled and nodded. I thought that it was strange that he didn’t comment, but he was eating too, so I let it slide. Nell came back a minute later and Jim asked, “Are they gone?” as she reached for a sandwich.

She answered, “They went to have lunch.”

“Was he pleased?”

She answered, “Very pleased,” then she turned to me and said, “You handled yourself pretty well out there.”