Chapter 22

Christmas was celebrated enthusiastically by everyone. It was Tanya and Tasha's first in the United States. Beyond that, though, they awakened Christmas morning being held in the arms of their lovers, and to make it even better, their mothers were spooned against their backs.

The Washingtons had a beautiful Christmas, too, with Deann providing lavish gifts for every member of her family.

Two days later, Monday, December 27^th, John Clark and Kurt Rohmer arrived in Lexington. They were accompanied on the flight down by Kris Harris. The trio wasted no time in going to the Washington home. There the professionals were astounded at the beauty of Deann's mother and sisters.

Incredibly, the whole family, including Amyann, the youngest, had the same ability Deann did: The photographer merely told them what effect they wanted and the relevant woman or girl adopted the perfect pose.

Both photographers shot hundreds of pictures. When they were finished and looking at the full collection, Kurt said to John, "I just do not believe this! What an incredible find this family is. They're all spectacular!"

Curiously, it was Amyann who was the first one used. Kurt stayed over a day to use her in a shoot for which he had been hunting for the perfect young model for months. Kris blandly announced that, to avoid any jealousy, all the Washington family members were priced at five-thousand dollars an hour. Kurt didn't even raise a question. He had already spent dozens of his own very high-priced hours trying to find a model to fit his assignment and, until meeting Amyann, was on the verge of bailing out.

The general contractor working on the rebuild of The Girl Spot and the construction of The Body Shop got the job done. Against Mel's 30-day requirement, the work was completed on the 29^th day, and it opened quietly on Tuesday, February 1^st.

At least it was expected to be a quiet opening. Mel's initial plan was to use it only for The Girl Spot staff so they could get in shape — or get back in shape — before it reopened. So she was amazed to find the parking lot jammed with cars and a line of women snaking around the lot's perimeter from The Body Shop's front door. All of this was in response to a single small-space announcement ad that had run in a single issue of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Mel and the others had overlooked two points: First, anything involving the Corcorans or Bluegrass Farm was news in Lexington. Second, construction workers are often very talkative, and the very special circumstances surrounding the construction of The Body Shop provided lots of fodder for conversation. Furthermore, the construction men were not only proud of the work they were doing but were very proud of the quality of the work itself. They told anyone who would listen that, top to bottom and end to end, everything in The Body Shop was the very finest obtainable.

The result was the line snaking from the door. Mel made her way through the throng and went inside. There she was thrilled to see the whole administrative staff of The Body Shop, assisted by what appeared to be at least half the staff of The Girl Spot, signing up new members as fast as they could.

Her astonishment increased further when, with only about half the women in the line having been processed, the club had already maxed out its membership. But that didn't slow anything down. Almost all of the women still waiting in line stayed to be added to the waiting list.

It was possibly the most successful — and least expensive — opening of its kind, ever.

As a result, Mel immediately called the GC and the architect. At the same time she mentally patted herself on the back for her foresight — or very good luck — in having the facility designed with an eye to expansion. A check of the new waiting list revealed that there were more names on it than there were members, so she planned on doubling the size of The Body Shop. Furthermore, she changed the instructions to the administrative staff who were signing up members and now signing up people on the waiting list. Her original instructions had been to limit the number of names on the waiting list to the number of members, but at that point she told them to just keep adding to it.

She giggled and then blushed as the people nearby all looked at her, obviously wondering what she had found to be so funny. Her giggle was caused by the thought that she may have established an all-time record for a facility expansion. Already the wheels were turning to double the facility's size when it had only been open for a couple of hours.

Only then did Melanie think to look over the membership list. She was pleasantly surprised to see that one of the first names on the list was Liz Dunbar, the young woman from the Department of Revenue. Her eyes widened when she saw immediately below Liz's name were Jill Dunbar, Sharon Dunbar, and Peg Brewer. Mel thought for a moment and then remembered that the name of Liz's boyfriend was Jake Brewer.

With that Mel went into the facility itself. Her eyes widened when she realized that all the women were naked. The club's dancers usually worked out nude, but there was no requirement for either them or anyone else to do so. She found Karen Jaffrey, recently hired as the facility's fitness director, talking with Seana Dunphy, the girls' gymnastics coach; both were bare. Looking around at the women working out, her eyes widened as she recognized a number of women whose pictures she had seen on the Herald-Leader's society pages.

"What's with the nudity?" she asked the pair.

"Oh, well, uh..." Karen began.

"It's February, it's cold and most of these women are kind of pale," Seana interjected. "And when the new women saw our girls naked, I told them about the UV lights all over the place. That settled the issue."

"There's one more thing, ma'am," Karen said.

Mel just glared at her while Seana giggled. "That glare, dear Karen," Seana explained, "is that there are few things Melanie Brewster detests more than being referred to as 'ma'am'.

"Of course, that's sort of third-hand news. I got it from Tasha and she got it from Mel's son, Ben, so..." With that the naked woman just shrugged her shoulders.

"There's one more thing, Mel..." Karen repeated, appropriately modified.

"And that is... ?"

"I think we should add a laser hair removal service," the girl blurted.

"Oh... ?"

Karen began to speak very quickly. It was as if she didn't complete her speech in less than five seconds, she would either forget what she wanted to say, be struck dumb, or both. "It started this morning. It's all the mirrored walls. You should have heard the gasps from the women who shaved themselves but today saw how much they've missed.

"And ... and I really want it, too. I'm sure my boyfriend would be a lot happier eating me out if he didn't have to pull hair out of his teeth. And it wouldn't hurt me so much, either.

"If we go with it, could ... would ... I get an employee discount?"

"No, you would not!" Mel declared firmly. Poor Karen's jaw fell when she heard the words.

Then grinning, Mel added, "No discount because the service is free to you and all our staff."

Mel then learned that Karen even had an operator in mind who actually liked to do laser hair removal. "In fact," Karen reported, "that's really all she likes to do. But in her present job that's only a small fraction of her work, and she really doesn't like most of the other stuff."

Mel told her to see that the girl was hired and arrange to purchase and install the necessary equipment. Then she left the naked pair to see Sam Kramer, the general manager of The Girl Spot.

Subsequent to acquiring the establishment and going over its books, Mel had been impressed by the comprehensiveness of his records. Clearly Sam was fully on top of things. Beyond that, though, Sam was the kind of guy who had to keep busy. His basic instinct was reinforced by the fact that, not only was Mel paying him his full salary, she was also paying him his quarterly bonuses at a most generous rate. And when there was a large Christmas bonus on top, Sam really felt he owed Melanie Brewster.

Although he was GM of The Girl Spot, because it was not ready to reopen and no one on the staff knew much about the business aspects of a fitness center, Sam was also acting general manager of The Body Shop. While it had been under construction, Sam had been spending countless hours on the Internet researching fitness centers. There were myriad references, but most dealt with the benefits of fitness, exercise routines and the technical operations of the centers. But information on the economics of them and their business practices was very scarce.

But Sam persevered and eventually got most of what he was seeking. When Mel appeared in his temporary office, he laughed softly.

"What's so funny?" she wondered.

"I have good news and bad news," Kramer replied with a broadening grin. "Which do you want first?"

"How about the good news?"

"I really don't know how good it is, but I have to say we're really established here in Lexington."

"Oh... ?'

"Yep. Guess what? We've already signed up about half the Junior League of Lexington to memberships ... and the rest are on our waiting list. Melanie Brewster, The Body Shop is the new place to be in Lexington, Kentucky."

"And the bad news... ?" Mel prompted.

"Well, it normally wouldn't be bad news, but with the peculiar financial expectations of our backers, I guess it really is..."

"Out with it, Sam! What's the news?"

"The news is that within six months at the outside, you won't be able to find the premium costs you incurred to build this place so fast. We'll be in the black... with all costs in!"

"But how?" Mel protested. "That's ... that's flat impossible!"

"No, it's really not," Sam insisted. "And there's more: I still don't know why you insisted on the super-fast work, but it's actually going to pay off. Thinking about it now, opening February 1^st is absolutely perfect! The holidays are behind us but we're in the middle of winter, tans are fading and there's not much to do ... except get in shape for the spring and summer.

"But to the economics of our operation: Mel, how much have you spent on marketing?"

Mel slowly shook her head. "Virtually nothing, Sam, but you know that. There was only that tiny announcement in the Herald-Leader."