25 Friday
“Welcome, Iris, to your first Friday meeting. I can´t tell you how glad we are to have you with us. Why don´t you start off by telling us what happened with Linda Moore?”
“I went back to L.A. Monday, Anne. Went straight to Linda´s even though it was evening; she asked me to come. She´s planning a party the weekend after next and wants everyone to dress virtual. I showed her a bunch of things Heather gave me, and I was wearing a virtual blouse when I showed up there. She nearly jumped my bones when she saw it.”
“She gay?”
“No. She´s like us – polyamorous. Just not very exclusive. We talked over her party plans and I helped her into one of our evening gowns. She looked great. Her husband – you know who he is – was all over her.
“Anyway, I left all the stuff I´d taken with me for her to play with, and we agreed that her friends would call me and tell me what they want from the catalog. I´ll take the stuff out in time for the party and deliver it. Told her it´s all part of our promotional budget, as you said to. Linda even asked me to stay for the party.”
“Should be an interesting party,” Saul said.
“I told her ‘No´, I had to get back here. From what I hear, her parties are very sexual, and I´m just not up for that. This family is about as much as I want to deal with right now. Actually, I can spend a day or two getting my stuff packed up and shipping it here.”
“I thought you were keeping your NBC job for a while,” Tom said.
“I was going to. I wasn´t sure how things would go here, you know.”
“That turned out not to be a problem,” Mary said.
“Only whether she sleeps at your house or ours,” Saul grinned.
“So far, I like being a commuter, like Mary and Ken.”
“Actually, Tom.” Heather said, “we just get along so well, her ideas are so much like mine, I got down on my knees and begged her to stay and start work immediately.”
“I´ve seen you on your knees in front of a woman, Heather. That´s not begging.”
“Whatever. It worked, didn´t it? ... There´s another thing, it´s given me a little spare time. Will, take a look at these,” Heather handed him a sheaf of art paper.
“Wow, that´s Margaret, and Iris, and Judith, and my Mom. Here, guys take a look.” Will handed the pages around the table. “You did these with the computer? Fantastic!” Will was ecstatic.
“Heather, they´re wonderful,” Anne said. “Will, what do you think of the one of your Mom?”
“Anne, all of them have that feel of sexuality I always try for. The one of Mom is just what I would have thought – adventurous, but with reservations. She´s caught it; I couldn´t. Heather, can I send it to her?”
“Sure. But ask her to sign a release, too.”
“What are you up to, Heather?” Saul asked with a leer. “You´ve got something up your virtual sleeve.”
“I´m serious, Saul. I´ve spent almost a year and a half on VeeJays and then VeeCees. I need a change. I´ve always wanted to do life studies for us, never had the time. Now, with Iris to help, I have some time for it.”
“As far as I´m concerned, Heather, this stuff should go in the catalog,” Will said. “It´s different from my work, but it´s every bit as good. That´s going to be good for sales, too.”
“Thank you, Will. That´s a compliment I won´t forget. There´s just one thing I want everyone to understand.”
“What´s that?”
“Only Will can do The Goddesses. Iris – his Iris – simply takes my breath away. Will, that´s a talent no one can do more than imitate, and I don´t plan to try.”
“Thank you. I won´t forget that, either.” Will rose, went to Heather and kissed her thoroughly.
“Whew ... See me after,” Heather murmured.
“Heather, when you have a minute,” Anne said with a grin, “I´ve thought of something.”
“What´s that, Anne?”
“How about a trip to Atlanta?”
“I´m ready. Just haven´t called Al and Margaret. Wanted to see what you thought of this stuff. Perhaps in a week or two when things settle down.”
“Things are not going to settle down, guys,” Saul said. “The phone has been ringing off the hook, as you know. I´ve been talking with Jim a lot – thank God we have him.
“The most interesting thing is this. L´Eggs, you know them, called. They want us to license them to produce Virtual Stockings under the L´Eggs brand. They want to put them into supermarkets, along with their regular stuff.”
“Wow!” said Will. “What did you say?”
“I told them, the only way we´d do that is, if they agree to put VeeSes – Virtual Stockings, I trade-marked it just in case – into the stores right next to L´Eggs.”
“You´re crazy, Saul,” Alex said, “They must have hung up on you.”
“Well, I didn´t put it quite that way. They´re willing to consider putting our VeeSes on racks next to the L´Eggs product if we give them private branding for basic designs and colors. Our part of the rack will be fancy designs – laces, nets, all the flowery stuff – and tapes of the clock designs you can put on the private-brand stuff L´Eggs will be selling. And, the real advantage for us is, they´re taking on all the production – for our designs, too. I should have a contract to look at next week. Heather, how about we both go to Atlanta? I´m going to dump this on Margaret.”
“You´re on.”
“Hold on, Saul,” Anne said, “I don´t like the idea of giving L´Eggs the store. I want us to keep manufacture of fancy VeeSes for ourselves. We need to keep on top of styling and we need to be flexible. This is a fashion thing, not a commodity item like regular hosiery. Our fancy stockings aren´t like L´Eggs. Also, we need to keep the clocks for ourselves. Women can vary their look with a different design up their legs; it doesn´t matter whose virtual stockings they´re wearing.”
“Well, I see your point, Anne. I´ll see what I can do. Talk it over with Margaret.”
“Okay, Saul, but I´m pretty serious about this. Heather, what do you think?”
“From my viewpoint, I agree with you, Anne. L´Eggs are a commodity, as you said. Chicken soup for the legs. VeeSes are further on the wild side, and I´d hate to have to go through a dozen committee meetings with L´Eggs just to change a pair of virtual socks.”
“Okay, okay,” Saul said, “I get the drift, and I even agree. Consider it done, unless we run into a problem with L´Eggs. Then, I might have to call Mary.”
“Why me?”
“Still Waters Farms does all our horse trading.”
“Horseshit, Saul. And, we have enough of that next door.” Mary threw a walnut at his head.
Saul ducked and went on. “Tom, I need some designs for racks that can hold both the virtual L´Eggs and our stuff. I´ve got specifications for you. Can you work with Alex on that? I need it yesterday.”
“You got it.”
“Sigrid,” Anne resumed, “can you clear out the gallery downtown and turn it into office space? We´re going to need people fast to handle the business that´s coming in.”
“I´m working on it already. And I can handle any new employees, thanks to what I learned this summer.”
Ken spoke up. “Guess you´re really on a roll, now, Anne. I´ll speed up planning on the new office building, work with Tom on that. We´ve got a design from a builder. Should work. I think we can get you under cover in January or February, if we don´t get fancy.”
“Thanks, Ken, that was my next item.”