"We all agree then. Mark has the potential. Right?"
Both Melanie and I nodded in agreement.
"That being the case, John you need to train him up. Do what you can to build some ego in him. I was thinking we could place ads for college women to participate in some sex therapy research at my clinic. Hell, I could even apply for a couple of research grants.
"Alright, I'm waiting. You can both tell me that I'm a multi-tasking genius now."
"Yes Carol, you are a multi-tasking dynamo, but let me ask, what did we promise Mark?"
"Well, I figured he needed training and even if we use hookers to start his training off, he will probably need about twenty sessions to become even close to your proficiency. We need him to be as good as you, if we intend to train six or eight more people before we open.
"I offered him an extra fifty dollars a night for training and once the facility opens he will be paid sixty five thousand a year plus a bonus for each requested session."
Melanie spoke, "That sounds like a lot of incentive to become proficient."
"Yeah, but we have a responsibility to our clients to ensure he becomes better than the others, who both John and Mark will train.
"That's the only way we can justify a session cost of six hundred, base fee for his services.
"Your fee John will depend on the client's ability to pay and the importance of the client to us. Theoretically, you could do half your work for free. Thus insuring loyalty, referrals and advertising. Items whose value well exceeds our costs of good will.
"Now, that brings us to you Melanie. How are you coming along?"
I looked at Melanie and a bewildered look crossed my face.
"First, I can see by John's expression, we need to bring him up to speed.
"John, my expertise is to bring investment money in. We are looking for four female investors with enough money to invest twelve million each. In addition, they would need to come up with another five million for expansion in eighteen to thirty months after our opening.
"The problem that I'm having is that we have limited time to move on this and we only want women investors. That is two limiting factors, making it difficult to have the best mix of investment money.
"You see John; our best chance for success comes if we have European money. They would be a strong influence on the jet setters that will be our bread and butter. Plus, you can be assured that not all the women I have in mind will be open to our plan.
"Here is the bad news. We have meetings with Singh Hadi Siddhu. She is a savvy Indian woman, not the most pleasant person you will ever meet, but she does have access to a lot of cash. Her brother never married and when he died, she took over the business he built. A global trade consortium dealing in brass. She would not be my first choice of investors, but if we need money, she is as good as they come.
"Next, is Sybil Tishman.
"Don't groan Carol. I know that you had a couple of consultations with her and came away displeased.
"Is that putting it nicely?"
Carol couldn't contain herself, "Displeased! John, hear this out. This dimwitted, at the time nineteen year old spoiled JAP, with a squeaky whine for a voice, is telling me that I should perform surgery on her to, and get this, increase the size of her labia so she can provide her then skinhead boyfriend with a more satisfying sexual experience.
"If you think that's bad, a month later, after getting some quack in Brazil to give her big pussy lips, she comes back in to see me. Now she wants a boob job. She wants to be a 32 E and to have her ass cheeks separated, making her crack wider, so her bikini won't be able to hide as much."
"What's a JAP," I asked.
Carol looked surprised, "You don't know about JAP's. Oh John, you will be dealing with loads of them in this business, and you'll just love them."
Melanie interrupted, "Stop that Carol. First off, Sybil is now twenty two and has changed. Secondly, JAP means Jewish American Princess, and it is not a complementary term.
"Sybil is the daughter of Alfred and Goldie Tishman. The husband and wife real estate investors, who probably owned half of El Paso. When they died in a small plain crash, Sybil took over. According to the terms of the will, the present real estate holdings are to be managed by the Real Estate Attorney, Daphne Dawes, better known in real estate circles as 'The Barracuda'. I only dealt with her once, and Barracuda, was not the B word I had for her.
"One of my recent contacts is Winifred Gates, Houston oil money. Winnie, as she has allowed me to call her, looks like she is in her mid thirties, she won't give her real age, but from what I know of her history, she has to be in her mid and probably late forties. Her husband Randy is seventy-eight and they have been married for more than twenty years.
"Randy has the onset of Alzheimer disease. Winnie makes the family decisions and allows the present CEO, I can't recall his name, to run the business for her.
"Next on the roll, are the twins, Robin and Rose Banks. They are new internet money.
"They took a big risk and bought up tens of thousands of web addresses. Over the years they have sold them off, making millions, selling them to Pepsi, Midas Muffler, Triple A, and the list is long.
"I think I remember reading that Mac Donald's paid eight million for one of them."
"Sonya Shcherbakov. Ring a bell Carol?"
"Oh my God, Melanie, not the Russian Mafia Princess."
"Well, I haven't contacted her, and I won't, unless we become really desperate, but she is staying in LA at this very moment and you and I both know, she would jump at this."
'There are times, I thought to myself, that you ask questions about things you don't understand. Then there are times to say nothing, and I really felt, that this was one of those times to just be that fly on the wall.
Melanie continued, "The next two should be a sure thing."
Carol interjected, "I was wondering when you were going to mention, IS and Nicoletta."
"Nikki is on her way here. That was part of my surprise for tomorrow. She will be arriving around three p.m., at her place. I talked to her about our plans and she is excited.
"John, I didn't mean to keep you out of the conversation, but Nicoletta and IS are almost like sisters to me."
"I know this sounds odd." I said, "But who is, IS?"
"Ingine Severson, that's why we call her, IS and it is also the name on her product line.
"You once mentioned that you liked how soft my skin feels. Well, it is her moisturizers and creams that do it. She is a chemist and developed her own line of skin care products.
"They're not very popular in the US, but in Scandinavia and Europe, they are the high end of cosmetics."
"Funny how things intertwine," said Carol. "Just a few weeks ago, I came across an article about Norse mythology. Did you know that names beginning with "Ing" indicate a worrier? Immediately I thought of IS."
"Yeaah, daat woood bee herr." Melanie tried to speak with a Scandinavian accent.
"As for Nicolette, she is Italian. Nicoletta Bialatto. Her family makes espresso machines. Lots of them. You will find them in one shape or another in every home in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Egypt and a half dozen other countries. The machine on my counter at home was a gift from Nikki."
Carol began, "You know if IS finds out that Sonya is even being considered by you, she will dig her heels in and won't invest a penny."
"Yeah I do, and I also know that if Sonya gets wind that IS, might even consider investing, she will try and worm her way into the deal."
"I take it these two have a hate, hate relationship." I said.
Carol said, "These two would cut off their arm if they thought it would piss the other one off."
"Yeah." said Melanie, "The Russian Mafia Princess, as we like to call her, developed a knock off product, called AZ. IS, swears that Sonya stole her formulas.
"They once met at a trade show, and IS and Sonya got into a real fight. IS came away with a hand full of long black hair and had it mounted in a frame that she keeps on her desk."
Carol spoke, "Now that Melanie has the money lenders lined up, it is going to be up to you to get them to write the check. It is literally in your hands. We only need and want four of them, but the truth is that we just don't know how they will perceive what we are offering."
Melanie now spoke, "Sorry to put the pressure on you John, but even the women that I consider to be like sisters are going to want proof that there will be a demand for the products that we are going to promote. What you do is the unique draw that will insure our success." ----------
We had been talking for hours, covering everything from our new venture to telling jokes.
"I've got one," Melanie said. "There was this motorist, who while traveling through Iowa ran out of gas. There was nothing for miles around. She didn't even have cell phone service.
"She was banging her head against the steering wheel, punishing herself for being so stupid, when she heard a buzzing and a tapping at her window.
"It was a honeybee. He told her to remove the gas cap and get back in the car. She did and a few minutes later there were swarms of bees all around her. They were flying into and out of her gas tank. It didn't take long for the swarm to disperse. When the last bee came out of her tank, it tapped on her window and signaled her to turn the ignition. She did and the car started up. She excitedly rolled her window down and asked, "How did you do it."
The Bee replied; Bee Pee.., get it? 'BP', like the gas."
We all laughed and Melanie said, "We must all be punch drunk tired to laugh at a joke like that. Carol, if I call my mom and she says it's alright, can we sleep over tonight?"
"Melanie, I'm hurt that you felt you had to ask. You two turn in and I'll lock up and see you in the morning, not to early."
"Oh Shit." Melanie said, "We have to get up early."
"What," was the common reply from both Carol and I.
"That's the other part of the surprise. We have to be at the Rodeo private airstrip at ten in the morning. Before we go there, John and I need to change."
"I'll bite," said Carol. "Why do we have to be at the airstrip before the chickens get up?"
"Nikki is sending a helicopter for us, and I wanted some time so we could all see and take pictures of the spa. Neither of you have seen it."
