The dryer in the photo-lab ejected her shoot the next day and Cassie studied the results of her night's work. There hadn't been many erections in her life but the message her mouth had received was that they came in a surprisingly satisfying variety of lengths and girths. She spread her shoot out on the table and considered what Scotty had contributed to her knowledge. Limp he had been cute, erect impressive and it had been delicious getting him there. But artistically, she decided, the result left something to be desired. Clearly his was an organ intended more for function than aesthetics. Scotty could use some help Cassie decided and turned on the enlarger. By noon she had locked herself in her studio again with her airbrush and her newly realized aspirations.
A day later they took the show on the road. Harrison was eagerly aware of the opportunities for the agency if the Champagne Campaign took off and he had joined his account exec and creative team to demonstrate the wholehearted interest of the agency in the Bubbles Account.
When their commuter flight landed and they had disembarked Connors was awaiting them in the lounge. On the ride to the company Cassie found herself sandwiched between him and Scotty in the backseat of the van, their thighs pressing suggestively against hers as she tried to forget the intimate interludes she had spent with each of them while she focused on the presentation ahead. The small talk, desultory and convivial, eased them into the conference room and Cassie busied herself with setting up while the others entertained themselves with coffee and rolls.
When the company executives entered the room Connors stepped forward to make the introductions. By the time they got to her she had registered that the tall suave young man with the dark brown eyes was Leo Barbacchi, the CEO of Barbacchi Spirits.
And the woman in the black wrap-around dress was Barbacchi's administrative assistant, Margo Vasari. To Cassie she looked more like a model than a secretary. The handshakes went all around and the one that most stayed with Cassie was Margo's, mostly because of the candor her eyes.
Cassie observed that the woman was older than herself by some ten years perhaps and definitely taller. Her hair, a rich tawny blonde, fell over her shoulders and framed her face, emphasizing her wide-set dark brown eyes, which struck Cassie with their knowing frankness. Her wide fine sumptuous mouth offered a smile that always seemed to have a knowing touch of the ironic in it. Instantly Cassie felt herself to be rather intently scrutinized by Margo Vasari, almost as if she and this woman might have known each other, and Margo was trying to remember where and when.
As always Cassie felt the presentation jitters and she didn't need any coffee to make it worse, so she dawdled with her cup waiting for the show to start while she studied Margo's boss, Leo Barbacchi. His presence had transformed the room. The casual jocularity had subsided into the restraint of the 'business mode', and while the conversation was still disconnected it was clearly subdued and more formal.
She guessed that Barbacchi was in his early forties. He was well built and a good six feet tall with a certain easy elegance to his carriage, a scion of the Barbacchi fortune no doubt. He was unforgivably handsome Cassie decided in the way so many Italian men were, and though clearly involved in the proceedings around him yet detached in some way as well.
His gaze included everyone and drifted beyond to herself. It lingered on her with a certain casual appraisal and she was suddenly very conscious of how she had dressed for this occasion. Her choice had been as before, the beige silk suit that hinted not too subtly upon her curves, only his time her breasts nestled braless in her jacket her nipples neatly noticeable beneath the silky fabric. Considering what she was going to say the look she wanted was more than just a touch of glamour for this presentation.
When at last they turned to the business at hand and Harrison made his spiel, and the account exec had reviewed the marketing strategy, and Scotty had presented the tactics, it was her turn to introduce the ad campaign. She rose went to the screen and turned to face Leo Barbacchi. He would make the decision. She would talk to him. Within, her heart was thumping and somewhere in the unplumbed un-admitted depths of her being she was with him just the way she had been with Scotty that night when she had given him his rain-check. It had to be that way considering what she was going to say.
"Of all pleasures is there anything more pleasurable than making love?" Cassie looked right at Barbacchi and a faint smile touched his mouth. "I can tell you personally that Bubbles Champagne is more than a pleasure, it's a delight, and so of course is making love." Cassie let her gaze move to Connors and she picked up his incredulous grin as he tuned-in on her allusion to their own champagne party. Cassie returned her gaze to Barbacchi.
"What I am about to show you is a metaphor for pleasure." She clicked the remote and the long swelling upright image of the champagne flute filled the screen.
"What I'm going to show you next is not a metaphor, it is the reality of pleasure." Cassie hoped they didn't catch the falter in her voice as her breath tightened with her tension. She clicked the remote and the beautifully embellished image of Scotty's erect phallus slowly emerged within the champagne flute in flawless perfection. She took a deep breath in the silence. The erection glowed before them. Her airbrush had caressed it into a godlike cock worthy of Eros himself. It merged marvelously with the flute.
"This is not the graphic we are proposing for the journal campaign," Cassie announced, "I just wanted you to get the point. The graphics we are proposing are rather more subtle." The phallus faded to be replaced by a cascade of champagne swirling up inside the flute to spill over the edge in a seminal cascade of bubbly foam.
"Aside from the taste a great pleasure of champagne is in the bubbles. They can do marvelous things to such sensitive areas of your body as your tongue...among other things." Cassie didn't have to look at Connors to catch his smile. Instead she kept her gaze on Leo Barbacchi who was looking as much at her as he was at the screen. "...and if we look closely at these champagne bubbles we can see some interesting things. For example they offer the opportunities to exploit what we designers call bi-lateral symmetry. Breasts come in pairs..."
Cassie offered the subtleties of her own naked images in the graphics that Bart had captured so sensuously with his cameras. "Buttocks come in pairs...thighs come in pairs...and labia come in pairs...among other things." She clicked rapidly though this inventory of her charms, "...and bubbles offer the opportunity to present these shapes in a subtle and suggestive way. We want our market to understand that Bubbles Champagne is a seductive toast to sex. As you can see from this graphic these sensuously erotic shapes are faintly suggested within the foam of the champagne bubbles."
Cassie pointed out the images that she had introduced into the bubbles. "These graphics are almost subliminal but for those who know to look for the erotic message, they are highly charged. Everyone will be looking at Bubbles Champagne ads, and the message will be unmistakable. We aim to broaden your market by making Bubbles Champagne pleasure personified."
"This is the journal campaign," she continued presenting the image of the man's hand offering the champagne flute to the woman's mouth, her hand resting on his as she sipped the erotic bubbles floating before her face. Beneath the graphic the simple headline,
BUBBLES CHAMPAGNE "The Best Of Taste"
wiped out the competition. "As you can see, on the surface this ad is simple and elegant. Beneath the surface it is steaming!"
Cassie left her audience staring openmouthed at the screen while she picked up the layouts and carried them to Leo Barbacchi. She tried to read his expression when she handed him the comps. He was certainly interested but was he full of doubts too? Connors had certainly prepared him for this campaign, but would he have the guts to go with it?
Barbacchi's gaze lifted to hers. Did she read something more than objective appraisal in that glance? Was there a certain assessment of her self in that quick candid flicker before his eyes lowered to her layouts. Cassie handed him the full-page-ad and waited.
Leo studied it, and she was sure she saw him nod ever so slightly. There was certainly the hint of a smile on that mouth that sent a twinge of anticipation into Cassie's heart. She held her breath with suspense and something else. Something that was melting in the wake of that brief brushing glance of his fingers against hers when she handed him the layout in the aura of that unfamiliar but delicious cologne emanating from him.
Warmth heated around her ribs and flowed upwards over her breasts tingling in her neck and that damned adolescent flush burned in her cheeks while she watched him turn the ad and view it from the side. She knew he was looking for the real images in the foam and would he know those were her breasts, her nipples, and God knows everything else that she had buried in those bubbles. She was positively sweltering and her silk jacket funneled the heat up into her crimsoning face.
"Do you have a loupe, Cassie?" Barbacchi asked without looking up. She did of course. She knew they would want to see the images magnified and she was prepared. Cassie slipped the magnifying glass out her pocket and placed it in the broad palm he had extended absently to her, his gaze fixed yet on the layout. The loupe bobbled in his hand and she held it there and then his fingers closed momentarily over hers. His touch dry, warm, and supple set off another flush rippling in her arm.
Holding the loupe to his eye Barbacchi pulled the buried images into focus. Cassie had known this would be the worst part, this waiting for the decision. But she hadn't known how much she suddenly cared whether anyone would approve of the images, her images that she had used in the ad. She was sure now that there were endless thousands of boobs and butts and cunts out there all better than hers, and she wished fervently that she had used them.
