Turn and walk into Louise' office. Ask her to authorize my time and effort to do some photography around the property. She shrugs and says fine.

In my office, I scratch out a list of reasons for Marketing to buy the Nikon and peripheral equipment, most of them related to special projects like the fiftieth anniversary of Doc's Place. Each department will pay for its own film and developing from the same service supplier to keep costs low. Hand the sheets to Annette for typing.

See Dick in Purchasing about sources for a used Nikon. We also chat about film developing.

"I can get the film developing quotes a day after I receive a signed purchase order so that's not a problem," says Dick. "How much time do I have to find a used Nikon?"

Shrug. "The rest of the morning."

"Gee, thanks. Once I find a list of sources, which will probably be private parties, I'll call and negotiate a price. We'll fill out a check authorization, which Kevin signs. Take that to Accounting and pay the party with the check."

"Who in Accounting?"

"Tyrone does the check requests."

"Tyrone Presnell?"

"You know Tyrone? He's a good kid. Always helpful and watches the details."

"Thank you, Dick. I'll be back for that list." When I leave, he's picking up the phone.

"Always meddling," mutters Sally.

Back at Annette's desk, I scan the two typed pages justifying the purchase of the camera and equipment. "Thanks, Annette," I tell her, walking toward Kevin's office. "Is he busy?" When she merely shrugs, waving a hand, I walk in and sit down.

Kevin looks up from his desk and says, "Hi Jill! Remember that fiftieth anniversary promotion we discussed? I'm working the budget on that right now. Dick Scope already said it's a great idea."

"You need publicity stills on a moment's notice, Kevin," I tell him. "I can snap those photos whether they are slides, prints, black-and-white or color. Check this out." Hand him the proposal.

He scans it and says, "Righteous. You'll operate the camera in-house?"

"Already have the go-ahead from Louise."

"Gnarly, dude," he says. "How much?"

Stand and pause. "Three or four large," I tell him with a shrug.

"Chump change," he says.

"Be back with a check authorization, Kev."

"Thanks for your enthusiasm and teamwork, Jill."

Wave and stride away, giving Annette a nod and a smile. In Dick's Purchasing office, I sit down.

"Found a good camera at a great price," says Dick. "A lawyer in Walnut Grove says we can have his full-auto F3, lenses, case, strobe with handle and spare batteries for fifteen if we buy it before Monday. It's three years old, in perfect condition."

"What are the lenses?"

Dick looks at his notes. "A thirty-five, a close-up and a twenty-five to fifty zoom."

"Filters?"

"A set of ten, including a one-A."

"Deal."

"That's what I thought. Let's call the man." He picks up the phone and makes the call. After talking for a moment, he looks at me, and asks, "Can you pick it up tomorrow before five?"

"Yes."

Dick takes down the address and directions, says good-bye and hangs up. Opening a desk drawer, he rapidly fills out the check authorization form. With a flourish, he hands me the form, the address and directions. "Didn't even take a half hour," he says.

"Thanks Dick," I say, taking the pages. "I'll give you the list of peripheral equipment later today." Wait to see if he'll ask about a game.

"Okay, kid." Leaning on the bottom of the Dutch door, Dick shows me the line and asks, "Rams over the Falcons Monday night, what do you think?"

"Rams will cover," I tell him. Walk into Kevin's office and hand him the form. He glances at it and says, "Fifteen for an F3? Shee-it." He signs it, attaches my memo and hands it back. "Drive over tomorrow?"

"Yeah."

"Submit your mileage and meals. Staying overnight?"

"Maybe."

"Keep it under one-fifty for lodging and thirty-five per diem for meals. Dick won't even blink."

"I'll give you the rest of the equipment list and a purchase order later today."

"Nah," he says with a flip of his hand, returning to his papers. "Just ask Annette to attach one of the signed ones she has in her desk when you have it ready. She knows you're one of us."

One of us? Oh, a marketing dude. "Tubular," I tell him as I leave.

"Totally," he says, deep into his budget numbers again.

Walk across the hall to Accounting, which is a huge room filled with clerks at their desks, three small offices at the far end. Stride to Tyrone's desk. On the way, I hear one guy whisper to another, "I think that's her." Another voice whispers, "Oh, wow." Tyrone has a chair next to his desk but I don't sit. "Tyrone, did you clean the rust off those contacts like I told you?"

He looks up and blinks. "Jill Price! Yes, I did. Thanks." He spots the paper in my hand. "Do I sense a check request?"

"Indeed you do," I say, handing it over.

"Takes a little bit," he says. "I'll bring it over."

"Okay." Turn and walk back, checking the two guys at my right. They're sitting at a long table, pretending to eyeball the screen of an IBM PC. The older guy is average height, slim with kinky hair'looks like he plays in a rock band and smokes dope when he's not at his day job. The other guy is young and huge, with a massive chest and biceps, burned by the sun and wind, just like Tan. Has the same wild look in his eye too. Walk up to them and stand there.

They look up innocently. The aging rocker is not intimidated, just interested. Bart, however, feels his male ego challenged, puts a half smile on his face and asks, "Can I help you?"

"You're Bart Franklin, aren't you?" When he blinks in surprise and the smart-ass smile disappears, I say, "Thought so." Extend my hand to the rocker. "Jill Price."

"Benny Pearl," he says and adds, "You're right. This is Bart."

We shake. "Met your buddy Tan, Bart. Over a month ago, downtown."

He nods. "Heard about it." He glances at Benny and then looks at me again. "Said you put the hurt on his football jock buddy without breaking a sweat."

"That guy? He's a big pussy."

They grin at that. "So what do you do at Doc's Place, Jill?" asks Benny Pearl.

"The magazine."

Benny raises an eyebrow. "Big shoes to fill. Kerry North won awards publishing that magazine."

Shrug. "How about you guys?"

"Casino analyst," says Benny. "Bart here's a Marketing analyst."

"Ah, Kevin's old job and now he's your boss. You work with Carl Peters." When Bart just rolls his eyes, I ask, "What do you use the PC for?"

"Running Lotus spreadsheets on patron perceptions of promotions for heavy Kevy," says Bart.

"Trying to develop formulas in the cells, you know?" adds Benny.

No idea, but I guess and say, "Trying to figure out where to put ads in the feeder markets to pump up the head count inside the casino?" They look at me, blinking. "Uh yeah, eventually," says Bart.

Up walks Tyrone with my check, stapled to a copy of the request form. "Here you go, Jill."

"Thanks, Tyrone."

"Heard your comments. Mind if I ask how you would pump up the head count in the casino?"

Looking at him, I say, "Double the advertising budget and special promotions in the feeder markets. Get the word out—fifty years of excitement. Doc's is hot."

Tyrone repeats the last two phrases and nods. "I like that," he says. "We have to do something to boost the headcount—way down from last year."

"See you around, guys," I say as I walk away, knowing their eyes are on me.

"I'm still amazed that you got involved in this whole photography project once you discovered you had nothing to do one morning," says Sara from the passenger seat as we're on our way to meet Heather and Jenny. "So what did you do after Tyrone handed you the check?"

"Took the rest of the afternoon off; met Tan at the pool hall."

"Did you get some more of that hard body after?"

"I didn't notice the trapeze above his bed my first visit."

"Grr. Sounds fun." Sara sits quietly for a moment, and then says, "You read the final Pere audit report. What do you think?"

"My two lovebird executives are clean, not negligent in any way. Le implemented your recommendations for system, accounting and audit procedures."

"What did you think of my examples showing that Pere pursues commercial real estate too conservatively?"

Pause as I pull into the parking lot and find a space. The dashboard clock says we're a couple minutes late to meet the girls. Shut off the engine. Pulling the keys, I stuff them in my pocket and turn to hook two of my fingers into hers on the back of the seat. Looking into her eyes, I say, "Your examples are twenty-twenty hindsight." I wait, expecting her to interrupt but she does not react. "However, I signed your recommendations, with comment, and forwarded them to Ume."

She grins. Leaning forward, Sara kisses me hard on the mouth. With her lips still touching mine, she whispers, "Persuading you is a powerful aphrodisiac, Jill." She kisses me again, her fingertips on my belly. "What do you say we get some strange?"

We scoot out and walk inside. Heather and Jenny spot us instantly and grin happily, as we approach. Ask softly, "Do you believe that a woman knows in the first five seconds whether she's going to have sex with you or not?"

"Have a nice trip tomorrow, Jill," says Sara. "I'm spending the weekend with Jenny."

"My, what beautiful girls," I say to Heather, Jenny and the two girls with them who are also beauties. "Jenny, this is Sara. Which of you drove over here?" Jenny is staring into Sara's eyes, her mouth slightly open. Sara takes her hand. Heather says, "I did."

"Give Jenny the keys, Heather."

Heather digs them out of her pocket and pushes them into Jenny's free hand. She watches as Sara leads Jenny away and out the door. "They didn't say a word to each other," she says, turning to look at me.

"I warned Jenny, didn't I?"

"You told Jenny that Sara would change her life."

"Uh-huh," I say, drawing close. "Let's talk about your life, Heather."

"I was ready the second you walked through that door yesterday, Jill."

"Atta girl." Turn and lead her out of there.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License