Selena was walking up to her apartment when she encountered the manager of the complex. In an attempt to be friendly, she asked, "How are you doing?"
"I'm fine. I finally got rid of that damned cat," the manager said.
"What did you do with it?" Selena asked.
"I dropped it off at the SPCA. They don't take strays down at the pound anymore," the manager said.
"I think a lot of people liked that cat," Selena said. She wasn't the only one feeding it. She knew several residents put out bowls of milk or water for it. During the summer months it wore a flea collar.
"You know the policy about pets. The damned thing was shitting in the flowerbeds," the manager said.
"It was just a nice cat," Selena said worried about the cat.
"It's gone now," the manager said.
Selena went into her apartment and returned to work. She was making good progress on putting together a line of thirty calendars. The photographers had responded well to her calls. Several of them, knowing she was starting out on her own, gave her pretty nice price breaks. Several of the smaller distributors had agreed to take enough units to make it a profitable year. She was still negotiating with the printers to get a good price, but she was pleased with how the talks were going.
One other little piece of good news was that Max was using her to contact artists for his specialty websites. She was getting a small commission for getting photographers to take pictures appropriate for the website. She had negotiated a two thousand dollar contract with a woman to take pictures for the knitting site. Her take was two hundred dollars. It wasn't much, but she could use it towards the rent.
Money was an issue. She was carrying a business loan and had to be careful with the money. For the next six months her cash flow would be outwards. Only when September arrived would she start seeing any income. Not only did she have business expenses, but she had rent and personal bills. She was paying herself a small salary, but it wasn't enough. She was eating into her savings at an alarming rate.
Her former boss had called her a dozen times trying to talk her into returning to work for him. Initially he had offered her position back at a cut in pay, but now he was offering a fifty thousand dollar a year salary. It was too little and too late. By her calculations, her handful of calendars would net her nearly twice that. Of course, some of that money would have to be put back into the business for expansion.
Her apartment no longer looked like a place to live. She had papers and markups scattered over every flat surface. Handmade timelines on the wall showed deadlines and critical paths in getting everything done on time. She carefully updated them when tasks were started and completed.
She was a little scared that something bad would happen, but with each minor success her confidence grew. She no longer had to wait for her boss to show up to sign critical papers. She signed them when they arrived and then took the necessary follow up actions. The fact that she was only doing thirty calendars rather then a hundred and fifty meant she wasn't working as hard as when she had worked for her boss. Of course, she was putting in twice the effort on each calendar.
Intending to see what the photographers had sent her of their stock photographs, she opened her email. She was pleased to see that there were a dozen emails. It was a good sign that people were communicating with her. Nothing could be worse than silence.
Upon reading the most recent email, she nearly jumped for joy. A major bookstore chain with over seven hundred locations had ordered twenty copies of each calendar line for all of its outlets. That was over four hundred thousand calendars. She hadn't expected to make that sale.
She got up from her chair and did a little victory dance around the apartment. With that one order, along with her other orders, her business was established. She could relax now and focus on getting the calendars put together in time to ship them. This was an important step on the path to success.
She sat down and composed a response that acknowledged receipt of the order. She gave a mailing address for sending the contract. She was so excited that it was hard to type. Her fingers kept missing the keys.
She had just hit the send key when the telephone rang. Surprised, she stared at the screen and said, "That was fast. I just sent it."
She dug out her cell phone and saw that it was Max's number. She answered, "Hello."
"Hello, Selena. This is Marylou."
"Hi Marylou. How goes the website?" Selena asked.
She was pleased that Marylou had called. Now she would have someone to tell her about the order. It wasn't Guy, but Marylou had become a good friend. They both shared a rather foul opinion of Guy's wife.
"We just hit four thousand subscribers," Marylou answered excitedly. The website featuring Guy's cheating wife was getting so much traffic that they were having to increase the service contract. It was generating so much email that they were having a hard time keeping up with it.
"That's great," Selena said.
"We're going to double it with the most recent video," Marylou said.
It took them a couple of days to prepare each video for posting. They had to put a black bar over the eyes of Maggie's lovers. Their lawyer had advised them to do that to avoid a potential lawsuit since they didn't have the lover's permission to post the video. They didn't have the best video editing equipment that would make it easy to put the little black bar across the eyes so it took some time.
"Is it that good?" Selena asked.
Marylou said, "If you hate that bitch half as much as I do, you'll be rolling on the floor with tears in your eyes from laughing. It is great."
"Don't leave me in suspense," Selena said.
"The bitch was just informed by one of her lovers that she has gonorrhea. You have to see it," Marylou said.
"Which one told her?" Selena asked. So far, Maggie had brought three different men into the bedroom. There had probably been more than that before Guy had caught onto her. There had been occasional references to other men.
"The old fart from across the street told her," Marylou said. "It was hilarious. He's wondering how he's going to tell his wife. She's wondering if she gave it to Guy. They are both about to have a nervous breakdown."
"That is funny," Selena said. She could just imagine it.
"Max worked on it all night. He just put it on the website," Marylou said.
"How is Guy taking it?" Selena said.
Marylou said, "As you can imagine, he's depressed. I think he's about ready to file the divorce papers. I think living a lie is taking its toll on him. It must be horribly stressful pretending to be a loving husband when he knows what she is doing."
"Poor guy," Selena said feeling her heart breaking for him.
"So how come you aren't out there cheering him up?" Marylou said.
"It's complicated," Selena answered. It had taken Marylou exactly two minutes to figure out that Selena had a thing for Guy. By mutual agreement, she and Guy had been avoiding being together.
"It might be, but you've got to let him know that you'll be there when he's out of that situation," Marylou said.
"Marylou, you're a wonderful lady. I know you think well of me, but have you looked at me? I'm not particularly desirable," Selena said.
Marylou said, "Don't give me that. He asks about you every time I see him. He's interested."
"Can you tell him that the cat was taken to the SPCA?" Selena said.
"Cat? SPCA?"
Selena said, "He'll know what I'm talking about. Just let him know that the manager of the apartment took the cat to the SPCA."
"Okay. I'll tell him that," Marylou said mystified by the message.
Selena said, "I've got some good news, too."
"What?" Marylou asked.
"I got an order for four hundred thousand calendars," Selena said.
"Wow! This is good news," Marylou said.
Selena said, "I'll be able to take that order to the bank to get a loan sufficient to cover the printing costs."
"That's wonderful," Marylou said.
"Now I just have to finish the calendars," Selena said.
Marylou said, "Let the fun begin."
"Thanks," Selena said.
"I'll talk to you later," Marylou said.
Selena sat back thinking about the website featuring Guy's wife. She had visited it once and had been totally disgusted. Maggie, she had a hard time even thinking that name, had said mean and horrible things about a man she knew had a good soul. She had seen him near tears on many occasions when talking about what Maggie was doing. She hoped that the website was providing some release for his grief and his anger.
She returned to work trying to put him out of her mind. The telephone rang. It was the buyer from the bookstore chain. She picked up the phone and said, "Hello, Elena. This is Selena."
"Hello, Selena," the woman said with a laugh.
"How's my rhyming sister?" Selena asked. They always chuckled over how their names rhymed.
"I've got to let you in on a little secret," Elena said.
"What?"
Elena said, "I approved your order before I realized that you had struck out on your own."
Selena wondered if she was about to get some bad news. She asked, "Are you having second thoughts?"
"No. I was just wondering how I can help you. I knew you were doing all the work there at your old place. I'm glad to see you move out on your own. You've always been a good person to work with unlike that ass you used to work for," Elena said.
Selena had been hearing that a lot. She would lay the groundwork for a good deal according to what he initially requested. Once there was an agreement of sorts, he would try to get more with disastrous results. Then she would have to work hard to get things smoothed out. It didn't happen often, but people remembered those kinds of things.
She answered, "The best help you can give me is to pay me on time."
"Don't worry about that. Is the order too big for your resources?" Elena asked.
"No. I can use the contract to arrange a loan to cover the printing costs. The business loan that I have will cover everything else," Selena answered.
Elena said, "How about a staggered delivery schedule?"
Selena said, "I don't think staggering the delivery time will help. The printing costs will be less if they just do a full run."
"I just thought I would ask," Elena said.
"Thank you so much for thinking of me," Selena said.
"Us 'enas have to stick together," Elena said with a laugh.
Selena said, "You bet."
Elena hung up after a bit more small talk. Selena felt good. She had worked hard to develop good working relations with everyone associated with the business. All that hard work was paying off. All she had to do now was to get a good deal with the printers.
She returned to the computer and opened the the most recent batch of pictures from the wildlife photographer. It was some unsold stock that he had taken the previous year. She stared at the first picture that popped up. It was of a grizzly bear standing on its hind legs with forepaws raised and claws extended. It was a magnificent animal – strong and powerful.
"That's a cover," she said.
The next picture was of two rams charging. It was taken at the moment of contact. She could almost hear the impact. She said, "No. That's the cover."
She went through the rest of the pictures. It seemed to her that each picture was better than the previous. She couldn't believe he had never sold these pictures before.
She picked up the telephone and called him. When he answered, she said, "Hello Bobby. This is Selena."
"How's my favorite calendar babe?" Bobby asked.
"Great. I just saw the pictures you sent me," Selena said.
"Did you like them?" Bobby asked.
Selena said, "They're beautiful, but I think you meant them for someone else."
"Nope. I took them for last year's calendar, but your boss tried to screw me. I sent him my second best pictures hoping I'd find a buyer who appreciated quality. You can imagine my pleasure when you told me you were going out on your own," Bobby said.
Selena said, "I looked at all thirteen of them. Which one should I use for the cover?"
"Use the one of the wolf howling at the moon. That's my favorite," Bobby said.
"Your wish is my command," Selena said. "The wolf will be the cover."
"Thanks," Bobby said. "Send my payment when you get paid."
"Really?" Selena asked.
"You bet. I remember what it was like starting out," Bobby said.
Selena said, "I tell you what. Why don't you consider two calendars next year? Standard royalties on both. I know you've been wanting to do a study series."
"I'd love it," Bobby said. "I've got a cougar that I've been following. She's going to have cubs. I'd love to do a calendar of her rasing them."
"Consider it purchased," Selena said.
"Excellent. I really like doing business with you, Selena," Bobby said.
"Same here," Selena said.
Unable to forgo a chance to tease her, Bobby said, "Too bad I don't nudes. I'd be begging you to model for me."
"You'd break your camera taking my picture," Selena said with a laugh. She was used to photographers, even the female ones, making those kinds of comments.
"I seriously doubt it," Bobby said.
"Thanks for the compliment," Selena said.
"Take it easy Selena," Bobby said. "Good luck on the business."
As soon as she hung up, Selena brought up a standard contract and started filling it out for photographs for two calendars, one a study and one a collection of different animals. She knew Bobby would appreciate having the contracts in hand as soon as possible.