Lavender Is a Harsh Mistress

by Earl Watson

  Amanda knew him well enough to know that after he left the Federal Courthouse, he needed to be alone to clear his head.

  Even though he had tried to hide it from her she knew that the ordeal had frightened him. He had tried to make her think that there was nothing to worry about but she knew better. Because she could tell by how pensive and quiet he had gotten at times. Most likely at this very minute he was walking thru this dangerous storm getting soaked to the bone and not giving a damn. One of the things that she was always intrigued by was his fascination with dangerous weather. She moved to the foot of the bed and sat down. By now 16

  Lavender Is A Harsh Mistress

  the rain, thunder and lightening were giving the building a ferocious pounding. She forced herself to concentrate on the savage ballet outside as a sudden clap of thunder caused her to jump. In her mind she jumped onto one of those bolts of lightening that were still dancing across the far horizon. She felt it power up and blast off at the speed of light. It had become her time machine and blasted her back into the past, where everything had began.

  It was “Hell Week” and that was putting it mildly. This was the week that everyone in the fashion world pined for, lived for, lied for, and eternally schemed for. Yet, every year when it finally arrived it was pure torture. This year however would be different because everyone on the street (Fashion Ave/7th Avenue) wouldn’t have to suffer for too long. All of the other companies knew that they were in the running for second place and for whatever scraps were left over. They all knew what had been whispered about for months. This was Amanda’s year! But as Amanda sat behind her desk she was being tortured by something that she could not have imagined. The right arm of her company was sitting next to her and had just dropped a bomb. She was quitting on this very day. Amanda sat up straight as if she was bolted to the chair.

  “Barbara, what are you talking about?” Barbara who had been with the company for six years turned away with her voice breaking.

  “I am sorry Mandy, but it can’t be helped. It’s Sandy, he wants me to stop working.” Amanda leaned forward in disbelief.

  “What do you mean? Sandy has always been so supportive, so proud of you. He is your biggest fan!”

  “That’s what I thought until this past weekend when my daughter told me what he does when I am away on company business. Since she is finished with school I thought that he would reconnect with her by going to the city to see some plays, or to the park, or maybe even take her to his golf club to hang out with a few of his buddies.

  That’s what he told me, but he didn’t.” Amanda could see the pain in Barbara’s eyes and reached across the table to hold her hand.

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  “What does he do?”

  “Nothing! My daughter told me that all he does is mope around the house and wait by the phone for my call. He doesn’t leave the house at all and just withdraws into himself. This has been going on ever since he retired five years ago. But when I get off the plane he’s right there to meet me like everything is fine. I didn’t realize how much my husband misses and needs me Mandy. My daughter and I spent the entire weekend crying over this. I am sorry about leaving during

  “Hell Week”, but it can’t be helped.” Amanda squeezed Barbara’s hand tighter.

  “Is Sandy going to be alright?”

  “Now he is, besides I am going to treat myself to a new wardrobe of golfing gear, it’s going to cost him a fortune.” Amanda brushed aside a tear.

  “I don’t know what I am going to do for an office manager.” Barbara had composed herself by now and quickly answered.

  “I have already found you one and you will meet him at the meeting in one hour.” The two women stood up and embraced and Amanda held Barbara at arms length.

  “Now remember this, if you need anything, anything at all you pick up the phone and call me. If you can’t get in touch with me then call Jacquelin York Associates, our accounting firm. I will call them today to let them know that whatever you need they are to give you the green light.” Barbara started to tear up again and Amanda shook her by the shoulders.

  “Don’t you dare! Sandy is a good man and you are doing the right thing. Now go and arrange your last meeting so that I can meet this new manager.

  The entire team of Amanda Fashions, were seated around a conference table. There was Barbara, Raz Warren, Willis Paige, Hilton Jiggers, Joy Blackmon, and Amanda. This was the team that ran a company of over one hundred employees. Amanda had just relayed to them Barbara’s shocking news. They were all in a state of semishock. None of them had any idea how things were going to get done now. For years it was Barbara and her rolodex that had gotten everything taken care of and made everyone jump. She knew where all of the skeletons were in the fashion world and whose clos-18

  Lavender Is A Harsh Mistress ets they were hanging in. Besides that she really knew her stuff when it came to the business. She was the one who covered up all of the mistakes that everyone else made. They all sat around the table with a collective look on their faces that said “Oh no!” Amanda was about to say something when there was a knock at the door and Barbara said. “Come in.” A young man stepped inside the room and Barbara introduced him.

  “Ladies and gentlemen may I introduce you to your new office manager, Mr. Marcus Vipsainus Peterson.” He stood six feet and four inches tall and a little over two hundred and twenty pounds. His hair was curly black with a natural sheen. His complexion was a soft brown that in the light made it to appear to be a bit copper toned.

  His dark brown large Egyptian shaped eyes gave off a twinkle that seemed to say “I know all of your secrets.” His thick eyebrows were perfectly arched and below them lay a pair of full thick eyelashes.

  His face had the softness of a new born baby without the slightest blemish. Above his full lips was the hint of a well behaved slight mustache. Below his lips was the jaw of a picture perfect Marine, with a dimple. He offered up a charming smile that exposed a set of the most perfect white teeth that any of them had ever seen. He was dressed in a charcoal gray suit, a white shirt, with a pink tie that had gray stripes running down the left side. In his suit’s breast pocket was a matching handkerchief. Everyone could see his shirt’s French Cuffs, with silver cuff links with a pearl in the center. On his feet he wore a pair of gray suede shoes. He stood still for a few minutes as they gave him a good going over. All of the men at the table felt threatened while the women felt discombobulated, due to a lack of oxygen in the room. Barbara led him over to Amanda and he greeted her with a quick bow and offered his hand as his eyes locked onto her face.

  “It’s an honor to meet you Miss Wilcox. I hope that I can serve you as well as your current manager has and I thank you for giving me this chance.”

  There was something in his voice that unsettled her. It had a softness about it with just the right amount of baritone. Something that you seldom found in men who inhabited the world of New York fashion.

  “I have all the confidence in the world in you Mr. Peterson. I think 19

  Lavender Is A Harsh Mistress that you will do just fine.” Marcus gave her another bow and took a seat at the table as Barbara gave everyone a written outline of the show. Within twenty minutes they all knew what they all were supposed to do and left to take a Limo to the hall. Amanda had work to do and would stay behind. As they all shuffled out of the door she stopped Hilton.

  “Hilton, do you have a minute?” Hilton slid back into his chair.

  “Sure Mandy, what’s up?”

  “I want to ask you a few questions about our new office manager. I know that you know everything about every body in the business. I have never heard of this Mr. Peterson, have you?”

  “Yeah, he was a top buyer at Blakely and Shade.”

  “I thought that they went under?”

  “He was with them a few years before they closed up shop. He made a fortune for himself and them. Not that he needed the money he was loaded before he worked
for them.” Amanda sat back with a puzzled look on her face.

  “Loaded! How did he make his money and why would he have to work at all? Does he have a rich uncle?”

  “No nothing like that, he came from meager means and just used his brains to become a big shot at a dot/com in California. When his company got acquired by a bigger company he made millions.”

  Why would he take a job in the fashion business?” Hilton leaned back in his chair.

  “He tells people that he likes it, thinks that it’s fun and he does it for his pleasure.” Amanda folded her arms on the table.

  “One more thing before you go Hilton. Was he any good before he left Blakely and Shade?” Hilton stood up and headed for the door.

  “From the way that I hear it Blakely and Shade didn’t start doing bad until after he left. Well Mandy I have to be off. You know how much that I love Limo rides, makes me feel important.”

  Amanda felt a sense of relief. Her new employee had gotten a gold star from two of the most respected people in the business. She walked over to the window in her office as the Limo pulled up. She noticed how the other two men piled into the car without any concern for the women. But this third man, held the door open until all of the women were seated. He then got inside and calmly closed 20

  Lavender Is A Harsh Mistress the door and the Limo pulled off. Amanda stood looking at the spot where the Limo had been for a few seconds longer. She quickly caught herself and chuckled.

  “Girl you have work to do, you act like you have never seen a Limo before.”

  By early evening Barbara and the others had returned from the hall. She headed straight for Amanda’s office in an air of excitement.

  “Mandy, the show is going to be great! Everyone knows exactly what they are supposed to do, even the backup plans. Raz had a problem with one of the models but what else is new. Willis got his sets stepped on but I was able to calm him down.”

  Amanda brushed aside some of the papers on her desk and cut Barbara off.

  “How did Mr. Peterson do?” The abruptness of the question caught Barbara off her guard. She looked at Amanda strangely before answering her inquiry.

  “Mandy, he is a natural! I showed him all of the camera positions just once and he remembered them all. He even improved some of them but allowed me to think that I did. Do you know something Mandy? I think that you have something really special here!”

  “Thanks Barbara, I was thinking that he could work out of your office. That way if anyone calls they can speak directly to him.”

  “That makes perfect sense. Oh by the way, Raz was on the prowl from the time that we got to the hall. She wants to get first dibs.”

  Amanda threw her arms up into the air over her head.

  “What does the supreme diva want now?!!”

  “It’s not a what it’s a who.” Amanda looked at Barbara in shock.

  “He just started working here today! She doesn’t know a thing about him.” Barbara’s voice ticked up.

  “Pleaseeeee Mandy, we are talking about Raz! She was fluttering her eyelids so fast that I am surprised that her false eyelashes did not fall off!” Amanda folded her arms on her desk and took a deep breath.

  “Barbara, you have to do me one last favor before you leave. Tell Raz, to cool her little hot buns until after the show. After that he is all hers.” Barbara shuffled her feet and headed for the door.

  “I will see to it Mandy. Well I guess that this is it. I won’t say good-21

  Lavender Is A Harsh Mistress bye. I’ll just say that I will see you in the Funny Papers, and you are going to have the best “Hell Week” ever.

  In the first week that Marcus was at work he was seldom seen by anyone. He would arrive when it was dark in the morning and leave when it was even darker at night. He had already met with all of the other managers and was fully versed with all of their duties.

  Everyone told Amanda that he was. “The best at learning everything quickly.” He had the knack of giving an order but making it sound like a request. When things turned out right he was the first person to give the credit to others. Many a night Amanda would pass by his office and look thru the window in his door to see him hard at work.

  Most of time he would have a design of the hall laid out flat on his office floor with tiny dolls over it. He would move them around with a stopwatch until everything was timed down to the last second.

  Amanda couldn’t believe that his wife or girlfriend would allow him to work so late. But that was how the fashion world operated. It demanded all of your blood, everything else you could keep. It was the night before the show and Amanda passed by his door that was open. She stopped and watched for a minute as he moved the dolls from place to place. He stood up and folded his arms in front of him.

  His suit jacket was hung over his shoulder, the top button of his shirt was unfastened, and his tie was loose. He was engrossed as he looked at the design and the dolls, oblivious to the fact that she was looking at him. She knew that he was committing every detail to memory.

  “You have done quite a job Mr. Peterson.” She thought that she had startled him but realized that she had startled herself instead. She hadn’t meant to talk to him at all but somehow she did. Marcus turned to her and smiled.

  “Now lets hope that it works.”

  “You have gotten everyone all excited, even Hilton, is on pins and needles, and he’s seen it all.” Marcus buttoned his shirt, fixed his tie, and put on his jacket.

  “You have quite a professional crew here, they are all wonderful. You seem quite cool, calm, and collected.” Amanda shifted her weight from one foot to the other and brushed her hair back.

  “Wait until the show starts then I will be like a first grader on her first day of school.” Marcus took a few steps closer to her.

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  “Don’t worry Miss. Wilcox, everything will be just fine. You are going to have to hire a few more people with the amount of business that is going to be coming your way.”

  “Well if that is the case I had better get home and get some sleep.

  What time are you leaving, it’s already past nine?” Marcus put his hands in his pants pockets and looked at the design before looking back at her.

  “Don’t worry about me I’ll be alright. I will see you tomorrow and have a good night.”

  “You too Mr. Peterson, I will see you then.” As she turned and walked toward the elevator she had a sense that his eyes were following her.

  But she willed herself not to turn around just in case they weren’t.

  There are just so many words in the English Language that can describe something that is as close to perfect as possible. Everyone of those words were used to describe Amanda’s show. As a matter of fact those words of praise didn’t even wait until her show was over. The magazine and daily fashion reporters were burning up their phones trying to get their reviews into their editors. They were using words like hot, magical, stupendous, wonderful, untouchable.

  Then came the phrases like, not to be believed, never before seen, once in a lifetime, definitely for the red carpet, don’t get left behind.

  Those were some of the kudos that the American Press used. But the same words and phrases were being used by reporters from France, Italy, China, Russia, England, Canada, and many other countries.

  Those reporters were also burning out their telephone circuits trying to beat their competition. Amanda was trying to make her way down the spiral staircase of the hall but was having no luck. She was being crushed by reporters, well wishers, job seekers, television cameras, photographers. As well as a host of people who just wanted to be a part of it all. The Cavalry came to her rescue in the form of Manny. He bulldozed thru the crowd with his massive body and a frown on his face. He escorted her down the stairs while warning everyone.

  “If I push you mothers out of the way you had better stay out of the way!” In no time she was safe within the confines of the back seat
of her car. But a bigger zoo awaited her at the after party.

  The after party was being held at Ian Olsoons. It was the 23

  Lavender Is A Harsh Mistress only place in the city where the rich would pay thirty dollars for one hamburger. Then go and brag about it to their other rich friends. But if you wanted the best surroundings and the best food and drinks and service. Olsoon’s was the place to be seen and then be written about in tomorrow’s papers. Ian had begged Amanda for months to have her party at his place. He had even pleaded with her on the phone.

  “Mandy, you know that there is no bigger or ornate hall than mine in the city. I can accommodate up to fifteen hundred folks and I have the largest parking and valet service on the east coast. The best food, liquor, champagne will all be top shelf and unlimited. Everything should come to about one hundred and seventy thousand dollars.

  But I will give you a flat price of one hundred and fifty thousand.”

  Amanda knew a good deal when she heard it. She also knew that Ian wasn’t doing her any favors out of the goodness of his heart.