Chapter 204: West Range
Thursday, January 19th, Late Morning
Brooke strode into the conference room trailed by her assistant, Sam Walker. Someone once observed that when Brooke was in boss mode, she carried herself like a queen. It was reported she said thank you, and then had the person beheaded in one of the courts of Beaulieu Manor. It's exaggerated, of course, but Brooke let it go, just for the fun of it. Every time she would enter these meetings, and people would give her that look, it made her smile. The smile was simple; it said yes, I am the queen and damn straight; this is my queendom.
Slowly, Brooke took her seat at the head of the table. She studied the people along with the table and nodded.
"So, who missed me?" Brooke asked and looked down at the table. Several people nodded or raised their hands.
"Well, improve your aim," Brooke said, and the table laughed, "Good, we all still have our sense of humor. We hammered out most of the details we needed for New York Fashion Week with the New York Office."
"So, we have the models booked?" someone at the table asked.
Brooke nodded, "Yes, most of them. We're still waiting to hear from one or two. We've started getting the information for Y'all to start getting the outfits ready for the runway," she said.
"Will I be expecting Sawyer Scott and Kendall Davis for fittings?" Another woman at the table asked, Macy Paige, the head of the prototype shop asked.
"Yes, you will, Macy, and you'll be getting the times for the fittings," Brooke said.
Macy nodded.
"What's wrong, Macy?" Brooke asked.
"I love working with Ms. Scott, but she always asks a lot of questions about what and why I'm doing certain things," Macy said.
"She's trying to learn what you're doing," Brooke said, "I think she wants to get into the whole tailoring thing."
"I know," Macy said, "I'm just not used to having someone so chatty in for a fitting."
Brooke nodded, "I'll talk with her about it," she said.
"Thank you," Macy said.
"You're welcome," Brooke said and looked over to Bobbi-Lee. "Bobbi, do you think you can squeeze those two into something in your line?"
"Of course," Bobbi-Lee said, "I have a few things that would work for them."
"Good," Bobbi-Lee said.
"Well, I've sent all the details to your respective departments," Brooke said, "Are there any questions?"
There were head shakes all around the table. Brooke nodded her head, "Good, let's get it done," she said, got up and left the conference room, followed by Sam.
"That was a short meeting," Sam said.
"I don't need to tell them what they need to do, and I get progress reports every night," Brooke said.
"I know, I compile the reports," Sam said, "But people like to be led."
"Led, yes, micromanaged, no; you, as a leader or boss, need to put good people in the right positions and trust them to deliver," Brooke said.
"If they don't?" Sam asked.
"You ruthlessly eliminate the issue," Brooke said.
"How?" Sam asked.
"Cut off their head and place it on a spike outside the office as a lesson to the rest," Brooke said.
"That's cold," Sam said.
"You don't do that," Brooke said, with a laugh, "But you correct the issue as ruthlessly as possible."
"Still, that's call," Sam said.
"That's why this succeeds here," Brooke said.
"The so-called queendom?" Sam asked.
"What's the point of being a queen without a queendom?" Brooke asked with a laugh.
Sam nodded, "I guess that's a good point," she said.
"It's the truth, even if just in here," Brooke said and tapped her finger on her temple.
"Even over the bodies of others?" Sam asked.
Brooke smiled with a wicked smile, "A well-behaved woman seldom makes history," she said.
"I've heard that before," Sam said.
"Well, just so you know, I've made history," Brooke said.
"You've also misbehaved if I remember your bio correctly," Sam said.
"Wikipedia?" Brooke asked.
"Partially," Sam said.
"Don't tell me you watched that series based on Lucas Scott's first book," Brooke said.
"Partially," Sam said.
"The first four seasons were reasonably accurate, but the show's producers and Lucas had a falling out. He wouldn't sign over the TV rights for the rest of the books; well come to find out that the showrunner was a creep," Brooke said.
"That explains the quality drop off," Sam said.
"Just like Game of Thrones," Brooke said.
Someone knocked on the office door. Brooke looked over and saw Bobbi-Lee standing in the doorway. Brooke smiled, "Yes, Bobbi?" Brooke asked.
"I wanted to double-check on one of the models," Bobbi-Lee said.
"Sure, which one?" Brooke asked.
"Angela," Bobbi-Lee said.
Brooke nodded, "We've booked her for both shows," she said.
"Am I going to have to cover up her wings?" Bobbi-Lee asked.
"Wings?" Sam asked, "I've never heard that one before."
Brooke laughed, "Angela has angel wings tattooed on her back."
"Oh," Sam said.
Bobbi-Lee nodded, "Okay, I have a few ideas for her to wear," she said.
"Good," Brooke said.
"So, what's going on here?" Bobbi-Lee asked, curious.
"Nothing much," Brooke said.
"That show based on Lucas Scott's first book," Sam said.
"Oh, Ravens," Bobbi-Lee said.
"You know it?" Sam asked.
"God, when my dad was still alive, he watched it and bitched the whole time," Bobbi-Lee said.
"What would he bitch about?" Sam asked.
"Well, my dad was around for some of the highlights, and he didn't remember those events happening that way," Bobbi-Lee said.
"Oh?" Sam asked.
Bobbi-Lee nodded, "Yeah, he stopped watching it after a few episodes," she said.
"Oh," Sam said.
Bobbi-Lee nodded, "Well, I have some planning to do, and prototypes to look at," she said.
"You're going to leave me hanging like that?" Sam asked.
"Yeah," Bobbi-Lee said and left.
Sam looked at Brooke, "What's that about?" she asked.
"Bobbi-Lee doesn't like to talk about her past," Brooke said.
"I remember she took a sabbatical when I first started working here," Sam said.
"She did, around two months, and was in the southwest for most of it," Brooke said.
"I wonder what she did then," Sam said.
"That's for her to tell you. I do know she did get into rock climbing down there and did several well-known climbing sports," Brooke said.
"That explains her calloused hands," Sam said.
"Yeah," Brooke said.
"That's all she did?" Sam asked.
"No, she rested up, so when she returned to her queen, she could better serve her queendom," Brooke said with a laugh. Sam just shook her head.
