Stu

Hi, RPM. I am glad you stopped by, and thanks for the supportive comment. I do appreciate it. Now, where were we.......
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I turned around to see a man and a woman approach Ana. She immediately recognized the man and said, “Oh, Mr. Young. What a delightful surprise to see you here!” She introduced us to Mr. Young and his wife. “Mr. Young is the vice president of the bank where I work,” Ana said. “He works in the downtown headquarters, but he has been over to the branch where I work a number of times.”

“That’s true,” Mr. Young said. He turned to his wife and said, “Ana works at the metro branch, and is one of the most popular tellers in our entire bank network.”

“I’ll bet she is,” Mrs. Young said somewhat disdainfully as she not so subtly surveyed Ana from head to toe.

Mr. Young explained that most of the bank’s top executives and their spouses were at the casino resort for a management retreat. He pointed out the other executives sitting down to breakfast on the other side of the restaurant, and invited Ana and Bob over to meet them. As she wiggled off to meet the bankers, Ana turned and cast an angry glare at Sharon.

“Oh, my, this is all my fault,” Sharon said glumly. “I pushed you two to wear your six-inchers assuming we would all be completely anonymous. I hope Ana will be all right with those bank executives.”

Maria put her arm around Sharon and said affectionately, “Sharon, remember, this is Ana we are talking about. The woman is as tough as nails. She will be fine. Now let’s get something to eat.”

The four of us picked up our trays and began getting our breakfast. A Latino man who was also getting his breakfast saw us and walked over to Maria. I recognized him as one of the men who had been with Luis Rojo the previous night when he was talking to us.

“Good morning, Maria,” the man said. “I see you put as much effort into looking fashionable for breakfast as you do for your Saturday night outings.” When Maria hesitated before saying anything, the man said, “Forgive me. We may not have been properly introduced last night. My name is Ramon Moreno. I am Luis Rojo’s agent.”

“Of course,” Maria said. We all introduced ourselves to him. Maria invited Ramon over to our table, and he seemed happy to accept.

“I assume, Maria, that you have not reconsidered our offer to join Luis’ band,” Ramon said somewhat light-heartedly as we began to eat.

“With what my husband is spending to send me to college, I think he would be beside himself if I were to quit school to begin touring with your band,” Maria said.

I replied, “That depends on what they would pay you, Maria.”

Ramon reached into his briefcase, took out a pad of yellow paper, and scrawled a very impressive number on it. “Would this be acceptable? This is what I would suggest to Luis if you were interested.”

Maria and I both gulped. “You can’t be serious,” Maria said. “You would pay me that much just to stand up on a stage and look pretty?”

“Style, grace and femininity count for a lot in our business. Think about it,” Ramon said.

Maria replied, “Steve and I talked about this last night. We value bold expressions of femininity, even when, like today, it may be a bit strong for most people’s tastes. But we also value intellect. I want to leave my mark on the world with both my intelligence and my femininity. Just making it with one is not good enough.”

“I like your philosophy,” Ramon said. “You said last night you are a business student? Where are you studying?”

“State University,” Maria said.

“I thought as much. I graduated from State with a degree in business 10 years ago.”

“Really!” Maria said. They spent most of the rest of breakfast discussing school topics. Ramon had earlier had many of the same professors who were teaching Maria’s classes. While they talked, I looked over across the restaurant and noticed Bob and Ana were having breakfast with the bankers. They seemed to be OK.

When I refocused on Maria’s conversation, I heard Ramon say, “If you want to combine business acumen with your physical presence, I have two suggestions. You can become an agent like me. When people see you, Maria, they will know you understand style and flair, and they will be willing to give your clients serious consideration. The other alternative is to go into the clothing or shoe business. People need to know what they sell, and believe me, Maria, you know clothes and shoes.”

“I was thinking more of accounting,” Maria said.

Ramon almost gagged. “Accounting? That would be a waste of your talent, no matter how good an accountant you are. Think clothes, think shoes. Who could possibly look at you, Maria, and think you know nothing about clothes and shoes?” He took out a business card and handed it to her. “I would love to talk more, but I have to catch a plane. Maria, I know people in both the entertainment and clothing industries. When you graduate and you need a little help, call me. I will remember you.” He said goodbye to us and left.

“Ramon gave us a lot to think about,” I started to tell Maria. “Maybe…” I never finished my sentence because Ana and Bob returned.

“Did everything go all right?” Sharon asked, with a trace of guilt in her voice.

“It went just fine,” Ana said, as Bob and she sat down with us. “I spent half the time telling the bigwigs about the award I won last year when I suggested ways the bank could save money by making the teller operations more efficient. They were all impressed.”

Bob added, “After Ana finishes telling them about her award, the bank president’s wife asked her how she can wear such incredibly high heels. So Ana goes into the whole story about how she learned to walk in high heels as a teenager in Costa Rica. She had them all listening intently.”

Ana added, “After I finished my story, the bank president mentioned my award again, and he asked me to send them my resume so they can keep it on file in the headquarters office. He said they could use more people in headquarters who have worked in the branches and know how they really operate.”

“The real question,” Bob said, “is whether they asked for her resume because of her award, or her heels?”

“Hopefully both,” Ana said with a laugh.

To be continued