Heaven’s Gate
62 Paris
I was an old hand at traveling by plane. I’d made trips to visit Whitney at Parris Island and Quantico. I’d been to Seattle a number of times to visit my sister. I’d had shows in different cities I had to fly to. And I could pilot a light aircraft solo. But there was something extraordinary about getting on a big 747 and taking off for Paris.
This trip was Jessica’s treat and she’d made sure we were in first class on Air France out of Boston. I felt bad that Amy was downstairs. But Jessica explained that the Business section had great service as well and Amy was more comfortable down there because she felt like she had time off. If she were up here, she’d feel like she was working. We had big roomy seats on the upper deck that laid back almost into a straight bed. The three of us left Indy for the quick hop to Boston at ten Sunday morning and then had a two o’clock departure to Paris. Jessica told me that when I woke up in the morning we’d be in Paris.
“Wake up? In the morning? Who’s going to sleep?” I laughed. “Look at this luxury.” The flight attendant handed us each a glass of champagne as we waited for the cattle compartment to fill. She then gave us menus with the selection of meals they could serve on the way out. They had duck! Jessica spoke to the attendant in French and they laughed together. They seemed to know each other.
“Elise and I have been on this flight together many times,” Jessica explained. “She thinks you are a very cute boy and wants to know if she can borrow you if you aren’t going to sleep.”
“What? No way?” I gasped. Jessica laughed.
“I told her you have twelve wives who would object and they only barely tolerated me stealing you away. Besides you have to sleep,” she said.
“Well, that might be easier said than done.”
“If you don’t sleep at least a little on the plane, you will be jetlagged when you get in and will want to go straight to sleep. You’ll sleep all day and then want to stay up all night.”
“It’s Paris. I thought the best time was at night,” I joked.
“You’ll get plenty of nightlife. But in the daytime, there is the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Catacombs, lunch along the Left Bank and so much more. After we have dinner and drinks tonight, we’ll sleep. I’ll find a way to settle you down,” she smiled at me. I twisted in my seat as much as my belt would allow with the seat in its upright and most uncomfortable position for takeoff.
“Why are we doing this?” I whispered. “Why are you stealing me away to Paris for a week? It just seems so strange.”
“I’ve kept myself so separate from everyone—from you—I just wanted to show you what my life is like when I’m not at home,” she sighed. “I don’t want you to have to live it, but to know what I live. And this might be the last chance we get for me to share that with you.”
“What are you saying, Jessica?”
“I’ll be twenty-nine this spring. It’s time to retire.”
“Really?”
“We all know Redress won’t be renewed after this season. We had a soft and gentle style, but the industry is promoting edgy. The market demand is sexy, not subtle. That’s why Pam is rising so rapidly, even though she got a late start. She oozes sex. She’s on the edge. She’ll pose topless. There is, ridiculously, still a bounty for nude photos of me, but no one is out stalking me to get them any longer. I’m old.”
“You just want to show me what it was like in your glory days? That sounds so sad, Jessica.”
“I’m not maudlin. I want your opinion on a business I think I’ll buy into. It’s an agency and Conrad says it’s the next logical step for my career. I have enough money to buy the agency outright, but he suggests a partnership so that I retain the solid management and the advice of the current owners instead of being out on my own all at once.”
“You still trust Conrad’s advice?”
“I know you think he’s slimy and Amy thinks he abuses me—verbally—but look at the money he’s made me managing my career. What do I have to complain about?”
“That he kept you away from your friends and your lover,” I said. Jessica nodded sadly.
“He just wanted what was best for me.”
Paris was pretty wonderful, I guess. After three days of sightseeing, though, all I wanted to do was walk down the streets and sample different meals at sidewalk cafés. Before arriving in Paris, I had questioned whether the French did any other kinds of bread than the long thin loaves of French bread, but then I saw the dozens of other shapes and flavors of bread they bake, and then Jessica introduced me to pastries. I knew croissants, I thought, but these gave a new meaning to the term, and all their variations, not just sweet but savory, too. And there were so many other kinds of pastries to sample. I understood now why Claudia Leoni came here to become a pastry chef. I was going to have to learn French, come back to Paris, and try to get the recipes from each of these restaurants.
And I met the people who owned the agency Jessica wanted to buy into. They were very nice. I was treated as a guest and included in the conversations about the business. We went to the office and met several staff and models. It turned out that they hadn’t been interested in selling at all, but Conrad had discussed how a respected and talented model like Heaven could work with young models like she had done with Pam. In fact, I found out that Jessica had tutored several up and coming models. I had to give Conrad credit for getting in that angle.
By the end of the week, the deal was closed and Jessica had agreed to start working with the models, shifting gradually from her own modeling and the shutdown of Redress into a talent management role at the agency. If anything, it looked like Jessica would be living even more in Paris and less in our little village.
“Don’t be sad, Brian,” Jessica said as we rode to the airport. I was headed back home and she was headed to Japan. “My two-year plan is to have an office started in the US, probably New York. Once it is up and operating, I’ll be living in the village and commuting to the office a few days a month. This is my way of pulling back and… and coming home.”
“Do you mean that, Jessica? Is that what you really want?”
“I never wanted to be away from you. I was told what I had to do to be successful. Even my mother and father told me what I had to do. My mother found Conrad to manage me. I was always a little scared of him and hired Amy as a bodyguard. My brother tried to pimp me out. In some ways, my mother was worse. Always making important connections. When little Xan crawled up on my bed on Christmas morning, I realized what I’d missed. I know I’ll never be your one and only, or even your number one. But one day soon, I’ll take my place as one of yours. I promise.”
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