Blazing Success

* * *

Blaze took three attempts of pressure before Belle agreed to have mid-morning coffee with her.

The breakthrough came on the third day when Belle said, "No I cannot do that Blaze. It would be unprofessional of me."

"Tell me Belle, have you had coffee in here with Mr Hamill?"

Belle turned pale and she pushed the door shut and faced Blaze.

"Yes, many times."

"And what else have you shared with him?"

Belle looked out the window and said in a small voice, "I don't know what you mean?"

"Have you had sex with him in this office?"

"Oh how can you ask me such a thing?"

"Spit it out Belle."

Belle looked at Blaze with a hand pressed over her mouth. She lowered her hand, appearing to calm herself and said she would fetch her coffee.

She returned, closed the door and sat facing Blaze across the desk.

"Why do you want to know these things?"

Blaze smiled. "Well I have to admit I'm interested in the answers but my purpose is to establish an link of easy intimacy with you so we'll work together better. You seem to talk to me as if we wished there was a neck high wall between us."

"I've tried to be friendly."

"True Belle but why did you have to try, why didn't it just flow naturally?"

"I can't say."

"It's because I'm occupying the territory you guard for Mr Hamill, isn't it, the territory you share with him as his subordinate?"

"Yes. You appear to have very complicated thought processes for one so young and you probably know the answers I haven't given you."

"Well forget I asked that question Belle. It appears I have achieved my aim which was to have morning coffee with you in here."

Belle's face tightened and she said, "Seventeen times."

"Pardon me?"

"I've had sex in this office with Mr Hamill seventeen times."

"I see. Was that between him filing for divorce and when he told you he was going to marry again?"

"Yes, entirely between those two occasions."

"I can understand your position Belle. I don't know much about interaction between adults and their behavior beyond my own parents but he doesn't appear to be to be a guy would be unlikely to allow himself to go without sex for long periods, but this is not my business. You have satisfied my curiosity and it's immaterial to me what you and Mr Hamill did in that respect. You have my word I'll not mention to anyone what you have just told me. Can we be friends?"

"Yes of course. I feel very ashamed about what I did now that I've spoken about it."

"Well I apologize for forcing that confession. It was your choice at the time Belle and we all have to live by our choices."

"Would you commit adultery if you were married?"

Blaze thought for a moment. "I believe I would. I would have to feel compelled to cross the line and would not do it lightly."

"That was exactly my position."

Blaze smiled and said then Belle shouldn't have regrets and feel ashamed of what she had done.

"You are very tough, er I mean strong Blaze."

"Well I have decided I have to be tough to find the niche I want in this world Belle. Let me tell you why I didn't go to college and that was a bitter blow for me. My father was a partner in a very profitable engineering business, and because of that we lived very well. Mom and dad had the cars of their choice, we still retained our original family home but it was extensively remodeled and a big pool took up most of the back lawn. We had it made."

"But then dad's partner began to hit on other women and his wife found out and divorced him. Mr Harris became depressed and began drinking and then in a wild binge of gambling ran up huge debts that he cleared using his company cards. He persuaded dad to join him in buying a commercial building as an investment and loans were arranged. But the only money Mr Harris, who was managing partner, paid in to set up completing the deal was the deposit. The man dad trusted as a long-time business partner absconded with all the money from the business he could lay his hands on including the bank loan that the buy selling the building had allegedly demanded be in cash."

"Well dad had acted stupidly, as we all would later say, and was robbed blind. The police were called in but could do little apart from making routine enquiries and a firm of private investigators could find no trace of Burt Harris. Dad lost the business and other assets to pay back the bank and just squeaked through and was able to keep our house. But gone was the education fund. Dad and mom managed to pull back on their living style to keep putting enough money aside to fund just one of their children through college, either my twin brother or me. My bother won out because my dad wanted him to qualify as a construction design engineer and follow in his footsteps but to avoid bad business decisions of course."

"Oh god how terrible for you and your family. It must have almost sent your mother on to the verge of a mental breakdown?"

"No after a week or so she was fine Belle. Lucky for mom she is a stoic Scot of great fortitude. I have some of her strengths and the fieriness of dad's mother. It was a big blow to me not going to college but I had more than half expected their decision to go against me. Dad and mom were always good to me and one day I'll repay them by buying them a lovely retirement home of their choice. I have promised myself to do that."

Belle reached across the desk and took Blaze's hand. "You are really amazing. I believe most teenagers losing their chance of a college education like you did would have tried to find a guy with a promising future and married him. But you have decided to continue on with your life as if you had won your degree."

Blaze said well she had gained an associate degree in journalism and had almost completed on-line studies to convert that into a bachelor's degree and would commit a further year to gain a master's degree.

"You are doing it the hard way Blaze but thankfully you have received a very lucky break because Mr Hamill sees something big in you. I've never seen him act like this with anyone before he focused on you. And you know, I don't think it's anything to do with sex."

Blaze laughed and said she hoped not. Fergus was not the right type of guy for her and anyway he was too old.

Belle squeezed Blaze's hand and left, taking the coffee cups.

* * *

A Maria DeLuca called Blaze and said she worked for Mrs Wallace on 'Homes With Gardens'.

"Oh hi Maria, please call me Blaze. Mrs Wallace said she had someone on her team who might interested me, someone overdue for promotion."

"Yes Mrs Wallace told me I possess the credentials of the person you are seeking to hire."

"Let's talk over lunch."

"Lunch?"

"Yes at a café. You'll be my guest. Both of us need to be sure about this so we must talk leisurely."

"Well we are rather busy as our monthly deadlines are upon us."

"Then I'll call Mrs Wallace because I would like to do this today."

"No it's fine, I can handle it. I'll call you back."

They met in the foyer and walked across the street to the Orlando Café. Maria looked almost forty (later confirmed at thirty-eight). Her complexion was dark and she was a fading beauty. She was dressed well and her hair was beautifully tied back. She had the presence of the person Blaze was seeking but was more than ten years too old for Blaze's ideal person. In fact in her mind she's set the age limit for her newly appointed team at twenty-eight.

But lunch went smoothly, the both having a glass of pinot noir. The more they talked the more Blaze became interested in Maria. It became apparent that Maria was the victim of a talented person working in a small office where promotion was limited. She admitted to that and said she'd not moved to chase promotion because she was very happy with her work environment and that Mrs Wallace was great to work with apart from being quick to criticize and slow to praise.

"That would be my impression of Mrs Wallace," Blaze said.

They laughed but Maria offered no further negative comment about Mrs Wallace's character and Blaze admired her for that.

"So you have worked on magazines since graduating with a BA in media studies and you are also fluent in Italian and French and worked on a magazine in Italy for almost two years, so why haven't you become an editor or an assistant editor?"

"Partly I suppose because I've worked with Mrs Wallace for the past eight years. She hasn't retired and all that time our deputy-editor has worked for Mrs Wallace and is my age."

"Do you desire to become an editor?"

"Not really. I don't like the politics that go with the job and the meetings and filing monthly reports and working on budgets. I find my role as a senior sub-editor very rewarding because it has a significant element of creativity to it in cutting articles to the required size without destroying the writer's crafted rhythm or eliminating information the reader could really appreciate and also I enjoy working with the page designer. The work actually gives me rhythm in my life. You have been a teenager so will appreciate what my home environment is like with a spunky 16-year old girl and a teasing 18-year old boy and a very loud and demanding husband."

"Work is not man's punishment. It is his reward and his strength and his pleasure."

"Ah, George Sand," Maria said. "Was that a test?"

"No," Blaze said. "I'm not a person who is full of quotes and I resisted changing he to her to suit the occasion. It's one of my grandmother's often-used quotations. It was grandma who introduced me to very early women writers and explained to me the struggle they had and why they couldn't publish under their own names."

"God don't we have it easy compared with those remarkable women? We do tend to look at ourselves in isolation."

"Yes we do," Blaze said, rather impressed.

"As they parted in the foyer Blaze said, "Thanks for this folio about you. I'll study it and get back to you within twenty-four hours."

Two hours later Blaze knew she'd be a fool not to hire this older woman. Although the team might not see it, Maria would be the perfect balance for her, being calm, better educated, more worldly and would possess the skills of a mother used to running a rowdy and perhaps disjoined family. Maria was also a literary woman, having had three books of short stories commercially published and a small volume of poems privately published for distribution to friends and family.

She went to see Rachel and caused quite a stir when entering the floor of her former magazine, looking stunning dressed in a shimmering green dress with plunging neckline and matching shoes. Rachel came out to see what the noise was about and cried, "Oooh, Omigod" and held out her arms. The watching women just loved it as Blaze crashed into Rachel.

With the office door closed, Rachel asked, "Will you hire her?"

Blaze looked at Rachel and challenged, "Has Claire been talking to you?"

"Yes she had to talk to someone and had refrained from trying to pressure you. God there's not much chance of keeping things confidential when you are around is there?"

"No and you'll know I've come to talk about Maria."

Rachel adopted a fake Irish accent: "So the age thing is troubling you is it little darling?"

Blaze's mouth dropped open. "God how did you know that."

"As any senior editorial person in this building would react when asked about Maria, they probably would just sigh and say, 'Ah Maria.' You see she would be the most accomplished editing person in this building. They all would like to have her but they all know first they'd have to breach the fortress called Claire Wallace."

"But now this has changed. Claire developed Maria to be her successor but she still has no plans to retire. Then along comes pretty, energetic you, a Babe in the Woods of journalism and very much in need of back-up. You see it was Claire who for more than a year was at Fergus to get management approval to launch a young person's magazine, not a Dolly-type publication, but the type of intelligent offering to the young that has been outlined in detail to you. Fergus finally yielded and at Claire's suggestion held a meeting with Claire and me one Saturday afternoon at a hotel, beginning with a ritzy lunch and the booze flowed and so did the ideas that created the concepts including Claire's push, backed by me, that the editor must be a lively young female pleasing on the eye."

"Omigod so that explains Claire's latent interest in me."

"Well I'm telling you this privately but initially Claire thought you were totally unsuitable and opposed Fergus's choice and argued he should have advertised widely. But then as she watched and heard things about you, her thinking began to modify until she believed you are just right for the role providing you have a great deputy."

"Omigod she decided to sacrifice her hold on Maria before I got to consult with her?"

"Think that if you wish. I think she knew she was failing to give Maria the step-up in her career and she put two and two together and the answer was Blaze and the new magazine."

"God this could be the basis of a novel."

"Perhaps you'll write that novel one day darling. Oh come for dinner Friday night and bring your boyfriend with you. Pru and I when out driving have seen you with him a couple of times and we'd both like to seduce him."

On the way back to her office, Blaze stopped at the 'Homes With Gardens' offices. She waved to everyone including Maria and went into Claire's office.

"Oh hi darling. My husband says he does remember your mother. They were at the same primary school in Ayr. He would like to make contact."

"I'll arrange that. Claire I want her."

"Thank god for that," Claire said, moving around her desk to kiss Blaze.

Maria accepted the job offer and two days later Blaze hired a young male to write on all aspects of personal transportation including recreational vehicles and to profile male and female sportswomen. She also hired a basic IT guy who'd maintain their computers and train staff to get the best out of their computers, phones and other hi-tech equipment and he'd also debug and make the final check of pages before they were sent electronically to the Press Room.

* * *

Pru Curtis kissed Blaze at the front door and looked at her and said, "May I kiss him?"

"Yes, Steve Rush this is my best girlfriend Pru Curtis."

"Hi Steve," Pru said moving in and giggled when Blaze called no tonguing.

They went inside, Pru saying her father George was out of town.

When being introduced to Steve, Rachel put out her hand to shake. He ignored that and kissed her and stroking her hair said, "Blaze tells me you are her mentor as well as her friend?"

"I um yes. That's a fair description," Rachel said, pulling away from Steve and looking a little flushed. "She's a wonderful young lady. Has she told you what she's done for this family?"

"I don't believe so."

"Oh, now what drink would you like?"

They had an enjoyable evening and when driving to his apartment Steve said, "Pru looked a perfectly normal woman for her age to me."

"Yeah well when I met her she looked starved, gaunt and anemic and her breasts were scarcely discernible under her clothing.

"We they look a great pair of 32B's to me."

"God you men, you can be so rude."

* * *

Rene and daughter Bren arrived at Steve's place in time for late lunch and later dressed for the ballet and met Blaze at a restaurant for an early evening snack. The females greeted each other warmly and as the time came to go to the theater the excitement of Bren and her mother increased a couple of notches.

They were amazed to see how beautifully groomed and dressed some of the people were.

The just loved their night at the ballet and having a silver service dinner afterwards at a classy Italian restaurant. Rene thought she didn't care much for Italian food but the food she was served forced a change of mind for her.

At they headed off for home next day, Blaze arriving in time for coffee and then to wave them off.

"You must come another time in the season when one of the more popular operas is being staged," she said.

"Oh yes, I'm all for culture," said Rene, still on a high after being at the ballet. "All of the family must come."

CHAPTER 4

The first issue of 'Forever Young' was launched with promotional support but at Blaze's insistence without too much fanfare to avoid potential readers from over-expecting and to allow her to 'build' the impact of the magazine in successive issues.

Fergus was back in time for the launch and held a cocktail party for the main personnel involved along with their partners.

He had authorized by email from France a first-issue print of 485,000 after reading reports from his own marketing and distribution executives and a consultant. Blaze had wanted a print of 700,000 copies but Fergus told her on a phone call that was too ambitious.

That figure of 485,000 was looking pretty accurate. Some newsagents and stores with magazine sections sold out quickly and complained about no further stocks being available but as Fergus told Blaze it was better to practically sell everything than have 20,000 of more copies being dumped. He said the circulation would build slowly as readers began showing loyalty to the magazine and providing Blaze led the team successfully to keep the standard consistent to satisfy readers.

Some evening newspapers on launch day had reviews of the magazine with the general agreement appeared to be, "The content and style are good but does the already crammed magazine market need yet another new entry?"

Fergus and Blaze were interviewed on network TV that night and were asked did the market need another new magazine.

Fergus answered yes, there always was a place for one more provided it hit the spot with some readers. He looked quite impressed when Blaze said firmly, "The birth and death of magazines is a natural occurrence and needs to be left to occur. The good magazines that provide relevant content and satisfy readers will stay at the top like cream. With 'Forever Young' we believe we are arriving in an under-nourished market in our sector and we are attuned to the way young people think. I believe young people will see 'Forever Young' at having relevance to their life-style."

The interviewer said, "Of course you would be expected to say that as you will be sweating to retain your job."

Blaze said, "Say what you like. My team and I are focused on only one thing and that is providing our chosen market sector with a magazine of relevance. The market will determine if we have got it right and if we have readers will reward us with growing support and make our magazine profitable and successful."

"Fergus you said earlier you expect to see today's print of 495,000 copies selling nationwide to increase. Do you have a figure in mind?"

"Yes I feel we ought to soon reach around 510,000 audited sales and stay there."

"Blaze?"

"Who knows because it's early days. However my target is eventually hit 600,000 sales. I can't see it going any higher because we are pitched to a target sector of the market rather than being a magazine of all things to all people."

"Well there we go. Those two comments add up to cautious optimism. Thank you Fergus Hamill, group editor of Jupiter Network Communications Corp and Blaze Gallagher, editor of the newly launched 'Forever Young' magazine."

As Fergus and Blaze walked from the studio he snapped, "I would have preferred you agreeing with my circulation growth predication rather than you contradicting me."

"I believe our figures came across as predictions rather than fact and surely people are allowed to have different views?"

"Just don't contradict me in public, that's what I'm saying. Let's get a drink."

Blaze thought of saying she was tired and would head home but thought that might just be pushing her luck one inch too far.