Mixed Drinks, Bahama Sunset

In all ads, print and social media, the words were simple. 'Will she? Surewill.'

The Parasols magazine pictorial was five pages of Kelli Breaux modeling her Surewill sunglasses and nothing else. Bonnie bought a full page ad to be placed in the rear of the magazine that was just a picture of all the series of Surewill sunglasses with their names printed underneath each pair of sunglasses.

Posing nude in front of male and female photographers and crew at the Parasols office had Kelli in a sexual frenzy. For once, Bonnie assumed the submissive role and allowed Kelli to use her for Kelli's gratification. It took countless orgasms, two blenders of Bahama Sunsets, four bowls of marijuana and two Valiums before Kelli finally drifted off into fitful slumber.

In the morning, Kelli was groggy but contrite. Her beautiful eyes filled with tears when Bonnie showed Kelli the bite mark on Bonnie's left breast.

At the Wednesday meeting, the first order of business was the sales report. Bonnie was horrified to hear that the consumers had dubbed the Flamingo series the 'Pink Slut' sunglasses. That horror turned to amazement when they couldn't make them fast enough; teenaged and young adult girls wanted to be a pink slut. The exterior of the glasses were pink, but the lenses themselves were gray; the visibility was excellent.

The Tiger Series sold moderately well until Robin Durst showed up at the Pinoak Drag Strip wearing a pair of the sunglasses and a tiger print strapless Barragona bikini. In front of the Channel 12 Performance News camera, the stunning blonde wiggled into a form fitting flame retardant jumpsuit, smiling confidently into the camera. Her every movement was sensuous as she dressed for the race.

"Will I whip Chad Theriot's ass? Sure will," Robin laughed, climbing into her low slung dragster.

"No, no, it's uh, it's about time we uh, we let women really become a part of the circuit," Chad smugly declared when Chelsea Duhon shoved her microphone into his face.

Robin blew a kiss at the television camera, then pulled her full face helmet on. Her smiling pit crew pushed Robin's dragster, getting her lined up and she did a burn off. In front of the camera, Robin and Chad watched the lights go through their sequence. Robin was nearly a full car length ahead of Chad as they crossed the finish line.

"These sunglasses are amazing!" Robin declared, unzipping her jumpsuit to show off her toned physique. "They, the clarity? Will I wear them every race? Sure will."

The picture of Robin, jump suit fully unzipped kissing a bikini clad Kelli Breaux, both with their Surewill Tiger series sunglasses on was featured in the Sports section of the DeGarde Weekly and the sports section of the St. Ann Advertiser newspapers. That smiling lip to lip kiss was also broadcast on Eagle 26 Night-time news and the Channel 12 Performance News with Thomas Kowalski doing the lead in for Chelsea Duhon's piece.

Cassie Barragona quickly got over her hatred of Kelli Breaux; anything Kelli was pictured in quickly became the hot ticket item. When Kelli was pictured, wearing a Barragona double breasted men's suit in cream color, with light green dress shirt and pink, green and cream dotted tie, her Snake series sunglasses on top of her head, men and their girlfriends clamored for the suit. The picture that showed Kelli and Patrick Miller, a blond Greek God in matching single breasted light gray suits with pink shirts and blood red and gray vertical striped ties, both wearing the Spider series sunglasses, the silk ties were a major hit, followed closely by the sunglasses, then the suits themselves.

"I'm not into women," Patrick hissed as Kelli playfully squeezed his bicep for the camera.

"And I have sucked my last cock," Kelli hissed back, never losing her playful smile for Carmen's camera.

With her first paycheck, Kelli proved, at least in Bonnie's eyes, that she would always be living paycheck to paycheck. Kelli immediately ran out and financed a brand new Shelby GT500 Mustang in silver.

"Kelli, I, you only make sixty thousand a year," Bonnie said, shaking her head. "So you run out and spend your whole year's salary on a car?"

"Well, what you would've done?" Kelli asked, incensed and embarrassed at Bonnie's reaction to the beautiful new car.

"What I did do," Bonnie admitted. "I started my own business."

"Huh?" Kelli asked. "Where, how'd..."

"My mother's family never accepted my mother falling in love with a n*gger. Of course, him running out on her just seemed to prove their point about all n*ggers. Then, when she met and married my step-father, Andrew Valasko, his family did not accept me; after all, I'm half n*gger," Bonnie said, unlocking her apartment door.

Inside, Bonnie packed the hookah with a good amount of marijuana and lighted it. Kelli sat down on the couch next to Bonnie. They each picked up a mouthpiece.

"To make matters worse, I came out of the closet; yep, not only am I a n*gger, I'm a lesbian n*gger," Bonnie said, voice strangled as she held a lungful of smoke.

"Quit using that word, huh?" Kelli said, voice also strangled.

Bonnie leaned over and softly kissed Kelli's tightly pursed lips. Kelli coughed out her lungful of smoke in surprise. She turned and Bonnie kissed her again.

"Anyway, the night after I came out, Andrew came to my room and slapped ten thousand dollars on my desk. I just looked at him and he turned and left the room. The next morning, he told me to take the money and leave my keys on the table; I didn't live there anymore,"

"And from that ten thousand dollars you..." Kelli mused aloud.

"Everyone, well, almost everyone at Surewill Group is a fucking failure, a total reject," Bonnie said. "But, I took that money, I took that money and told my step-father, and my spineless mother I would show them. I sure will show them."

"Sure will," Kelli agreed.

"Sure will," Bonnie said.

"But I love my car," Kelli whined a few minutes later.

"It's a cute car," Bonnie agreed.

"So, I'm keeping it," Kelli pouted, then looked at Bonnie, Eyes wide. "Hey, wait a minute! You, you got that beamer."

"My BMW? Was a pre-owned vehicle," Bonnie said. "Guy took real good care of it. Had to let it go when he couldn't keep up with the payments. Divorce will do that to you."

"Oh," Kelli said.

Cassie Barragona flew into another rage when Dot Amandi was given her own office and her own personal assistant. Bonnie was more than used to Cassie's volatile rages; Cassie usually had three to nine temper tantrums a week. Bonnie reminded Cassie she had asked Cassie to consider designing footwear and other accessories to go with her sunglasses and her clothing lines. But, so far, Cassie had not produced one sketch.

"But, but, my personal assistant? Why did you have to take away my assistant?" Cassie wailed.

"Because she has a degree, has the experience; well, how could she not have the experience after working so closely with you, and has produced several excellent designs in women's footwear," Bonnie soothed. "But, don't worry. I'm interviewing some recent graduates of St. Elizabeth's Vo-Tech. When I narrow the field down? You'll interview for your next assistant, okay?"

"Promise?" Cassie sniffled.

"Cassie, have I ever lied to you?" Bonnie asked.

"No. No you haven't," Cassie sniffled.

"Fucking narcissistic slut," Bonnie said after the outer door closed behind the temperamental designer. "Jesus, please, just go get laid, would you?"

Dianne giggled and Bonnie smirked. Dianne entered Bonnie's office and retrieved Bonnie's empty mug and left the room. A moment later, Dianne returned with a steaming mug of green tea for her boss.

"Green!" Bonnie said, picking up her phone. Cassie, we need to work on the Alligator series. Green, dark green, dangerous green."

The photograph of Kelli, dark green wraparound sunglasses covering her eyes bending over to buckle her Amandi I, the alligator hide sandals with five inch heels was scandalous. Carmen had truly posed Kelli well and had done a masterful job of camera placement. It was not clear if Kelli was nude, but no hint of any clothing was visible.

Bonnie had the color photograph placed in the Sunday inserts in both the DeGarde Weekly and the St. Ann Advertiser. She assured the representatives of both newspapers that Kelli was wearing a flesh colored body stocking in the photograph. Then she had Dianne and Carmen call both the Weekly and the Advertiser, as well as the University of Louisiana at DeGarde's On-Line media and claim that no, Kelli Breaux was nude in the photograph.

Word of mouth quickly got out and the Sunday papers sold out. Again, Bonnie claimed that, no, Kelli was wearing a flesh colored body stocking in the photograph. She had no idea why anyone would claim otherwise. On Monday, the print ad was displayed on social media, and the rumors, unproven, of course were circulated before the print had been up for ten minutes.

The photograph of Kelli wearing the Amandi IV white pumps featured the Lion series sunglasses. The sunglasses were positioned, arm tucked into the lacy cuff of Kelli's right stocking, light brown frame and black lenses visible as Kelli attached the cuff of the left stocking top to her garter belt. The bend in Kelli's right arm obscured Kelli's right breast and her loose blonde hair obscured Kelli's left breast. Kelli's right forearm hid Kelli's blonde pubic hair from view. Again, it was not clear if Kelli wore anything other than shoes and stockings and garter belt. Bonnie assured the advertising department of the two local newspapers that, yes, Kelli was clad in a flesh colored body stocking. And Dot and Chad complained that Kelli Breaux was nude.

But, it quickly became a fashion, to remove sunglasses, but rather than put them into the cleavage of the blouse, to tuck the arm into the tops of the stockings. Thigh high stocking sales soared.

"Who came up with that anyway?" Bonnie asked at the next meeting.

"Actually, Kelli did. If she had them on her head, there was just no way to position her that didn't either show a nipple or her bush," Carmen admitted. "But we needed to see the sunglasses and the shoes. So, we first had them on the ground at her feet. But that just didn't look right, so..."

A Barragona Zebra print bustier with white pleated skirt that showed Kelli wearing the Spider series sunglasses on her face, but the lens of the Flamingo series sunglasses just barely visible sticking out the bottom of the crisp white skirt again caused a surge in sales of the 'Pink Slut' sunglasses. No longer would girls, young women be satisfied with owning one pair of Surewill sunglasses, especially if they wore skirts. And the 'Pink Slut' sunglasses were the sunglasses of choice to do the stocking tuck.

Some doctors also claimed their female patients were asking about having navel reconstruction done. According to these doctors, their patients wanted a cute little 'outtie' Kelli belly button.

The Snow Leopard Series print ad showed Kelli with the stark white sunglasses obscuring her eyes, far too short and too tight white tee shirt on. The faint shadow of her light brown areolae were visible, thanks to Carmen's excellent light placement. Kelli's cute little nub of a belly button was visible and her Barragona white jeans with blood red stitching and button fly closer was half up, or half down her sleek thighs. The plain white satin panties with wide white lace waistband was also a Barragona creation.

The Snow Leopard Series sunglasses were not a good seller, but the jeans and the panties were sold out before they even reached the store shelves. And most girls that wore the jeans paired them with plain white tee shirts that were far too tight and far too short. And, just like Kelli, they wore these tee shirts without a bra.

The Python series sunglasses came out at the same time that the Barragona authentic python skin jacket and the Amandi IX python boots were ready for shipping. The jacket came in two models; the Striker had a zipper that ran from throat to bottom and the Stealth had a row of metal buttons.

The print ad showed Kelli, green mirrored lenses on her face, wearing the Striker jacket unzipped to just below her navel, and the Amandi IX boots on her feet. Kelli was attempting, and failing at giving the camera a menacing look. Her playful smile was fighting to burst out as she stood, nude except for jacket and boots and sunglasses.

More than one parent wondered if they could sue the Surewill Group; they were going broke trying to keep up with their daughters' demands. Just when they bought the latest Barragona creation, the newest series of sunglasses, the next advertising campaign featuring Kelli Breaux would come out and their little angels were whining for and demanding the next SureWill creation.

"God, I hate Christmas," Dianne informed Bonnie as cheerful Christmas music played from the recessed speakers.

"That's politically incorrect; are you trying to get us cancelled on social media?" Bonnie said as they prepared to go into the board meeting.

"Hmm?" Dianne asked, taking her seat at the table.

"Yes. We can't call it Christmas. So, you don't hate Christmas. You hate Happy Holidays," Bonnie said. "All right. Most of you may recognize Clark Duhon from Timmons and Duhon; they're our accounting people. He's here to go over our year-end finances. After he's finished, we can then look at what we can do to make next year's earnings better. Mr. Duhon?"

"Good thing we didn't go with your suck ass ideas, huh Cassie?" Marlene chortled when Clark let it be known that their profit had risen to seven million four hundred and eighty three thousand, nine hundred and four dollars and nineteen cents.

"Fuck you, God damned flat chested dyke!" Cassie screamed, attempting to crawl across the large table to claw at Marlene's smirking face.

"Michael Brookes helped to hold Cassie back. The fact that he used this opportunity to grope Cassie's breasts was not missed by Bonnie or Cassie.

"Get your fucking disgusting hands off me, bitch," Cassie snarled at Michael, suddenly brandishing a pair of large shears.

"Happy holidays," Dianne quipped to Bonnie.

Despite the heavily charged air in the room, Bonnie burst into peals of laughter at Dianne's witticism. Clark turned and stared at Bonnie, eyes wide with alarm. Bonnie shook her head and them focused her attention on the threatening Cassie.

"Cassie, unless you want to spend the break in Flowers' lock up? Put the scissors down," Bonnie ordered.

After Clark concluded his annual report, the accountant beat a hasty retreat from the insane asylum. Bonnie then distributed the annual bonuses. The majority of employees were given one percent of the year to date profits. Other, more industrious employees were given anywhere from one point five to two point five percent. Michael Brookes was given a flat five thousand dollar bonus.

"I still hate Christmas," Dianne said even as she held her Christmas bonus check.

"Bah hum bitch," Bonnie said in a poor Ebenezer Scrooge imitation. "Season's fucking greetings."

Deciding to leave work early, Bonnie returned to the apartment. Shivering from the brutal wind that blew off of the Atchafalaya, Bonnie let herself into the apartment.

Kelli's squeal alerted Bonnie that something was amiss. Cutting through the living room and kitchen, Bonnie entered the bedroom and found Kelli packing a large suitcase.

"My mother says I'm a disgusting slut!" Kelli screamed at Bonnie, tears pouring down her drunken face.

"And? Why does your mother say...?" Bonnie asked, trying to hug the sobbing girl.

"She saw the pictures! Someone sent her the Twitter and Facebook stuff," Kelli screamed, pushing Bonnie away.

"And?" Bonnie asked. "So, you're running away?"

"I'm going home. Fucking dyke; I should have never ever talked to you," Kelli sobbed putting her python boots into the suitcase.

"Going home won't take those pictures off the Internet," Bonnie tried to reason with Kelli. "

"No, but it'll make sure no more show up," Kelli snarled, pulling the heavy suitcase off the bed and toppling over from the weight of the luggage.

Bonnie couldn't help her laughter; it truly was funny watching Kelli land with an 'oomph!' onto the floor. Kelli screamed the 'N' word at Bonnie as she dragged the heavy suitcase to the door.

"Kelli, you signed a contract," Bonnie reminded Kelli.

"Fuck you and fuck your God damned contract, bitch," Kelli screamed.

Bonnie felt darkness creeping in when the brand new solid wood door slammed shut with a heavy bang. Bonnie suffered horribly from abandonment issues; her father's abandoning her and her mother had begun the cycle. Then, her own mother's embarrassment of having a black baby, and her step-father's rejection, her step-family's shunning of her heightened her psychological demons. Being dismissed from her own home simply because she was a lesbian, a gay person had compounded Bonnie's fears and issues.

Seeing that Kelli had made herself a Bahama Sunset, and had left the ingredients out, Bonnie made a fresh batch of the frothy drink. Drink in hand, Bonnie smoked two bowls of potent marijuana. A sudden desire for a Brick's measxtravaganza pizza, Bonnie dug in her purse, looking for her cell phone. She saw the envelope with Kelli's Holiday bonus and felt a new wave of resentment well up in her guts.

"Hi, extra-large Meatstravaganza, add jalapenos, double cinnabites?" A slender brunette with startling blue-green eyes chirped when Bonnie answered the door. "Sorry it took so long; there's a bunch of cop cars right by Park Street so had to circle back around. Even had a fire truck out there; must have been a bad one."

"Don't worry about it," Bonnie smiled. "Hang on..."

The brunette was startled when Bonnie quickly snapped her photograph with her cell phone. She stammered out that her name was Tiff Wellman; she was a sophomore at the University of Louisiana at DeGarde and was working at Brick's to offset what her scholarship didn't pay for.

After eating most of the pizza and smoking another bowl full of marijuana, Bonnie fell asleep on her couch. In the morning, she was groggy and in a foul mood.

At work that morning, it was Michael Brookes that informed Bonnie of Kelli's death. Even with all the safety features built into the Mustang, it was no match for the school bus.

"Cops said her blood alcohol was way over the legal limit," Michael somberly told Bonnie. "Probably didn't feel a thing when she went up under the bus."

"But, but we have a contract. We have a, she, she's not supposed to, we have a contract," Bonnie said, then fainted.

*.*.*

Print ads with Tiffany Ruth Wellman showed her putting the sunglasses on her slender face, pushing them onto the top of her head, or doing the stocking tuck. Never ever did Carmen show any of the Surewill sunglasses covering Tiffany's luminescent blue-green eyes.

The print ad that showed Tiffany wearing a pair of Barragona men's' white silk boxer shorts, Barragona loose fit black jeans puddled around her feet, ripped Barragona wife beater shirt, Flamingo series sunglasses tucked into the low scoop collar was a fetish favorite. Once again, the 'Pink Slut' sunglasses had a surge in popularity. The largest customer base for the men's boxer shorts were teenaged girls. And parents objected strenuously when their daughters began ripping wife beater undershirts to just underneath their braless breasts.

The Parasols issue featuring Tiffany went into three reprints. The Parasols issue that had featured Kelli Breaux also had a surge in popularity and had to be reissued.

***...***

Bonnie Valasko sat underneath the large umbrella, golden brown eyes hidden by her Surewill Spider series sunglasses. The person looking at the attractive black and silver sunglasses could see a reddish metallic tint to the mirrored surface. The lenses themselves were red; Bonnie knew there was some ocular benefit to the red lenses, but was too drunk to remember, or care.