Wendy Pt. 04

"Richard, this is Wendy Rose at Clandestine," she said when he answered the phone. "How are you this morning?"

"Just fine, Wendy," Richard replied. "How are you?"

"Never better, thanks," Wendy replied. "We met with Chef Clousseau last night. I'm afraid that he's not what we're looking for."

"May I inquire as to why?" Richard asked.

"He's too smug and full of himself," Wendy replied. "He didn't seem enthusiastic about the position, only found it an interesting challenge, his words."

"I see. Maybe Chef Antinori will be a better fit," Richard said.

"I hope so," Wendy replied. "I just wanted to let you know."

"I appreciate that. Would you like us to inform him of your decision?" he asked.

"Yes, if you would, but just tell him that we don't think that he's the right fit for what we're trying to do," Wendy replied. "I don't want to insult him needlessly."

"I understand," Richard said. "We'll take care of it. Chef Antinori will be arriving Friday afternoon, by the way, two days from now."

"That's great," Wendy said. "Please send me his flight information and I'll meet him at the airport."

"We got more photos from the properties," Mary informed her when she finished her call with Richard Reynolds. "Only three haven't sent them yet."

"Please call Fred and ask him to light a major fire under their feet," Wendy said. "Tell him that I said to tell them that if I don't have them by next week, that we'll find new managers who can deal with such a simple task. This is not hard. Unless there's been non-stop inclement weather, there's just no excuse for it to take so long to have some photos taken."

"Wow!" Mary said. "I like it. You're even hotter when you're angry."

"I'm not angry," Wendy said, laughing. "It's just frustrating. Get me copies of each of those managers' personnel records. I want to see what they're all about. Maybe I can figure out why it's taking them so long."

"I'll get right on it," Mary said. "All of the photos should be in your email. I zipped each property's photos into its own file."

"That's wonderful, Mary," Wendy said, smiling. "I think I'll start looking at them, marking the ones that I like. Please remind me at 1:30 that I have to be at the condo at 2:00. Something is being delivered and I need to be there for it."

"Is it a secret?" Mary asked, smiling.

"No, but you'll find out what it is when you get home," Wendy said.

Wendy opened her email and found the files that Mary had sent her. She unzipped the files, then imported the photos into Adobe Lightroom. Once she had done that for all of the files, she started at the beginning and began scanning through the photos, quickly picking or rejecting photos as she did so. Using the built-in filters, she was able to then view only the ones that she had picked, rejecting some of those. Property by property she worked, raptly absorbed in the task, only surfacing to the real world when Mary reminded her that it was 1:30 and that she needed to go to the condo for her mysterious delivery. She was just getting to her feet when her phone rang and she saw that it was Phil.

"Hi, Phil," Wendy said when she answered.

"Computer's ready," Phil said without preamble. "I can install it whenever you like."

"I'm actually going home right now," Wendy said. "I'll be there for the rest of the afternoon."

"Then I'll see you there in about an hour," Phil said.

"I'll make sure the front desk is expecting you," Wendy said. "They'll send you right up. Gosh, he's just the best," she said, smiling. "See you later," she said to Mary. "Don't forget to bring Shirelle with you."

Stopping at the front desk to advise them of Dan and Phil coming to see her after Charlie drove her home, Wendy went upstairs and looked in the refrigerator for any leftovers, not having had any lunch. She was eating a leftover salad when the desk called to let her know that Dan had arrived.

"Wow, that's pretty big," she said when she met him and an installation man at the elevator.

"It won't seem so big in your kitchen," Dan assured her as the installer rolled it out of the elevator using a hand cart.

She led the way to the kitchen and the installer inspected the place where she wanted to put it and said that it would be no problem, that it would take him an hour or so to get it set up.

"I'll leave you to it, then," Dan said, "and go get the wine that we've brought with us today."

Wendy sat down at the center island to finish her salad, pouring herself a glass of white wine and watched the installer start to set things up. Then the phone rang and it was the desk announcing the arrival of Phil. Meeting the elevator as it opened, she smiled when she saw the luggage cart full of computer equipment.

"This is really great, Phil," Wendy said as he entered. "I'll show you where it's going to go."

Phil followed, pushing the luggage rack, slowing as they walked through the living room, then into the dining room where he stopped.

"Where did you get such great copies of these paintings?" he asked. "These are just incredible. It's like being in a museum."

"You like art?" Wendy asked, for some reason surprised.

"After my sophomore year in college, I went to Europe for the summer," Phil replied. "I lived in museums, became a real museum rat and learned to appreciate some art."

"I did an art minor in college," Wendy told him.

Shaking his head, Phil followed Wendy to the office/library, pushing the luggage cart full of computer equipment.

"I know this guy," Phil said, pointing to the painting in front of Wendy's desk. "Gainsborough. I saw his stuff in London. I swear it looks like it's real," he said, reaching out to touch it.

"Phil! Please don't touch it," Wendy gasped. "It...they are real."

"H-how can you have a home full of these kinds of paintings?" Phil asked, staring at her open-mouthed.

"Someone I know, a friend of Jonathan's, he's got a big art collection," Wendy explained. "He asked me if he could store some of it here."

"Store it! Store it!" Phil gasped, then laughed. "That's totally incredible!"

"Yeah, I know," Wendy sighed. "So please, don't touch them!"

"Don't worry, I won't," Phil promised. "Wow!"

Wendy watched as he quickly assembled her computer.

"The only difference between this one and the one you have at the office is RAM," Phil explained. "I maxed it out to 256GB. It's wicked fast now. I found out that when this building was restored after Clandestine bought it, that they upgraded the ethernet to CAT7, but also planned for the future and laid fiber optic cabling. I brought a fiber optic modem and you'll have 100GB up and down."

"Fast!" Wendy said, her eyes shining. "Nice."

"Since I know that you're working with photos and such, I got you an HP Color LaserJet Pro printer," he said as he hooked it up. "I've also upgraded your camera, a Razer Kiyo Pro that does 1080p resolution, and your mouse, a Razer Deathadder. It's considered a gaming mouse, but it's a great mouse. And a Roccat Vulcan 121 AIMO keyboard. I know people who would be sexually excited just seeing a system like this, much less having one."

"I'll take your word for it," Wendy laughed. "It looks great. Thank you."

"If you enjoy it, that's thanks enough," Phil said, clearly pleased. "I'll be on my way now. You'll need to go through the usual setup protocols. This system is virgin."

"You're welcome to come over whenever you'd like," Wendy said as she accompanied him to the elevator. "Come enjoy the art and have a glass of wine with me."

"I just might do that," Phil replied. "This is a good day," he smiled as the elevator doors opened.

Wendy then went to the kitchen where she found Dan and the installer.

"Hey, that looks really nice," she said when she saw the assembled unit.

"I have something for you to make it a little easier to use," Dan said, motioning her over to the counter where he had a 3-ring binder. "Each page represents a shelf in the unit," he explained, indicating the large 1 at the top center of the page. "Below the shelf number is exactly what is on the shelf and in what position. If you'll notice, each shelf has a brass number at the front to make it easy to locate the one you want. At the beginning of this guide is a wine list, by color and style, with references to which shelf they can be found on. On each of the shelf pages," he said, arbitrarily flipping to one of them, "you'll see that there is plenty of room for you to make tasting notes. When you drink a wine, write down your impressions, what it tasted like, what it smelled like, whether you liked it or not. Give it a rating between 1 and 10. Since you're relatively new to wine, this will be a very good way to learn."

"That is so smart," Wendy said, flipping through the pages. "It's already filled out."

"Yes," Dan replied. "I've planned the complete stocking of the unit. I have about 40% of it with me today, the rest will come in over the next couple of weeks. As soon as they do, we'll bring them over. Of course, if you find that you're running low on something that you'd like more of, just give us a call. We can also make monthly or quarterly checks of your remaining stock and top it off, make changes, whatever you need. Our goal is to make you happy in the world of wine."

"I love it," Wendy said, smiling broadly. "I really love it."

"I suggest letting the wines that we've already stocked in the unit sit for at least 24 hours before you drink them," Dan said. "The unit needs to come down to temperature and be at that temperature for approximately 8 hours to properly acclimatize the wine, and then there's the disturbance of moving it, transporting it here. Wine doesn't travel well, by and large."

"You have different colored stars next to some of the wines," Wendy said, flipping through the binder.

"That's to alert you to higher-cost bottles," Dan explained. "A gold star means that the bottle costs over $400, a red star, over $1,000. I didn't include the prices in this booklet because you'll want to let guests see it and make choices about what wines they'd like to drink. You wouldn't want them to see that. You'll have an itemized receipt so that you can easily check the price of any of the bottles. As a general rule, if you buy an entire case, which is usually 12 bottles, there is a 10% discount on the single-bottle price."

"I'm glad that I asked," Wendy said, still stunned that a bottle of wine could be so expensive.

"We also stock fine bottled waters," Dan said. "Do you have any interest or need of those?"

"Probably," Wendy replied. "I drink a lot of water during the day. This place came with a refrigerator full of Fiji water."

"That's great water," Dan said. "One of the best, if not the best. We carry it. What size bottles do you prefer?"

"Well, for taking with me, the hand-sized ones, but I use the big liter bottles here in the house," Wendy replied.

"I'll include a case of each, if you'd like," Dan offered. "My treat."

"Well, then of course," Wendy laughed. "Thanks."

Wendy was looking through the wine guide when Mary and Shirelle arrived.

"Wow, what is that?" Mary asked.

"It's a wine cooler," Wendy explained. "It can even be programmed for 4 different temperature areas, depending upon the wine."

"How many bottles do you need?" Mary asked. "That thing is pretty big."

"It will hold 310 bottles," Wendy laughed. "I like wine and I've been getting exposed to different ones. It will be nice to have. The shop where I bought it is even going to keep it stocked for me."

"I'll bet they will," Mary laughed. "What if you don't like something?"

"They'll exchange it for something else," Wendy replied. "They're really nice."

"Quit being so negative, Mary," Shirelle said. "I think that it's pretty cool."

"Well, we have a wine cooler, let's open a bottle," Mary said, smiling.

"I have to wait 24 hours before I can open any of the wine in the cooler," Wendy said. "Let's go down to the restaurant and eat there. We can order a bottle of wine with dinner."

"Good evening, Ms. Rose," the dining room manager greeted them at the entrance to the restaurant.

"Hello, Mr. Western," Wendy said.

"Dinner for three?" he asked.

"Yes, please," Wendy replied, smiling as they followed him to a table on the window where they could look out at the people walking by.

"Well, I could sure get used to being treated like a VIP," Shirelle said as they rode up in the elevator after eating, half of the second bottle of wine in Mary's hands.

"I liked the looks on the other diners' faces trying to figure out who we must be to get such service," Mary laughed. "Now I know what a star feels like."

"I don't like being treated differently from other people," Wendy said. "I'm no better than anyone that that should happen."

"God bless our Saint Wendy," Mary sighed, then smiled. "You really are the best, you know."

"Oh, my!" Shirelle gasped when she saw the paintings on the wall in the living room, not having seen them because she earlier went directly from the foyer to the kitchen. "Are they real?" she asked.

"Very real," Wendy sighed. "A friend needed a place to store part of his art collection and he asked me if I'd mind."

"Uh-huh," Shirelle said, moving around the room. "I'm sure that's what happened."

"It's true," Mary said. "A really rich friend of Jonathan's."

"You sure have one hell of a lucky star," Shirelle said.

"I'll say," Wendy agreed. "I didn't ask for it or anything, he just asked me if I'd do it."

"Saying no was not an option, was it?" Shirelle asked, smiling.

"Hardly," Wendy laughed. "I have my own private museum. Check out the other rooms. He made sure that the walls were covered."

"This is astonishing," Shirelle said after seeing all of the rooms but the bedrooms.

"Check out my room," Mary said, a big smile on her face.

"Oh, wow!" Shirelle gasped when she saw the photo of Wendy over the bed. "That is as close to pornographic as it gets. God, that makes me wet."

"You should try sleeping in this bed now, looking up and seeing that," Mary laughed. "I've been masturbating like crazy. But these are nothing. Wait until you see Wendy's bedroom."

"Wow!" Shirelle gasped when they entered Wendy's bedroom. "No close about it, these are pornographic."

"See the cock cumming on her tongue?" Mary asked. "That's the guy who is storing all of his art here. He hired the photographer to take the photos."

"He do that, too?" Shirelle asked, looking at the photo at the foot of the bed.

"No," Wendy replied, sighing. "That was his...I guess you'd call him his houseman."

"These are intensely great," Shirelle said. "I am just so wet right now."

"Me, too," Wendy said, undressing. "Let's do something about it already."

"Good morning, sunshine," Shirelle said the next morning as Wendy groaned herself awake as Mary ate her pussy, leaning over to softly kiss her, their tongues briefly meeting before she straddled her face and lowered her pussy for Wendy to eat.

"Oh, what a wonderful way to wake up," Wendy gasped after several minutes, licking her lips after Shirelle dismounted her face.

They showered together, laughing and touching and tasting before finally drying off and dressing for work.

"Coffee?" Wendy asked when they entered the kitchen.

"You're going to make coffee?" Mary asked.

"Why not?" Wendy replied. "I know how and this is my home. You think that I'm too good to make coffee?"

"Can you make it cappuccino?" Shirelle asked.

"I think so," Wendy replied. "I seem to recall seeing some cream in the refrigerator. Here it is. I've never made cappuccino before," she said after looking at the machine for a minute.

"I knew it," Mary laughed. "You need to steam the milk, or cream," she explained, finding a small stainless-steel pitcher in the drawer beneath the coffee machine and demonstrating how to steam it with the wand. "Then you can make the coffee, letting the steamed froth and milk mix with the coffee," she explained, holding out the finished product. "Go ahead, sit down, I'll make our espressos."

"You have no idea how happy it makes me to be sitting here with the two of you," Wendy said. "This is just the best."

"It gets my vote," Mary agreed.

"It is mighty fine," Shirelle agreed.

"I want to suck Jonathan's cock today," Mary said. "Since we're all getting there at the same time..."

"Be my guest," Wendy laughed.