In the morning, Helen made an appointment with a doctor the hotel recommended. Then she called Schellen, agreeing to meet at eleven. She dialed again.
“Rummy, he bit.”
“When?”
“Got a voice mail last night. I meet him at eleven.”
“Need me?”
“I don´t think so. It´s Friday, why don´t you go home to Doris? I´ll probably get a deal, and so I´ll come to London tomorrow.”
“Why not tonight? We could go together.”
“Got a date.”
“Okay, call me one way or another. I´ll be home by, oh, say five.”
She dressed carefully, knowing that the meeting would depend, to some degree, on one form or another of the ‘subtlety´ Hans Schellen had referred to.
‘He´s not after my body,´ she mused. ‘But he wants to be able to see me as a woman, despite the fact that he knows I´ve been setting this deal up more professionally than any man he knows´
She chose a snug, ankle-length skirt, slit above the knee on both sides, with a matching, double-breasted suit jacket. Her blouse was again white silk, but where yesterday´s had been tight and tailored, this one wrapped around her waist. With the jacket on and buttoned, she appeared to have no blouse on at all, although edges of it could be made to appear at will. Before the mirror, she paused briefly to move her shoulders and be certain exactly how much exposure resulted from each movement. Her suit jacket in place, she looked like a very attractive, very dangerous woman.
Schellen greeted her in the foyer, his eyes widening as he took in her stunning appearance. He, too, had dressed for a certain effect, and wore a double-breasted, navy wool jacket with silver buttons and grey trousers, all exquisitely tailored in the style made popular by European nobility. ‘But I´ve got him out-gunned and out-maneuvered,´ she thought. He walked beside her to his office.
When they had settled in place at the coffee table, Helen accepted the offer of coffee and spent the requisite few minutes in idle chatter. Schellen´s eyes took in her ensemble, not ignoring the narrow expanse of her chest he was allowed to see. Before long, Helen waved off the pleasantries and came to the point.
“M Schellen, your voice mail last night said you are willing to ‘look more closely´ at our alternate proposal. Yesterday I gave you and your staff a detailed analysis of that proposal, and since then I am sure you have gone over it quite carefully. I assume that today you are prepared to accept that proposal as submitted. Am I correct, or are there additional details you want to discuss?”
“Always to the point, Mme Wallace. Well, there may be details we will want to discuss as we go along, but I am prepared to go forward with your proposal.”
“Thank you very much, M Schellen. In anticipation of that, I have taken the liberty of preparing a letter of intent that is to be followed by a detailed contract.” She removed papers from her case and handed a set to Schellen. “I feel confident we can sign the letter of intent today and that we can finalize the contract in the coming week or so.”
Schellen looked back at her with a smile that hid his mild surprise at her aggressive, yet feminine, onslaught. “You are efficient, as always M. Wallace. Allow me to look this over.” He read the letter´s several pages, nodding now and then. He asked one or two questions.
“I would like to give this to my legal staff, though I see no objections to it. Perhaps we can have lunch while they look at it. Then, if everything seems correct, we can sign it and we could, perhaps, begin considering your contract proposals this afternoon.”
They went out for a rather pretentious lunch at a restaurant where Schellen was obviously known and pleased to be seen with a good-looking woman. When they returned, a staff member expressed satisfaction with the letter. Schellen and Helen initialed the pages, signed, and moved into the conference room, where discussion of the draft contact she had also brought with her began with the participation of other staff members.
It was late before Helen could leave. She went directly to the restaurant.
.oOo.
They met in another one of those lakefront brasseries. Jeanne was almost a surprise, petite where Helen was nearly as tall as Johannes. Not so much opposites, as very different. Her manner was different, too, soft and accommodating where Helen tended to be rather direct. And she dressed to understate what was surely an attractive and curvaceous body. Helen, still dressed for her meeting with Schellen, felt a bit overdressed, and in order to reduce the pressure, removed her suit jacket. Her blouse was a bit revealing, but there was nothing to be done about that.
Jeanne was pleasant, made it clear that she knew that Helen and Johannes had been lovers, and that she was comfortable with it. But that was it. There was no rapport between the two women, and when they parted, Helen knew she wouldn´t be seeing much of Johannes again. His attention was elsewhere – though not on this new woman – and for good reason.