Sun on the Rocks - The Sugar Baby
Page 13
Chapter Twelve
Around five AM, Clarity dismissed an offer from Bartleby´s uncle, Clive, to sleep with him in his cabin, leaving the older man to sleep with Tiffany, who wanted to know how the missionary position was carried out in Louisiana. Several pussy liners knocked on the bedroom of Belina, knowing that Bartleby was inside. They were complaining that their arrangement with Bartleby included individual purses for shopping sprees which were not defined in the small print of their Oleanne shopping bag request agreement, and they wanted their rent in Virgin Gorda paid and a share of Bartleby´s alcohol business because they weren´t getting guidance for long term stability as Sugar Babies. Chubby Caddy, feet in the water of the jacuzzi, sleeping after drinking excessive amounts of rum from the 'Lady Moura'´s fountain of liquor, was not doing his proper job as Sugar Daddy, attending the needs of about twelve pussy liners who really wanted to move up the ranks of Oleanne to become Sugar Babies.
"Ladies, ladies, everything´s all right, enjoy the premises and find good company," said Bartleby. Flower supported the pussy liners, understanding their pleas, annotating their complaints as pussy liners in her ethnographic field notebook. Although she was expecting more attention from Bartleby, she was enjoying being a Sugar Baby, and she liked the idea of trying out to become a genuine pussy liner, liking the camaraderie and support it provided.
"Is there a cabin for me and my guest?" asked Flower. After having decided that the fortune of Bartleby was out of her reach, Clarity´s friend fancied the businessman that Optesia had brought along with her, and wanted to spend the night with him. Bartleby told her to use the cabin adjacent to theirs, one of the crew´s cabins which was empty, since Ribalaigua used only one of the four cabins built exclusively for the crew, and Anton was using a second one.
Sandy made her way to the cabin entrance of Belina, telling Virgy to ensure Chubby Caddy woke up with her.
"The supertanker´s leaving tomorrow, we want him happy so that everything goes smoothly."
Clarity heard Sandy saying sweet things to Bartleby about her needing to take her clothes off to take a shower in Belina´s cabin because it was getting so hot.
"Come in," said Bartleby, looking at the naked backside of Belina on the cabin bed. He let Sandy in and closed the door of the cabin. The pussy liners, disappointed that Bartleby did not invite them for a night cap, went back to the party, looking for an executive from a liquor company who liked the idea of making an arrangement with them as Sugar Babies spanning at least a few months.
Clarity walked past the crew´s cabin and made her way to the second deck, to Bartleby´s bedroom suite. She used the key provided by Ribalaigua to get inside his cabin. The party was reaching its apex, with pussy liners and executives either dancing or getting into more intimate moments in some isolated dark area of the 'Lady Moura'. She closed the door behind her and examined the spacious suite, which came with a marble tiled bathroom. A large double bed filled the room, and across from it, there was a large closet with sliding doors that Bartleby used to put his clothes. Left of the bedroom, a library was attached to the wall, displaying several books. Clarity eyed the books showing on the library, noticing something. She had seen one of the books, Islands of the Western Pacific in the living room library. The title of that book was repeated, and this was odd.
She stepped closer to the library and pulled on the book. It was attached to a second book labeled the 'Gentleman´s Companion', a book explaining how gentlemen at the turn of the twentieth century could find 'entertainment' and feminine company that could not be found anywhere else in New York. The Gentleman´s Companion also spoke about the need for the lady keeping company to a man to show a nice disposition and demeanor, the nice disposition of a genuine 'nymphe de pave'.
Aside from a few pages, the book was hollow inside. Substituting the bulk of its pages was a computerized logbook where Bartleby kept all records regarding Oleanne, from its statutes and a code of proper conduct of pussy liners, to the long term contract with the Shawab, all transactions carried out by the Shawab during the past year, a total of four, and all the brands, quantities and bottles of liquor smuggled and delivered throughout the Caribbean as a result of those transactions, in addition to an extensive list of ladies which carried out the function of escorts and pussy liners.
There was no mention of a licence to carry out operation sort-of-flying seagull, and instead there was a document by the Shawab´s law firm in Virgin Gorda, which commented on conversations carried out with local authorities, who had refused bribery, not allowing Shawab-sponsored liquor being distributed as a monopoly on several islands belonging to the British Virgin Islands, including the island of Mosquito.
Clarity found the chart of the transaction in the logbook, a computerized file showing a map of the Caribbean with all of the deliveries being carried out by Chubby Caddy´s powerboats, and detailing the 'Tambrera Temptress Nights' parties that were being launched and carried out that same night, as a result of Bartleby´s suggestions to the top management layer of the liquor company based in Puerto Rico. The Shawab was vying for the monopoly, on behalf of Oleanne, of single handed management distribution and delivery of gin, rum, tonic water, vodka and whisky, wanting control as well of the 'nightology' night scene that J&B, Justerini & Brooks, the whisky brand, had put in place. The next chart showed that Bartleby was orchestrating plans to create a Sugar Baby network throughout the Caribbean using the structure of Oleanne. One of the pages showed a personal diary that Bartleby was keeping.
I have worked long hours and given some of my best years to the corporation, to the corporate environment, duely carrying out the duties as manager and marketing executive, staying late when the project required so, on weekdays or weekends, and ensuring all the sales objectives were being correctly appraised and met.
A simple failure with one marketing launch, for a single product, coming from me, is not enough to justify my dismissal, the firing of an employee who has worked for ten years for the same company. After all these years, I am being fired because of a single failure. I am getting only a few months of severance and know that I deserve much more. That much more will be provided outside the company, since the company is at a loss as to how to keep me as employee compensated appropriately.
Clarity glanced at some pages placed inside the binder of the hollow book, pages regarding Bartleby´s contract with his liquor company, which had the letterhead and logo of the company at the top. She realized that Bartleby was losing his job, and had decided to use Flower as Sugar Baby to deflect on her the illegalities of smuggling alcohol to resorts and bar owners throughout the Caribbean. She realized the fragility of Bartleby´s situation and thought of alerting the authorities. Using her decryptor, she found the electronic address of the Caribbean Coast Guards of Virgin Gorda and sent them a file with all the information regarding the Oleanne illegal transaction, warning them that Bartleby had no licence to distribute liquor in the Caribbean, and letting them know there was a supertanker filled with illegal alcohol near the island of Anegada. The last page of the logbook caught her attention. It was a memo dated a week earlier, directed to a woman code-named Oleanne, the woman in charge of Oleanne´s call center. The answer from the woman spoke of Cobbler and how she knew him well as a result of living with him on his boat, and planned on sending the list of Cobbler´s liquor clients the following day. Oleanne was more than a business, thought Clarity, it was actually a real woman. Clarity knew only three women who worked with Cobbler: Tiffany, Eve, and Cathy. One of them was Oleanne.