He looked at her gown and thought what a beautiful woman, not at all the cold and calculating bitch he had heard in literary circles. Why Nina Lall’s sales had been through the roof since she had signed with Kreske’s and she raved at how well Karin and her teams had handled her books. The days of one agent dealing with the publishers was past. He was an old fool. If one person could be good, a team under them could only be better. “I’ll sign” he sighed as she passed him the contracts she had been trying to get him to sign for an hour. She glanced at her Piaget watch and saw she was late to the Gala. It gave her an idea.
“Mr. Schwarz, are you busy this evening?” she waited until his signature was finished as she knew she would startle him. He looked up in surprise.
“No, no I’m not” he shook his head. She was a beautiful woman. Was she coming on to him now that he had signed her contracts?
“We are having a Gala here in New York for all our clients,” she had explained that earlier when she arrived in her gown. “Why don’t you escort me and meet some of the people you’ll be working with, who will be working for you?” she smiled pleasantly. It never hurt to show them others who had been wise enough to avail themselves of their services.
He smiled in delight. He had wondered why she had shown up at his apartment in a gown but had been too polite to ask, but she had smoothly explained and now having invited him, he was flattered. Having signed the papers she tucked them in her briefcase and waited for him to wash up and change into a suit. She was pleased to see he looked debonair in his dark suit. He certainly would fit in despite the lack of a tux. He gentlemanly helped her on with her coat and escorted her down to her waiting limo. They chatted as the limo drove them rapidly across the city towards the hall that had been rented for the occasion. He told her about his new book and how it was coming and she made some astute observations that surprised him.
“You have read my work!” he smiled flattered.
She nodded her pretty head of hair that was down for the party “of course, I told you we were prepared to work for you and I don’t lie.”
Karin made a pretty sight walking in on the arm of Elmer Schwartz. He looked proud to be there. Elliott was thrilled to hear that the contracts were signed and he led Elmer off to introduce him around. This was a real literary coup.
“Thank God your here” Cassie smiled as she came up and tucked her arm in Karin’s and handed her a champagne flute.
“Hi there, how was your flight?” Karin smiled in return.
Cassie had seen her almost immediately as she entered the ballroom that was rented for the party, but then she had been watching the doors anxiously for a while now. As Karin came through the ornate double doors the lights from the chandeliers bounced off her maroon gown, Cassie thought her heart had stopped. She had never seen Karin look more beautiful. It was apparent other’s thought the same as they admired the beautiful brunette. She’s mine! Cassie thought gleefully as she grabbed a flute and headed towards her. She saw her hand off her escort to Elliott Kreske just before she arrived. “It was fine as always” she laughed, she still couldn’t get used to owning her own plane, much less a small airline and fleet of them. Karin’s teams and management were amazing.
“Get into the apartment all right?” she smiled admiring how toned Cassie looked in her own gown.
She nodded “Carl made sure to hand me ‘my’ keys as he told me” she grinned, it was a big step but not really. “I think D.O.G. and C.A.T. were surprised though.”
Karin smiled, she was pleased to see her girlfriend but she knew this was a party that she needed to work and she had to introduce Cassie to some influential people who would be thrilled to meet the singer. They were soon parted as parties tended to keep you moving if you worked them right. Karin worked her parties, especially a party such as this. This was business, this was her job, and this was what made her life work.
“Who is that?” Alex had walked up with Sharon his wife. He indicated the tall blonde that had attached herself to Karin and looked like she belonged next to the executive as she hung on her arm.
Cassie shook her head, she had no idea but she didn’t like the feelings of jealousy she was experiencing seeing it from across the room. It wasn’t the first time she had seen Karin work a room. It was her job after all but something about the proprietary air about the statuesque blonde bothered her for some reason. When the woman kissed Karin full on the lips Cassie was ready to bite someone’s head off. Karin seemed to make a joke and those around her laughed including the clingy blonde. Something about Karin’s body language told Cassie she didn’t mind the blonde’s antics. Her own arm was around the blonde and they looked like a couple.
“I’m sure she’s just a client” Alex tried to soothe seeing the hurt in Cassie’s expression.
“I’m sure she is too” Cassie said in a tightly controlled voice.
“Are you monogamous?” Cassie asked Karin as they took off their make-up later the next morning. The party had gone into the wee hours of the morning and Karin hadn’t been able to leave.
Karin looked at her in surprise “of course I am, I told you that a long time ago.” She looked at Cassie in the mirror as she washed her face free of the goop.
Cassie sighed at the answer, she had known but for some reason she had been feeling insecure. They didn’t get to see each other but once or twice a month and even then it was for only a day or two or three if they were lucky.
Karin got up at Cassie’s expression, she understood, she really did. She rubbed Cassie’s shoulders, kneading the pressure points along her neck as she leaned down to kiss there causing goose bumps over Cassie’s arms to appear. “Baby, I get hit on a lot by both men and women. Sometimes it is to further their careers, sometimes its legitimate interest. I gently tell them all no. It’s a delicate thing showing interest with no intention of having sex with these people. I love you, you, not the Cassie Summers we have created.” She looked into the mirror as she watched the effect her words had on her girlfriend.
Cassie looked deep into those amazing jade green eyes that some said were as cold as stone. She knew Karin but still found her surprising. The gown tonight alone had floored her. She had overheard many people exclaim in amazement at how she looked in it. Used to her power suits and casual slacks or skirts there were few that had seen her in a $5000 gown. She had looked terrific and she had worked the room. It was all business. What was real was that she was here, in her apartment, in her life, in her arms. Cassie counted herself lucky that she knew this side of Karin Myer, few if any did.
As they made love that night in Karin’s huge bed Cassie achieved an orgasm that touched her so she could only release its emotions in tears and she cried afterwards. It scared Karin but she understood. She loved Cassie just as much. She felt protective towards her. She held her until her sobs quieted and quietly she asked “Cassie, would you marry me?”
Cassie looked at her in astonishment, she had never expected this. “How can we...?” she asked.
Karin smiled, “I don’t know, I want you to know I’m committed to this, to you, for always. I thought if we got engaged, exchanged rings you would know I will always be there for you.”
“We could marry in one of the states that allow it I suppose....” Cassie began musingly.
“As soon as we live in another state though they don’t recognize it” Karin answered saddened.
“Then how would we marry?” She looked at her lover with her big gray eyes still with plenty of moisture in them.
“I don’t know, I haven’t figured that out. None of the states we live in have domestic partnerships much less same sex marriages. Can you stay engaged to me until they do even if they never do?” Karin asked with a little smile.
“I would stay with you always” Cassie said with a big smile, she was so happy as she wrapped her arms around her lover.
“Then it’s settled? We will go out and pick out engagement rings tomorrow?” Karin asked as she looked into Cassie’s e
yes hopefully.
Cassie pulled her close and kissed her deeply “you betcha” she said as she began to make love to her again.
They went to Tiffany’s and walked to it in the crisp late fall air. A hint of winter was in the air in New York and they were dressed warmly for it. A few flakes came down occasionally but nothing that stayed. People smiled at the two beautiful women as they walked along cozily linking arms close to each other and chatting avidly. They were totally into each other as they walked into the elegant store.
No one blinked an eye as the two women shopped for engagement rings. They decided to get matching bands of diamonds. Both wore them well with a five carat centerpiece in a classic oval cut and a smaller beautifully cut set of diamonds along the band on each side. The saleslady almost swooned at the commission she would make off the sale of one of these gorgeous pieces but to have sold two required the signature of her manager and he signed happily. Naturally they didn’t have two such identical bands and Karin ordered the second set and arranged for them to be delivered in the next week.
Cassie had never felt so happily as she gazed about her in the beautiful store. She had never felt so loved and cherished either. Karin took good care of her seeming to sense her needs before she was even aware of them. Not just in her career but in her personal life too. She noted the beautiful stones in other displays and never even noticed as Karin bought her a matching necklace and a set of earrings with a nod and a flicker that the astute saleswoman noted. These would be delivered with the rings next week but as Karin would see them first, she could hide the additions for Christmas which was right around the corner.
“Now you are going to have to move in with me in Nashville” Cassie insisted as they ate dinner together that night.
Karin was amused; she wondered when her fiancée would start making demands. She was very happy that Cassie had accepted. They couldn’t marry of course in New York or in Tennessee, neither had provisions for same-sex marriages but they could have a civil ceremony in New York and there were rumbles about making same-sex marriage legal in the state. They hadn’t decided yet but Cassie had called her father and told him the news that they were engaged. He was happy for his daughter. Karin was a good woman and made his little girl very happy. He couldn’t find fault in the woman. About a week after they had visited the ranch a large package had arrived and he was surprised to find beefalo steaks in large quantities packed in dry ice as a thank you for their stay. He had laughed until tears came to his eyes. That Karin was all class.
“When I find time” she warned her.
“Oh no, you’re not going to put me off” Cassie told her, she was not amused now that she had her pinned down to a degree “you could be busy for the next ten months if I didn’t nag.”
“Is that the way this is going to go? You’re going to nag me?” Karin was still amused.
Cassie grinned “I just want you to have a home with me baby” she said gently and Karin’s heart melted.
“I’ll see what I can do to schedule the move” Karin said to placate her.
Over the next few weeks they were both busy with Christmas parties and command performances. Karin couldn’t leave her clients and Cassie was scheduled all over the place with her band. If not for the fact that they had private jets available to them they would never be able to do it all. Cassie was even scheduled to perform for the President of the United States!
After New Years the awards shows all began and Cassie performed time and again. It was all a prelude to the Grammy Awards and the tension was building. Cassie was up for five awards in different categories! Her latest album had exceeded all of their expectations but Karin had carefully promoted it and the fans had gone wild over it. The sales had been phenomenal and Cassie and the band had been busy. Hard work was paying off. It didn’t hurt to continue the ride though, no sense in not promoting it all until the very end and beyond. They were still creating, getting ready for the next album, the next single, the next…anything!
The ring that Cassie Summers now wore on her left hand had been noted and Karin had carefully released titillating tidbits that she just ‘might’ be engaged. Only their close family knew that Cassie was engaged to Karin Myers, her manager, her promoter, her lover, and now her fiancée. Few people outside their circle saw them together with the matching rings that they never took off. Cassie even wore the earrings and pendant she had received for Christmas at every concert.
Karin found some time right before the Grammy’s to move her things to Tennessee. She drove her SUV from New York to clear her mind; it had been a madhouse dealing with all her clients and especially Cassie. Her teams were good, she made sure of that but it all required mass amounts of organization and skill and Karin was good at that. She needed some down time though because she sensed that after the Grammy’s Cassie’s career was going to take off into the stratosphere and while the contract stipulations would have all been met at that time Kreske’s end date was a month after that. She had to finish what they had started. Elliott had stopped by in December to ask about renewing it.
“Hey got a minute?” he stuck his head in her office door. He had stopped at the desk to inform her assistant that no further calls come in. She was off the phone this rare minute as she looked up in surprise.
“Yeah, but just” she said as she organized things on her desk and looked down to do so.
“Have you talked to Cassie Summers about renewing her contract in April after it runs out?” He asked as he came in the room leaving the door ajar.
Karin had been afraid of this. Cassie had no intention of renewing with Kreske’s after realizing she had signed a deal with the devil and that Karin had been roped to go along with it. “I know she’s thinking about it but wants to wait until after the Grammy’s to make a decision” she hedged looking him straight in the eye. He didn’t need to know Cassie’s thoughts on the subject. Cassie Summers had made a lot of money for this firm, he couldn’t complain about that or the work that Karin had made for him.
“Delivery for Karin Myers?” A messenger came into the open door at that moment and Karin was relieved for the distraction. She signed and took the package placing it on the corner of her desk she saw that it was Tiffany’s.
“Tiffany’s?” Elliott asked as he read the label too.
Karin looked at him blandly but her heart was beating wildly. She couldn’t think of an excuse and silence was the best option.
Elliott waited but she didn’t explain and he let it go “let me know when you have something more definite” he said as he left her office and she breathed a sigh of relief.
Karin thought about that on her long drive. She was going to hire a U-Haul and pull it behind her to Tennessee and leave her SUV there. It really made no sense keeping it in the city and she thought about shopping for a car, now that made sense in a city like New York but she did have D.O.G. and C.A.T. to think of as well.
She thought about the night they exchanged rings. She had arranged for Cassie to appear in Phoenix and over a romantic candlelit dinner she had pulled out the two identical boxes from her ever present briefcase and placed them on the table as Cassie was in the bathroom. Champagne was chilling in a bucket next to their table and she nearly started to cry when she returned seeing the boxes.
“Can I open it now?” she asked and Karin nodded.
The look on her face was beautiful as she gazed at the lovely ring they had bought together weeks ago. She reached for it and Karin stopped her. Pulling the ring from the box she said “I think this is my job” as she tenderly held Cassie’s hand and she gently pushed it on Cassie’s left hand ring finger and asked “Cassie Summers will you marry me, someday? Somewhere?”
Cassie nodded, her eyes suspiciously wet, and said “didn’t I already answer that question once?”
Karin shook her head “actually no, if you remember correctly you never actually said yes.”
Cassie thought for a moment remembering that morning in bed and then she blushed,
she hadn’t actually said yes. “Yes, Yes, YES” she smiled as she took Karin’s hand in hers and asked “and will you Karin Myers marry me, someday? Somewhere?”
Karin smiled and nodded as she said “absolutely.” Cassie opened the other matching box and taking the ring she pushed it on Karin’s left ring finger joyfully.
They celebrated over steak and champagne as they renewed their feelings for each other both remembering their delightful time last time they had been in Phoenix.
Karin took two days to drive from New York to Milwaukee. She could have driven straight through but didn’t want to be that tired. The boys were going to meet her in Milwaukee to pack up the trailer for her this last time. Alex told her unpacking all that heavy oak furniture for himself had almost cost him some well-meaning friends. She promised she wouldn’t buy any that required heavy lifting ever again but he pointed out she hadn’t bought this. Inherited yes, purchased no. She looked forward to seeing them both again, who knew when she would get back to Wisconsin with her crazy schedule.
“Are you there yet, are you there yet?” Cassie said as though a child.
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