MY MOUNTAIN MAN - Part One

I couldn't believe my ears. Kyle Laing, the man I was almost engaged to, was issuing me a challenge. If I could bring in a huge new account, he would consider making me an equal partner in the firm.

Okay, to be honest, it was a counter challenge. I had told him I wouldn't marry him unless he considered me an equal partner in everything, our marriage and our company.

Just to keep the record straight, I say "our company" because that is what it is. Kyle was set up as the company head because he had the money to get us started. But the business itself was my brain child.

Kyle and I met in college. He was an economics major, the financial wizard everyone expected to someday move into his father's company and eventually fill the man's shoes. Only Kyle's father was of the philosophy that his son had to work his way up in the company before running it. In fact, before leaving for college Kyle had been working in the company mail room. But his father had told him when he graduated he'd receive a promotion from the mail room to management position.

Kyle on the other hand, didn't want to wait to put his knowledge and skills to work. He had an inheritance from his grandmother and made no bones about the fact that he could build his own business from scratch and fill his own executive position.

I was a science and chemistry major. I could list all the herbs used in the latest miracle cures advertised on television; as well as the chemical components and the formulas needed to create a nuclear holocaust. But what I was really interested in was someday developing a formula of another kind. One that would take the world by a different kind of storm. I had what some refer to as a "nose" for scents.

In high school when the girls were all concerned with the latest makeup tips and fashion statements, I was more interested in the invisible ingredient that made a woman who she was. -- Signature scents I called them.

I'd even crudely created several scents in my home laboratory. But after a severe outbreak of hives on the prom queen and several members of her court was linked to my creation, I had been forced to close my lab. I was also forced to accept the fact that I needed more knowledge about chemicals and herbs before anything I made was placed on someone's body.

Kyle and I seemed to be a match made in heaven. He had the money and background in economics, while I had the "nose". Oh we knew we'd be small fish in a multi-million dollar industry, but we didn't care. We didn't have to be whales; but neither did we intend to stay guppies forever.

There was a bit of give and take when we formed our company. One was in our name KL Industries. Kyle was possibly even more vain than he was rich and brilliant. Since it was his money starting our company, and he was the person to be running it, it was agreed the company would bear his name.

On the other hand, I insisted I would name any fragrance products that I developed.

Only that didn't seem enough when Kyle ended up selling several of my formulas rather than selling and marketing those scents ourselves as I'd hoped we'd do. In fact, he'd sold to some of those big fish who we'd thought were going to be competitors.

I'd been perfecting a special scent with an amber base. I particularly like amber and more or less thought of this as being my signature scent. There was no way I was going to agree to Kyle selling this formula. But I knew as long as he was calling the shots there wasn't much I could do. By my agreeing to his being in charge, I had created a monster.

Never mind the fact that everything he did, sounded good when he explained it. And looked good on paper. It wasn't what I wanted.

So, I kept my new scent a secret. As secret as a secret could be when I wore it all the time. In fact, it was driving Kyle crazy.

He kept asking me what the scent was.

"Oh nothing special," I'd reply. "Just something I've been experimenting with."

Then he'd inevitably remind me that as part of our business agreement, anything I developed while working for our company belonged to the company.

"It's still under development," I would reply.

"It doesn't smell under development," he said. "Are you sure you're not trying to keep it from me?"

"Would I do that to you?"

"Yes," Kyle said with a smile. "Unlike me, you don't exactly have to show all your transactions on paper."

"You don't think I keep all my formulas in my head," I teased.

He smiled, but I could see in his eyes he didn't trust me. And perhaps he had good reason.

Because I was going to tease him with the scent until he agreed to market this one my way. In fact, the day he asked me to marry him, I took it one step further. I asked to be his business partner.

Okay, I didn't ask. I told him I wouldn't marry him unless "life partner" meant the same to him as it did to me -- partners in everything.

"Okay, love." Kyle took up the gauntlet. "If you want a partnership, you'll have to earn it. And I'd say that new scent you've been flaunting under my nose -- no pun intended -- is a good place to start. Get out there and market it. Bring me a big, and I mean big, contract and I'll make you a full partner." He then named a figure that might have made me think twice had I not been so confident.

"Give me a good sales person and I'll give you several contracts," I said with equal confidence.

Kyle shook his head. "Not in our budget yet," he replied. "What do you think I've been doing all this time? If you want this partnership so much, it's time for you to pull your weight."

I bit back any retort I may have had regarding pulling my weight. It would have been tempting to remind him if I hadn't developed the products I had so far, he wouldn't have had formulas to sell. Instead, I remained silent. Better not bit off my nose to spite my face. And that pun was intended.

So I enlisted my best friend Ashley Green, who worked as our clerk, typist, secretary, receptionist, you name it. Ashley was indispensable as an employee, but more as a friend.

Ashley and I started by making cold calls to several fashion designers trying to set up appointments to meet with them. When we didn't have any luck, we knew we'd have to make some personal visits, but Kyle hadn't given us much budget to work with.

We spent a week trying to make as many personal visits as we could, hoping at least one would let us pitch our product. We considered ourselves lucky when we got as far as a secretary's desk.

So we returned home and regrouped. We decided to try a different strategy. Cosmetic companies.

"But don't they have their own labs?" Ashley asked. "I mean that's where Kyle sold some of your formulas already. They have the facilities to do their own production."

"We'll do our homework," I said. "We'll have to find a company who up until now has been strictly cosmetics and never had a fragrance line. Then I approach them and have to convince one of them to let our fragrance be their first, with us producing it specifically for them."

My strategy was that if our fragrance sold well for them, they would want to add more fragrances to their line. And with those successes, others might begin opening their doors to us.

Once Ashley started giving me names of companies, I started learning as much as I could about them. And about the people in charge. I wanted to present the exact pitch that might just work for each individual person. I also hoped to find the person most likely to give my proposal a try.

And at the top of the list was a firm that had started out small like our own. They started several years earlier, producing products under other names, before coming out with a line of cosmetics of their own about two years ago. They weren't one of the big name companies, but they were on the rise.

Having done my homework, I made arrangements for my trip. Since most of our budget had already been used on our previous trip, most of the expenses for this trip was coming out of my own pocket. I wouldn't be able to afford to take Ashley along this time for moral support.

But being the wonderful friend that she was, Ashley decided it was time she needed a vacation. When I boarded the plane I found a familiar face seated beside me.

"Hey, what are best friends for?" She laughed.

"Thanks, you don't know how much this means to me."

She shrugged. "Besides, I'm afraid you're getting a little desperate about this," she teased. "I had to come along to keep you from getting into trouble."

"Now how could I do that?"

"Maybe by promising your first born in exchange for the contract." Her eyes were bright with laughter. "Or, maybe a little quid quo pro."

"Nothing to worry about there," I said. "Someone would have to completely sweep me off my feet to get me to agree to that."

"You never know what could happen."

"It hasn't happened yet, I doubt that it ever will," I said impulsively, not even thinking how revealing my words were. I felt my cheeks burn as I looked away from my friend's knowing gaze, before she had the chance to make her feelings on the subject known. We'd had this talk before.

"How can you agree to marry Kyle when you know you don't love him?"

"I never said I didn't love him," I replied. "We have a good relationship. We understand each other. We're suited for each other. We respect each other."

"Who are you trying to convince, Nina? Yourself, or me?"

I didn't answer. Because I knew if I did, it would only prolong a discussion that we never agreed on.

To our disappointment when we visited the office of Lance Chandler, President and CEO of Crystal Smooth Creations, the office was closed. Okay, so it was the day after Thanksgiving, but I figured they'd only be closed for the holiday. We'd have to return again the following Monday.

So, what else does one do when visiting a strange city the day after Thanksgiving? -- Black Friday. -- They find the local mall.

By the end of that day Ashley and I were exhausted and complaining about how much our feet hurt. But if judging the number of bags we returned with was any measure of the good time we'd had, we'd had tons of fun.

We decided since we couldn't conduct any business until Monday we might as well make the weekend a mini vacation. So after sleeping late Saturday morning we called to see if we could get reservations at a day spa we read about in the hotel's list of things to do while in town. Of course they had openings, everyone else we probably still shopping for holiday bargains.

After a relaxing day of pampering we went to the restaurant on the top floor of our hotel and then downstairs for some dancing, until our feet hurt all over again.

Sunday we lounged around the hotel's indoor pool most of the day and took in a show that night. Then it was early to bed so we'd be ready again for business the following morning.

Unfortunately, this time when we arrived at the Crystal Smooth offices, it was to find their President wasn't there, and wouldn't be back for two weeks.

"He is away holiday at this time each year," his administrative assistant told me. "It's deer season."

"Pardon?"

"You know, hunting season," the woman explained.

In my research I'd failed to uncover a hobby that might dominate that much of Lance Chandler's time. "Hunting season," I repeated.

"Yes, you know. . . deer."

"You mean like Bambi?" Ashley acknowledged. "Uck!"

I flashed her a quick warning. "Where does one go deer hunting?" I asked, trying to act like it wasn't that important, though it was. After my paying for this trip and my shopping spree on Friday, not to mention a visit to a spa and a show, my credit card was to the max. I couldn't afford to return in two weeks.

"Not around here. Deer hunting is usually done in rural areas." The woman laughed. "Actually Mr. Chandler hunts near his family home."

Fortunately I didn't have to ask about that. My research had told me the town. It was a small town in the northern part of the state. I figured it couldn't be that difficult to find one man in a small rural town.

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