Moore to Lose (13 page)

“Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, Oh God.” Her head was back and she could swear her eyes were rolling back into her head. As she pictured a man in the building across from her stroking his hard cock and coming, she took all of Tom’s ramming.

“Grab the back of that chair,” he ordered and Mia turned to her left, with Tom still inside of her and grabbed the high back of a plush chair. Her right side was now facing the window and with Tom right behind her, if anyone
was
watching, they could now see Tom’s thick cock stroking in and out of her. Tom reached forward and grabbed a handful of Mia’s hair, pulling her head back to him while he relentlessly drove into her. “I want them to see me fuck you. I want them to see you taking all of my cock.” Mia moaned and whimpered at his words. “You like this, don’t you.” She moaned again and he tugged hard on her hair. It hurt, but that turned her on even more. “I asked you a question.”

“Yes, I like this.”

“Why? Why do you like it, Mia?”

She was panting as he continued to tug on her hair, “It’s hot.”

With a sudden and painful sharp tug on her hair, he hissed, “You can do better than that. Tell me why you like it.”

“I like the thought of people watching us. Getting off to us.”

He pulled her head back by her hair so that his lips were brushing her ear, his cock buried deeply in her, “That’s a good start, Jailbait. We’ll get you there.”

She wasn’t quite sure where he wanted her to get to, but wherever she was, she was so far gone over the edge and was about to tumble for a third time. Mia heard Tom whispering in her ear, “You’re my little whore, aren’t you.”

“Yes,” her cry sounded anguished, but she was tumbling down an abyss and wanted to take him with her. She squeezed his cock tight with her muscles and held it — she wanted to make him explode. She reached back and pulled his face into her neck by his hair, “Yes, I’m your little whore. All yours.” And she heard him groan, his arm circling around her waist and pulling her down tight onto his cock.

“Oh God,” he groaned into her neck, “Yes, all mine. My whore. You only come for me, Whore.” And with one last deep drive, she felt his entire body shudder as he released into her.

Tangled, they didn’t move, as they regained their breathing.

“Holy shit, Tom.” Mia was the first to speak.

“Holy shit is right. Oh my God, was that hot.” It was a statement.

Mia was nodding her head, “Very. I think we should make a nightly date of this.”

Tom kissed her neck. “I really like this new you.”

Mia turned to him — looking him in the eye for the first time and laughed. “I think you cheated on Mia tonight.”

A slow smile took over his face and he shook his head no. “I think I may have met Mia for the first time tonight.”

She laughed, “She’s pretty hot, isn’t she?” And she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the window — this new sophisticated look.

She was no longer a little girl hiding behind her mane of hair and after tonight she wondered how much this change had really exposed.

Seth took full credit for Mia’s rise at BBDO. “No one was really going to take you seriously with that hideous ‘Bridge and Tunnel’ hair.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she humored him. “There’s something I want to talk to you about. Let’s go get a latte.”

Mia and Seth emerged out onto 6th Avenue, walked two blocks up to 54th Street and ducked into a new little San Francisco-style coffee house, complete with couches and big leather chairs.

“What couldn’t you talk to me about in the office?”

Mia blew at the foam in her drink. “This goes nowhere,” she leveled him a steely glance.

He met her steel with steel and upped the ante with attitude. Mia and Seth had become inseparable over the months, taking their breaks together at work, going to lunch daily and seeing each other socially on nights and weekends. Surprisingly, Tom and Seth got along quite well, a quality in Tom she really appreciated.

She leaned into him and in little more than a whisper confided, “I had drinks two nights ago with Brett Russell from VISA. He’s leaving VISA and taking over all of print advertising for American Express. He hates Ogilvy, but can’t pull it all from them, but wants to place the direct someplace else.”

Seth gasped. “That is huge. Is he bringing it to BBDO?” The ramifications of BBDO taking any of Ogilvy & Mathers’ AmEx business was enormous. David Ogilvy was the genius behind, “Never leave home without it” — one of the most iconographic taglines ever to come off Madison Avenue.

Mia just shook her head no. Seth’s eyes were wide with confusion and that is when Mia hit him with a devil smile blast. “He’s giving it to me.”

“What do you mean he’s giving it to you?” Seth slammed down his latte on the wooden table next to his chair, causing an arcing splash that hit the leg of his pants.

“I’m going to open an agency. American Express direct mail is going to be my first client.”

The look on Seth’s face was classic — the man who had a retort for everything was stunned into total silence. He picked up his latte and regarded Mia skeptically over the rim. “You lie, Bitch.”

“No lie, Princess. This is for real. I want you to come with me. Someone needs to manage things and you know I suck at that. I can do strategy, concept, write the creative, but I could not put a client schedule together if my life depended on it.”

“Are you offering me a job?” Now Seth was smiling.

“Well, in about 90 days. And the beauty is since AmEx is not a BBDO client they can’t come after me for poaching.” Mia looked pretty self-satisfied.

“Where are you getting the money for this, if you don’t mind my asking?”

Mia laughed, “I have a Ph.D.”

Seth now truly looked confused. Wunderkind BBC was still in her early 20’s, he knew she was smart, but a PhD? And what money would come from that? All that education would just rack up more debt.

Mia decided it was time to clear up Seth’s confusion. “PhD means Papa has Dough,” and she laughed.

“Bitch,” he bellowed.

“I met with my parents and grandparents last night and they are going to give me the seed money to get it off the ground.”

“You lucky little wench. This is so exciting. Our new offices are going to be so chic.” Seth was already envisioning the image he would create for the new agency. “So, what does dark, gorgeous, brooding poet think of all this?”

Mia shrugged, “He seems to be excited.”

“What are you naming it?”

“M. Silver & Associates. And I would like you to be my very first associate. We need to be on the lookout for more associates. We’ll need graphics, production, traffic, sales.” They got up and started to head back to the office. “Are you around this weekend to start looking at space?”

“Hell, yes,” he swatted her in the arm, “and I’m certainly not going to let you decorate.”

Three days later, Mia and Seth sat in BBDO’s auditorium watching the sales team present. Seth was critiquing all of the presenters, starting with what they had chosen to wear for their big day on stage — and he wasn’t being kind.

The team of J.D. Barone and Kami Townes took the stage and Seth immediately dug his fingers into Mia’s knee. J.D. was part movie star handsome and part New York bad boy, with his thick, dark, slightly-too-long pushed back hair, olive skin and striking hazel eyes, it was evident that the man got more pussy than Purina.

“I want him.” Seth whispered into Mia’s ear.

“Ditto,” Mia was mesmerized as he wowed the crowd with his very white smile.

“You have dark, gorgeous, brooding poet — don’t be a pig.” And he slapped her knee. “Check out the southern belle.” Seth was giving Kami a quick once over. “Conservative, but smart clothes. The suit is Oleg Cassini and the shoes are Cole-Haan, but what’s with that pearl necklace. I have never seen her without it.”

“The only pearl necklace I ever wear … ” Devil Mia was in the house.

“Do
not
finish that sentence.” Seth shot her the evil eye.

J.D. and Kami began their presentation. J.D. was all fluff, smoke and mirrors, baffle ‘em with bullshit, but Kami’s comments were smart, insightful and backed up with a lot of data that she presented in an accessible and easily understandable manner. Within a few minutes, J.D. started speaking over Kami and cutting her off. In good southern girl style, she reacted to his behavior quite gracefully.

“He was really good looking until he opened his mouth.” Mia whispered to Seth.

“What an ass.”

J.D.’s boorish behavior continued to escalate, and what Mia originally viewed as a dazzling smile, was now an obnoxious obstruction that she wanted to slap off of his smug face. Kami remained classy and cool, but Mia imagined her seething inside.

As they were all leaving the auditorium, Mia stepped out in the aisle next to Kami.

“You did a great job.” Mia shared, motioning her head toward J.D., sneered and rolled her eyes. “Good looking until he opened his mouth.”

Kami smiled, “Fucking dickwad.”

Damn, that sounds so polite coming out of her mouth, Mia thought.

And in that moment, the conservative, ladylike southern belle was immediately someone Mia knew she could be friends with and possibly the newest member of M. Silver & Associates.

That Friday night, Mia, Seth and Kami went for drinks and with a few gin & tonics in her, Kami let loose about J.D. Barone and what hell it was to work with the misogynistic egomaniac. Stealing Kami’s thunder onstage wasn’t the first of her accomplishments for which he had taken credit. Kami was even talking about going back to Birmingham to go work for a local employer because she was so turned off by the cut-throat backstabbing environment amongst her sales colleagues.

“What if you could do what you are doing, but in an atmosphere where the ethos was more in line with your ethics?” Four drinks in, Mia was more convinced than ever that J.D.’s disrespectful display in front of the entire New York office was actually divine providence.

“Show me the place and sign me up.” Kami slammed her gin & tonic down on the teak bar.

And that night, Mia’s company went from M. Silver & Associate to M. Silver & Associates.

M. Silver & Associates had no problem assembling a dream staff and with American Express as an anchor client, Kami Townes’ job of attracting and signing new business was surprisingly easier than they all had anticipated. There was a movement afoot within large corporations of bringing on boutique agencies for at least a portion of the business so that they would be able to truly maintain a hands-on partner relationship with their advertising agency. More often than not, it was new product launches where the corporations were feeling very protective over their new babies.

The new offices of MS&A was a little off the beaten path — instead of being midtown with the Madison Avenue behemoths, MS&A took over some old warehouse space in the Meatpacking District on the west side. A large loft-like space with brick walls and wide planked wood floors, the building dated back to the 1890’s and the funky ambience screamed Mia Silver. With the help of a young architect that Seth had met dancing one night at The Saint, they transformed the space to include private offices, conferences rooms outfitted for full-scale client presentations, a kitchen, bathrooms and a “living room” designed to become the central hangout and brainstorming space of the agency.

Mia stood alone in her new office, surrounded by cozy brick walls and southern facing floor to ceiling windows that showcased the same view as her apartment, the World Trade Center Towers. Appearing like sentinels in her life, these huge monoliths watched over her, even in this new space.

Walking over to the window, she just wanted to pinch herself. How many 20-somethings had pulled off something like this? Taking a deep breath, Mia realized she now had the responsibility for all the people that threw their lot in to take this leap of faith with her and there was not a chance in hell that she would let them down. She would make this work somehow — if it took 100 hour weeks, Mia knew she would be the one there in the office with her sleeves rolled up burning the midnight oil. She would lead by example and she would set the example by being the example.

For Mia Silver, failure was not an option.

Everyone seemed to be moving on and settling in with their lives. Rob and Joni were getting married, and Rob was going to be teaching at Ithaca College, Tom was a favorite prof at NYU and working on a new screenplay of his own, and Mia was now the owner of an ad agency. The owner of an ad agency. Surfuckingreal.

Smiling at the Twin Towers, Mia looked at the North Tower and thought maybe they should celebrate their opening at Windows on the World. Although she’d had dreams of another celebration there, that probably wasn’t in the cards for her. She and Tom would never get married. He wasn’t the marrying kind and their relationship was like good buddies who had great amazing sex (Mia laughed to herself, “Oh crap — he’s going to want to fuck me in front of these windows, too.” — an ongoing and regular favorite activity of theirs), but it wasn’t love. Or at least not “in love” love.

Feeling the tears well in her eyes (it was rare, but it still happened at the oddest moments), she wondered where he was. Was he on the tennis circuit somewhere? Married? Still living in southern California? It was when she thought about what she didn’t have with Tom that she missed Schooner most — or the memory of what she had felt for him. Yearning for that high, Mia wondered if she would only find it in other places. Places like work.

Mia knew that people thought she had it all or had gotten it too easily and too quickly, but what they didn’t know was what she wanted more than anything seemed so elusive to her that she didn’t even know where or how to begin to find it. The one thing that she would give up everything for was not a fantasy and she knew that. She had tasted it. She had savored it. She had consumed it. She had been consumed by it. And now, even if she had a treasure map leading her to it, she would still be at a loss as to how to find it. Or what to do with it, if she did find it.