Chapter Five
“Come on. Answer!” Mimi tapped her fingers impatiently against the desk as Jasper’s voicemail kicked in. She rolled her eyes at his cheeky phone message and left hers after the beep. “Jasper, it’s Mimi. Can you please call me back? The people who make the other fireman calendar say we’re infringing on their copyright and that, if we go ahead, they’ll take legal action. Call me back!”
“What did I just hear you say?” Alyssa bustled through the door and dropped her bag onto a chair before leaning on Mimi’s desk. “They’ll try to stop it?”
“That’s what they said. The woman I spoke to was really nice about it and suggested we make some changes. They want the general public to be fully aware it’s not endorsed by them.”
“Why don’t they just endorse it?”
Mimi stilled. “I don’t know. I didn’t think to ask. We’ll need to adjust our plan, so they don’t chase us.”
“So do you think Jasper will have a suggestion, or do you just like calling him?” Mimi rolled her eyes and Alyssa laughed. “You can’t blame me for asking. By my estimation, you’ve had dinner with him at least once that I know of and fielded multiple phone calls from him. I think you might be getting attached.”
“I’m not getting attached. How do you know we had dinner?”
“Ruben, one of those hot firemen, told me. I saw him in the post office yesterday and he was eager to discuss the love life of one Jasper Collins.”
“Was he?” Mimi tried to appear nonchalant as she busied herself cleaning out her top drawer. “That’s nice.”
“Oh, come on!” Alyssa flopped into a chair. “Spill, lady. Why did you have dinner together? What was it like? More importantly, are you going to see him again?”
“I saw him yesterday at the first photo shoot.”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it!” She made her best sulky face. “I can’t believe you’re holding out on me.”
Mimi sighed. “I’d hoped to keep our dinner a secret. There’s nothing to tell. We had dinner last week and he walked me home. We did the photo shoot yesterday and I drove him home. That’s it.”
Liar!
“I’d like to believe you, but your bright eyes and twitchy hands tell me otherwise. That photo shoot was nude, wasn’t it? I better not find out you slept with him and didn’t tell me!”
“I promise I have not slept with him.”
“Would you, if he asked?”
“Jasper is not the kind of man to ask something like that. He seems like more of a take action type of guy, don’t you think?”
“Maybe. I’d sure let him take me, whether he asked or not.” She giggled and Mimi rolled her eyes. “Anyway, Ruben is super cute. I might set my sights on him, right after I check out what he’s packing at his photo shoot—because I’m coming tomorrow, by the way.”
“At this rate, there won’t be another shoot. Do you have any ideas on how to change the calendar?”
“I do, actually. What if we included just a couple of the firemen—just the ones who agreed to be nude—and then add some other community members to the team? A local gardener, maybe—he should be pretty fit—or a post office worker. That hot guy that runs the café on the corner in the junction—”
“Chris? Jasper knows him.”
“The great and powerful Jasper can hook you up, then. If we could get some local business people starring in the calendar, they could sell them from their shops for us, too.” Alyssa stood from her chair and started writing the details on the whiteboard. Her excitement increased as her hand flew across the board, writing names and business ideas one after another. “This is kind of perfect, you know—a great way to be different from the fireman calendar and be more inclusive of the community.”
“Just like in the movies,” Mimi mused. “Have you seen that one about the elderly women who make a calendar for some good cause?”
“No, I haven’t, but it’s genius.”
“The second shoot is scheduled for tomorrow. It’s really short notice to get new people to commit and be there in time. Also, it seems a bit mean not to include the guys who were supportive, but wanted to be photographed with their pants on.”
“What if…” Alyssa tapped the marker against her teeth. “What if we keep to the shoot tomorrow? We’ll get Cate to do all the naked shots for full page spreads and then we join some of the others together and get group shots? We can make one month about a group of people. We’ll need shots for the inside covers, too, don’t forget—or we could do a 15-month calendar. Penny told me the prices she quoted were for spiral-bound calendars up to 20 pages. If we increase the months, we can add extra pages.”
Mimi laughed at Alyssa’s triumphant expression. Her ponytail bobbed around, appearing to be just as excited as she was. “Tell me again why you never finished that marketing degree? You’re a natural at this.”
Alyssa rolled her eyes. “I know—my mum mentions it every other week. I just wasn’t cut out for the cutthroat marketing world.” She tapped the board. “This can totally work, though. We’d just have to schedule another date with Cate to get the community photos done.”
“I completely agree. Next time, I’ll call you instead of Jasper when I’m having a disaster.”
“Oh no, babe, you keep calling Jasper. I’m keen to see where this thing between you two goes. I can honestly say his mate Ruben is as interested as I am!”