Girl Wears Those Shoes

DAY 1 IN THE OFFICE

DAY 1 IN THE OFFICE

This place was perfect. This contemporary style two-storied building with a vaulted ceiling was decorated with tall mirrors and long neck vases inserted with abundant dry bouquets and colorful feathers. The sitting area was defined with slick gray sofa and the bright yellow chairs. The ultra chic style made Gigi all the more electrified about her first day in the new office.

“Where’s my desk? Where do I sit?” Gigi had no worries about being who she truly was in front of Eddie. He had been her friend ever since Gigi moved to Houston with her family.

Eddie caught sight of her and said, “Oh, good heavens! Take off those shoes, Panda! You are too tall for me!” He rubbed his hand over his balding head and smiled.

“Shorty! These stripper shoes already made me famous in your building!” Gigi laughed and threw herself down in the couch. Her eyes fixed on the photo of Eddie’s French bulldog on the desk. “How’s ChaCha? Haven’t talked to you for a while, stranger!”

“My baby . . . she’s playing with the angels now . . .”

“Oh, Ed! I’m so sorry . . . when did this happen?”

“Only two weeks ago. Poor thing had a bad stroke. You know she was up there, almost fifteen years old. She didn’t suffer though, which was a good thing.” He wiped his eyes.

“Oh, Ed . . . let me give you a hug.”

Eddie stood and approached Gigi. “So do you like this place, sweetheart?”

“Are you kidding me? I can live here.” Gigi got up and hugged Eddie. “I’m so excited, Ed! I can’t wait to start this whole real estate game!”

“Why don’t you go to the kitchen and help yourself with some refreshments. I know you are always up to eating something! I’ll help you get settled in a while.”

“Okie dokie,” Gigi replied. As she exited the office, she remembered something and turned around midway to the door. “Do I dress okay here, Ed?” She glared at her platform pumps.

“You stand damn tall and I love it! You can wear whatever you want around here. You are the new Panda Erin Brockovich!”

“Woo-hoo!” Gigi animatedly ran out the door.

Gigi was determined. She was very eager to enter the real estate industry. She graduated from real estate school and got interviewed at other real estate firms before she came to Galaxy Realty. At other firms, she did not feel the vibe, the vibe of connection. She was no Jackie O, sure. But neither was she a suresoccer mom. She had her past. She made a great living with her s*x appeal. She couldn’t just shake it off overnight and turn into a Walmart poster girl that would be perhaps more acceptable by some others. For one thing, she didn’t want to be around judgmental people who criticized the way she dressed or behaved. She was striving hard to start in this new industry. She didn’t want others to look at her as if she was still one of those babes. She wanted to be herself. And at the same time, she was ready to transform into a realtor—a professional businesswoman.

Galaxy Realty was a boutique brokerage firm owned by Eddie Johnson. He was a successful broker in the city area and the gay community in Houston. He loved Gigi’s happy-go-lucky nature and gogetter mindset. Eddie knew Gigi was smart and had been through a bad marriage. As far as her entertainer’s background was concerned? Eddie knew he couldn’t have asked for more. Who wouldn’t want those gorgeous hustlers in this crazy real estate business? Eddie knew she had it in her. He wanted to mentor her himself.

It was a revelation for Gigi when Eddie offered her a job in his brokerage firm. Eddie knew where she came from. She and Eddie had been friends all these years. She felt at home at Eddie’s office. She knew she could do no wrong with Eddie. It was 2002 and things had just started getting interesting for her. As much as she struggled in the relationship with Ronny, she quit Babe’s. She didn’t have any specific plan until Ronny helped her move in this direction. Seeing a married man wasn’t necessarily a good way to plan for the future. She knew that she had to make a career for herself. Mom used to always tell her that a woman needed to be independent. But there wasn’t just another job she could pick up. Let’s admit it, the money she earned stripping for about 28 hours a week was way above the American average household income as working full time. Real Estate seemed like a hands-on business and it didn’t take a whole lot investment to start.

“Like all else, this look will fade one day,” she said, looking at herself in the mirror. “Better get my ass in gear. Something has to happen for real!” She could feel it in her bones.

Before her first day in the office, Eddie had sent Gigi to a training course. Although Gigi was not fond of sitting in the class again, she knew she had to do what Eddie asked. As it turned out, it was a good exper ience through and through. Contrary to her expectations, she enjoyed the teacher and the course. One of the classes taught how to approach the For Sale by Owners market. In this course, the teacher gave them scripts and asked them to practice. It was almost like the acting class she saw on TV where the students were role playing. To her amusement, Gigi couldn’t get enough of playing an agent.

Her script read: “Hello, I have a buyer for your house. I’m actually at your house and I have a buyer who is interested in your property. Would you like to come out and talk to me?” Like bait to get the seller into a deeper discussion. Once the owner was in front of the agent, the agent was supposed to say something like: “Your house is very nice. I have an interested potential buyer. Would you list the house with me?” Gigi memorized her lines.

It was just fun. Nothing could be better than becoming a real estate agent, Gigi thought. It was drama and action. She couldn’t wait to apply all that she had learned in the real world.

She graduated from the boot camp with an A.

Gigi found her way to the kitchen. When she opened the double doors of the stainless steel refrigerator, she was delighted to see fresh sliced salami, turkey, ham, and cheese. “Yes! I’m in a perfect place!” She said, fixing a sandwich. Just when she opened her mouth to bite on a pickle, there was a sweet smell of perfume in the air.

“Hello there! You must be Gigi O!”

To bite or not to? Gigi closed the mouth and looked up, said, “Hi, there! Nice meeting you?”

“I’m Kelly Dean. I’m the fee attorney at the HTitle here. I’ve heard about you from Eddie. Welcome to the family!”

“Thanks!” Gigi finally bit off her pickle.

Chewing hastily, Gigi could see Kelly noticing her stripper platforms in the corner of her eye.

“I was just wondering, where did Eddie find you?”

Gigi shrugged and made a face, “He picked me up at a hidden corner in Montrose.”

“Hilarious! Definitely Eddie’s style. By the way, I like your shoes. And of course, you got those legs to wear them!”

Besides Eva, Kelly was the second person that didn’t make a mockery out of her shoes. “Galaxy is the place for me!” Gigi said with a laugh.

“Well, SugarBoo. You like these shoes. So I flew a whole box of pairs for you from South America. Open it up!”

“Wow, these are really nice, Ronny! Are these real leather straps?”

“You bet! Look at those gold ones. Those are leather too, Sug! You’ll look real sexy in those! Oh hell, you look sexy without any shoes…”

The bloody orange sunset lit the hazel color in his eyes, Ronny was gazing her arduously.

She recalled Ronny for a second. Her heart sank. It hurt just thinking of his name. He had been away overseas, supposedly working in Buenos Aries. But who knew where exactly he was at the moment. She hadn’t heard one word from him for a few weeks since he left.

Do I miss him, or do I miss how I felt when I was with him?

She shook her head and suddenly felt it was too hard to swallow the last bite of her sandwich.

Once Eddie showed Gigi her desk, she rushed around the office and got a pile of newspapers from Eva. She settled the pile on her desk and went through the newspapers one by one, circling For Sale by Owner properties. Her passionate obsession probably made Eddie wonder what she was about to do on her first day of the new job. In Gigi’s mind, she was trying to apply what she had learned from the Boot Training. She was in pursuit to get her first listing.

Gigi came across a property that was close by, in West University Place, a popular wealthy neighborhood. It was a small house, but the neighborhood was going through an old-to-new transition. This could be a great investment for someone, Gigi thought. There was a script in her head, loud and clear. She left the office in a hurry. A few minutes later, she pulled up on the drive way. She called the owner and said, “Hi there, I have a buyer for your house. I’m actually at your house and I have a buyer who is interested in your property. Would you like to come out and talk to me?”

The owner’s name was Amara. She spoke with an Indian accent.

Fifteen minutes later, the woman arrived at the house. She said, “I’m sorry to keep you waiting.”.

“Oh, no worries,” Gigi assured her. Damn, she thought, this really worked! Here is a real home owner in front of me! Holding her thoughts, Gigi flipped her hair and continued with the next part of her script. “Your house is very nice. I have an interested potential buyer. Would you list the house with me?”

“Why would I do that?”

Gigi was dumfounded. It was as if the words had escaped her. Darn it, they didn’t teach us how to convince sellers to list their property with us. Speechless, she looked around and saw a few houses with various brokerage yard signs. Suddenly, the words came back to her head. She was ready to carry on the conversation.

“Look at other houses. They have brokers represent them, and look at your house.” With a seriously concerned expression, Gigi tried to convince the woman. “You’re the only one with the For Sale by Owner sign! You can’t compete with them like this on your own.” She looked at Amara’s small yellow sign. “And by the way, your sign is much smaller than theirs. That’s not a great start, don’t you think?”

Amara paused for a second and then said, “Let me think about it.”

Marveled by Amara’s reply, Gigi, happy with her own efforts, went back to the office and shared with Eddie what happened.

“Wow! That’s impressive,” Eddie said, giving her the thumbs up. “I would have never thought of that!”

Eddie knew Gigi would get better with time. He knew she would be a star in his firm. A broker taking on a brand new agent could mean potential risk and liability. Any mishaps due to inexperience could cause lawsuits and higher insurance rates. When it came to Gigi, Eddie didn’t mind taking the chance. He knew Gigi had a natural flair for this business. He was proud of her initiative on her very first day.

“Send your friends and family greeting cards and inform them that you are a realtor now,” Eddie recommended. “Tell them to think about you when it comes to their real estate needs.”

Within the next few hours, Gigi found herself working on the cards. Not just that. She went on and called newspapers to see if she could put out an advertisement of herself and her upcoming listing.

That evening, when Gigi went back to her little apartment, all she wanted was to take a nice shower and retire to bed. And that was exactly what she did. It had been an exhilarating and interesting day. Although exhausted, she’d had a productive start.