Human Commodity by Candace Smith Read Free Book Online Page A

tumble from iconic heights as younger, fresher faces replaced her.
    “Send her in, Noreen,” Phillip answered.   He glanced at the name, and smiled at the memory from a few years back, of the tall lithe girl running on the shoreline in a bathing suit splashed across the cover of some sports tableau.
    Monique Bouvier, aka Mary Bentley to her mom and high school friends, stood with a practiced look of boredom, and nodded to the plain looking middle aged woman at the desk.   She did not wait for the receptionist to open the light wooden door behind her, and Noreen smiled down at her compensation reports as the model turned the handle and gushed, “Phillip, it’s so good to finally meet you in person.”
    “Have a seat, Monique.   You’ve brought your contract?”
    Monique slid the linen envelope onto his desk, managing to stroke one of his reaching fingers with a carefully manicured nail.   “You’ll see that my attorney added a few personal preferences on a separate page.”   Monique wondered if Phillip had a ‘personal’ commodity.   She could think of worse ways to spend the next few years.
    Phillip was floored with the presumptive amount of specifics she had attached, and he looked up at her in disbelief.   Monique smiled, and with a dismissive wave of her hand, she added, “Nothing too specific.   Naturally, I’ll need to reside in an English speaking household and have access to a personal trainer.   The rest are just the usual requirements to keep me presentable… hairdressers and labels of designers that I’m fond of.”
    “I see.”   Phillip lifted the three pages added to the back, and almost laughed at the last one indicating her menu preferences.   The first page indicated an acceptable buyer, and he noticed a theme describing the last actor who had dumped her for a twenty-year-old SHCI commodity.   Phillip hit a button under his desk, and Noreen chuckled under her breath.   She rose and bolted his door.
    Phillip lifted the phone.   “I have a US28BN.”
    “Monique?” Eddie queried.   He had been looking forward to seeing the voluptuous model naked and squirming in his clinic.   “Damon’s on his way.”
    “I’ll never figure out those silly codes.   Why don’t you just use our names?”   Monique shined a nail with a pad from another finger.
    Phillip lifted a sheet from a folder on his desk, and he replied, “Because, ‘Mary Bentley’ does not really describe you very well.”   Monique’s eyes flew to his face.   She had all but buried her past over the years.   “Now, Mary, some of the information on your top sheet appears to be a little inaccurate.   It may be considered an attempt to defraud SHCI out of funds, as a matter of fact.   Your sheet indicates that you are twenty-four, and yet, this copy of your birth certificate clearly shows you to be closer to twenty-nine.   There is a huge difference in opening price between a commodity in her early twenties and one pushing thirty.”
    Monique’s mouth dropped open.   How dare you?   Here I am, one of the top models for the Schuster Agency , though admittedly she now held the position as a matter of respect for the fees she had earned them during the financial collapse.   She responded in an icy tone, “The numbers may be fudged somewhat, but with my background you must admit my career more than makes up for a few forgotten years.”
    “Mary, those fudged numbers are as detrimental to your earnings in the world of commodities as they had been shutting down your modeling potential.”   Monique’s mouth dropped open at the insult, while Phillip looked at his personal investigative report on the woman.   “Are your boobs real?   They don’t look like 36Ds in your graduation picture.”
    Monique stood, trying to carefully monitor her anger.   She only needed to put up with this prick for a few more minutes before they took her to her room where she would calm herself with a shot of tequila.   The