“He was such a hard ass when we approached him about landing in de Gaulles!” 

“Took us three days to even get an appointment in the calendar of his chief of staff, let alone his calendar!” he continued.  “You are such an operator! Aargh… you owe me one Porter! You don’t play fair.”

”And I know just the perfect thing, too!”

Everyone laughed, with Bette laughing the loudest, her head tipped back, long, graceful neck exposed, a full-throated guffaw coming out from her.  ”What can I do, George? How can I make it up to you?,” she asked as she swiped at tears spilling out from laughter. 
 

It was then that Eric started walking towards the group, approaching from behind Bette, the arm of a lithe, willowy blonde crooked lightly around Eric’s arm.  He and the stunner on his arm had just arrived at the glittering event: a see-and-be-seen type of gathering in the Bette Porter Gallery in Los Angeles. It was a sought-after invite amongst West Coast art collectors, unpublicized, and private, just as the moneyed clientele wanted it.  People had been wondering what she was planning to show tonight. A new artist, maybe?

Nobody took George’s complaint seriously.  He was the boss of one of the most successful business jet liners in the country, and everyone in the circle knew he would be able to land a deal in Paris easily.  George was also one of Bette’s main clients, quickly joining Diane and Niall, soon after Bette moved to LA.  It was a longstanding-joke that he loved to pretend to come second to Bette in business, and in anything else.  Ironically, they had had a few clashes back in the day, when they happened to pursue a few of the same women in the past. He also teased her endlessly whenever he got a chance to. It was one of Bette’s gifts that she could maintain a friendship with him, while at the same time managing not to lead him on.

A year earlier, Bette had taken over her father’s domestic business jet service, and after streamlining operations, and investing in leases for the newer, faster jets, she was looking to add a few international stops to the limited domestic stops that her now revitalized business jet liner serviced.  George had stepped forward to partially stake her to a line of credit, to support this expansion, and as always, looked forward to a good return on his investment with Bette.  He had never gone wrong with this beautiful woman, as far as depending on her for advice on selecting pieces for his art collection was concerned, and even on personal issues he had confided in her about.  He knew that even if she liked to appear smooth and controlled on the surface, she was tough, and he thought she was one of the smartest business people he knew, male or female.