Chapter 8

Early Saturday morning Dan phoned Casey and gave him the assignment to inspect the apartment buildings he was considering purchasing. He relayed to Casey what the ladies he had talked to had said about the buildings. Dan told Casey this would be a big investment so he needed Casey to be extremely thorough in doing his inspection. Casey said he understood and would do his best.

Emily was ready to go with Dan when he arrived at ten. The tan shorts and white blouse highlighted her enticing athletic figure. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she was wearing Nike shoes instead of high heels. She looked damn good thought Dan.

Dan gave Emily what he jokingly referred to as “The fifty cent tour.” The drive started out with Dan pointing out buildings as the performing arts hall and the baseball field used for spring training by a major league baseball team. He mentioned that Emily’s Chicago White Sox had been here for a long time before they decided to move to Arizona. He drove out to where the polo matches are played on Sundays. Turning back to head west he drove to the public beach and after parking the car they walked along shore before stopping to have lunch. Afterwards Dan continued the driving tour pointing out other places and buildings of interest. He stopped for them to go into ‘The Ringling’ where they visited its gardens and the museum which impressed Emily.

It was getting to the late afternoon when Dan asked Emily if she had plans for dinner. She didn’t have any which had Dan suggest he would take her out to dinner. He said he knew of a nice seafood restaurant that he thought she would enjoy. She said that was fine but before he took her to where she was staying she asked him to drive by where her bank had a branch office as she wanted to see what it looked like.

The exterior of this branch office and its grounds seemed acceptable to Dan but Emily didn’t seem to be overly impressed. Emily asked Dan to park the car saying she wanted to go into this branch and briefly say hello and would only be gone for ten minutes. Coming back to the car after doing what she said was “a meet and greet,” she didn’t seem to be excited about doing it but never said anything to Dan about what her thoughts were.

Back at his condo Dan was washing up and getting ready for his dinner date with Emily. He couldn’t remember when he had enjoyed in being in someone’s company more than he enjoyed being with Emily. There was something about her that just made him want to be with her. He hoped he would find out what kind of a lover she was tonight.

In picking Emily up for dinner he told her she looked very nice in the black dress she was wearing. What he didn’t say was that she looked even better than she looked the night before and that was saying a lot. The cut of the dress just showed the tops of her breasts and Dan had to remind himself to look at her eyes and not at her breasts when he talked to her.

It was enjoyable dining with Emily. She ordered the King Crab Lobster combo which she said were her favorite foods. Dan thought someone else had once said that but he couldn’t remember who it was. The conversation was pretty similar to the prior’s night conversation with the exception being Dan talking about the current property purchase he had pending.

After dinner they went back to Emily’s place and she invited Dan up. Emily said she could make him a cup of coffee and to his surprise she did.

As they were drinking the coffee Dan said, “Can I ask you something?”

“What’s on your mind?”

“May I kiss you?”

Putting down her cup she said, “Yes you can.”

Dan took her into his arms and gave her a kiss which developed into a long French kiss. Both of their tongues were active as they explored the other’s mouth and dueled with the other’s tongue. The kissing went on for a while as they both enjoyed doing it. Emily fit very nice in Dan’s arms.

His hand moved up from her waist and cupped her breast. When he did that he felt her hand lightly clasp his wrist and move his hand back down to her waist. There was more kissing and when his hand moved back up to her breast she again moved his hand back down to her waist.

Dan was a little confused but was not one to give up. This time his hand moved down to her thigh where the hem of her dress was. When his hand started to move up her thigh her hand descended on his and moved it back to her waist. He was no dummy and immediately concluded that kissing was going to be the extent of their interaction tonight. He was hoping for more but in a way it was acceptable as Emily was a good kisser.

When a kiss ended Emily placed her head alongside Dan’s head and quietly said, “Disappointed?”

Emily was not a teenager and obviously knew what Dan was hoping for so he gave her an honest answer by simply saying, “Yes.”

Emily pulled back her head from alongside Dan’s and looking at him said, “While we talked a lot about my schooling and my employment we never talked about my beliefs. You should know that when I go to bed with a man it is going to be to make love and not just have sex. I know other women have said that life is too short so there doesn’t need to be love only an attraction for them to jump into bed with a man. To me that is nothing short of what animals do and if that’s what those women want to do that’s for them to decide but that’s not something I do.”

“I think having intercourse is the most intimate thing a man and woman can do together. If they love each other it makes that love and that act something special when they make love and to me that’s the way it should be. I know some people may think of me as a prude or old fashion in how I think but that’s the way I am but I am not going to change. Now with me having said that I would like to hear what you think about what I just said.”

Dan was quiet for a while weighting and thinking about what Emily had said. He was looking at her and her at him as these thoughts were running through his mind.

Finally he smilingly said, “Well... , I guess half a loaf is better than none” and brought her back into his arms for another kiss. He could see a little smile on her face as he said and did this.

The kissing continued and even though he had hoped for more it was nice to be doing this. Dan ran his hands down Emily’s back and he squeezed the globes of her ass. She didn’t object to him doing this so long as his hands didn’t go under her dress.

Dan wasn’t sure how long the kissing and cuddling went on but it was for a while. Eventually Dan thought he should leave. He offered to drive Emily to the airport tomorrow but she said there was no need for him to do that as she had to turn in her rental car there. They exchanged contact information with each of them inviting the other to visit them if they happened to be in their respective areas. It was one last kiss with Dan giving her butt a solid grope before he left her.

In the drive back to his condo Dan thought Emily had given him much to think about. He wondered because of what she said that if she ever did have intercourse. He didn’t know what to think about that if she hadn’t.

After golf on Monday there was a message on his telephone answering machine. It was from Casey saying he needed more time to complete the property inspection but he might have it done by late Tuesday afternoon. If he did and unless Dan objected he would stop by Dan’s condo later that day and give his report.

At about six the next day Dan’s doorbell chimed. When Dan opened the door he saw Casey standing there. Dan invited him in and offered him a beer which Casey accepted. Sitting at the dining room table Casey brought out some papers and started discussing his findings.

“Do you want the good news or the bad news” Casey asked.

“The good news.”

“There isn’t any.”

That was not what Dan wanted to hear so he said, “Okay, the bad news,”

“That I have a lot of” and he started to tell Dan of his inspection findings.

“The roofs on all four of the building have deteriorated and are in need of major repairs. The air conditioning systems, mainly the compressors, in all four buildings are on their last legs and need to be replaced per the air conditioning company that services them. In two of the buildings the underground parking walls, floors and ceilings show some significant structural problems that will require significant repairs. The interiors of all the buildings need updating in their appearance if you think you are going to be able to convert and sell these units as condos. Also in some way and I don’t know how they did it, but the building was constructed without fire sprinklers installed which the code required at the time. How an occupancy permit was ever issued is open to speculation. The Fire Marshall has become aware of this and is requiring that sprinklers be installed which will be a substantial expense. If you give me two more days I can get better estimates together but my preliminary estimate would be that all the repairs are going to total to this amount.”

Dan looked at the estimate and said, “That’s close to twenty percent of the purchase price!”

Casey in a frustrated voice said, “There may be other problems with these buildings that I haven’t yet discovered. If you aren’t in love with the property I would walk away from it. Whoever turned you on to this property wasn’t doing you any favors. Do you want me to work up more precise figures as to the repairs?”

“No but can you get me a letter from the Fire Marshall about the lack of a sprinkler system. That is a major code violation and our contract contains a contingency clause that requires the building offered for sale needs to have all code violations disclosed which they didn’t do in their building condition affidavit they faxed to me. Because of that the offer to purchase is voided.”

Casey in shuffling through his papers said, “I have that letter here from the Fire Marshall which was sent out a month and a half ago.”

“Okay, just wrap it up and give me your bill. You did good work on this.”

Dan was thanking his lucky stars Casey was as good as he was. He saved Dan from making a big mistake in wanting to purchase this property.

The following morning Dan phoned his attorney and explained the situation and faxed him a copy of the Fire Marshall’s letter. The attorney said he would send out the proper notice rescinding the offer to buy this property.

With the two prior property purchases and conversions Dan had added to his personal wealth. He wasn’t in a rush to purchase other properties but he would contact some other realtors he had dealt with in the past to see if they were aware of any property situations that they thought would interest him. Dan preferred properties that were located on Florida’s west coast but he was flexible as to the property’s location. He was keeping his eyes open looking for the right property to purchase.

Dan now started thinking about his social life and his lack of female companionship which he had to admit could use some improvement. He continued to make phone calls and send emails to Lynn and Monica. The conversations he had with them and the email responses he received were in his opinion a little tepid. He knew there were reasons that could cause this to happen. Maybe they were dating fellows that live in their area or maybe they thought Dan was too old for them. If there was a problem he couldn’t be sure but the bottom line was he wasn’t seeing and bedding them as often as he would like. Taking a trip back to Kansas City or Atlanta or even the west coast to see Cindy could rekindle his relationship with these women and that was something he was considering doing.

Sue still was available to have sex but she was the one who decided if and when she wanted to have a ‘nooner.’ Based on how she acted It did seem to Dan that she enjoyed what they were doing as her visits to Dan’s condo were about every two weeks. Her periodic visits gave him some relief but he knew he wanted more and didn’t want to just hope Sue was horny and would be showing up at his condo.

Emily was the most interesting one of the ladies he had met to date. He wasn’t sure why he would say that about her. If it was her looks or her personality or if it was that he hadn’t yet taken her to bed could all be the reasons he thought that way about her. He did know he wanted to see her again and would stay in contact with her.

In the following two months Dan didn’t purchase any apartment buildings but he did look at a number of properties to include expensive condominiums. None of these properties struck him as being something he wanted to buy. There were in his mind a variety of different reasons why these properties did not appeal to him. He had to admit to himself that after the last property he was going to purchase and his offer was rescinded that he could be a little gun shy and didn’t want to pull the trigger on buying another property. Dan was financially well off and maybe unconsciously he wanted to protect his wealth which was affecting his appetite for purchasing properties.

Dan knew he was in a rut and needed to do something to get out of it. Taking a vacation was one option he considered but he had to acknowledge that being retired in of itself was already a vacation. One option he seriously considered was going back to Kansas City to check on his condo and maybe rekindling his affair with Monica.

He phoned Monica to see if she was available and when the phone call ended Dan knew hooking up with Monica was no longer a possibility. In the phone conversations he had previously with her and their email correspondence she never mentioned anything about seeing someone else but now she broke the news to Dan that she had just become engaged. She also said that there was a surprise pregnancy and she was going to become a mother in seven months. Monica sounded lukewarm on her being pregnant.

If the pregnancy hastened Monica’s engagement and forthcoming marriage was a question Dan couldn’t ask her but he thought it probably did.

Dan would periodically day dream about Emily. He picked up his phone and pressed in Emily’s business phone number that was on the card she had given him. When the phone was answered Dan said who he was and who he wanted to speak to. Getting through Emily’s secretary who acted as the gatekeeper was a little bit of a challenge but eventually he was successful.

When the call was transferred he heard, “Oh Dan, it’s so nice to hear from you. Is there anything wrong?”

“No, nothing is wrong, I just thought I would call and see how the prettiest trust department Senior Vice-President is doing.”

That remark caused Emily to laugh and she said, “She is doing find but I take it things must be slow down there for you to be calling.”

“Things are fine here but I was thinking of treating myself to a vacation. Besides O’Hare I really haven’t seen Chicago and was wondering if things haven’t changed in your personal life that you could be my tour guide.”

Dan heard a quiet, “Nothing has changed” but then in a more spirited voice, “It would be my honor to show you the area. When are you coming here?”

“What is the best time for you?”

“Anytime is fine with me. If you can come up on a Friday afternoon we can have dinner that night and I can take a personal day Monday which will give enough time for me to show you the area. You could leave either late Monday or Tuesday.”

“I will send you the info on what I decide and please email me you cell phone number and home address.”

Emily said she would and sounded happy that Dan was coming. He knew he was happy that he was going to be seeing her.

After making flight, rental car and hotel reservations Dan couldn’t help but have a smile on his face.

Sue came over the next day unannounced for a ‘nooner’ and noticed Dan’s upbeat attitude. She asked him why he was so happy. He said he was just happy because life is good. She didn’t necessarily buy what he was saying but after Dan had inserted two vibrators into her two special places when they were having sex she had the same thought on life being good. She came to that conclusion because she had climaxed intensely many times and needed some time after they had sex for her to recover.