Chapter 14: Moving On

“Teresa, I’m still hoping that Naomi is going to be in my future. I don’t want to mislead you. If we date, it will be just platonic until I know that whatever Naomi and I had is gone. Is that acceptable?”

She had called me at home that evening.

“Does that mean no sex?” she asked immediately.

“I’m afraid so.”

“Oh, well, at least you’re honest. I’ll have to think about it, Joel. You’re a really interesting guy and everyone who knows about you thinks you’ve got a bright future. There aren’t many guys like you around this town, so I might have to take a chance. Give me your cell number and I’ll call you,” she said.

We traded cell numbers. I could do worse than Teresa as an alternative to nothing at all. But in my heart, I knew I really wanted Naomi. Perhaps it was a futile hope but it was still there and it wouldn’t go away any time soon.

It was almost the end of May before I heard from Naomi. She called one evening from her cell and I picked up right away.

“Hi, how are you?” I asked without checking to make sure it was her.

“I’m good, Joel, but how are you?”

I couldn’t detect anything unusual in her voice, so I answered. “I’m okay. Just finishing up the year and I’m sure I’ll be fine. Are you done for the semester yet?”

“Yes ... I’m getting ready to move up to San Jose for the summer. I have a dorm room at State set aside, so I’ve got a place to live until I return here,” she said.

“So ... no chance you’ll be back here though?” I asked in hope.

“No ... no chance. I’m sorry Joel but we’re not going to be seeing each other for some time. I know you have strong feelings for me but I’m committed to this internship and that’s my priority. I’m sorry. I know this hurts, however there’s nothing we can do about it.”

“So ... is this goodbye?” I finally managed to ask her.

“I don’t know, Joel. I guess for the time being, it is. I’ll miss you, you know that. I know you’ll miss me ... and so will your mother, I think. But ... go on with your life for now. Don’t wait for me. I don’t know how this is going to turn out for me yet. I may hate it and I may not be right for this career path but I won’t know unless I try. Can you understand that?”

“Yes ... I can. I hate that it happened like this ... but ... I guess I knew all along that it might happen. Good luck, Naomi. Come and see us when you get the chance. You’ll always be welcome here no matter what. You know that.”

“Yes, Joel, I know. Give my love to your mother and I hope I’ll see you again. Bye,” she said softly before hanging up.

I sighed, as I closed the call. It was the one thing I hoped would never happen, but then ... I was living in a fool’s paradise. How could a gorgeous blond babe fall for a guy like me? It just didn’t happen in real life.

I had thought about telling Naomi that I was intending to date again but in the end, there was no point. It wouldn’t matter. I had a feeling she might be looking around as well. She was definitely a sexual woman and if she found the right kind of partner, she’d no doubt be able to satisfy her needs. Teresa was, for me, what most guys would call a sure thing. Did I really want a sure thing?

For now, I guess it would satisfy me, but what about the future? Was there another Naomi out there? It didn’t seem possible in this little corner of the world, but perhaps if I expanded my horizons to a bigger market ... say San Francisco ... that might change my view. But that was the future, and this was now. I called Teresa and let her know we could get together when she chose. I had too easily cast aside my reservations about whether this was the right thing to do.

“You’ve changed,” I said as we lay in the aftermath of our first encounter. “Your breasts are fuller, your body is even more voluptuous and I like the way you’ve let your hair grow long. You’re a very sexy woman, Teresa.”

“You like the changes, do you? I’m glad. I like the changes in you, too. You took your time with me ... just as you had when I let you in the past. I really enjoyed it. But the nervousness you used to show now and then is gone. You’re much more confident. I guess that came with your former lover’s help.”

“It’s been almost two years since we got together. I was bound to change ... and so were you. You never lacked confidence. I ... on the other hand ... had to be taught by you and you were a very good teacher.”

“And you were a very good student,” she smiled. “I hate to make comparisons with other guys because it makes me sound like a slut but you are the best of the best.”

“I never expected you to be celibate, Teresa. I knew that when we first met and you warned me that we weren’t a forever couple. But I’m happy that you’re satisfied with me. It’s always good for a guy’s ego when he can satisfy his lady.”

“Ready for some more?” she asked as she rolled toward me.

“Try me,” I grinned.

She did ... and I was.

“So, you’re back with Teresa, are you?” Mother said with an accusatory and disapproving tone.

“Yes ... for now. I talked to Naomi and we pretty much ended our relationship. I didn’t want to let her go, but it wasn’t my choice to make. It was great while it lasted, it just didn’t last as long as I wanted it to.”

My mother nodded her understanding but said nothing, returning to preparing our evening meal. I got the feeling she was disappointed in me but I didn’t know what I could do or say that would fix that.

“Mr. Radler, my name is Joel Timmins. Your daughter Jana gave me your name and indicated that you might be willing to participate in a survey I’m conducting. It’s a survey to determine if a small business specializing to computer updating and/or developing useful programs would be beneficial to other small business.”

“Yes, Jana did mention you. She said you installed two useful programs at East Cascades by yourself. Apparently they were very pleased with your work.

“Yes, Sir. You can check with Mr. Walter Voight, the head of accounting, to confirm my work.”

“Well, East Cascades is a big company. I wouldn’t call them a small business,” he noted.

“No, you’re quite correct but when my father arrived to take over the operation, he found they had little in the way of computerization in the plant and no budget to do a major installation. My summer job was to reorganize the packaging materials and I decided it would be easier to load them on a simple program to keep track of their usage. It took me two months to straighten out the mess in a very dusty warehouse but it got done.

“The next summer, I put in a scheduling program that connected with the inventory program and the accounting department and it’s working well too.”

“What did all that work cost?” he asked.”

“Well, I worked on the first program for two months, but much of that was sorting and cleaning all the packaging, deciding what was obsolete and racking all the good stock. So, my work on the inventory program took less than a month, I would guess. I was paid laborer’s rate at $10.50 per hour.”

“What did you charge for the program itself?”

“Nothing. They already had the base of it on their office computers, so it was just a matter of loading the information and setting it up to ‘talk’ to the accounting system.”

“Huh. That sure sounds a lot cheaper than some of the programs I’ve been looking at. Plus, I’m no computer guy. I need something that’s dead simple ... just like me,” he chuckled.

“And that’s what got me interested in seeing for there was an opportunity for someone like me. If you were to invest in computer modernization in your store, you’d want it done quickly and within a reasonable budget. But most of all, you’d want it to work for you.

“There are dozens of store-bought programs for business out there, but many of them are over-complicated with unnecessary add-ons. Things you don’t need. The program I have in mind is actually free, and is compatible with the Microsoft Office array. So the real cost would be my time,” I said, waiting for a response.

“So, what do you want to talk to me about besides that?”

“I would like to find out how you run your business to see just how much ... or how little you would need to make it more efficient. I assume you do your accounting yourself ... is that correct?”

“Yes. I hate it, it takes up a lot of my time but it has to be done.”

“No doubt. Then there’s inventory and work orders and billing and collecting debts and all sorts of other issues,” I continued.

“Yeah,” he sighed. “Just talking about it makes me tired,” he chuckled. “Do you really think you could cut down on the amount of time it takes to do those things?”

“Yes ... I’m pretty sure, mainly because you would have so much more information at your fingertips. In fact, just in talking to you, I think I could demonstrate what you could gain from a properly integrated system in your store within a few minutes. I can set up a dummy situation that we can track through to show you how one system can work with another. No charge, by the way. I’m learning too.”

“Okay but could we do that after hours. My work load in unpredictable and people come and go all day long. Perhaps an evening next week?” he suggested.

“Yes. That makes sense, Mr. Radler. I hope that within a couple of hours you’ll see that you can be much more efficient with very little financial outlay. All I’m selling ... if I’m selling anything ... is my time.”

“Okay, then would Wednesday work for you, say around seven?”

“Sure, that would be great. This is just as valuable to me as it might be to you, so I wouldn’t think of charging you for anything. I’m really exploring whether this is a future business opportunity for me when I finish college.”

“So, I’m the guinea pig, am I?” he chuckled.

“We’ll blame it all on Jana. It was her idea for me to contact you. I hope this works out ... for both of us,” I said.

“See you Wednesday, Mr. Timmins,” he said before hanging up.

I sat back in my chair and thought about what I had just agreed to. I had better do some planning before I waltzed into Mr. Radler’s establishment. First things first, I needed to list all the likely functions that he might want to computerize. That would get me started on setting up some dummy models for him to see. I could foresee a weekend of work ahead of me getting prepared for this meeting.