Chapter 8

Ann heard Bob walk back onto the porch and stomp his feet to get some of the snow off of his boots. He opened the door and walked back into the room carrying a box.

"I hate to tell you this lady but there's about ten inches of snow out there and it's coming down as hard as ever. It looks like we might get eighteen inches or more."

Bob sat the box down on the counter in the kitchen area, "I almost forgot this. I meant to take it out of the car before I came up here. I hope it didn't start to freeze."

He saw the questioning look on her face, "It's a case of French wine. A Saudi Prince gave it to me to thank me for saving his life. I sold him the car that survived a terrorist attack. The wine is supposed to cost three hundred dollars a bottle."

Bob took off his coat and shook the snow off of it and hung it up. The top of the case of wine was open and he pulled a bottle out and started to read the label. He turned and brought the bottle to Ann and handed it to her. She took the bottle and looked at the label. The label made little sense to her, as she couldn't even be classed a social drinker. When she did have a drink, it was usually white wine and then usually with dinner.

She handed the bottle to Bob and he said, "Let's see what a three hundred dollar bottle of French wine tastes like. I don't think that this wine is supposed to be served ice cold but let's try it."

He didn't wait for her to reply. He walked into the kitchen and got two wine glasses from the cabinet above the sink and look around for the wine bottle opener. After several minutes she heard him say "finally."

He sat a water glass down in front of Ann and poured the wine until the glass was about half full, "Try that Mrs. Simmons and tell me if it's worth three hundred dollars a bottle."

Ann picked up the glass, "I'm not much of a drinker. I probably wouldn't know a good wine if I saw it. By the way, my name is Ann and I thought that the Saudis' wouldn't allow alcohol into their country."

Bob chuckled, "I guess that's why the Prince gave it to me. To get it out of his country."

Ann took a sip of the wine and then another small sip, "This is very good."

Bob poured himself a glass and sat down. He tasted the wine and gave her a look that showed that he thought that it was a very good wine also. They sat for a few minutes looking at the fire and sipping the wine. Bob finished his glass first and poured himself another and topped off Ann's glass. They were silent for a long time as they watched the fire and drank the wine.

"You told me that you talked to your employee. I take it that you're in business also," Bob said.

"Yes I own a small florist shop. Flowers By Ann that's me."

"We send flowers a lot," Bob replied, "I'll have to tell my people to use your shop from now on."

Ann looked down at her hands, "It won't matter. I'm going to sell the shop to a couple. They've offered me a fair price for it and I have to sell it to pay for Brenda's college."

"That's a shame," he said, "I take it that you've been in business for a while?"

"Yes a long time. It's time to move on now. I bought the shop to have a way to support my daughter and myself after my husband died. He didn't leave any insurance and we hadn't been able to save any money. I have a business degree so I think that I might try the corporate world for a while. What about you? It must be fun traveling all over the world talking to Saudi princes and such."

"Well, I'm up here at the cabin to go over my books because I'm thinking of selling my business to a major player in the defense industry and becoming just an employee."

"Is there a reason that you want to sell?' Ann asked.

Bob paused for a minute before answering, "I don't really want to sell. It's just that I don't feel that old fire anymore. I can't really see the percentage in working my fool head off for just myself."

"What about your children? Wouldn't you like to leave them a legacy?"

"I afraid that there was never any time to start a family. My wife had a successful business of her own and my business took me all over the world, so... Anyway, I guess it's good that we never had children. I wasn't much of a husband so God only knows how I would be as a father."

Ann was sorry that she had asked about his company. She saw that he was torn up inside because he was about to sell the company that he had built. She knew that to make a company remain successful and to grow you had to keep the fire inside of you burning white-hot. Also she knew that the demons that were eating away at him from his marriage were a factor in his decision to sell his company. She reached for her glass of wine and saw that she had almost finished it. The wine was beginning to warm her insides.

Bob reached over and filled their glasses again, "Do you have any idea what you're going to do after you sell your shop?"

"I thought that I would take a couple of weeks off and then try to float my resume to some head-hunters and try to find out what's out there. I took business in college and at one time I had visions of going for my MBA. I think that I would be good at marketing. I was a wiz at that in college and I did Ok with my own shop. It's going to be strange starting out in the corporate world at the ripe old age of thirty-nine."

Bob broke out into a grin, "I wish that I had today's newspaper here. We have an ad in today's paper for a vice-president of marketing. Why don't you apply to our human relations department and see what happens?"

Ann laughed, "Vice President? I think that it would be better to start somewhat lower on the corporate ladder don't you think?'

Bob got serious, "You should have seen the jerk that I fired a couple of weeks ago. Most ten year olds have more savvy about marketing than he did and he's got an MBA. Marketing in our company is different than what most people think of when you think of marketing. Our clients have already decided to get security. The come to us with a grocery list of items that they feel they need and we provide the products to solve their needs. Engineering does most of that. The Vice-President of Marketing just makes sure that the client is satisfied and jumps in and solves any problems that arise such as missed delivery dates. I really envisioned the position as being a support for me. I probably should change the title to something that reflects what I envision the job to be."