Chapter 1

Logging off his computer and still at work, Paul Leonard thought business wasn’t as bad as it was being reported by the media. His was fortunate to have an increase in sales over the prior month and prior year in spite of the poor economy. It wasn’t the double digit increases he would have liked to see but it was sufficient to show that his company was growing.

Paul was the owner and manager of a small specialty chemical company. It was a company that his father who raised Paul as a single parent had founded and who recently passed away. Paul had taken over the managerial duties two years ago when he retired from the Army after twenty one years of military service.

Paul had gone the ROTC route while in college and liked what the service had to offer. He had accepted a regular Army commission when he graduated from college. He had progressed to the rank of Lt. Col and he thought that was probably as high as he was going in rank. The main reason he thought that was that he was not being a West Point graduate which was an unsaid hindrance to being promoted. There were exceptions to this but he felt this was the end of the line for him as to attaining rank. Another reason was that he was not afraid to say what was on his mind which was a further hindrance in playing the kiss ass game required to achieve rank.

In college he had been a math major with chemistry minor. With the word out that post-graduate degrees were necessary for advancement to higher rank, Paul attained a Master’s in math which enabled him to achieve the rank he retired at. The fifty percent retirement pay with a COLA was a nice piece of change which he now totally used for investing in stocks and bonds. This was his way of dollar cost averaging with his investments. His salary from the chemical company along with the leased Buick company car and expense account were more than sufficient to handle his current financial needs.

On Thursdays after work he took a shower along and with a change of clothes he headed to his Church’s parish hall where he helped out with bingo. Bingo was a big moneymaker for the parish. Jack and Darlene Brennan, who Paul had known since high school were heavily involved in running the bingo game and had convinced Paul that it was a nice way of giving something back to the parish. Paul usually worked the concession stand and about once a month he called the bingo numbers during the second half of the bingo session.

Paul had some fun while working the concession stand because he flirted with the ladies who came to the stand. Without being conceited, Paul knew that he was fairly good looking with his slim six foot one inch frame and short dark hair. He made some comments to these ladies about their new hair style or them having acquired a suntan. He knew he made their days when he asked them if they had lost weight. It was obvious they hadn’t but he enjoyed seeing their reaction to him asking them. Most of the ladies were pleased and thanked Paul for his comments since they thought their husbands wouldn’t notice any changes in them even if they put a sign up indicating what they were.

When Paul called out the bingo numbers he also had some fun because he would say things like “Two and two B-4,” or “What do you say when you are carded, i-21.” His favorite and little over the top line was, “Everyone’s favorite, O-69.” One night, one of the bingo players which largely consisted of older women, came up to him and told him he should just stick to calling out the numbers without any additional comments. Some of the other ladies heard her say this and jumped on this lady for saying that. They told Paul not to change his style as he made the game more interesting because of what he said.

The bingo turnout usually was large and very profitable for the parish. It normally added close to six thousand dollars a week to the parish coffers.

The following day Paul stopped by the mall to buy some new shoes. After completing his purchase he was walking to go to the parking lot for his car when he recognized one of the ladies who was a regular participant at bingo. She was one of the younger ladies who played bingo. He thought she was about his age, give or take a few years. She was fairly attractive with a nice body in proportion to his estimate of her five foot eight inch height.

Paul didn’t know her name and was just going to smile and nod his head as he walked by her but he heard her say, “Well fancy seeing you here. Have you been shopping?”

“Yes, I just bought a pair of shoes and now am going to go to get something to eat. How about you?”

“With my husband leaving for his annual fishing trip to Canada this morning, I thought I’d treat myself by shopping here but there was nothing I could find that interested me. I was also thinking of heading out and getting a bite to eat. It’s going to be a lonely night in that house of mine.”

He quickly analyzed this overload of information that she gave him and came to the conclusion that she was giving him hints that would classify her as what he would call, ‘a possible.’

“I don’t think that we have been formally introduced, my name is Paul Leonard.”

“No we haven’t, my name is Monica Gray and it’s very nice to meet you Paul although I feel I already know you because of bingo.”

She extended her hand to shake Paul’s which he took. The look in her eyes that she was giving him did not detract from his earlier opinion that she was ‘a possible.’ Because of the way she looked at him and what she said he decided to test the waters.

“Since we both are single for the evening and are heading out to eat, I was wondering if you would want to join me for dinner.”

“Your invitation just made my day and it would be my pleasure to do that. Where should we go?”

“I think the buffet at Graco’s is pretty good.”

“I’ll meet you there.”

The buffet dinner with Monica was enjoyable. She said she worked for an insurance company and enjoyed her work. Monica didn’t specifically say what she did but he had the impression that whatever it was, she was good at it. She talked about the current events and the problems that people and businesses were having. Monica did mention that she had a son and two young grandchildren but they were out on the east coast. She said she didn’t see them as much as she would like. In passing she volunteered that she was having a problem with her computer in that the mail program wasn’t operating as it should and that was preventing her from corresponding with a number of people.”

Paul had a nice time and was getting good vibes from Monica mainly because of the looks she was giving him. When the bill was presented he refused her offer to go ‘Dutch’ and paid the full tab.

As they were leaving the restaurant he was wondering if this was the end of the evening activities. He did tell her that her mail problem could be no more that a computer glitch and Windows does have a feature that lets you reinstall or fix programs which may resolve the issue.

It turned out that this was not to be the end of the evening because Monica said she was somewhat computer illiterate and asked Paul if he wouldn’t mind coming over to her house to try and do this fix to her computer. He said he would follow her automobile and was now thinking of what could happen when he was there.

At her house she showed him to the computer and after powering it on she excused herself. Paul had to wait for some updates to be installed before he was able to go on the net and find the fixes for the programs. He did find a fix for email and applied it. After doing this he opened her email using the password she had given him and saw there were ten new e-mails posted.

Standing up from the computer he turned and saw Monica entering the room. She had changed out of her clothes and was wearing a three quarter length white silk robe. Judging by the prominent indentations her nipples were putting in the robe, Paul doubted if she was wearing anything under the robe. He had the thought that this was what you read about in stories happening but it doesn’t happen in real life. Maybe it does happen in real life was another thought he had.