Chapter 5: Frank

I had to hand it to Randy. His luck with women was still amazing. Leave it to him to attract a gorgeous, raven-haired, blue-eyed young woman to our crazy business venture! The only females Bob had encountered looked a lot like the animals they fed! Eddie had privately admitted that his diner’s clientele looked a lot like fat Otto and Mildred, and I hadn’t personally seen an attractive woman close-up since we graduated!

Jill was wearing a pleated cream-colored skirt that came down to just below her knees, a demure, deep blue short-sleeve blouse buttoned almost up to her neck, and a pair of cream-colored two inch espadrilles. Her outfit was so simple and appealing that I wanted to immediately ask her out on a date!

I had to stop staring. She obviously was becoming uncomfortable standing at the door while I gawked.

“I’m so sorry,” I said, refocusing on her brilliant blue eyes, “Randy said you were good-looking. Leave it to him to understate the obvious!

“I’m Frank Wenslow. We spoke yesterday on the phone. Won’t you please come in? Happy birthday again, by the way!”

“Thanks,” she said brightly, “I’m Jill,” and she stepped into the living room with a bouncy spring in her step. I hoped she appreciated my compliment. It appeared she did.

“We don’t have an office yet since the business is still developing a structure, but I’m expecting to have one within a month of our operational start. So please sit wherever you feel comfortable now. We generally hold meetings here around the coffee table and do our books and other correspondence at the kitchen table.

“We’re expecting a receipt of a shipment today that I’ll ask you to handle as best you can. You can think of it as an assessment of your strengths since we don’t have any OJT for you, and we don’t know just how much you can handle right now.

“You should also think of this first task as a way to assess my skills and needs, as well as those of Randy, Bob, and Eddie. We’re going to be working together closely at this stage, and job titles aren’t going to be as important as the business activities. The four of us grew up together, and we know each other very well. We’re going to ask you to join our team and need to become as comfortable with you and your abilities as we already are with each other.

“As for our titles, I’m the CEO. Bob is the COO, Eddie is Director of Marketing (I suspect it was his business card that brought you to us), and Randy is our CFO. You will be our Business Manager. You’ll be responsible for all scheduling, accounts payable and receivable, inventory, safety, security, payroll, and our interface with community health services.

“Don’t be alarmed - I can see from your expression that you already feel overwhelmed. We’ll hire an executive secretary soon to take over many of those responsibilities and, to be honest, those are responsibilities we haven’t even encountered yet! But it’s something to pass on at home when they ask. Randy has complete faith in your ability to handle whatever is thrown your way. He says he admires your resilience and strength, shown by the description of your last day at CS Construction. I have to agree with him. You are impressive!”

Wow. She really responded to those last three words! Her eyes actually glowed, and she seemed to swell with happiness.

“So, Mr. Wenslow, can you tell me any more about the business? Mr. Grange told me the basic principles of the business, but nothing really concrete. For example, what am I receiving today? Supplies? Tools? Furniture?”

“Fair enough, Jill. Before that, though, I want to establish a ground rule to follow regarding how to address one another. When any of us is in a private or personal setting, please use our first names, as we will use yours. Even if we’re in a staff meeting, as long as the only people included are company, we will use first names. When we’re in an official setting that includes outsiders, then we should be referred to as Mr. or Sir at your discretion, and we will call you Ms. Reston. Can you live with that?”

Smiling, she replied “Yes Sir, Frank!”