Chapter 6: Recognition

Monday, Sarah had a bad day. One of the men at Jaycor recognized her as Candy Sweet. He confronted her, and even tried to proposition her. Her radar had been up when he came by her desk multiple times, when she knew he had no real reason to see her, so she started to surreptitiously record him. He was pretty obnoxious, crude, and disrespectful. His proposition was blatant and unmistakeable.

Sarah played the recording to me over the phone. I told her to go to the head of HR and explain the whole situation. She did and by lunch time, the whole company knew she was a porn star, and that the company asshole had propositioned her and was getting dismissed for sexual harassment. He’d been escorted off the premises and told to never return and to not ask for a recommendation in future jobs. One by one his work buddies had come by her desk and just mumbled things like ‘slut’, ‘whore’, and other derogatory terms and expressions.

She was depressed that night, so Rachel and I took turns holding and comforting her. She said, “I just want a chance to do a good job for them. I thought I was doing so well, too.” She cried and cried.

I told Sarah to offer her resignation to the president and see what he said. In essence, she was reporting to him anyway. I also told her to tell him her major accomplishments over the past couple of months that she’d worked there in the temporary position before she offered to resign.

Tuesday, turned out to be turning point in her life. The president had heard about her work history as a result of yesterday’s harassment. The grapevine already had that news, even for the top guy. He also believed in giving people a chance to make a better future for themselves.

Sarah had been polite, explained about her past work that had caused the disruption, and the listed a half-dozen things she’d already been able to do to save the company money – a lot of it, as it turned out. She then offered to resign her temporary post so that someone ‘less controversial’ could come into the job.

Morris Turner, the CEO, laughed when she’d finished her statement. He said to her, “Resign? God, I hope not. We were just about to offer you a permanent position with Jaycor doing exactly what you’ve been doing for us. As for your past, it is now public knowledge as well as what will happen if somebody harasses you about it. On that basis, I don’t think there’ll be any further problems but if there is, I want to know about it. Will you accept a permanent post?” He passed her a letter with the job offer and benefits itemized. He was way ahead of her.

Sarah told me she got tears in her eyes and then cried. The offer was for double what she was then making through the temp agency that had placed her in the job. The money would mean that she wouldn’t have to dip into her nest egg any further. She kept nodding and thanking him repeatedly until he told her to stop. He assured her that he’d square off with her temp agency but that from that day forward she was a salaried executive with the company. He also said, he would be sure everyone in the company knew they’d be very short timers if they messed with her.

I sent her flowers at work after she texted about her ‘new’ job, so that others could see that she had admirers outside the walls at Jaycor. I had the card say, ‘Congratulations and Love, Doug, Rachel, and Lindsay’.

We hugged Sarah when she got home and went out for a celebratory dinner. Rachel and I had our way with her later, much to her and our delight.

The next month seemed kind of scandal prone for Sarah. I think everyone at Jaycor watched one of her videos online every night. Rachel heard through a friend of hers that worked there, that there’d even been some Candy Sweet Porn Parties, where the whole purpose of the party was to watch some of Sarah’s porn. Rachel had heard that at least one of the parties had turned into a small orgy.

Sarah held her head up every day and weathered the storm. I kept assuring her that it was like a rainstorm and would run its course with fair weather coming in behind. That’s what happened.

After the scandal month, things quieted down. Sarah’s earlier career was no longer titillating news. It was just something racy that had happened to the head of finance earlier in her life. Sarah never had to defend what she’d done and she never got hit on, although she was invited politely as a special guest to one of the porn parties, almost like inviting an author to speak to a book club that had read his novel. She politely turned down the gracious but obtuse invitation and nothing further was said.

Sarah came up with some unique financing schemes to sell some of Jaycor’s larger boats. She worked with a local bank to see just what would be involved and soon the company’s gross orders went up about thirty percent because potential buyers now had a new and attractive avenue to buy and finance getting their water toy. Morris Turner gave Sarah a special bonus at the end of the year and heaped praise on her innovations for the company.

I got a call from Sarah at work one Wednesday afternoon. She said, “I don’t want you to be surprised, but I invited one of our neighbors over for cocktails after work. He’s Greg Sands, and he lives in Unit 901 in our condo. He kind of saved me some grief at lunch today.”

“What happened?”

“I went home for lunch. When I went to check the mailboxes, that nasty woman from 801 was there – Nancy Murphy. She called me a whore and a bitch rather loudly, and said things about me being the most depraved person on the planet. I’ve learned not to rise to that bait, so I just tried to ignore her and turned my back to her, but that seemed to egg her on that much more. She was even yelling about what a slut I was and how I should move out of the city.

“Greg came along, and he turned to Murphy and gave her blast as the ugliest, meanest, least tolerant, most unpleasant and most unkind bitch in the city. He said that I was a competent financial expert doing great things for one of our town’s good companies, and that she should take her shit, eat it raw, and shut the fuck up. I’m paraphrasing only slightly, but that was the gist of it. He had some more elegant words for her, too.

“Nancy looked shocked and did a really good ‘harumph’ and stomped off towards her elevator stack. Greg was still calling her nasty names and describing her rotten personality and wish for her miserable life as she got on her elevator and disappeared. I thanked him, and then, on the spur of the moment, asked him to join us at five-thirty for drinks.”

“Great. I’ve never met him. He wasn’t at the two Meet-Ups that I’ve been to. I’ll be sure to be home by then. I assume we don’t need anything to serve? I know we have wine, and there’s cheese in the refrigerator and crackers in the pantry.”

Sarah assured me we were good and told me that she’d also let Rachel know about our guest.

I greeted Greg warmly when I got home a little after five-thirty. He hadn’t even sat down yet. I got us some wine as Sarah busied herself with the cheese and crackers for everyone. Rachel came in behind me, and kissed the two of us. Greg’s eyebrows went up at the equal spread of affection. She also gave Greg a hug and thanked him for sticking up for Sarah earlier in the day.

I said, “I take it you’ve also recognized Sarah.”

He smiled. “Yes. I heard about the uproar about her at Jaycor before today, I’m afraid. My sister works there in the design and development area.”

Sarah almost jumped up from her seat, “You mean Sandy Sands? The young brunette with a blue streak in her hair?”

Greg nodded. “Yes, that’s her. Her name was my parent’s idea of ‘cute’ twenty-eight years ago. She hated it for years, but eventually got used to it. She got teased a lot. In part, that’s why I’m sensitive to people being bullied by someone that thinks they’re better than you are – like Nancy Murphy. She’s been an uptight number since I moved in here two years ago. Sandy lives with me, I might add.”

I waved my arm in the general direction of his apartment, “Is she home alone? Get her to come over. We haven’t met her either.”

After a little more persuasion, Greg pulled his phone from his pocket and called Sandy. His sister arrived about five minutes later, still looking crisp and pretty from work. She was another brunette with long hair that included a blue streak, a pleasant face, and a girl-next-door personality. The lock of her hair that had a dark blue tint to it looked kind of sexy. After a few minutes of talking, I guessed that she’d been Miss Congeniality in school. She’d graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from Georgia.

We learned that Greg had also gone to Georgia but had ultimately focused on the analytics behind investment banking. He worked for Wells Fargo, a major banking and investment force in Sarasota. He handled about fifty major ‘big ticket’ accounts. We all expressed our hope to become one of his accounts in the near future.

We all chatted, and then Rachel commented that we usually headed downtown for dinner someplace. Greg and Sandy joined us and we walked to Main Street, and ultimately got a table at Patrick’s that was part booth and part a couple of chairs.

I decided to put Greg on the spot regarding Sarah. “So, you recognized her today at the mailboxes?”

Greg pointed to his sister, “Sandy had pointed you out to me over a month ago. You’re very pretty, so I remembered you instantly when I saw you again today.”

Sandy goaded her brother with a laugh, “Besides that, he watches a lot of porn.” I could tell that she liked teasing her brother, although I could also see the looks of affection for him in her eyes.

Greg shrugged and remained mute. He also looked guilty.

Sarah picked up on the tease, “So, you’re a Candy Sweet fan?” Her eyebrows raised.

Greg said, “If I say anything, anything at all, anything, I will further incriminate myself and turn an even greater embarrassed shade of pink.”

Sarah poked at him, “Have you watched any Lexi Staxxx videos?”

Greg nodded and shyly admitted, “I know who you mean, so I guess yes.”

Sarah broke into a loud laugh and then said in a low tone, “Lexi is really Lindsay Carter, my younger sister. She lives in Miami, but comes up here frequently. I’ll make sure that you meet her, too. Then you’ll know at least two of your porn favorites.”

Sandy clapped her hands in joy. “Oh, that sounds so cool. I have about a million questions, but I’m holding back. Maybe the next time that we’re together if you don’t mind talking about that stuff.”

Sarah grinned, “I don’t. The three of us talk about it all the time.” She gestured to Rachel, me, and herself.

“Are you guys a threesome?”

Sarah nodded, “We didn’t plan it; it just happened starting a couple of weeks ago. Yes, we’re a throuple, but we have open relationships, especially so that we can include my sister when she visits. By the way, I think we’re all nymphos.” She giggled.

Greg muttered, “Nymphomaniacs? Right up your alley, Sandy.” He was the one teasing her for a change.