Chapter 13

This was Thursday morning and it was going to be a busy day. I knew it would be important to have the girls up and ready to make it all happen.

I woke the two, encouraging them to go with me to the gym so we could do our workouts. We did get to the gym room in the basement and were stretching together, when we were joined by Brindle, Yori, and Michi. I suggested those three begin their stretching and weights while Jules, Katie, and I did our walking and running. We switched after twenty minutes, and the girls did their workout with the Nautilus and I used the free weights.

We all went to the kitchen hungry, and were fed a good breakfast. Today was oatmeal, bacon, eggs, and some honeydew melon slices with our coffee; it was a great breakfast.

We three immediately went upstairs and into the shower, and then dressed for the day. Jules asked me if I wanted her to come in to observe another day. I told her, "You were there to see how I interact with people at the office. I think you saw how I depend on Kelly and that she couldn't have performed the same way if we had become intimate. You can join me for the day if you want to, but I may have to ignore you sometimes when there is an issue at stake."

Jules was being a little clutching and wanted to be with me today.

I think I made her happy when we left in the BMW. She sat in the back with Yori in the front passenger seat. I told Jules, "I'm going to put you through what I call the pre-assistant workout since you want to learn what I do. Get ready; here it comes: the first thing is to confirm every telephone number on the office list, both the in-house extensions and cell numbers. It shouldn't take that long. Next will be interviewing the different departments to find out what their goals for today and next week are."

Jules was busy writing down what I wanted, so I asked Yori, "Can you go department by department to confirm their exact amount of employees and temps they have today and what they might anticipate through next week?"

I told both Yori and Jules as I parked the car, "This wouldn't be as important down the road, but since we're in a state of constant change, I need to know where we stand with temps and permanent personnel. I'm going to be pushing to spend an inordinate amount of money for personnel and offices, and I need to justify everything I do very soon. The company is giving me a pass on what I spend today, but they may begin to question me by next week. I need those numbers almost daily. The person to help you with those will be Connie in accounting.

We were early enough that Yori and Jules settled at the small conference table while I made coffee in the two coffee makers in the small break room. I ran upstairs and made coffee in the big fifty-cup percolator up there and returned downstairs and poured four mugs of coffee for me, Yori, Jules, and Kelly, who I was sure would show up any second.

Kelly was putting her purse away as I walked into my office. I handed coffee out as Kelly pointed at the large box of Danish and donuts that she left on top of her desk. She said, "Please take those to the break room for me. It was my turn to bring the goodies in. Given the quantity we're consuming, I think I will negotiate a standard order with a discount and free delivery. We might rotate the order from day to day between different bakeries till we have a clear idea of which one is best and offers the best deal."

Yori, Jules, and I each took one, and I closed the lid and I took the box to the break room. I hadn't seen anyone so far, so we were the first in this morning. I brought some paper towels back for our sticky hands.

I checked my e-mail to find nothing new before I logged onto the company website. The welcome page had my picture there with a brief bio and a story of our recent sales success. Whoever wrote the story hadn't heard of our eighteen sale day Tuesday, and the twenty-one sale day yesterday, Wednesday. It was nice to have us featured, but it didn't tell the world how great our progress really was.

I showed it to Yori and Jules before telling Kelly to check it out. She made the exact same observations about the eighteen and twenty-one sale days.

Ken rolled to my door, and said, "You are a golden boy, Brad. I went by the permit office and they couldn't get to me fast enough. We can go ahead with the closing rooms and the second floor expansion. Damn, you do have some pull."

I called Julio and asked him to stay in his office for a few minutes so that I could talk to him.

It only takes a couple of minutes to get from the office to his trailer, but the man was almost hyperventilating by the time I got there. "Relax, Julio, this is nothing bad. You probably need to hire more people, because I need the office expanded. I was thinking that you could get enough crews to work twenty-four seven until the job was complete. That would be three crews, and they will be building homes, either in the current developments or one of the new ones, when the office is complete if they do a good job."

Julio looked at me and asked, "There won't be any more scares like we had, will there? You really had me reeling the other morning."

We went back to the office building to resolve any questions about the upstairs remodel, after I assured him that he wouldn't be under that kind of pressure again.

The foundation and slab looked cured, so Julio told me, "I'll have a crew in here shortly and a second and third crew following them. We could be complete by Wednesday next week. I'm going to put every man I can on the job so they get some overtime pay. Check with us on Tuesday to see how I'm doing."

I looked at the blueprints and drawings of the closing rooms when I was back in my office, and thought that the corner office would be good for an assistant. It was a little larger than the closing rooms. Kelly told me, "You've made Jules and Yori happy to be doing something. How about I replace the drafting table with a standard desk since Yori appears to be a permanent fixture here? I'm sure the company can afford another PC and phone. Yori can become another assistant, and you can train him along with your new man."

"A desk with a more comfortable chair would be good. I don't want to make a habit of having Jules in. She was here yesterday to learn how I interact with you and the other people in the office. It's very important to me that the office is purely business, with success as a common goal. There just is no room for any kind of sexual intimidation or even fun. Even the fun can get out of hand, and it could cause problems between employees. What they do together outside the office is none of my business, but I can't be a part of it."

Kelly said, "I understand and will remain your loyal secretary without any bed benefits." She laughed at her own joke.

Several people had to move their cars, and Ken was one of them. I had him move his car to my slot for now, and asked Julio if they needed a wider space for their work. He thought they would be fine for now. I had the BMW parked next to an older baby blue Corvette out in the back of our parking area.

I asked Kelly, "Are we going to pick you up this evening to take you with us, or are you going to meet us somewhere?"

Kelly told me, "I'm meeting you at the Rack this evening after parking in Jules' and Katie's apartment garage. Jules said that the two of them wanted to keep the place for a while in case the three of you didn't work out. I think she wants to keep it so she can have a playpen when she wants to exercise her female companion side."

That was a major possibility. Jules sure wouldn't miss the cost of the apartment. That reminded me that I needed to figure out what to pay Jules for rent. I checked a couple of apartment rental web pages and discovered the average one bedroom place was about two grand a month. I had sort of figured that. I thought of what food, booze, and maid service would be and figured another grand a month would probably be about right. Since I had my bank account with Chase, it would be easy to keep on using them out here. I would do a change of address probably to here at the office. I didn't feel I should have my personal mail delivered to the house. I needed to go by the bank and use their ATM or cash a check to pick up some cash for the trip to Las Vegas, and I also needed to drop off two hundred to Mattie at the Rack. That's one place I needed to spend more time at, but it would have to wait until this place was running the way Florida had been.

That reminded me, I need to call Mom and Dad to let them know that I've moved to California. They were the usual Midwestern folks from southern Indiana who would have lived there for the rest of their lives if I hadn't found them a hell of a deal in the Villages, a golfing retirement community. I had tried and tried to get them to move to Florida. I convinced them to move down when I had the two come to visit me and we spent a couple of days at the Villages. They were ready to move by the time they had both played some golf and visited with other retired people. Dad didn't work anymore. The two did a lot of traveling when they could. I would make sure it was okay with Jules, and then invite them to come visit us. My folks wouldn't believe the home I was living in.

I love lists, so I began another one that was more personal:

Call Mom and Dad. Go to the Bank.

Pay rent to Jules.

Find an accountant for my personal finances.

My office list had:

Check with Alec to see if she was caught up with the new customers.

Check with the San Diego office about a new sales manager.

Check with Reno to see if their sales were affected yet.

Get my office cost projections in order to compare with sales projections.

My mind was spinning a little over the sales volume. I was almost hesitant to go back to the sales area.

Ginger and Willy had moved their desks in order to add a third desk to their row. Ginger was going to remain at the desk nearest the door, and Willy was in the far desk with another really fine looking lady standing at the middle desk while the telephone and data techs were working under her desk. Someone had thought ahead when the building was built and had wiring channels in the floors. They must be pretty big to handle the number of wiring runs that were needed in the office now.

I looked at the board and saw there already were three sales, figuring that they were probably from last night. Matt was staring and I didn't realize at what he was staring until I went to his desk and looked at the three foxes bent over the middle desk. Oh, Man, that was something that needed to be photographed. I used my phone and got a quick snapshot of the display. I would show it to Jules before erasing it. What a treat that trio would be.

I bumped Matt and he jumped, startled from his vision reverie. He was blushing because I'm sure he was thinking the same thing I was. The man motioned me down so he could whisper, "I thought Willy was the ultimate fox, but check out the tatas on the new one. She should have a warning sign flashing overhead. How am I supposed to work with those three in front of me? Ginger is married or at least in some kind of committed relationship. Willy probably plays in that group of women who don't care for men, and now this one, holy smokes."

"I came to ask about how the six salespeople who were with customers last night made out, Matt. We closed last night with twenty-one, was that the final number?"

"Four of those sold, the three up there this morning are two sales from yesterday, and one of our listings that closed after the buyer got a good look at the property this morning, Brad. I was out at the nearest development yesterday and saw that our construction people aren't letting any grass grow under their feet. I think they're building six new homes there at the same time. They are doing the same at the other development as well, from what I hear. It looked to me like they are building the upgraded version that will be selling in the two million and up range. That's going to really enhance the property values out there."

"So, you finished yesterday with twenty-five sales. That's so unbelievable that it's ridiculous. Is a third secretary going to be enough?"

Matt told me, "I'm working with the salespeople to be sure they complete their contracts correctly and to make sure the credit applications are filled out right. The girls have to go over the contracts, copy them, and get them to finance. They also have to give the information to Alec."

Matt suddenly remembered, "We have at least two approvals on custom homes. When can the salespeople have an architect get with the customers? Should we bring them in here or should the architect go to the customer?"

"I'll let you know later today. I have to find some answers for this."

I went upstairs to see Ken. He and Alec were in her office poring over a house floor plan. The two were in a deep discussion and looked up. Alec sweetly smiled, and said, "Ken and I are finishing up the second custom home design. I'll run the finished drawings and floor plan out to the customers this evening and get them signed off so that Julio can start construction."

"Wow, that's more than I had planned for you to have to do, Alec. This topic is why I'm here. I wanted to ask Ken to find me room for at least two more architects to work with custom home customers. We'll need an interview room similar to the closing rooms. We might have to redesign the decorators' area for more of them and maybe an interview room for them too. We could probably use the same rooms for each."

Ken said, "I can have a half dozen good home architects here this afternoon if you want. There are two I like more than the others, and they will move to work with me."

Alec was thinking about the available room and said, "We will have enough room for more of my people and for Ken and more architects if you rearrange the upstairs. I'll work with Ken to figure out how to make those interview rooms appealing to our customers. Julio won't be building out the upstairs until next week some time. I heard you were going to work on the building around the clock."

Ken asked, "So do you want those men today or do you want to wait until the space is available?"

"What would I do with them until then, Ken? We're flat out of room right now.

Ken said, "Connie said her old accounting room is still unused. It isn't really big enough for two men, but we could use it until the new space upstairs is built out. You're going to have to remodel the finance and insurance areas, so use the old accounting room with the rest of the space to give the architects room for offices and interview rooms."

"Okay, I suppose you want them today, and not in a week or so. Call them and make sure they give Connie applications like you did. Everyone gets to be checked out by the home office, so make sure that they don't have any kind of record to affect their apps."

Ken smiled and headed back to his office. I went to Rebecca, and told her, "Have Connie's old office cleaned out and rent a couple of those double desks that are like two desks back to back. If they don't have any like that, then get four desks and chairs. Have the data and telephone guys fix up the other people in that office. Tell them that we'll be moving them as soon as we finish remodeling that end of the upstairs."

Alec said, "But Ken said he was only bringing on two more architects."

"Yeah, sure, just like you only need one more decorator. Ken senses what's happening, and I'll bet he has four bodies in here no later than tomorrow."

I called Ken from my office to tell him where his new architects would be housed for right now. He told me that this building was about three thousand square feet short of what we would need over the next ten years. We needed to work on the new building and not rework this one unless we could figure out how to continually add on.

I hate to tear down a working structure, but this one was going to hamper our growth. We need more room and I want to display our abilities with signs above outside doors.

Kelly asked me, "Will you still house me in your office when you build a new building? I learned from the Tampa office you didn't have a secretary, so I was wondering if I might be left behind along the way."

I looked at Kelly for a long time before I answered. "No, you have to stay. You've proven to be an asset and I enjoy you being in my office so you can react for me when I want. I think I'm more effective with you near me. I think you help me stay on track where you are. You anticipate me very nicely, even though we haven't been together that much. I can only hope the new assistant is as perceptive as you are."

Kelly had a silly smile on her face when she asked, "So what do you think of the new real estate girl. She is one of Willy's friends and has some history, from what I understand."

"When you say history, what do you mean, Kelly?"

Kelly had a mischievous smile as she said, "I think Margaret and Connie know her very well. Your Jules probably knows her too."

I was amazed and made the mistake of exclaiming, "Jesus, are all good-looking women muff-divers too?"

Kelly said, "Not this one. I'm in favor of hard co ... ah, male protuberances."

"Thank you for not waiting until I had coffee in my mouth, Kelly."

Jules and Yori came back into the office, and both said they had just shared their information with Ken and Alec. It was Jules who asked, "Are you going to feed us today? It's almost one and I'm hungry."

I asked, "Do you want Subway or would you rather go to Johnny's? They are both about the same."

Jules looked at Yori, and said, "How about Johnny's?"

I asked Kelly, "Call Johnny's to see if we can get a table in a few minutes. I'll have you and Matt come with us today."

Kelly's face flushed enough to let me know that she hadn't been totally ignoring the other people in the office.

She said that we should go now when she was off the phone. I told her, "I'll get Matt. You guys meet me at the car."

Jules and Yori went toward the lobby, but Kelly held me back. "You won't be upset if I see Matt outside the office, will you? We've sort of become friends, good friends. I like him because he is genuine like you."

"No sweat, enjoy him and each other all you want, but nothing happens here in the office. I'll get him."

Kelly went toward the front and I went to the sales room. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw how tantalizing the three women were. I said, "Come with me, Matt. I need your counsel for a little while. Bring your suit coat, we're going to lunch."

He was surprised, but followed me with his suit coat over his arm. I pointed to the rear driver's side door and he opened it and found Kelly in the middle next to Jules. Yori was up front with me as I drove us to Johnny's.

The hostess was as cordial as always, seating us in our usual place. After our drink order had been taken, Matt asked, "Is this about the people projections I made this morning? I really think the department could be thirty to thirty-six people, and that would be just barely enough. Who knows what our daily sales could be if we have two more developments to sell than we have now?"

I told Matt, "This isn't what you think it is, other than to scold you for bringing another attention getter into your front row. Ginger is awesome, Willy is almost un-natural, and Racine, well, I'm having a tough time describing her. Where do you find these people, Matt?"

Matt was red in the face when he said, "I didn't. Kelly said that she had a friend who would be good for what we needed, so I told her to call her in. What you see is what you get."

Jules said, "She's going to be harassed by the women as much as the guys."

Kelly commented, "I don't think she'll mind at all. You should know her, Jules, since she was Cindy's friend too."

Jules groaned, and said, "Oh yeah, I know Racine. I wondered what happened to her. It's been a couple of years since I've seen her."

Matt asked, "Do all you girls who play on that side of the fence know each other?"

It surprisingly was Kelly who answered. "You know, guys are often so much into themselves, and push us so far when all a girl really wants is some tenderness. Most of us like the gentle approach and enjoy relaxing with the man of our choice. Who needs the 'mano a mano' bullshit you guys go through? Come to us and make us comfortable and happy."