Chapter 4

After de-boarding the cruise ship and renting a car Bill Meyer drove to check out the Florida locations his friends had recommended that he winter at. Bill found two locations, possibly three that interested him. There was one large community in central Florida that he considered but after seeing on the internet that it had a very high STD rate, he decided to take a pass on wintering there0.

Having now a good feel for some areas, he decided it was time to head back north. He needed to check on how things were going at his two automobile dealerships. He enjoyed his time away and doing his ‘wintering’ which was another way of him saying ‘vacationing,’ but he felt a little guilty that he was spending so much time away from the dealerships. He thought more about this concern he had and decided to put technology to work to solve this problem.

Walking to his office and after saying hello to a number of his employees who welcomed him back, he asked Jan to stop in and see him when she had time. Jan knew that was Bill’s way of saying that he wanted to see her right away.

“How was the cruise?”

“Very interesting and I will probably do it again. For all the amenities you get on a cruise the price is reasonable. It is a relaxing way to vacation and all I will say is that there is a favorable ratio of men to women which makes it very enjoyable.”

He could see that Jan knew what he was inferring which was that he had gotten laid on the cruise. How many times he had gotten laid was a secret which he wouldn’t share with anyone.

“That being said, the reason I asked you to come in is that I want to resolve this guilty feeling I get when I am away from here. I was thinking if I could connect by Skype with the dealerships, I could do my meetings and be aware of what is going on here and yet still be away from here. I could also talk individually to employees if I needed to do that. To that end I want you to contact someone who can install and setup in the conference room the equipment so I can video conference staff meetings when I am away. I think that would solve my problem and eliminate the guilty feeling I get. Also, please tell Sue your counterpart over at Toyota to do the same thing.”

“No problem Boss, I will make the calls.”

Bill spent the next three hours catching up on paperwork and reading various reports or corporate bulletins. There were a few trends developing and some customer service survey responses that needed him to take some action.

After talking with Byron Brooks his Service Manager about what trends and the comments were, Bill thought the Byron would solve the problem but Bill would put this on his follow up to insure it was solved.

It was a nice day because of the cold front which came through last night. It was too nice of a day to let it go to waste. Bill locked up his desk and told Jan he was heading to his club.

At the club he saw Gerry Berns who was on the putting green. Bill asked him if he was going to play eighteen today. On receiving a positive answer from Gerry, Bill said to give him ten minutes and he would join him.

Bill played eighteen holes of golf but was a little embarrassed by his golf score. He posted a score of one hundred and three. It was a long time since he didn’t break a hundred which told him he needed to hit some balls on the driving range to get his swing back in the groove.

After the round he was in the clubhouse with Gerry. They were having a beer when Brenda Mason walked in. She looked as good as ever in the tight clothes she wore which showed her fine figure. As a successful realtor she knew how to dress which showed everyone that she was very successful. She walked up and sat at the table with Bill and Gerry who both offered to buy her a drink.

“Thanks, I could use one since it has been a rough day. I took one prospective couple to show them eight different listings today and the wife could find something wrong with everyone that I showed them. I am questioning if they seriously want to buy a place or if they just want me to give them a housing tour. I will see them tomorrow and give it another try. By the way, how was the cruise?”

Bill gave her synopsis of the cruise and said he would probably do it again but he would want to see different ports. An Alaskan cruise he said he was what he was thinking of doing next.

“Did you get laid?”

“Brenda, you know me better than to ask me that. A gentleman does not kiss and tell.”

“Well, I was curious so I had to ask. We did that Alaskan cruise and liked it. Something on being on top of a glacier that gives you a weird feeling. Seeing Denali National Park is something that is a must see if you are going to Alaska. For a single man there are a number of single woman that cruise because of the time of the year those cruises occur. Oh, on your being single, I wonder if you can help me and fill out foursome this Friday.”

“What is going on?”

“Maggie Simonson who I went to college with is coming into town for our twenty fifth college reunion. She prides herself on beating me in golf so she is bringing her clubs and wants to play. She is a pretty successful realtor on the west coast selling those high price properties and I think you would enjoy meeting her.”

“I am not a fan of blind dates.”

“I know you aren’t but let me show you a picture I have of us when we were in college.”

Bill looked at the picture Brenda handed him and said, “She certainly is attractive but that was twenty five years ago. Who knows what she looks like now?”

“Trust me, she wouldn’t be selling the expensive houses she is selling if she still wasn’t good looking.”

“Okay I will play this Friday, but for now I am only agreeing to do golf. If she looks as good as you say I may agree to more, in fact if she looks as good as she did then I will probably be begging her for more.”

They both laughed at his comment.

The next day at work things got interesting. It started when there was a knock on his open door and looking up he saw Claire and Jan standing there.

“Got a minute Boss?”

“Sure, come on in. Is there a problem?”

“No... , well not really but there is something we want to talk to you about.”

“Go ahead and take a seat and tell me what is going on.”

Claire said, “Do you have any plans for what you are going to do with that vacant unit next to my rental car operation that the paint store occupied?”

“I haven’t thought much about it but as of now I don’t have any plans. Why, do you have any plans for it? I don’t think you are out growing the space your rental business is in.”

“We are okay where we are. Do you know what one of the biggest concerns is among your employees?”

This now sounded like something serious was going to be discussed. With both Jan and Claire in his office he thought he should pay close attention to what they were going to say.

“What is this biggest concern the employees have?”

“Daycare.”

“I didn’t think we had that many women working here who had young children.”

“Bill, daycare isn’t just a women’s thing, it is a family thing. You would be surprised as to how many of your men employees in both dealerships have that concern especially with both parents needing to work.”

“Do we know how many?”

“We did a survey and here are the results.” They handed Bill a stack of survey sheets on which the top sheet was a summary of the individual responses.

Bill was surprised by the number and said, “What can we do about this?”

Jan said, “We can convert where the paint store was into a daycare center for our employees.”

“What do you mean when you say convert into a daycare center?”

Claire handed Bill a diagram of what the inside of the proposed day-care center would look like.

Bill studied the diagram and said “What would something like this cost?”

Jan handed Bill an estimate of what the conversion would cost and said “Ben Hill says this can be done in three weeks.

Bill studied the plan and estimate some more and said, “I don’t know about adding another free benefit to our employees benefit package. What is something like this going to cost? Salaries, insurance, janitorial and those other expenses need to be computed to see if we can afford to do this.”

Claire said, “This is not going to be free to the employees who use this service. They would be expected to pay for this service.”

She handed Bill an estimated income statement that detailed what the anticipated income would be and the number of participants. Also on the statement was an itemization as to what the expected expenses would amount to. The bottom line was that there would be some profit in doing this.

“This cost per child per week seems high.”

Jan said, “Bill this is about fifty per cent less than what the employees are presently paying. Their payments will cover the expenses and then some. The overage will be banked and used for additional items that need to be purchased or maybe to do some refurbishing in the future.”

“In looking at the construction estimate it seems awfully low. I doubt that this estimate would cover the cost of materials alone.”

“That estimate is only for the cost of discounted materials we can purchase through Ben. Our employees will supply the labor to remodel this location by working on it after regular work and on weekends. This will keep the costs down. Jenny’s and Donna’s husbands are electricians and they have volunteered their husbands to do the electrical work gratis. Ben Hill will be the General Contractor on this at no charge and will pull the permits as well as oversee the construction. His grandchild will be one of the children who will be here. You know his son Tim is a mechanic at Lexus. The painting and all of the wall decorations will be done by our employees on their own time. Some of them are calling this ‘sweat equity’ as they are doing something they will be benefiting from.”

“I know zilch about day-care regulations and requirements. There has to be some laws or regulations in doing this. Who do we get to run this operation?”

Claire said, “Bonnie Payton who I met in my church group moved here from downstate some two months ago. Her husband works for the telephone company and they promoted and transferred him here. Bonnie was managing a large day care operation which she left when she moved here. She is aware of the requirements and is the one who helped with the diagram of how the premises should look. She helped us in preparing this estimated income statement. She would be a good hirer and the right person to run this center.”

After some more thought and discussion which had Bill weighing the pros and cons in doing this, he came to a decision. To do this would only cost him the material which was peanuts. The employees volunteering to do the work to make this daycare center a reality told him that there was a great need for it. If he would do this it should make for happy employees which could only help his business.

“Well I guess I should talk to Bonnie about this and see what she has to say.”

“She will be here at eleven.”

“What! You two knew I would go along with this proposal?”

Jan said, “Bill we all know you are a nice guy and would agree to this since it was helping your employees. It would go against everything we all know about you for you to say no to doing this daycare center.”

Jan and Claire left his office. Bill was shaking his head that he was so easy for them to know him. In a way it was a nice compliment to him. What the hell he thought, he didn’t have any plans for that space anyway.

Bonnie came into his office for the interview exactly at eleven. She seemed to be a very nice lady and knowledgeable about the day-care business. Physically she was a little on the heavy side and about ten years older than Bill. She gave the appearance of being what you would picture a grandmother to be. They discussed the center and why he was doing this and what he envisioned it to be. She understood his objectives and was in agreement with them. Bill hired her at a salary of what she had stated on the income statement which she said was ten per cent more than she was making down south.

When the interview was over Bill took Bonnie out and brought her over to Jan. He told Jan to get the new employee information she needed from Bonnie and to put the wheels in motion as the daycare operation was a go. He was a little embarrassed by the applause he received from the employees sitting there who heard they were going to have a daycare center on premises.

Bill went to the club early on Friday and was on the putting green when Tom and Brenda arrived. With them was a lady of average height, short brown hair, and a very nice figure which she showed in the tight tan slacks she wore along with a light blue golf shirt. Bill knew he uses the word attractive to describe a number of women that he sees or meets quire often but he wouldn’t use that word to describe this woman. Beautiful and classy would be a better choice of words in describing her.

“Maggie, I would like to introduce you to Bill Meyer, he is going to be golfing with us today.”

Maggie extended her hand to Bill and said, “It’s very nice to meet you. Brenda has told me a lot about you.”

“If you know Brenda, don’t believe everything she says.”

That brought a laugh from the four of them.

There was some more talk on the golf course but Bill could see that Maggie and Brenda were deadly serious about this golf match. Maggie, who was riding with Bill in the golf cart, said that Brenda had never beaten her in golf and it was a point of personal pride that she wouldn’t do it today. Brenda didn’t beat Maggie today but it was the closest margin of victory ever as it was a one stroke difference in their scores.

In the clubhouse there was a jovial atmosphere now that the golf was over. Maggie was happy that she won and Brenda was happy since she made it so close. Maggie said she would like to play again, maybe Sunday but Brenda said she had some family commitments that day which she couldn’t get out of.

Bill was wondering how he could ask Maggie out since he definitely wanted to get to know her better but he just didn’t want to be seen as chasing tail.

Brenda however saw the looks Bill was giving Maggie and the obvious interest he had in her which caused Brenda to say, “Maybe Bill would want to golf with you on Sunday?”

Bill was nodding his head to this suggestion of him golfing with Maggie and heard her say, “I would like to play again. How about it Bill, do you want to play a round with me?”

“Now Maggie, I could say a lot in response to what you just said and I think you know it. All I will say is yes, I would like to golf on Sunday with you, which is enough not to get me in trouble.”

They both laughed at what he said.

Brenda said her and Maggie were going to the reunion tomorrow without Tom. They expected to be seeing some of their college friends and reminiscing with them. They thought that Tom would be uncomfortable in that situation so he didn’t need to go. Tom was happy that they decided they didn’t need him.

Since it was already late in the afternoon they decided to stay at the club and have an early dinner. There were a few more drinks before they ordered the food. Bill was enjoying listening to the ladies talk mostly about their college days and about their businesses. It was a great time and he couldn’t wait for Sunday to come so he could be with Maggie again.

Sunday did come and with it brought some nice fall weather. It also brought Maggie who was looking better and better in the white slacks and tight black sweater she wore.

On the first tee she was a different person than what she was the last time they golfed. Since there was no match with Brenda, she confided to Bill that she could just relax and enjoy herself.

“I don’t think you should relax as much as you think since there is a bet involved. You are giving me the difference in strokes from the last time we played just to make it a fair bet.”

‘I am?”

“Yes you are.”

“What are we playing for?”

Giving her a look that said something different than he was saying, Bill said, “We are playing to see who picks up the dinner check.”