Chapter 33: Another Job Offer

Mr. May greets us with a handshake. I comment, “Mr. May your home brings back fond memories of Rick helping me with math.”

“Thank you Z for sharing fond memories but please call me Will. My given name is Wilbur. Please simply call me Will.

“Dinner will be ready in 10 to 15 minutes. I have a favor to ask of you.”

“I’m listening.”

“When we leave in three weeks I would like you to take charge of this house. You will be paid for your efforts. After Rick leaves for Chicago, my firm would like to use this house as a vacation spot for other senior managers. You will have plenty of notice. I can imagine that this place will be used two or three times a month with mostly married couples rarely staying more than five nights.”

“I would be happy to do that for you. Rick says you have a pool. I will have to learn how to maintain pools.”

“We already have a pool service company. It would be best if they could continue. You won’t have to worry about paying them. We have their service on auto-pay. They will speak with you if any major work is needed. You will have my contact information if anything major is needed.”

Just then Mrs. May was heard to say, “Dinner.”

We thanked her for the dinner as we entered their spacious kitchen-family room. Rick pointed out where I was to sit by pulling out my chair. Given how the table was set Fran headed to her obvious place, confirmed by Rick nodding at her.

Dinner was lamb chops with roasted potatoes with radishes and a lemon-butter sauce. I recognized mint leaves but had to say, “This looks and tastes wonderful. I can’t place that unfamiliar spice.”

“Z, that’s most likely fennel. I used Google to search for lamb chops meal ideas. I fell in love with the picture. My version does not look as nice as their picture but it sure tastes good.”

When I was done eating, Will asked me if he could show me the pool. Once outside he said, “Rick was disappointed about having to leave the island for Chicago. But he understands that getting into Harvard Law takes more than just good grades and high scores on the LSAT. It also takes a school with a good reputation for its philosophy program. I will get him back to the island as often as possible subject to his good grades.”

That sounded like a sneaky bribe. It’s likely to work. I know Rick was initially attracted to us because of sex. I think that now he likes us more as female persons than he likes enjoying the sexual activities that female persons can offer. But given my profession, I know that the male sex urge is how I can spend an hour with a guy and walk away with $200 with the guy thinking bargain.

I went home with a paper offering $100 per week plus an extra $100 for each time the place is used. Any money I spend on cleaning supplies will be reimbursed promptly. My $100 per week is to start as soon as Rick’s parents leave. I am being paid to keep house for Rick.

That’s $5,200 for a year mostly for watching an empty house. If 20 couples arrive over that year we get over $7,000. It turned out that being the “rental agency” contact person was a piece of cake. Our “renters” always got a rental car at the airport then called us from their cell. We opened the place and handed them the key.

One of us showed them how to work the hot tub and the automatic pool sweeper. It was my idea that we stock the refrigerator with a variety of food. Rick’s dad thought it was a good idea and gave us a budget of $50 per guest for food. We were often tipped $100 when we pointed out that we had stocked the kitchen with easy to prepare food.

A few couples brought children and grandchildren. On more than one occasion we offered to take them to a beach while the adults vacationed separately. We took the city bus and the kids always had fun. Some as old as 12 had never ridden on a city bus. We (or later when I was at SU, Fran), offered to buy lunch. Without fail, we were always offered more than enough money to feed the little ones and ourselves.

Before Rick had to leave, Fran and I got started on a full body tans. When I was not serving clients we often swam and tanned ourselves. Finally, our tan lines faded. We now had the tan our mother had.