Chapter 5

It was the last day of the first school week when Ted was sitting by himself at a table in the teacher’s lounge and he heard someone say, “Mind if I join you?”

Looking up he saw the voice belong to Marie Watkins the Principal’s Secretary. Putting down the paper he was reading he told her he was happy for the company. He knew that Marie who was close to retirement age was privy to the many things happening not only at school but also in the area.

“I am not going to ask you how the summer went for you since I know to put it mildly, it wasn’t good. But that being said, how are you now doing?”

“Well..., it hasn’t been easy but I am trying to put her death behind me and get on with my life.”

There was more talk about what was happening at school and some talk about the new teachers here.

Marie who he could see was getting ready to leave said, “My advice to you for what it’s worth is that you need to be careful now.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You are now single and the pool of tall good-looking single men your age is rather small. Most of the men have been taken off the market since they are married. That presents a shortage since close to your age is a bigger pool of single women, some good-looking and some not so good-looking that are looking to find a man. It has been my observation that women that age develop a strong need to find a mate for life. Men also do develop what I would call a mating urge or maybe it’s better said, a need not to be lonely and want to have a companion. That urge becomes stronger much later in their life. I can’t guarantee this will happen but it wouldn’t surprise me to see you being pursued by many women. My advice is to be careful because you will find a number of women hitting on you, some very subtle and some not so subtle. Remember the Boy Scout’s motto of “Be Prepared.”

Ted laughed a little at what Marie said but he thanked her for the advice and said he would keep his eyes open.

That evening Ted remembered what Marie had said. He did know his nanny cam may have saved his butt when he first met Marcia. He had never discussed with Marcia if she really would have followed up on her threat of making the rape accusation against him. Thinking if what Marie said would happen with women hitting on him and if they wanted to have sex he sure as hell knew on his part it would be consensual. To make sure that it was also consensual on the women’s part he thought it would be nice to have her verbal consent recorded. He wasn’t interested in recording the video of them having sex but for sure wanted the audio recorded indicating that this sex they were going to engage in was something they both wanted to happen.

Signing on to the internet he started looking for spy recorders. He thought the pens that he first found advertised would not serve the purpose. He did see spy watches listed that would do the recording and his wearing them all the time both dressed and undressed would make their usage very convenient. He placed an order for a watch.

The renters of his condo contacted Ted and asked if they could end their leasing of his condo one month early because they found a condo to purchase. He agreed to their request. After these renters left he inspected the condo and saw that while it had some wear and tear there was no major damage. He mailed the former renters a check for their security deposit. He also thought this was an opportune time to update the condo before he moved back in.

He donated just about all of the furniture items that were in the condo to a charitable organization. He planned on replacing them with items from Marcia’s house that were more top-of-the-line. That included the thirty-two-inch television that was there which he would replace with a large flat-screen LCD TV. A parent of one of his prior students was a painter contractor and Ted contacted him to paint all of the rooms. Another current student’s father operated a flooring business and Ted made arrangements with him to install wood flooring in the living area, new carpeting in the two bedrooms, and ceramic tile in the kitchen and two bathrooms. A new stove, refrigerator, and dishwasher rounded out this updating.

This updating was expensive but something that was needed. All of this work was completed two weeks before the closing on the house was scheduled. For once Ted thought things had worked out.

One evening Ted received a phone from Clare Brummels who was among his circle of friends when he was in college and she asked how he was doing. They discussed that for a while and then she suggested they go out to dinner. He was not interested in doing that but at her insistence saying it would be good for him to get out, he reluctantly agreed to do it.

On the drive that Saturday night to Clare’s condo he thought about her. She was about Ted’s age, a widow, and worked as a medical technician. Looks-wise he thought she was average but he had always thought she was a nice person. He knew however that he had no physical attraction for her.

After picking Clare up he drove to a restaurant that was near her condo. The conversation during the meal alarmed Ted a little since quite a bit of it was, “We can do this” or “We can do that.” It seemed to him that she was acting like they were an item already and she was planning out what they could do. He had no interest in doing the things she was suggesting or in doing things with her.

It also seemed to him that when he parked his car at her condo building it wouldn’t take much of an effort on his part to have sex with her. It had been a while since he had done the dirty but there was absolutely no interest on his part in having sex with her. Her assumption of what she thought was a developing relationship was something he thought that needed to be nipped in the bud.

Turning toward her he said, “Maybe I am wrong but I get the impression that you feel a serious relationship could develop between you and me. I don’t know how to say this any better other than to say that something like that is not going to happen. I like you as a friend but that is all it would ever be. I hope you understand.”

Ted thought she understood by the piercing look she gave him but to her credit she never said anything. She exited the car slamming the car door and walked to her building. Sooner or later he knew he was going to need to say to her what he had just said. He thought the sooner the better was the right move.

Basketball practice started and so did the pre-season games. His team had won one and lost one. They were not going to win the Conference Championship but they could be a spoiler was his thought. Looking at what would be coming up to the Varsity from the Junior Varsity players he thought would make for a better team next year.

After doing some early morning laundry and ironing Ted thought it was time to do some shopping as he could see a number of his clothes had seen better days. He drove out to an outlet mall that had among all its stores, three stores that were his favorites. Finding golf-type shirts in a pattern he liked along with a shirt material that didn’t require ironing after washing was what he was looking to purchase. He purchased four shirts and two pairs of washable no-wrinkle pants. Finding other shirts he liked that weren’t tucked into the waistband was another matter. There were some that he found, but with one exception, he didn’t care for the pattern on the shirts he saw and only purchased one shirt.

Sitting in the food court before he left for home he was sipping on a diet soda and looking at some of the brochures about the sights and attractions in the area.

“Excuse me, but are you Coach Larkin?”

Looking up he saw an attractive lady looking down at him who had asked that question. She was around his age and judging by how she dressed compared to some of the ladies he had observed shopping here today she seemed to be rather classy.

Rising he said, “Yes I am and you are?”

“Katharine Winslow but my friends call me Kate. My son Kevin played on your team three years ago.”

“Please take a seat. Kevin was a good player and a good student. I wish all my players had the talent and the winning attitude that Kevin had. How is he doing?”

“Oh..., he is doing fine. He is at Northern and finally decided what he wants to do. He is going to apply to law school. I guess the saying that “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” is true.”

“I don’t understand, what do you mean by that?”