Chapter 6

Tracy and her husband Bill were very sociable people. Because they were that way, they hosted BBQ outings at their house in which they invited relatives, neighbors, and friends. Ken was one of those invited and he normally had a good time in doing this meeting and greeting.

One of the attendees he had come to learn would always be a single female about his age who Tracy would go out of her way to make sure was introduced to Ken. It was a little bit of the mother-hen in Tracy wanting to see Ken meet someone he could tie the knot with.

Today was no exception and as he expected it did happen. He would say however that the lady he was introduced to was about his age and was quite attractive. Her name was Denise Edwards and she looked vaguely familiar but why that was he didn’t know.

“Ken, you should know that Denise was a few years behind me in school and now is a television news reporter for Channel four. She initially started doing her reporting for a television station in Waco but is back here now,” said Tracy.

Shaking Denise’s hand Ken said, “I thought you looked familiar but I didn’t know why. With you wearing your hair in a ponytail as opposed to wearing it down which you do when you are on TV I think is the reason.”

“They want me to wear it that way as they think it makes me look more professional but outside of work, this is the way I prefer. Tell me, Ken, Tracy says she works for you, so what do you do?”

Ken did tell her about his business along with monopolizing much of Denise’s time at the BBQ. He also asked her out to dinner next week and she accepted the invitation. She did qualify her acceptance by saying unless there is a breaking news story she is assigned to cover.

Throughout the week he watched the news on Channel four and further confirmed that Denise was an attractive lady. There was something about her that intrigued him and he thought maybe it was her eyes that drew his attention. He was looking forward to this coming weekend.

During the week Tracy approached him holding some paperwork in her hand which she handed to Ken and said something may be going on that requires his attention. She said the projects Mike Casper is doing in San Antonio are coming in at a lower profit than what they were projected to be. While the sales price is in line with the projection, the amount of the rehabbing costs is more than the initial estimate.

Ken looked at the paperwork and could see Tracy was right. He phoned Ben to find out where he was and said he needed to meet with him.

Ben looked at this paperwork and said, “While the bottom line profit is low it would seem that Mike, all considered is still making a nice buck. The invoices indicate he is not buying material from low-cost providers and the people he is employing to do the work I would bet are either friends or relatives. We need to talk with this young man.”

The next day Ken and Ben drove down to San Antonio. Ben was not too keen on flying in a small plane since it was a windy day which was why they drove instead of flying down in the Cessna. On the drive, they discussed what they would say as well as what they would do depending on Mike’s reaction. If necessary they would terminate him on the spot and ask Rudy to complete these projects. In their minds, they thought they had all the possibilities handled.

As it turned out they didn’t discuss one unexpected possibility. That occurred after meeting Mike and he thanked them for coming.

“Boy, I am glad you both are here as that saves me a trip. You should know that when I finish up these two projects they will be the last ones I will be doing. That’s because the wife wants us to move to the Orlando, Florida area. Her parents live in what is called the Villages near there and she wants to be close to them. I hope you understand and if you want I can recommend someone to replace me here doing these rehabs.”

Ken and Ben gave each other a look that said, “Problem solved,” and wished Mike good luck on his move. They said they probably won’t replace him here as they were thinking of operating in a different location. There was no need to discuss what Mike had been doing and that subject was not brought up.

On the drive back to Austin they both said that was easy. Ben did mention that while they could probably find someone here to replace Mike, Ben didn’t have anyone right now he would recommend for San Antonio. He did have a person, Vern Evers who had worked for him and moved to Dallas when the claim office was closed. Vern was now looking for something else to do as he doesn’t like doing that type of work anymore with the ever-increasing workload. If Ken would want to set up an operation in Dallas, Ben would contact Vern Evers and they could do a virtual interview with him.

Ken told Ben to set up a meeting with Vern.

Denise looked very nice when he picked her up for the Saturday dinner date. She was wearing her hair down and the dress was tight enough to show the nice figure she had. Her condo was one of many in a tall building that was across from the State Capital building. This was two streets south from one of the finer restaurants in Austin. Because of the location, they walked to the restaurant.

It was a somewhat interesting dining experience with Denise. The conversation they had was one in which she talked primarily about herself. That included her schooling and her goal to become a news anchor on a prime-time news show in a major market. She said that there was a possibility of that happening here and hoped it would. She did mention some of the things that happen behind the camera. Most of the conversation was about her experiences and she didn’t ask many questions about Ken or what he did. When she did ask he gave her general answers and avoided giving her the specifics of how large his business was. He did mention what Tracy does and praised her for doing her work.

After walking back to the entrance to her condo building, she thanked him for being an interesting date. Why he was interesting he didn’t know since the conversation, for the most part, was all about her but he thanked her for saying that. Walking to his Ford F150 he thought, all considered it still was a nice time being with Denise and he looked forward to the date he made with her for next weekend.