Chapter 4

They saw a lot of each other during the next six months. It started out as coffee every Monday morning; a way to delay the start of the work week. But soon it morphed into breakfast. Rick would stop at a fifties-style diner on his drive into Glendale. He would get himself the mainstay for a tradesman’s breakfast, an egg on a roll, for Sasha he would get the protein special, an egg white and chicken omelet, no potatoes or toast.

When he pulled into the lot, he would find Sasha sitting in one of the two chairs she had taken from the waiting room, and a small table placed between the chairs.

Their conversations came easy; they had quickly become the other’s best friend, in reality, their only friend. Sure they both knew numerous people that they worked with, but they only socialized with each other.

During this time, Arizona’s early spring season, which ran from mid-February to the middle of April, had given way to the ever-increasing temperatures of May and June. By the beginning of July, the temperature was consistently flirting with the hundred-and-ten-degree mark. Worse still, there had not been a measurable amount of precipitation in the last two months.

“Rick is there any way to get more fresh air into the building other than opening both doors? The air in there is getting pretty funky.”

“What do you mean, funky?”

“It smells. For eight hours a day I have women of all ages and fitness levels working out. Some come here before they shower for the day or week; others occasionally come in wearing workout clothes that haven’t been cleaned in a while, or wearing their favorite scent. It’s also not unheard of to have certain gases slip out during our bends and stretches. All that combines over time to make the air funky.”

“I understand. About seven months out of the year we have the air conditioning units pulling in about ten percent outside air into the building. We have to shut that down during the summer because much of that time the outside temperature is so hot that the system actually begins to raise the inside temperature while it is running. If you think your utility bill is high now, you can image what it would be if we left it at ten percent year-round. We shut that down at the beginning of May.”

“What can I do; I’ve got to do something soon. I’d open the doors when the sun goes down, but that’s not really safe. I’m back in my office, I don’t know who or what is coming in those open doors.”

“Let me think about it. I’ll come up with something. Give me until next week. Look at the time,” he said as he looked at his watch, “I’ve got to run.”

They both got up, he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and walked back to his truck.

During that week he searched the company’s small, but part-filled workshop. He told his uncle about his dilemma and what he envisioned as a possible solution.

“If I remember correctly, back when we first built the first of the shopping centers, there was a small coffee shop. The owner couldn’t afford to run the A/C during most of the year. He had us install a transom window above the front door and an exhaust fan in the back wall. That worked for most of the year. It cut his annual utility bills almost in half. When the shop changed over to retail, the new tenant had us remove the exhaust fan and the window. Let me think, where did we put that stuff?

After several minutes of thought he exclaimed, “Got it, they’re in the loft, over the office.” Rick scampered up the ladder and stood gazing over the dust covered collection of old parts and forgotten pieces of equipment. Leaning against the far side wall of the loft he spotted the nearly three-foot square exhaust fan. As he crossed the space, he saw the window and framework as well.

He had to make two trips up and down the ladder but in the end, he had the parts he needed; now he needed a way to make it work for her situation.

If he remembered correctly from the summer that he had worked for his uncle, they had renovated the rear bathroom for the new tenant, and while he was working, he had plugged his drill into the wall outlet on the hall wall outside the bathroom. It had been his job to supply his uncle with thin-set mortar for the floor and wall tile work. He had mixed multiple five-gallon buckets, outside in the back parking lot sweating his ass off in the heat of summer.

He knew for a fact that the back door was thirty-six inches wide, a solid core, metal clad, door, which opened outward. If he bought a thirty-six-inch raised panel door, he could build his own frame with four by fours, anchor it to the cinderblock wall above the door and along the perimeter of the existing door frame with door opening inward. He could remove the lower raised panels and install the exhaust fan facing outward. When Sasha wanted to change the air in the studio, she could open the transom window, open the connecting doors to the work out room and the door to the back hallway, open and secure the back outside door, and close the newly installed inside door and flip the switch he would install. Simple.

The following Monday morning, he told her about his solution to her problem.

“That sounds perfect, when can you do it.”

“This week if you want. I can install the transom window one evening and get my measurements for the back door assemble. I’ll make the frame and the interior door at our shop. Then when it’s complete, I can install it the next evening. It might take me a few hours for the installation of the door. I won’t be later than midnight. You won’t have to stay with me. I can lock up when I leave.” He could see her mind working hard to think of some way to avoid him being here without her.

“Couldn’t you do it on Saturday, like you did with the reformers?”

“Unfortunately, I have a wedding I have to be in. One of my cousins from Tucson is getting married and asked me to be in the wedding party. I would have asked you to come with me, but I know you have to work on Saturdays. Besides with me in the wedding party, you would have to sit with strangers for much of the wedding.”

He watched her mentally cringe as she reluctantly agreed to his timetable.

“Ok, I’ll have to let you do it your way. You’re the one doing me the favor. Of course, you will bill me for your time and any materials you have to buy. None of this working half the day for what, twenty-five dollars.”

“Let me worry about that.”

That evening after work, he talked to his uncle who explained how to remove the existing window frame and window and install the transom window. The next day, before starting his workday, he stopped at the building supply company that the company used and picked up the supplies he had ordered the previous day. After work that evening, he made the frame and installed the hinges for the door, removed the lower half of the door panels and predrilled the door for the installation of the exhaust fan, which he had previously cleaned and tested.

On Wednesday, he brought the window and his tool kit and a six-foot step ladder, arriving at The Studio ten minutes after Sasha’s last class for the evening. The job was more complicated than his uncle had made it seem, but by 10:30 that evening he was cleaning up.

Rick smiled to himself as he watched Sasha, putter around the place; cleaning what really didn’t need cleaning, disappearing into her office for a half hour, then sitting in the waiting room watching and talking to him.

“You know you don’t have to wait for me to finish, I have the key to the back door, I can lock up if you want to go home.” All the time knowing that she was already home.

“I’ll stay, it’s fun watching you work. How do you know how to do all this?”

“There are somethings that you know from doing them all the time; other things you just intuitively know, and somethings you just stumble through because you’ve never done anything like it before. This is one of those jobs.”

“That’s not very comforting, the window’s not going to fall out, is it?”

Rick laughed, “No, it’s not going to fall out. In fact, the job is done. Watch, when you want to open the window all you have to do is take this handle and pull it down all the way; then pull the window down until it is just above the frame. When you want to close it, push it up and bring the handle back up until it rests behind the stop. Simple. Now you come here and try it. I’ll get down first. I suggest you get yourself a four-step folding step ladder with a handle so you can use all four steps without feeling like you are going to fall. You can get one at any good home center.”

Rick climbed off the ladder and allowed her to climb up. She worked the window with no problems. He watched as she closed the window again and was about to climb down. Rick couldn’t help himself; he placed his hands on either side of her firm butt and steadied her as she climbed back down the ladder.

When she was on the ground again, she turned to him, and just stood there. Rick could not tell from her expression if she was mad at him or not. He braced himself for the worst. Then she raised her hands to either side of his face and planted a toe-curling kiss on his mouth. When the kiss was finally done, he opened his eyes and sought out hers.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for the last six months; I’ve been praying that you were not gay or worse, married. You just never seemed interested.”

“Oh, I’m neither and I’ve been very interested. I just didn’t want to get my head handed to me. Don’t forget I’ve seen you work; I know how strong you were back then; I can just imagine how much stronger you are now after six months of using those reformers.”

“Someday soon I’ll show you. Are you done for now? I’d like to get to sleep some time before morning comes.”

Rick smiled and said, “Sure, I’m done for the night, all I have to do is get my tools and the ladder loaded in my truck and I’ll be off. In less than five minutes he was headed out the door. Sasha watched as his truck left the parking lot and disappeared into the night.

What she didn’t see was him make a turn two blocks later and come back around the back of the office building. From his office moments later he watched as she moved her car from the back parking lot to a different spot in the front lot. Then he closed his office and took the truck home.

That night, try as he might, he just could not fall asleep. Her kiss was still on his mind. Things were happening faster than he had planned, in fact, they were almost out of control.

Now his mind switched to the conversation that he had had with his father shortly after he had graduated from high school.

‘Enrique, you know we have been truly blessed by God. We have wealth, more wealth than we could ever hope to spend. But with great wealth comes great responsibility as well. Your grandfathers sacrificed much to pass forward their legacy. We are just stewards of that wealth. We must always be vigilant; there are people out there who resent our wealth, who feel we are not entitled to have what we have; that somehow our ancestors stole their wealth from others, that it should be divided among the people who haven’t worked for it as we have.

‘There are others who wish to steal it for themselves. The internet is full of people like these. We must always be vigilant. Remember, a man with a briefcase and a computer can steal much more than a man with a gun.

‘But it’s a woman who can steal the most of all. You must always see into the heart of the woman with whom you fall in love. In a heartbeat, she can take half of everything you own, and worst of all, she can steal your heart and destroy your will to live. That’s why you must move slowly and carefully when courting a woman. You have to determine what is in her heart before you commit to each other. You must know her character, is she a strong woman, who can work through adversity and triumph over it. Will she be a true life-time partner, or will she cut and run when the going gets rough? And she must love you as much as you love her; must desire you as much as you desire her. If you find such a woman, don’t let her out of your sight. I met a woman like that a long time ago and almost let her get away, before I married her.

‘Your mother was the first Anglo in our family, you can imagine the heat we took from my family. Your grandfather almost disowned me, and probably would have if it hadn’t been for the fact that I showed him how we could turn our land into a money generating machine. And you know where I got the idea and the plan to do that, it was your mother and her family that showed me the way.’

His mother, the beautiful woman with the heart of gold and the drive to accomplish anything she set out to do; he should have known that she was the driving force behind the family empire. It was she who had come to him the night that he had told his parents that his high school sweetheart had dumped him during his freshman year in college.

‘Don’t worry my child. She was the first, but she won’t be the last. You are a good-looking young man, but the key word is young. There will be others and you will learn from each of them. Each disappointment will make you stronger, you will learn in time what you truly need in a woman. It won’t happen overnight. In fact it probably won’t happen until you have been working for a while, but when that special woman comes into your life, she will win your love without ever seeming to try. Suddenly one day she will be there right in front of you, and your eyes will truly be opened for the first time. Think with your head and not with your heart. You will know who your life partner will be because she will be standing right in front of you.

‘Now go, have your fun, be careful and learn all of life’s lessons before you settle down.’

The morning sun was just peeking over the Superstition Mountains when his eyes opened. His alarm was still going off when he finally became fully aware of where he was. He shut the alarm, glanced at the clock, moaned, and swung his legs out of bed. Not bothering to put clothes on, he took care of his morning business and headed downstairs, and out to the pool. The weather was already warm, probably in the low eighties. As Rick slowly walked towards the pool, he marveled at the expanse of mountain which stood less than twenty feet from the edge of the pool, in fact, if you were in the hot tub, you could touch the base of the two hundred feet high wall of stone that formed the base of the head of the camel.

The house itself was huge, but was dwarfed by the sheer size and proximity of the mountain. The back yard included a large pool, the hot tub, and surrounding patio. The house wrapped around the eastern side of the property. The garage and car port were on the west side, totally hidden from the house. Last night Rick had parked his truck facing out towards the long concrete driveway and had walked the path towards the main entrance, but instead of entering the house, he had veered off to the left and walked through the gardens to the patio, around the pool, and had entered his part of the immense structure which had been built originally to be a two-story pool and guest house. The house itself was built with multiple levels, and each of the five bedrooms included a private walled-in balcony. The living room had floor to ceiling windows which provided a panoramic view of the City of Phoenix and beyond. There was even an enclosed children’s playground complete with a two-story circular slide and playhouse. In terms of elevation, it was one of the highest that had been built on the mountain before the city fathers had banned the further development on the mountain. His father had grabbed it in a fire sale after the S & L crisis in the middle eighties. Too large for his existing family, he had hoped to see his children and grandchildren all live together in luxury. That dream had been partially dashed when it was discovered that his wife could no longer have children of their own and, of course, with the couple’s untimely death.

The house itself was sitting empty, a monument to their lives, but Rick could not bring himself to move back into the house. The house was currently going through a complete renovation. It was almost finished, only the painters remained. Rick hoped he would be able to live within those walls when it was finally completed.

After completing his normal number of laps, Rick pushed himself to do another ten. If he was going to have to compete with Sasha, he was going to have to get his body into much better shape than it was now. Five years of law school and work had softened his body; not that he was in bad shape, he was in decent shape, but he wanted to be ripped when he finally stood next to her on the night of their wedding.

That was it wasn’t it; he was really an old-fashioned kind of guy. He came from a religious family, who attended church weekly, and would not think of pre-marital sex. To his way of thinking, however, that was a little harsh. He had already pushed that boundary to the breaking point. He was no longer a virgin; he had thought she was the one, the woman he would live the rest of his life with. But that dream had shattered a long time ago. He had had other relationships, but none had lasted.

Now he was faced with a dilemma; Sasha had been born in Russia, the communists had driven God and religion from the land. The party had become the religion of the land and the president, their god. What would Sasha think of him and his religious upbringing. Would she even understand his need for his faith?

He quickly dressed and drove to work. He started his day thinking about his future. It all depended upon Sasha. It was time to push forward, to venture into new territory. But first he had a doorway to complete.

After he finished his daily work list and took care of any problems that inevitably landed on his desk, he told Debbie that he was leaving for the day, but could be reached in the maintenance shop.

By six o’clock that evening he had the frame taken apart, all set to be reassembled on site, the door hinge plates properly mounted, all that was needed was to lift the door into place and to insert the pins. The exhaust fan had been cleaned and lubed, it was all ready to be mounted on the door. He had all the hardware he would need and any tools he could think of needing.

He took a quick shower and changed into a fresh set of work clothes, grabbed a quick bite to eat at a pizza place down the block from the shopping center and by 8:15 he was knocking on her backdoor. When she opened the door, she smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek.