Chapter 5

At work the following week Paul received a phone call from Amy Pierson who said she is an editor for a major book publisher. The reason she said she was calling was to ask Paul if he ever considered authoring a book.

“Writing a story is not my thing. I just like writing opinion columns.”

“That is what I am talking about, the columns you have written and not you writing a novel. Before your columns were syndicated you wrote columns that only Austin area people who purchased your paper read. I am told the ones on golf versus sex were a big hit. I think because of your popularity now is the time to publish a book composed of some of your earlier columns along with some of your more controversial columns like the ones on the politicians championing defunding the police, attempts to redefine the word “recession”, along with media bias and their specific cover-ups. Add in your columns on student loan forgiveness, the Afghan fiasco, the open border policy, picking and choosing which laws are enforced and the lies specific politicians have told should make your book a best seller.”

Paul thought about what she said for a moment and had the thought that maybe there would be interest in people wanting to purchase a book composed of those columns. He chucked to himself with her categorizing those columns as controversial but he was also thinking, “a buck is a buck.”

“If you want to publish a book which is composed of my columns send me a contract for my attorney to review. If she agrees with it I will sign it and return it to you. Since I have all of my columns on my laptop I will copy them to a flash drive and enclose it with the signed contract. You can select what columns you want to include in the book.”

Amy said she would put the contract in the mail.

Paul took Ellen to lunch and told her about this conversation he had with Amy. He said he would give her the contract to review to see if all is in order. Ellen said that she was unfamiliar with that area and would need to make a few calls to attorneys who are familiar with book contracts. Paul asked her to do that and he will agree to what she advised.

A few days later, Paul was in his office when he received a call from Lynn Morse who said she was a professor at UT’s College of Communication. Lynn said she was calling to “afford him the opportunity” to give the commencement talk at the forthcoming graduation ceremony.

There was something in her voice, let alone her phrasing that gave Paul the impression she thought she was a few steps higher up on the social order than him in having this conversation.

“Thanks for the offer but it’s not something I would do.”

He thought she must be shocked that he didn’t jump at the chance to do this talk and this was unexpected.

His response did not deter her as she continued, “This will allow you to address the graduates and impart some of your knowledge as they enter the business world.”

“Ms. Morse, it is my opinion that the graduates don’t listen nor remember what a commencement speaker has to say. The speaker that addressed my class at graduation was so good that I don’t remember his name let alone what words of wisdom he imparted. Thanks for the offer but I am sure you can find someone else to do this speech,” and he ended the call.

Paul knew he was rather abrupt with her, but her holier-than-thou attitude just turned him off. It was his impression that most of the people in the education field thought they knew all there was and looked down on the people who were making a living in the business world. They seemed to live in their own, little liberal world. That’s not to say they weren’t good teachers, most of them were, but it was their attitude that could use some adjustment.

He thought his refusal to do this address put an end to his doing this address but that was a false assumption on his part. The following day as he was getting ready to leave, he heard a knock on his open office door. He looked up to see a very good-looking lady maybe a little older than him doing the knocking. She was of average height and weight with shoulder-length blond hair. She was wearing a gray business suit with the skirt ending a few inches above her knees.

When she saw Paul looking up at her she walked into his office, extended her hand to him, and said, “Mr. Conners, my name is Lynn Morse. We spoke yesterday about you giving the commencement talk at the forthcoming graduation.”

Paul pointed to a chair for her to sit on and said, “I thought I made it quite clear that I wasn’t interested in doing that.”

He couldn’t help but notice her fine-looking legs with her skirt sliding up as she sat down. He may have even caught a glimpse of her white panties when she crossed her legs.

“I was hoping by me coming here I could change your mind. The reason why I am asking you to do this is because of our students. We asked them to who they would like to make this address and after eliminating the President, Putin, and the Pope, you received a considerable number of votes. The students must read your columns and watch your commentaries. You should consider that a compliment as to your ability.”

Paul was reconsidering doing this talk but at the same time, he was sensing that Lynn thought she was somewhat above him in making this request. He was now thinking he would like to take her down a peg. At the same time, he was having some carnal thoughts about her because of how she looked.

He didn’t see a ring on her finger and asked, “Tell me, Lynn, are you single or married?”

“Single, but why are you asking?”

“I was thinking maybe we could out to dinner and we could talk more about me doing this speech.”

He knew he was putting her in a position of her having to agree to dinner if there was any hope of Paul doing this talk. She responded that she would go to dinner with him and asked when that would be. He told her right now if that was convenient which she said it was. They walked over to Bond’s restaurant.

Paul wasn’t expecting much but as it turned out he had a nice time dining with her and it seemed to him that she too enjoyed herself. She revealed that she was a reader of his column because she questioned him in a friendly way about some of his opinions. He explained why he said what he said and threw it back to her on why she had an opposing opinion. She seemed to also have come down from thinking she was a step above Paul on the social ladder.