Chapter 113

I stopped Sarah when we got off the elevator at her floor and asked if I should get a woman to help her out of her wet clothes. She had surprised me by saying, “No, you’ll do,” so I followed her wheelchair into her office and to a room toward the back that turned out to be a rather large bathroom. There was a toilet, a wash basin, and an extra large shower on one side. a wardrobe, a dressing table, and a leather couch was On the other.

She pulled her chair next to the couch, muscled herself onto it, and said, “You’ll find a blanket and some towels in the bottom of the wardrobe. Please hand me the blanket, and would you mind wiping the chair down for me?

I handed her the blanket, then turned and began drying the chair. It wasn’t very wet. there was a little moisture on the seat and a few drops on the arms, so it didn’t take long.

I turned toward her When I finished. The blanket was wrapped around her, she was holding her blouse, and she said, “Would you hang this on the back of the door, the bottom is kinda wet?”

I hung it up and when I turned back she said, “I have another blouse in the wardrobe, but I don’t have an extra pair of slacks. These are pretty wet, so I have to get out of them. Would you help me, please?”

I nodded and she reached under the blanket.

I heard the zipper and I watched her wriggle around, so I knelt in front of her and waited while she tried to get out of them. She tried to keep herself covered, but there was no way to do it without exposing herself, so she finally threw the blanket off and said, “Nell says that you’re a good guy. I need your help here, would you mind?”

“Of course not, and don’t worry, I’ll behave myself.”

She put her hands on the cushion and raised herself to take the pressure off and I pulled her pants down, exposing her white bikini panties. She tried to grab the blanket to cover herself, but I said, “It’s okay, Sarah, I’ve seen girls in their underwear before, let me dry you a little.”

She looked apprehensive, but she settled back to watch me as I bent forward with a towel.

That was when I noticed her legs. There was no muscle tone at all. They were too thin for the rest of her body and it made her knees look bony and her feet look too large. I pretended not to notice, and started at her ankles and began wiping the moisture off her. She watched me without expression as I wiped her ankles, knees, and lower thighs but I dropped the towel on her when I got to her waist and said, “Here, you do the rest,” and I turned away from her and began wiping and blotting her slacks with another towel.

I tried to pretend that I wasn’t bothered by what I saw, but I was bothered a lot in truth. Her body was amazing aside from her legs. It wasn’t perfect like Kristen’s or Amy’s, rather, the top part of her was an athlete’s body. Her arms and shoulders were a little overdeveloped, and her flat tummy was showing signs of a six-pack. That ordinarily wouldn’t have been attractive on a girl, but a couple of things tied everything together. Her face was strikingly beautiful, and unlike some gymnasts at school, she had very large breasts. She was wearing a bra, but it was a tiny, frilly thing, and it was barely able to contain what was in it. She was so stunning from her waist up that it was difficult to look away.

She reminded me of what Mom used to say about Julia Roberts, the actress. She used to say that Ms. Roberts was too tall, her mouth was too big, and some of her features didn’t fit her face, but the total look was gorgeous, and that’s how it was with Sarah. Her legs were obviously the result of the accident, but the rest of her was absolutely amazing and I wondered what she must have looked like before the accident.

Blotting her slacks seemed to be going well. They were made of a material that didn’t hold moisture and most of the water was being absorbed by the towel. I was reaching for the last dry towel to give them a final once over when a voice from the other room said, “Your food is here, Mrs. Evans.”

I looked at Sarah and she was facing me. She hadn’t pulled the blanket back around her and her legs were slightly spread. I couldn’t help but see a small dark patch of hair at the crotch of her panties. I quickly looked up at her face and she seemed to be studying me. She finally turned toward the outer room, raised her voice, and said, “Leave it on the desk, and if you see the man I was having lunch with, tell him it’s here.”

I heard the door to her office close, so I asked, “What’s with that?”

“I didn’t want him to know that you were in here with me.”

She nodded toward her pants and asked, “How are they coming?”

“Not bad. They’re not completely dry, but I got almost all of it.”

“That’s close enough, help me into them, a little moisture won’t bother me.”

Getting her slacks back on was a different story. I was looking right at her crotch as I pulled and tugged them into place and the little dark patch was starting to get me hard. It was actually a relief when she zipped them up.

I helped her into her blouse and she held her arms out to me when she finished buttoning it. It startled me until I realized that she wanted me to lift her into her chair, so I did and she quickly rolled into the other room and pulled into place behind her desk.

I dragged a chair in front of the desk and pulled the food trays over to us. She had ordered a chicken tostada, and I had something called a ‘Superburger’. It came with onion rings and a Coke. Her Tostada must have been a foot across and it was piled high with chicken. The waiter had asked if I wanted it with ‘the works’ when I ordered my burger, and I said okay. I almost wish that I hadn’t. My burger was at least six inches high and it was stuffed with everything, including at least a half an avocado.

Sarah was watching me as I stared at it, and she said, “They give you a lot of food, don’t they?”

“They sure do, this is huge, but I didn’t pay for it or sign anything. Can I pay for it later?”

She chuckled then she said, “I was pulling your chain. There’s no charge for food in the private dining room.”

“How can they do that?”

“It’s actually a way to control costs. There are some very highly-paid people here. Having them leave for an hour or two for lunch would cost a lot more than feeding them here would, and although they serve alcohol here, three martini lunches don’t happen when a supervisor might be sitting at the table next to you.”

“I guess you’re right, but it still sounds expensive.”

“It was Nell’s father’s idea, but it’s not unusual in the business world. I don’t know if you’re aware of it, but we have two legal teams here. There’s the Burgers Electronics team that takes care of everything related to Burgers, and then there’s Burgers International. Those people handle high profile cases from all over the world. They can bill from five or six hundred dollars an hour and sometimes much more, so a long lunch away from their desk can cost the company a lot of money.”

I didn’t know anything about the inner workings of Burgers, but I didn’t want to act clueless, so I just nodded and went on eating.

Her tostada was less than half gone when she pushed back and said, “I’m stuffed. I’ll have the rest for dinner tonight.”

I was able to finish my burger, and I had just swallowed the last onion ring when I saw her shaking her head.

So I asked, “What?”

“I don’t think I ever saw anyone finish a Superburger before and you ate all the onion rings too.”

“I was hungry.”

“I guess you were. I’m curious, you’re a big guy and Nell is a big girl. Is that what attracted you to her?”

“I guess that’s part of it, but she’s also a very pretty girl, uhh, woman.”

“Yes, she is. Does it bother you that she’s older than you?”

“No, she’s also fun to be with.”

“You mean sexually?”

What she said annoyed me a little, but she had an odd look on her face when she said it, so I said, “I mean in every way. Nell is an amazing woman. I like her as a person, and I like just being with her.”

“Good, I had to know.”

“Why do you have to know?”

“Nell is not only my boss, she’s my best friend. She’s also rich. She talks about you all the time and I wanted to get a feel about the kind of a guy you are.”

“How did I do?”

“You did okay. You were a little pissed at me when I asked you about your sex life, weren’t you?”

“A little, it’s really none of your business.”

“I know, I just wanted to see if you would brag about it.”

“Okay, then while we’re at it, you knew that you were going to have to take your clothes off when we came back here. Why did you say, ‘You’ll do’ when I asked if you wanted a woman to help you? Was spilling the water a plan of yours?”

“No, it was an accident.”

“What about the ‘you’ll do’ part?”

She looked down and was quiet for a minute before she said, “I guess that I wanted to see how you’d behave if you saw me half naked.”

“It was difficult. You’re very pretty.”

“Am I really?”

“Of course you are. I’m sure that people tell you that all the time.”

“Not so much since the accident. I know that I’m not bad looking, but I wondered what it would be like if someone saw me with my withered legs and all.”

She looked concerned, so I fibbed a little and said, “They’re not withered, they’re just thin. Someone wouldn’t even notice if they didn’t know that you’d had a problem, especially once they saw the rest of you and how beautiful you are.”

She’d been staring at me. It slowly turned into a little smile and she said, “Are you really only seventeen?”

“Yes.”

Her eyes narrowed, and she seemed to study me for a minute before she said, “You’re smooth, young man. Women never say no to you, do they?”

“I, uhh, don’t know what you mean?”

She raised an eyebrow, “Don’t bullshit me; you know exactly what I mean,” then she turned away and seemed to be thinking.

Still facing away from me, she finally said, “Do you know that you are the only man beside my husband and a bunch of doctors who have ever seen me in my underwear?”

“No one? Not ever?”

“Well, my dad did when I was little, but Daniel was my first and only boyfriend, but even he didn’t see as much of me as you have today until the night we were married.”

“That’s pretty unusual.”

“I guess so.”

“So, why did you want me to look at you?”

“I didn’t want you to look at me, it just happened.”

“Who’s bullshitting now?”

She sighed, “Okay, I wanted you to look at me to see if I was still, you know, attractive.”

“Well, you are. You’re a knockout, but why me?”

“Nell said that you would tell me the truth.”

“What do you mean, did you guys plan this?”

“No, I was complaining to her that I didn’t feel attractive anymore and she said that I should let you see me naked and you would tell me if I was.”

“I smiled, “Great, does that mean that I get to see you naked?”

She chuckled, “No, she was kidding. I would never do that, it was hard enough to let you see me in my underwear.”

I joked, “I know what you mean; it was hard for me too.”

She laughed out loud this time and said, “Yeah, I noticed and I’m flattered.”

I glanced at my watch and it was almost one-thirty, so I stood up and said, “I have to go. Can we have lunch without you trying to drown yourself sometime?”

Still smiling, she answered, “But how will I get you to take my clothes off?”

“That’s easy, just offer to buy me a Superburger!”

She was laughing as I left.

The rest of the afternoon was intense. There were more people in the room this time and it took me a while to force myself to forget they were there. Tom had me repeat the ‘Go to the display room’ a bunch of times. I was standing sometimes I was sitting on the edge of the desk sometimes. He decided that standing was better and after we tried that a few more times he said, “Good,” and nodded to one of the guys. He and a girl motioned for me to follow them and they took us to a woman’s bathroom. The girl went inside, then came out and waved us in a second later.

The guy said, “The ladies room has a large wash basin,” when I looked at him.

We went to it and he washed my hair, then we went back to Tom’s room and he trimmed it, blew it dry, and he combed it like Tom wanted it under Tom’s watchful eye, and sprayed it.

It was then back before the camera and he said, “Good” after a half-dozen ‘takes’ and he turned to one of the other guys and said, “Okay, Ito, show him the 420.”

‘Ito’ turned out to be a tech guy and he showed me a digital phone and began telling me its features and how to use it for the next few minutes. He handed me a detailed script once I understood it, and I studied it for a few minutes. It went over the same things that he showed me but I could see that the script was well thought out after I looked at it a few times, and I actually understood the phone better.

Tom asked, “Do you understand what we want?”

“Yes, I do. This is really well-written. Whoever wrote this really knows how to explain things.”

“Thanks, I wrote it. Look, they’ve asked me to try to make this happen today. You’re doing pretty well at this. Would you like to give it a shot or would you rather take the script home, practice with it, and come back tomorrow?”

I thought for a minute then I said, “I know what you’re after here and I think that I can do it. This phone is not all that complicated. Let’s give it a try.”

The next several hours were really interesting. I was introduced to cue-cards, how to turn my head ‘just so’ to prevent the lights from bothering me, and repeated warnings from Tom about how to look directly into the camera and try to look like I knew what I was talking about.

The DP-420 was the latest digital, cordless phone and it was supposed to sound clearer and have more range than anything before it, but it wasn’t all that complicated and I suspect that this was more a test of me than of a new product.

Tom told me I did okay when we finished,. He said that he would do some work on it, show it to the Board tomorrow, and he asked me to call him around ten in case they wanted to make some changes.

It was almost five when I left, and the girl behind the desk said, “Are you leaving, Mister Baker?” as I got to the room by the elevators.

I went over to the pretty blonde, stuck my hand out, gave her my best smile, and said, “Hi, Melody, my name is Pete.”

I thought I was being friendly, but there apparently were rules around here. She took my hand and firmly shook it, then she gave me a very nice smile and asked, “Are you leaving?”

“Uhh, yes I am.”

She wasn’t rude, she simply said, “Have a good evening, Mister Baker,” and turned back to some work on her desk. I thought that she looked a little flushed but it was probably my imagination.

I was surprised to see my new car sitting there with a guy holding the door for me when I got to the parking office. I shook my head in awe. That must have been the reason the blonde upstairs wanted to know if I was leaving. On top of that, the car had some dirt on it from sitting at the airport when I drove in, but it had been washed. My head was spinning, but I got into it, put the top down, and started for the beach house.

Los Angeles is a big city. It takes a couple of freeways to get from downtown LA to PCH (the Pacific Coast Highway). Depending on traffic, it’s about a thirty minute ride along the beach to get to the Malibu beach house. I kept thinking that something was wrong as I was driving along the freeway, but I had a chance to think once I got to PCH and I settled into the five o’clock rush hour traffic, and I realized that it wasn’t that something was wrong; it was that too many things were right. How could this be happening? How could I be driving this great new car and be on my way to be with a beautiful rich girl?

I wanted to talk to Amy. She would know why this was happening. She’d be able to clear things up and ... Then it hit me, Amy was three thousand miles away and the last I heard she was on a date with another guy.

It was almost six o’clock and I was in a bad mood by the time I got to the beach house. A delicious smell hit me when I opened the door, so I shook the bad feeling off and yelled, “Anybody home?”

Megan called out, “Hi, Pete, I’m in the kitchen,” so I headed there. She was standing at the counter cutting up vegetables. She smiled when she saw me and said, “How did it go today?” Her smile was different and she seemed especially happy.

I replied, “I think that it went well. We got a lot done, but you seem happy about something, what’s going on?”

“I got a job today. I start work at the Harvey galleries tomorrow and I’m really excited about it.”

“That sounds great, what will you be doing?”

“I’ll be teaching a painting class, but the really exciting part is that they want me to do some portrait work and they already have a commission.”

“Wow; that really does sound exciting. Have you ever done one of someone with their clothes on?”

It took her a second, then she giggled and threw a piece of broccoli at me.

I caught it, popped it in my mouth, and asked, “What smells so good?”

“It’s pot roast. Do you like pot roast?”

“I love pot roast. Do you need some help?”

“No, but sit down and I’ll pour you a glass of wine.”

“I want to shower first. I’m covered with makeup and hair spray, plus I have to make a phone call.”

“Okay, I talked with Nell a little while ago and she said that she’d be here around seven.”

“She’s working late?”

“That’s early for her. She doesn’t get home until midnight or even later sometimes.”

She went back to her cooking, so I went in and took a shower, then threw some shorts and a t-shirt on, and called Amy’s cell. It went to voicemail so I called Mom. I asked to talk to Amy when she answered.

“She’s not here.”

“Where is she?”

“They went to a play.”

“Who, her and Erin?”

“No, she went with Kevin, the guy she was with last night.”

“SHE’S OUT WITH HIM AGAIN?”

“Yes, Dear, and he seems to be a nice young man. What’s the matter; you’re not jealous are you?”

“NO, I’m not jealous, it’s just that, well, she hasn’t been out with a lot of guys and, and...”

Mom interrupted with, “And you’re worried that she might do something you don’t approve of, right?”

“Yes, I mean, no, I mean, c’mon, Mom, you know what I mean.”

“Yes, Dear, I do know what you mean, but she’s a beautiful girl and she works all the time. It’s time that she had some fun.”

“I know, but she’s out with someone we don’t know and she’s young, Mom.”

“She’s almost eighteen. Are you forgetting that I was married and on the way to having you when I was eighteen? What did you want to talk to her about?”

“Oh, just some stuff.”

“You’re not in trouble, are you?”

“No it’s just some, you know, private stuff.”

“You used to be able to talk to me about private stuff.”

“I know, but it’s, uhh,”

She broke in laughing with, “It’s not the sorta stuff that you can talk to your mom about, right?”

“I, uhh, guess not.”

“I understand. Well, I don’t know what time she’ll be home. Do you want her to call you in the morning?”

“I don’t know what my day is going to be like tomorrow. I’ll try to reach her in the afternoon. I know that you are three hours ahead of us, so I’ll try to call her around five your time.”

“Okay, I’ll tell her, but I’m really glad that you called, because I was about to call you. How did things go with the filming today?”

“Pretty good, but I was a little surprised. I assume that you guys were behind it. When were you going to tell me about it?”

“That’s why I wanted to call you. A lot has happened in the last few weeks. Amy and I have been so busy that we haven’t had a chance to talk to you about what’s been going on. Burgers’ people approached us with a proposal a couple of weeks ago. It involved you making a series of instructional videos for them. It was pretty extensive and we gave them a counterproposal, but they didn’t make a decision, so we held off talking to you about it. Well, it came to a head yesterday and they said that they needed an immediate answer. You indicated that you were going to take this Burgers thing seriously, so we made a decision. Your contract with Burgers has considerably changed. You’ve been asked to do a lot more things that were not a part of the original contract. There are video clips, and even some TV appearances coming up. Your new contract is for more than double the original. You can stop by the office and have Myrna explain it to you, or I’ll have the office email you a copy.”

I stuttered, “D-Did you say, more than double?”

“Yes, Dear, you’re on your way to becoming a very wealthy young man.”

“But why, I mean, how come?”

“Ask Nell what has happened since your picture started appearing in the papers telling people to call the ‘Ask Pete’ line. It’s apparently been so successful that they had to triple the operators.”

“I don’t understand. How does a help line make money? Do they really try to help people or is it some kind of a scam?”

“No, it’s a legitimate help line. Nell assures me that it’s one of the best in the business. People have to give their name, phone number, and email address when they call for help on a product. That puts them in a database and on a mailing list. They tell them about daily specials after they solve the problem they called about, and sales have been way beyond expectations according to Nell, and she says that everyone thinks that it’s because of you.”