Chapter 131

The store delivered several packages of meat, a bunch of vegetables, and a half dozen bottles of wine around five o’clock. I had started putting things away when Megan came in carrying a bag that she was trying to hold level a few minutes later. She said, “It’s a surprise and you’re gonna love it,” when I asked her what it was.

She put it in the fridge, bag and all, then asked, “Would you like to help with dinner?”

I said “Sure,” and I was peeling potatoes soon after. It was fun watching her work. She knew what she was doing and seemed so happy to be doing it, that I asked, “You really like to cook, don’t you?”

“I love to cook. It was one of the few things that my mother taught me, but I made the mistake of telling her how much I liked it and I ended up doing all the cooking at home. I didn’t mind it actually, except that my sisters treated me like I was the hired help and complained if things weren’t done to suit them.”

“That’s a shame. Everything you’ve made so far has been great. That special dinner you made for Nell and me that time was amazing.”

“Thank you. Did you know that Nell is bringing Cindy Haynes home for dinner tonight? What’s the deal with that?”

“I think it’s something to do with business. Do you know her?”

“We had a class together and she seems nice. Is she one of your girlfriends?”

“No, she’s just a friend. What do you mean by ‘one of my girlfriends’?”

“You have lots of girlfriends, don’t you?”

“No, where did you hear that?”

“The girls at school said that you have tons of girlfriends, but the only person I see you with is Nell.”

I smiled, “Well, being with Nell is a full time job.”

“She’s amazing, isn’t she?”

“Yes, she is.”

“Do you think that it bother’s her when I call her ‘Mom’?”

“No, I think she loves it.”

The doorbell rang just then, so I went to answer it. It was Cindy. She looked around when I let her in and said, “Wow, this is beautiful. The outside isn’t bad, but you would never guess that the inside was this nice.”

“Yeah, she wants to keep it low key on the outside. C’mon and say hello to Megan, then I’ll show you around. You know Megan Walker, don’t you?”

“I sure do, Nell told me that she was staying here. Do you know that the kids at school call her the ‘Shark’?”

“Yeah, I hear that it’s because she’s a good swimmer.”

“She’s not good, she’s amazing! She owns every swimming record in her division, maybe the state.”

“Okay, but do me a favor. Speak clearly and make sure that she’s looking at you when you talk with her.”

Her mouth dropped open first, then she said, “So that’s it! The kids all think that she’s stuck up because she sometimes ignores them. It’s because she has a hearing problem, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but please don’t say anything about it.”

“Of course I won’t.”

I took her to kitchen. Megan was standing at the island countertop cutting up some salad things and I saw how she behaved around someone she wasn’t close to for the first time.

She said “Hi” when Cindy said hello to her, and she turned away from her. It was like she didn’t want to talk to her.

I thought that Cindy might be offended; she did something that surprised me instead. She went around the island until she was facing Megan, then making sure that Megan was looking at her, she said, “Let me wash up and I’ll give you a hand.”

What she did was obvious, and Megan must have been surprised because she watched her as she went to the sink and washed her hands.

Cindy grabbed a knife when she finished, and she started talking to Megan about some girl at school as she was working on some carrots. She wasn’t speaking loudly, but she talked slowly and always made sure that she was at least partially facing Megan.

The look on Megan’s face was wonderful. She knew what Cindy was doing and she kept smiling. It took everything I had not to grab Cindy and hug her.

It was around six thirty when Nell got home.

I’d been accused of being a pest and thrown out of the kitchen, so I was in the living room watching TV. I could hear the girls talking and giggling with each other like old friends in the background, so I met Nell at the door, stopped her, and said, “Listen,” when she came inside.

She listened to the girls for a minute and I told her what Cindy had done with Megan when she smiled. She shook her head and said, “Cindy is absolutely amazing. She told you what she did about our computer problems, didn’t she?”

“Uh huh, it’s not going to get her in trouble with the people at work, is it?”

“It could, that’s one of the things that I want to talk about tonight. We’ve known that we needed a new computer system for a long time, but we didn’t want to spend the money the IT department said it was going to cost. John and I spent the last few hours on the phone with the people Cindy lined up, and they have exactly what we need at a fraction of what our people told us. Do you know how much money it’s going to save us in every store?”

“It sounds like it’ll be a lot.”

“You won’t believe how much, and there’s more. Along with telling us that we need all kinds of new equipment, our guys told us that it would take months and lots of travel time to get all the stores up and running. These guys say that the only new equipment we need is at our headquarters here, that what we have in the stores can be made to work using their software, and that the stores can handle the upgrades. They tell me that they can get everything up and running in two weeks or less.”

“Wow, that’s incredible!”

“Yes, it is, John and I are blown away. We pay a bonus to any employee who shows us a way to save money, and it’s based on how much the savings will be. Her check is going to be ... well, it’s going to be big if the new system works like we think it will, but please don’t mention it to her until we finalize things.”

“I won’t, but did she, umm, tell you that she didn’t do this alone?”

‘You mean Mel? Of course, she did. Don’t worry, we’ll take care of him as well. That’s one of the things that we’ll talk about tonight, and while we have a few seconds, we said that were going to assign an extra person to you full time because of how much smoother things went when Brandy helped you out in Bakersfield. How would you like it if we asked Cindy to do it?”

“Fine, what does she think about it?”

“I haven’t asked her, I wanted to talk to you first.”

“Well, I don’t mind, but as I’m sure you remember, she and I, uhh,”

She held her hand up to stop me and said, “I know, dear. I know that you and she have been together. She still has feelings for you and I’m sure that you have some for her. That’s fine. You two would make a beautiful couple. Even her grandfather thinks so.”

“So you’re sending us out together in hopes that we end up as a couple?”

“No, she’s too smart for that. She knows that she can’t go to the places you’re going and you’d end up breaking her heart, but you might get together on the road. I actually hope that you do, she deserves to have some fun.”

“You wouldn’t mind if we had sex?”

“Of course, I wouldn’t. You and Cindy are two of my favorite people, and I wouldn’t mind at all.”

“But what about us?”

“What about us? It wouldn’t change the way I feel about you.”

I sighed, “What’ll happen when she goes back to school?”

“We’ll touch on that tonight, as well. Okay, I just wanted to see how you felt about having her along. C’mon, let’s go see what the girls are doing.”

She started to head for the kitchen, but I grabbed her and said, “You’ve been gone for a long time, don’t I get a kiss?”

“I-I’ve only been gone a couple of days!”

I said, “That’s long enough,” and I pulled her to me.

It started as a regular kiss and turned into a real toe curler. We were both breathless when we pulled away and I asked, “So you DID miss me.”

She looked serious when she said, “Of course, I did. I missed you too damn much.”

Cindy was holding the oven door open and Megan was putting a pan of something inside it when we got to the kitchen. Megan said “Hi, Mom,” when she looked up and saw Nell standing beside me.

I looked at Cindy to see how she would react, but she just smiled. I guess that Megan had talked to her about it.

I walked over to see what was in the oven, but Cindy ‘shooed’ me away. I put a hurt look on and complained that the pork chops were my idea and I wanted to see what they had done to them, but Cindy told me that I was going to eat what they fixed and to shut up.

That got a laugh from the girls, so I pretended to pout and I tried to complain to Nell, but she said, “You have your orders. I have to change clothes, come with me before you get into trouble.”

I followed her to our bedroom and she started telling me what was going on while she was out of town as she was changing out of her business clothes. I was sitting on the bed watching her and I asked her to stop for a minute when she got down to her bra and panties.

She tilted her head at me, “What?”

“You’re beautiful and I want to look at you.”

She smiled, “So you think that I’m pretty, eh, what brought that on?”

“I like looking at you and you’re not just pretty, you’re beautiful.”

The smile was gone and she stared at me for a long minute, then she said, “Thank you,” and she went to the closet and took a pair of jeans and a blouse out.

She got into the jeans and was reaching for the blouse when I went to her and took her by the shoulders. I kissed her on the mouth then on the throat, and on top of both bra-covered breasts. I then held her at arms’ length and said, “You really are beautiful, you know.”

She stared at me for a second, then she threw her arms around me and pulled me to her. We stayed that way for over a minute. I finally asked, “Are you okay?”

She let go, looked up at me, and said, “No, I’m not okay. I miss you too damn much when you’re not around and it drives me crazy, then you kiss me like you just did when I decide that I need to get on with my life and promise myself that we have to cool things off a little, and ... well, you know.”

I grinned, “So you don’t want me to kiss you like that anymore?”

She smiled back, “Yeah, I do. I want you to kiss me like that a lot,” then she sighed and added, “But we have a guest right now. Let’s go see what’s going on in the kitchen.”

Cindy was wiping the countertop and Megan was drying her hands when we got back to the kitchen.

Nell asked, “How long before dinner?”

Megan answered, “About an hour.”

“Good, everyone sit down. I want to talk about some things, but I’d like to have a glass of wine first. Will you all join me?”

We nodded and sat down at the kitchen table. Nell opened a bottle of wine and poured us each a glass, then she sat down with us and said, “Pete is going to forgo his senior year at high school so that he can continue as Burgers’ spokesperson, Girls.”

The girls both looked shocked, especially Cindy, and Nell explained about me turning eighteen, how Burgers had expanded their offer to me, and that I had other offers as well, when she asked why.

Cindy looked at me and said, “I’ll miss you at school, but it sounds like a wonderful opportunity.”

I was about to agree when Nell said to her, “Pete is going to be visiting cities all over America. He’s going to be able to see a lot of wonderful things. Do you think that would be fun?”

“God, yes, it would be fantastic.”

“How would you like to go with him for a while?”

Her eyes got big and she stuttered, “W-What, how come?”

“Pete needs someone to help him when he’s at the locations. Jim takes care of the hardware and the pictures, but Pete needs someone for crowd control and a lot of other things. We wondered if you’d like to assist him.”

“You mean that I’d have to give up my senior year as well?”

“No, I want you to stay in school. It would only be until school starts then we’ll get someone else.”

“Oh my God, that would be so great, but I’d have to ask my grandfather.”

Nell smiled and said, “He’s fine with it.”

“Y-You already talked to him?”

“We talked several times. I originally wanted to see how he felt about you helping Pete at the west coast stores and how he was about you travelling with him, but we talked about Pete’s expanded role this afternoon, and how we were going to hit nationwide locations while the weather is good and I told him that there would be a few times when you’ll be gone for a week or more.”

“What did he say?”

“He said that was he knew you’d be okay as long as Pete with you, and to tell you not to worry about him because Mrs. Devon would keep her eye on him while you’re gone.”

She grinned, ““I bet she will; she’s at our house almost every night as it is.”

“He said that he’s spending a lot of time at the eye clinic, is his sight improving?”

“It’s getting better every day.”

“That’s great. So you wouldn’t mind helping Pete with his appearances for a while?”

“Not at all, visiting all those places sounds fantastic, but what about work?”

“You’ve done some amazing things in the short time that you’ve been at Burgers. John and I both like you and we hope that you’re going to be with us for a long time. I’d actually like you to think of working for Burgers as a career, and I want to talk with you about it when we have time, but I have some concerns about the people at work right now. Rumor mills are working overtime. The word at work is that you’re my hired gun because of what you found when you first started with us, and you’ve been seen coming in at night lately, so here is...”

Megan interrupted with, “How long will this be, Mom?”

Nell answered, “Not long, why?”

“I have to check on dinner and I want to take a shower.”

“Fine, Dear, go ahead.”

Nell continued when she left, “So here is what we’re going to do. I need you to continue as my assistant, but I need to get you out of my office, so I’m putting a cubicle next to Sarah’s desk for you, and you’ll officially belong to her starting Monday. My calls will still go through you, so you’ll continue doing what you’ve been doing, but you’ll also do some things for Sarah, including answering her phone when she’s tied up.”

“That’s fine. I’ve seen how busy she is and I’ve wondered why she didn’t have an assistant.”

“I have jokingly described her as the one who actually runs the company, but that’s not far from the truth. She deals with matters that involve very large sums of money and some of those matters involve negotiations that are very private and very delicate daily. We’ve never trusted anyone enough to assign someone to her before.”

“And you think that she’ll be okay with it?”

“She’s the one who suggested it. She’s been watching you too, and she’s impressed, and trust me, she doesn’t impress easily.”

Cindy’s eyes grew wide. She stared at Nell, and it looked like she wanted to say something, but the words wouldn’t come out. Nell finally leaned back in her chair, took a sip of wine, and asked, “Do you think that you can handle it?”

“I-I’ll do my best, and, uhh, thank you for your trust. What’s going to happen when I go back to school?”

“We’ll worry about that when the time comes.”

“What about when Pete and I are away?”

“We’ll work through it. Oh, and you’re going to have a different title starting Monday. We’re not sure what it’ll be yet, but Sarah’s is Director of operations. What do you think about ‘Assistant to the Director of Operations’?”

“Uhh, great!”

“Good, and it comes with a pay raise.”

“But you don’t have to, Mrs. Burger...”

“Nell made a face at her and said, “I’m Mrs. Burger at work, I’m Nell when we’re here, okay?”

“Okay.”

“And another thing; you work a five day week, so you take Monday off if you work with Pete on Sunday. You take Monday and Tuesday off if it’s Saturday and Sunday, AND NO MORE LATE NIGHTS, UNDERSTAND?”

“Yes, Ma’am, but what if I find...”

“No buts, and don’t find anything else for a while for God’s sake. We’re about to make some big changes because of the things that you’ve already found, but we’re going to have to play down your involvement, and you’re going to have to keep a low profile for a while if you’re going to get along with the people at work. Sending you off with Pete is part of it, and we’ve come up with a way to explain what you’re doing at night.”

Cindy frowned and asked, “What kind of changes are you going to make?”

“We’re going to let some people go.”

“B-But I didn’t do it to get people in trouble.”

Nell answered, “I know, Dear, but the things you’ve found, especially the computer problem, has opened our eyes a lot. We’re going to take a hard look at our entire staff. We have people whose job it is to be on top of things like that. It means that we have a problem if you found two things as important as those are in the short time that you’ve been at Burgers.”