Chapter 9

It took a while for me to fall asleep that night. Perhaps it was too soon, but I had always been a person who looked ahead and took stock of my assets and liabilities before I took action. I was doing a lot of thinking about the implications of suddenly having extended the bounds of our family.

Paula snuggled briefly. In the dim light coming through her curtains, I could just make out her face. Her eyes flickered open for an instant, she saw my face though, then she sighed and smiled, snuggling even tighter to me.

Oh my, but that felt good.

Maybe I could get used to this easier than I had expected.

I'm sure that when I finally fell asleep there was a smile on my face.

Awakening on Saturday morning was really strange. I was alone in a bed that smelled distinctly of a sexy woman. Over and above that, I had awakened in a room that I didn't instantly recognise; it took a moment or two for me to realise where I was. I needed to find the bathroom, but as I came more fully awake, I realised that my undershorts weren't lying where I'd taken them off last night.

I was starting to think that Paula was being unreasonable about forcing me to run around in the nude when I heard running footsteps, then someone at the bedroom door. It opened and Paula appeared, slightly out of breath, and carrying a couple of shopping bags in her hands.

"Oh Darn." She giggled. "You woke up before I got back. I'm sorry about that. I hurried as fast as I could, but I've never shopped for a guy before."

"What?" I stared at her as she dropped the shopping bags on the floor and ran to the bed to lean down and hug me.

"I went and got you some stuff to have here." She announced. Her face inches from mine and a hug grin on her face. "I bought you a bathrobe, some more undershorts and a shirt to replace the one we tore up yesterday. I also got you a toothbrush and toothpaste and some deodorant, the same kind as I saw you had in your bathroom at the res."

"Well, I should use the robe, the toothbrush and the toothpaste, then I can kiss you and say thanks. I really need the can and the shower first, though."

"Mm hmm." She nodded. "I woke up feeling the same way."

Then, despite the way I must have reeked, she still gave me a quick kiss before bouncing off the bed and grabbing the shopping bags to begin tossing things toward me.

"There, a robe, undershorts, toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorant, a disposable razor, and lastly, a new shirt." She grinned at me. "They aren't fancy or anything, I just used the tags in the ones that you were wearing yesterday to get sizes and tried to get things that came close to matching what you were wearing or what I remembered seeing in the res."

"Well, it's still more than I expected." I grinned at her. "Thanks, now do you think the bathroom is busy?"

"Nah., Mom and Sydney have zipped over to Sydney's place, 'cause she wanted to change her clothes. They'll be back inside of an hour, so they won't hold up our car shopping trip. They still want to come watch you in action at the car lot. If you have a shower and clean up, I'll cook some breakfast."

"If I'd known they were gone..." I slid out of bed and grabbed the robe, toothbrush, toothpaste and razor, then tore to the bathroom as Paula stood laughing at my mad scramble.

She must have listened to the running water from the shower and started breakfast when it stopped, because when I came out, she was just setting breakfast on the table. We each had a half grapefruit, a small orange juice, eggs, bacon and toast, as well as a cup of coffee.

"Wow, I'll get fat if you feed me like this." I grinned at her.

"I've got to keep your strength up." She grinned back. "But before we eat, I want a proper kiss."

I was glad to oblige, but when my hands started to roam over her body, she pulled back.

"Unh uh." She pushed my hands away. "Eat first, then as you get dressed, we need to talk, okay?"

"Okay." I agreed as my stomach growled. "Even my belly seems to think that's smart."

She just giggled as she slid into one of the places set at the table. "Well, lets eat then; even I'm getting excited about the idea of going out with you and shopping for a car."

"Ah, that's a surprise." I smiled as I lifted a bite of grapefruit.

"Oh, come on, a chance to actually shop with my guy? What woman anywhere wouldn't like that?"

"But, it's for a car." I chuckled.

"Mmm, I was thinking about that." She smiled tentatively. "Where do you stand on the great SUV discussion?"

"I don't think I've ever thought about it too much." I shrugged. "That would solve the problem of clearance for wintertime snow, that's a consideration for the cabin. We actually get quite a bit of snow up there some years, that's why I've gotten into the residences. My first year at the University, I was snowed in at the cabin for five days."

"Ohh! Actual snow for several days?"

"Don't sound so happy about it; it can be a pain in the butt. The cabin is about twelve hundred feet higher in altitude and about fifteen miles inland, so we get warmer weather in the summer and cooler weather in the winter. We get a bit more rain, a bit more fog, a bit more snow, that sort of thing. You have to take the good with the bad."

"Since you come with it, I'll take it." She giggled. "Say, four wheel drive would be handy too, wouldn't it?"

"Yes, definitely. That's one failing of the old pickup truck. It only has rear wheel drive."

"So would you trade that in?"

"Not so you'd notice." I grinned. "I've finally got old Billy-Bob about where I want him; I don't want to part with him now. He's a perfect sleeper."

"You mean it's rigged up as a camper truck?"

"No, Billy-Bob is a 1947 Dodge pickup. He looks old and beat up, but he has updated and modernized brakes, steering, suspension, power train, and safety gear, stuff like seat belts and a roll cage. He looks like he's on his last legs, however, flat out and lightly loaded, he'll do zero to 60 in under five seconds. About the time some hot rod kid pulls up beside him with one of the newer rice burners and starts laughing about the way he looks, he sometimes gets the bit in his teeth. Besides, I love going up the grade on the Malahat, carrying a big load and zipping past new trucks who are carrying half the load and bogging down."

"I see." She couldn't help smiling. "You are competitive and do have an ego, after all."

"Oh yeah, but it's tempered by what I like to think of as a sense of humour." I grinned. "Besides, Billy-Bob has fenders made out of real steel, not the tin cans they use for fenders in trucks these days. He was meant to last and I've given him new life. But, just in case I ever want to restore him to original one day, I did keep all the original bits and pieces."

"That was my next question." She laughed. "Do you have all the answers?"

"Nope." I grinned. "I don't even have an idea what all the questions might be."

"Well, to get back to the new car, what do you think of an SUV?"

"Sounds good to me, if that's what you want."

"But do Mercedes or Volvo have SUV's, or do you know?"

"Well, we could call them, or go down and check for ourselves, or better yet, we could go on the Internet, then go to autonet and check there. If autonet has a listing, we can do a comparison of all the features and costs, do all that stuff right from here."

"You're kidding me?"

"Nope." I grinned as I polished my plate with a piece of toast. "Thank you for breakfast; that was excellent."

"Good, now hand me your plate and lets go check that web-site." She was on her feet in an instant.

"You do that, I'm putting on some clothes first." I told her flatly.

I had gotten dressed and was putting on my pants when I heard her voice squawk.

"FIFTY THOUSAND dollars!" She screamed. "For a bloody rolling pile of metal and rubber?"

"More like tin cans and plastic, dear." I laughed as I came out of the bedroom, still barefoot.

"Lets rent a damn car until you can find me something old and fix it up like you did your truck. Your truck only cost you sixteen grand and it sound like it suits you to a 'T.' I'll bet we could do just as good for me."

"Oh, where did you come from?" I laughed in delight at the idea of fixing up an old car for her. "But in this case, Mom's right. We need a car like this for those days when we want to thumb our noses at the Joneses."

"What?" She turned and looked at me strangely.

"Our snotty neighbours, we have to give them something to keep up with and we can certainly afford it. My accountant will ask why we didn't buy two of them? He keeps telling me that I'm not spending enough money on myself, and that means too much goes to the government in taxes."

"Just a second, dear." She whipped back to the web-site, then swore quietly. "I can't see a Mercedes pickup listed. The closest they have is a station wagon. Say, could you rebuild one of those into a mini-pickup?"

"Oh come on, it'd be a micromini." I laughed. "It wouldn't be big enough to haul anything; it'd be useless."

"Not if you just want to thumb your nose at the Joneses." She giggled. "Just think, buy a two year old junker station wagon and have it rebuilt just so your artist girlfriend could have a little pickup truck to haul her easel and paints around in style."

When Aileen and Sydney came in a few minutes later, we were laughing so hard that we were holding our sides. We'd gotten carried away as we searched the net for the most suitable style of fancy station wagon that could be chopped into a micromini-pickup truck and still look stylish, yet still be slightly useful. I think they thought we had lost our marbles. Perhaps we had, but it was fun.

After our review on the computer, we'd made up our minds to buy the Mercedes ML350 SUV, but we'd agreed that we had to at least look at the Volvo XC90 SUV, just to be fair. Paula and I drove down in her mother's car with Aileen and Sydney following in Sydney's car. I think they were surprised that we planned on pulling into the Mercedes sales lot first, but it was a buyer's tactic that I'd used before. You visit a lot, get a salesman all hot for a sale, then explain that you simply have to be fair and at least look at the competition, hop in your car and let the salesman cool his heels for a while. Worked properly, along with a few other tactics, you can use it to get the best deal possible.

On the way downtown, Paula and I discussed tactics, so as we parked her mom's car and got out, she was quickly at my side and holding onto one of my arms as if she were glued to me. Of course we had a fleet footed, glib talking salesman in our face almost instantly. As I expected, he greeted us both effusively, then proceeded to ignore Paula and concentrate on pushing himself and his whole sales pitch at me. I simply walked past him, totally ignoring his greeting and everything he had said, heading instead for an older salesman who had hung back just a few seconds too long for Mr. 'Fleet of foot and glib of tongue.' The look on both of their faces was worth that act, even if by chance they didn't have an SUV like the one we wanted in stock.

Fortunately they had one that came within the range of our needs, not only in stock, but supposedly ready to go. So we looked it over and Paula hung on my arm as if she was a wall flower, but our salesman wasn't having any of that, he was including her in his spiel even if she wasn't really reacting to his sales pitch. Actually what he probably didn't notice was that occasionally he'd make a point she wanted more information on and she'd squeeze my arm to get me to have him fill in a more detailed explanation. Meanwhile Aileen and Sydney had come on the lot and were being annoyed by the first salesman that we'd run into.

Eventually the sales pitch reached the point where he asked us if we wanted to take the SUV for a test drive. As far as we were concerned though, he'd only gone over the surface features and goody detail without getting into the technical end at all. I know he'd included Paula up until then, but when I simply looked at her and raised my eyebrows, his face registered mild surprise. When she let go of my arm and headed for the driver's door, his eyebrows were the ones that lifted. But, he instantly started toward the front passenger seat. When she only reached inside to unlatch the engine compartment before walking around the SUV to open the hood, I think he suddenly had to do a total reassessment of the whole situation.

Then she looked inside the engine compartment and started hitting him with technical questions. After a moment, he realised she knew more than he did about the difference between the 2005 model and the 2006 model we were looking at. He was forced to go get the tech sheets, that's when we went into a whipsaw pitch for a few minutes. Paula would ask a question, then I would and so on. He was a good salesman, if he didn't know the answer, he asked someone who did, or he looked it up himself.

Finally, to my mind, it was time for the test drive and I winked at Paula. She simply headed for the driver's door and I headed for the front passenger's door, leaving the salesman to take a back seat. By that point, he wasn't ready to argue; I think he realised that he'd been had. Paula adjusted the seat and the mirrors to where she was comfortable and could see well, then finally started the engine. She drove for a few minutes and then quietly pulled over to the side and parked, turned to me and suggested that we swap seats. She said she wanted both of us to be comfortable with whatever vehicle we decided on, but she was frowning when she did it. The choice of the word vehicle was intentional, in fact we'd rehearsed it. Used in the way she did, it has a slightly negative connotation.