Chapter 12

It was past time for the weekly status meeting among the bodyguards and they had a problem. Rock and Colt had arrived, but Natalie and Nicole had not put in an appearance yet. Neither man was very happy. The absence of the two women at the meeting underscored the problem. For some reason, the women were furious with them. Everyone in the household, with the exception of William, was aware that there was a problem among the bodyguards.

The first clue that Rock had of a problem was when he returned to the room he shared with Natalie after finishing his duties late Christmas night. Expecting to find her waiting for him dressed in lingerie, he was shocked to find that all of his clothes were out in the hallway. He was then surprised to learn that Nicole had moved out of Colt's room. He had moved in with Colt puzzled as to what he had done wrong. Colt was just as confused.

Frustrated at sleeping alone, Rock said, "You must have said something to anger them."

"I can't think of anything that I said that would make them mad at us," Colt said shaking his head. He was just as confused by events as Rock.

"All I know is that Christmas morning everything was okay and by nightfall things had gone to hell," Rock said running his fingers through his hair in frustration. Christmas morning, he had given the two women nice necklaces that matched the earrings that Colt had given them. They had seemed quite overwhelmed by the gifts. He asked, "What happened?"

Scratching the side of his face, Colt said, "I don't know. I was telling Natalie that I was thinking about settling down. Next thing I know she's mad at us."

Rock stared at the top of the table while thinking about it. He sighed and said, "I've been thinking the same thing. I'd like to get married and raise a kid or three."

"The problem that I have is that I can't make up my mind whether I'd like to spend the rest of my life with Natalie or Nicole," Colt said glancing at Rock to see his reaction.

Snorting, Rock said, "Hell, I'd ask them both if I could."

"Same here. There are two of us and two of them. If one of us got both of them, the other would be out in the cold. We ought to be able to figure out some way of pairing up for good," Colt said while twiddling his fingers nervously. He wished that he had brought something to work on. It would be nice to have something to do with his hands while waiting for the women.

"There's got to be some way for the four of us to be happy."

Barking out a laugh, Colt said, "I sure as hell am not happy right now. I like you, but you aren't my ideal for a roommate."

"If you had to choose between them, which one would you ask to be your wife?"

Shaking his head, Colt felt that the choice was impossible. He'd spent hours thinking about it, but he couldn't make up his mind. He answered, "I don't know. I love them both."

"Yeah," Rock said in agreement.

"How about you?"

"You know, I've spent a lot of long days and nights on duty with each of them. We've grown close under adversity. To be honest, that closeness has moved to love. I love them both, too. It is an impossible decision," Rock said.

Colt said, "There are two of us and two of them. We ought to be able to come up with some solution."

"The only solution that I can think of is that we marry them both," Rock said throwing his hands up in the air.

"Like any of us is going to go for that."

Vera pointed a finger at Barbara and said, "He wants me to research the sex industry."

"I don't understand what your problem is with that," Barbara said staring at Vera. It was obvious to her that the young woman was upset, but she didn't see any reason for it. As far as she understood, William had hired her as a research assistant.

"It is sexual harassment," Vera said wondering why Barbara didn't understand that men couldn't require women to investigate an industry based on perversion.

"He wants business numbers about an important sector of the economy. I really don't see a problem with that," Barbara said wondering how William had broached the subject if Vera had seen it as sexual harassment. She couldn't imagine William acting in an improper manner.

Frustrated, Vera blew air out of her mouth. She said, "What do you mean you don't see a problem with that? He has me looking into prostitution, sex shops, adult films, and other kinds of businesses that are equally disgusting. When I put in a query on the internet, I get back pages with pictures of women doing things that are positively immoral. The fact that he's demanding that I do it is sexual harassment. What don't you understand about that?"

Barbara stared at Vera unable to come up with a response. It was obvious that Vera didn't distinguish between the financial aspects of the business with the services provided by the businesses. Trying to mediate the situation, she asked, "Have you talked to William about this?"

"Of course not; he's the one harassing me. That's why I came to you," Vera answered crossing her arms and staring at Barbara.

Deciding that she should get a second opinion on the matter from Sandra, Barbara said, "Okay. Let me look into it."

"You better. If he keeps on insisting that I do this, I'll sue him," Vera said. She rose and went over to the door. Looking back at Barbara, she said, "There's no court in the world that would rule in his favor."

With Vera gone, Barbara sat back in her chair shaking her head. She had no idea what to do about the situation. William's request for economic figures was purely within the scope of Vera's job responsibilities. She decided that William was going to have to assign someone else to pursue that particular line of research. She made a note in her book to discuss the matter with him.

She had hardly finished when there was a knock on her door. Looking up, she said, "Come in."

Feeling a little uncertain about disturbing Barbara, Rock stepped into the room and looked around as if seeking out a threat. Nodding at Barbara, he said, "I was wondering if you could help me."

"What's the problem?" Barbara asked. She didn't deal with the bodyguards very often, but liked them. It was very unusual for one of them to ask her for any help.

"Uh... well... you see... ," Rock said not knowing how to say what he wanted to say. He stopped trying and just looked at Barbara.

"I don't quite understand," Barbara said in an attempt to prompt him to get to the point.

"You're a woman," Rock said grabbing onto something factual.

"Yes, I am," Barbara answered wondering if he was trying to ask her out on a date. Shaking her head, she wondered if she had somehow wandered into the Twilight Zone.

"So you understand women," Rock said.

It felt to Barbara like this conversation was going to be as incomprehensible as the conversation with Vera had been. Taking a deep breath, she said, "I suppose I do understand women."

"Good. So you'll do it?" Rock asked looking at her expectantly.

"Do what?"

"Talk to the women and find out what we did to make them so mad at us," Rock answered frustrated that she hadn't figured out what the problem was.

"Which women?" she asked thinking that there were at least two dozen women in the house.

Frowning, Rock answered, "Natalie and Nicole, of course. Who else would be mad at us?"

"I don't know why anyone would be mad at you," Barbara answered with a sigh.

"Thanks," Rock said turning to leave the room. He paused at the door and asked, "When will you know something?"

"I'll try to talk to one of them later," Barbara answered.

Nodding his head, he said, "Don't give them the third degree. They hate it when you question them like that. Use your authority. They won't like it, but they'll answer your questions."

"I'm tired of waiting for him to do something," Sandra said to Juanita in the break room. The two women were in there alone and venting several months of frustration. There was an open bag of chips on the table. Sandra took out a chip and broke it into little pieces.

Watching Sandra as she destroyed the potato chip, Juanita asked, "Are you sure that he knows what you want?"

"Amanda told him almost six months ago," Sandra said. It had been a great topic of conversation around the dinner table. Despite Amanda's very explicit suggestion concerning what William should say to her, he had never acted on it.

"I don't understand why he's ignoring us," Juanita said giving voice to the fact that William didn't pick up their hints that they were interested. In a way, she envied Amanda and Donna. He'd listened to someone about their desires.

"I'm tired of it and I'm not going to put up with it any more," Sandra said reaching for another potato chip. It didn't last any longer than the previous chip. The pile of crumbs doubled in size.

"What are you going to do?" Juanita asked concerned that her friend was going to do something rash.

"I'm going to quit," Sandra said. She pulled out a third chip and started to break it into little crumbs.

"Are you going to eat those chips or torture them?" Juanita asked entranced by the bizarre behavior. She'd never watched anyone do that to a bag of potato chips before this.

"Oh, I do that when I'm upset," Sandra said looking down at the pile of crumbs she had created with embarrassment. She actually preferred to destroy those little stick pretzels instead of chips, but they didn't have any in the break room.

"Don't quit," Juanita said watching as Sandra destroyed another potato chip.

Looking down at the potato chip, Sandra asked, "You don't think it is weird that I break up potato chips?"