Chapter 5

My double major in English and Information Systems and Technology helped me tremendously. After graduation, I decided to try to stay afloat via freelancing. I gave myself six months to make things work. After that, I thought I would have to try to find permanent employment with one specific company. I soon learned that it was tough to launch into my own business without establishing myself as a competent and reputable employee, so I altered my plans and got hired by a company that sent me out to do work building computer systems for small to medium sized businesses. We took care of everything from initial hardware purchasing to software mounting and selection of programs best suited for the company to maintenance and software-system updates. I even got involved in training some personnel onsite.

Michele was working on her elementary education teaching degree throughout this period. When she was halfway through her program, I quit my year-and-a-half old job for the company that hired me. By then, I'd gotten to know quite a few people while working around town at various businesses. Some individuals at these businesses recommended me for solo work at other companies they knew. I provided good service and because I was a solo operator, I gave them better rates than any software companies in town. The company that initially hired me called me disloyal, fired me and threatened to blackball me. I looked at it as being enterprising and told them to go ahead and try. Privately, I worried. Had I slit my own throat in the area? Could I make it on my own, simply through freelancing?

I could indeed, I found out. And when I wasn't working on a computer job, I was working on tech writing software manuals for various companies. I proofread and revised some manuals and wrote others from scratch. The work - and more important, the rather sizable checks - came in at a very steady rate.

Work was so steady that I had a most amazing graduation gift to offer Michele. She still had almost nine months before she wrapped up her degree, but I decided to give it to her in advance. "Why the long drive?" she asked as I took us for out of the city limits, down countless farm roads that seemed to stretch forever.

"You'll soon see."

"But you said that, twenty minutes ago."

"And I mean it now."

I turned onto a much narrower road and drove up to an isolated three-story home.

"Who are we visiting?" Michele asked me.

"Each other?"

"What?"

"Come on in."

"Tony, I don't understand." I showed her the huge sunken living room, the kitchen and dining rooms, the upstairs bedrooms, the giant third-floor room that could easily be converted into an office or library or combination of both. All the time, I ignored her volley of questions.

"The basement's finished too."

"Basement! Nobody has basements in South Texas."

"True. The guy who built this house came from the northeast. And as you saw, the attic's been turned into third floor office space. That's going to be my special part of the house. You can do whatever you want with the rest of it."

"What?"

"If you want to, that is." I swept my arms around the master bedroom in which we were standing. "The place is yours, my love - if you want it. And if you'll marry me."

She came up close to me. "Do you know what you just said?"

I nodded all smiles.

"Don't joke with me, Tony."

I pulled my final gift out of my jeans pocket, opened the black felt box and showed her the diamond ring. "Does this look like I'm joking?"

"Oh! Tony. I can't imagine-"

"Those aren't the words, Baby. 'Yes, I'll marry you' are the right ones."

She nodded her head and I watched tears spill down her cheeks.

"Yes, yes, yes. Oh, yes, my love. Forever yes!"

We hugged and kissed for a long time and I started to feel very aroused but forced myself to speak.

"One last surprise."

I moved her to the window.

"Oh! My God! A swimming pool."

"And not a dinky one, either."

I raced her downstairs and she stood by the empty cavernous maw in our backyard. The pool was very large and shaped roughly like a fat jellybean. One side of it sported a gorgeous landscape of flowers and shrubs growing around a rocky landscape from which a waterfall would cascade when the water was turned on and the pool was in use. A smaller circular pool stood adjacent to the main one.

"Is that a kiddy pool?" asked Michele.

"No, it's a hot tub and Jacuzzi."

"Oh! My God! Tony!"

"I know how much you love to swim," I said. "And I know how much you like to soak and have fun in a Jacuzzi."

She turned around. "And I know how much you hate clothes. Tony, we're so isolated out here."

"More than you realize. We own fifty acres and the closest neighbors are about three or four miles that way." I pointed back toward town.