Chapter 8: Getting Ready

Hal and I had a good conversation over our lunch but I did not learn much more about things at work, not that I cared that much. Hal would keep my return secret at work unless he was pressed. That was the impression I got.

The short of it was that Hal was a buddy, but he pretty much was not interested in what was going on at the cave. He was pretty tied up with his live in girlfriend. He felt this was a Cocopah problem since it was probably their people on Dragon Planet and it was their cave.

This was Monday. George was going to be back on Wednesday. Hal gave me George's phone number and recommended I work with George on any plans having to do with the rescue. I could see he had other interests and told him thanks for keeping my secret. I had him drop me off at home.

I logged into my bill pay service and made sure everything was running fine except my checking account which was rather depleted now. Luckily most of my bills had been automatically getting paid while I was gone. My condo took care of electricity, water and sewage. My land line was a Vonage phone it is a fixed bill and is automatically taken care of. My cell phone was Virgin Mobile so I only had a $7 monthly fee unless I talked a lot.

I am tight. I looked around a lot while in college at what everyone else was doing with cell phones and little of it had to do with talking to someone. Text messaging, ring tones, games, they used them for everything but as a telephone. Most of it was just not necessary and the cheapest plan was through Virgin if all you wanted was a basic phone and to talk.

I have a 401K at work but most of my money was tied up in a money market fund and a small mutual fund based mostly on medical technologies. Luckily it was all through a brokerage set up by my folks. I did not have to worry about work finding out I was back because my own investments were held at a brokerage and not at the bank where I worked.

I had made over three thousand dollars in the two months I had been gone, most from the money market. A money market fund makes money by lending short term capital mostly to businesses that do not quite have the cash on hand for capital investments like buying land, trucks, or things like heavy equipment. This is usually limited to 90 days by law.

I called up Andrea Kuzma and asked her if she would like to have dinner later. It was already six PM. Andrea worked as a secretary at a real estate company. She was ubiquitously studying to be a real estate agent. She was 24 and very sweet.

I liked her, but at this point in my life I was not interested in marriage. I invited her to meet me at Cafe Poca Casa a very interesting place with unique food.

My seven year old BMW 740 did not want to start, but just as I was beginning to worry it caught. Probably a weak battery, I hoped it would charge up by the time I got to the restaurant. I met Andrea at Cafe Poca Casa and we went in.

The server took our drink order and then disappeared.

"So Johnny, where have you been I have not heard from you in months" Andrea said, she hated to call me JH and I didn't care. Nicknames are something someone else uses. I answer to anything really)

"Ya, about that, I have been out of town on family business" I said.

"How mysterious" she said smiling.

"It's one of those things where I am not at liberty to talk about it. Not really my secret you see" I said.

"Oh now I AM curious" she said.

"How have you been?" I asked.

"Quite well I take my exam in two weeks. Then I will be working part time as an agent, but still work full time as an office manager. My real estate work will be through a different office so that I don't get an unfair advantage or first pick at the office I work at now" she said.

"I bet you're not happy about that. How are you supposed to get customers across town from where you work every day?" I asked.

"Exactly my point" she said.

"Oh, a sore subject I take it" I said while smiling ruefully.

"Yes, very much so it would be nice to ease into it, but I am pretty sure they are trying to keep me in my lowly place. I may have to make a break with them after I get my license" she said.

"I am not sure how my job is going either. I had to take a leave of absence on short notice to take care of my family business, I fear I will be called away again in a few days" I said.

"Back with the mysteriousness again" she said.

"Not really, all I can say is it involves traveling far and it is important to some people" I said.

"You keep opening up like that and I am going to think your one of those sensitive types" she laughed softly.

Our drinks arrived and the server got our food order. At this rate of service I figure we should order breakfast. OK I was hungry and I get bitchy when I need food. I have needed food for months. We were probably being served at the normal speed for an upscale downtown restaurant with high popularity.

As I sipped my drink I looked at Andrea. She was light complicated and had hair that stopped just sort of her shoulders. It was very active when she moved her head and moved around in an attractive manner. Her eyes were a hazel like color and her hair was neither brown nor blond but something in between with multicolored highlights so I was pretty sure it was her color.

The most striking thing was her figure. She was 5' 9" if my estimate was correct. She was a svelte woman but still curvy and feminine. Her A cup breasts I remembered were cone shaped and had small areola and long nipples. Their color was just slightly darker than her skin color which was very fair. Thinking about her like this gave me a twinge down there that quickly grew.

By far her best feature and the thing that always attracted me to her were her long slender legs. She had the legs of a model, but one with muscle tone as she had been an athlete in high school. When she walked across the floor in heels and a skirt it turned heads.

She may not be college educated, but she was still sharp and insightful. She had not had the opportunity to go to college. Her parents had struggled with 5 kids and she was too occupied helping raise siblings. She would get there. This woman was a good one. We had hooked up several times and we liked each other a lot. We both felt we were too young to get married.

Our light conversation continued over dinner. The menu here changes daily it seemed and the food was always as much about sight and smell as it was flavor, but it was always good. We both passed on desert.