Chapter 3

I was up at six thirty, showered, but ate a prepared breakfast before dressing in color co-ordinated clothes Shirley handed to me. I tied the tie and checked out the stranger in the mirror. Some guy I didn't know.

Shirley asked, "I have a key so I can clean this place up. You can give me twenty-five a week for housekeeping now that you have a job. That way I'll have your supper ready for you when you get home, okay?"

She already had the key, but I was having some misgivings. Were we getting too close? Time would tell.

When I went to Ms. White's office at seven forty-five, she said, "Good morning, Mr. Johnson. May I call you Chuck?"

I nodded, then after she looked at me, I smiled and said, "Yes ma'am."

"Okay, sign these papers and I'll show you where your desk is."

Once Ms. White had the papers in the folder with my name on it, we went next to her office at a desk that butted up against her office wall. "This will be where you will work most of the time. You will be answering the phone for me, as well as the other normal secretarial duties."

An older lady came in and sat at a desk just opposite mine. Ms. White said, "Julie, I want you to meet Chuck Johnson. Chuck, Julie Preston. She is Ms. Castle's secretary. When I'm unavailable for questions, Julie would be a great person to ask."

Julie Preston at first had a scowl on her face, but was smiling from the compliment.

Ms. White said, "I need to take you out to the counters and let you work with the girls out there today. You'll work out there all of today to learn the procedures. Tomorrow we'll go on a more regular schedule."

Out behind the counter, Ms. White called all of the clerks to her and said quickly, "Before we open this morning, I want to introduce Mr. Chuck Johnson. He will be my new temp while my secretary is out on maternity leave. This morning I want him to work with you Francine and you Marsha. This afternoon we'll pick two more of you to teach him. Teach him well so he can relieve you for breaks."

The person Ms. White had pointed to as Francine came to me and said, "Let's get to my window and start. Just listen and watch while I do the first one. I'll explain each form as I go along so you'll have an idea."

Her area was neat and orderly. On her right was a set of bins like you would see at a post office where mail was sorted into. Each bin was labeled with numbers 1 through sixty. Wow! Sixty different forms.

The first person was a girl that had been laid off from Albertson's as they had closed some stores. Francine pointed at a form that was under glass on her counter. Under her nail it said, "Standard first file," listing the number one. Francine reached up to the top left of her sorting bins and pulled out form number one. She handed it to the girl and said to go fill it out and come back to the window and wait till Francine was done with the person she was helping.

Francine turned to me and said, "It'll get busier and the forms harder, just wait for it."

She looked down at her computer and it had a number flashing on it. Francine pointed at that number, picked up her phone and dialed, announcing over the PA the number that was flashing on the screen to come to her counter number.

The next soul came to the window, told about the same story, and received form number one and was told to go fill it out.

When someone came back with the form filled out, the information was typed into the computer. The screens were easy and had directions throughout.

This went on until ten when Francine said, "I guess you can handle this fifteen minutes. I'll be right back."

I was able to handle a citizen and a half before Francine got back. She took over and told me to go to the next booth to relieve a girl name Betty. Betty turned the window over to me halfway through going through a filled out form, telling me she would be back.

At ten-thirty, I moved another notch down and relieved Mary, and at ten forty-five I relieved June. When I went back to Francine at eleven, she took me to Marsha who said, "You're lucky, Chuck. You only have to work with me for an hour before I go to lunch. I suppose Ms. White will take you for another interview and get you back on time."

I said, "She doesn't go till almost one."

Marsha said, "She is the smart one around here.

Ms. White and I did go to lunch together again. She asked me about my military career and commented that her husband had wanted to be career air force, but his football career interrupted that plan. When we returned to work, she put me with another set of clerks to work with.

By five, I was tired and my stub was sore from being on my feet all day. Ms. White told me to see her in the morning and she would give me a time card to use from now on.

When I got to the apartment, the front door was open and good smells greeted me. I walked in and Shirley said, "Open a couple of beers and sit. Supper is just about ready."

I had just sat down with a couple of beers when Shirley brought two plates with meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans. She put a bowl of gravy on the table and sat down. "How's that. Good timing, if I do say so myself."

We ate and chatted with Shirley telling me the apartment complex gossip and commenting on the clothes she had laundered. She said, "I separated your clothes into groups in your closet so you know what goes with what. I'll switch the ties around so you will give a different appearance most every day."

After supper, I did the dishes while she took the clothes I had worn that day with her as she went to do more laundry. She was a hard worker. It seemed she put in a long day almost every day.

When I went outside to find Shirley to tell her I was going for a ride, she said she was going to stay home because she thought her old man would call early tonight.

I rode around the city sightseeing and made my way back to Jonah's. There I had a beer, shot some pool, joked with the barmaid, and had a fun conversation with big Millie. I asked her where there was a Lifestyle gym and she gave me directions to the nearest one saying, "I go every evening after work. I go from about five thirty to six thirty or seven. I probably ought to eat first, but I eat afterward."

Perhaps tomorrow I would eat later and go to the gym after work. I had my gym shorts and shirts, along with socks and sneakers, so I didn't need to buy anything. I planned on going the next night.

At the apartment after I parked the bike and went inside, there was a note from Shirley on the counter that said she would see me in the morning. I got out my gym clothes and sneakers so they would be out in the morning and went to bed. I slept well.

I woke to a slow soft blowjob. When I opened my eyes, Shirley was grinning at me, "Give me my breakfast before I make yours." She had me close enough that it only took a minute or two more for me to be filling her mouth. I tried to pull her over me, but she gave me a quick kiss pushing me away and said to get ready for work and she would have breakfast for me as soon as I shaved and showered.

For breakfast, we ate pancakes and sausages, a good breakfast. Shirley said, "I noticed some gym clothes on the dresser, when are you going to go?"

I said, "I thought that I would go after work. It's sort of on the way home, so I'll stop there for an hour or so. That will get me here by near seven. If that's too late, I can start getting up an hour and a half earlier and go in the mornings, but I do need to go for my rehab."

"Okay, I'll plan on us eating around seven then. That'll be good because I can probably finish all my laundry before you get through at the gym." Shirley paused and said, "Do you want to take a couple of meatloaf sandwiches with you today? I made a big meatloaf so there would be enough for sandwiches and another meal."

"Sounds good," I said. "That'll save me the price of a Cuban."

This day was different. The morning was spent typing a bunch of letters for Ms. White, plus answering calls for her. Most of them I passed into her, but some were bullshit calls that had nothing to do with business, just solicitations.

I did the mid-morning breaks, and later ate lunch with Julie Preston at our desks. She told me all about working for the state agency and that it was pleasant to have someone across from her that was there to work and not just gab all day. Neither one us gave out any personal information, but we had a decent chat while eating.

She left to go somewhere for the rest of her lunch hour, so I went to the group that was in charge of finding prospective employers to see what kind of jobs they had available. Larry, a guy with a lot of female mannerisms, gave me a ton of information. He was actually pretty. If he had been wearing women's clothes, I probably would have flirted. As it was, it was tempting except that it kept coming back to the fact that he was a guy not a girl.

Later, back at my desk, Julie said, "I heard you met Larry. Did he make a pass?"

"Sort of, but not overtly. He was very nice and helpful. I probably shouldn't tell you this but if he had been wearing girl's clothes, I might have flirted."

Julie laughed, "He is cute. I bet he doesn't have any problems finding boyfriends."

After work, I fought traffic to the gym and had to go through registration confirmation at the desk. This was this location's first VA registration, so they had to keep making calls on how to handle the paperwork. It took forty-five minutes for the bullshit, but I still wanted some exercise. I changed, and used the treadmill for twenty minutes, getting a ton of stares because of the shiny metal extension on my right leg. I used the machines for fifteen minutes before I grabbed my clothes and headed home. Millie never did show up. I made the mental note to get a gym bag and lock for a locker.

Shirley had supper waiting. We had warmed up meatloaf, boiled potatoes, and corn. After supper, Shirley asked if I was going riding and I said I might. She said she wanted to go with me if I did, so I told her that we would do it after we both got on some riding clothes.

When we took off Shirley gave me directions to another bar back toward downtown. The place was a more commercial biker bar that was fairly standard, except this one had a liquor bar instead of just beer and wine. Shirley introduced me to several people as new to the area and her new neighbor. I noticed that several of the guys were wearing colors of a national club. It wasn't uncomfortable, but I sure knew I was being sized up.

When it was getting late, I told Shirley it was time to go. She said one of the guys there would give her a ride home so I nodded and left. I had been home for about forty-five minutes and was in bed already when I heard a bike come up out front and leave. Less than five minutes later, Shirley came in the back door and crawled into bed.

"That was perfect. I let one of my old man's brothers give me a ride home so when he checks up on me, he'll hear that you weren't acting like you were owning me. The guys even asked me to tell you that you were welcome to come by their clubhouse if you wanted. I told them you were a vet with a bad leg, and they said you were still welcome. If you want my advice, you can be friends with those guys, but don't go joining a bike club. Too much trouble."

Shirley began making overtures of fooling around. I'm not fool. A little nooky before going to sleep would be nice. When we got down to me getting ready to enter her, Shirley stopped me and put a rubber on me, "Use this, it'll make you last longer."

We thumped and bumped for a good while and after a very nice finish, I got up and flushed the rubber down the toilet. Back in bed Shirley said, "And no big wet spot either, saves on the laundry."

Friday morning I was up, fed, and at work by seven forty-five. Julie came in and asked me if I wanted coffee. "Sure, where should I go to get it?"

"Come with me, I'll show you our lunchroom. Ms. White is being derelict in her duties."

Julie took me to the lunchroom where Larry was standing at the fancy coffee maker. When he saw me, he hurriedly poured me a cup. When I handed that one to Julie, he actually blushed and poured another for me. Larry asked in a husky voice, "Do you want cream or sugar?"