Chapter 10

I woke up early, around 4:30 am, as I looked at the clock beside my bed I realized I was a little more excited about our court proceedings then I had thought. I went down and made coffee then wandered back to have my smoke, I was sitting on the deck enjoying the morning when Cheryl came up with the coffee pot.

"Do you want some company?" she asked.

"Sure a little pretty company would be good" I replied with a smile.

Cheryl sat down without seeming to notice my comment, I watched her as she was fiddling with her coffee cup, I could tell she had something on her mind so I just waited for her to spit it out.

"I know I have only been working for you for a week but is there any way I could get an advance on my salary?" She asked finally.

"Normally I would say no but I can see there is something that is bothering you so why don't you tell me what you need the money for and I will make a decision based on that" I replied thoughtfully.

"When I was in the grocery store yesterday my old landlord told me that they were taking me to court over the money I owe them, I told him before I moved out that i would pay them what I owed but he said that I obviously had lots of money with the vehicle I was driving and the fact that I was picking up so much food. He didn't believe me when I told him that it was all part of my new job." She explained obviously quite concerned over what had happened.

"How much do you owe them?" I asked.

"Two months rent $2000.00."

"I see and this landlord has been bothering you about it in public places even after you have told him you would pay him what you owe. How about the owner has he contacted you over this?" I asked.

"No just the landlord, he gives me the creeps, he is always hinting that I could work it off if you know what I mean" she explained with an involuntary shiver.

"Yeah I think I understand what you mean" I said.

"Ok I don't think it will be a problem to give you an advance, but I would also like to ask Mike about this because I don't really think they should be able to do this, I also don't think they should be evicting a single mom after only being two months in arrears." I said.

She looked at me thoughtfully for a moment.

"This is just an advance right, I mean you aren't expecting anything more right?" She asked.

"Cheryl, I want to make this very clear, I did not hire you to be a hooker and I am not interested in paying you for sex. Now I would jump in bed with you or Julie in a second, but I know as well as you do that won't happen and I am alright with it." I explained with a deliberate tone of voice.

She smiled at the, would jump in bed with you comment, but I could tell she was relieved about the no sex thing.

"Now the question is, how do you want the money, cash, cheque, direct deposit or email transfer?" I asked.

"Direct deposit would be the best I guess, email would be nice but I don't have a computer or an email address" she said.

"No problem, I will do a direct deposit for you right away, as for the computer, just grab one of the new Dell laptops for yourself and one for Julie as well from the stack of them in the garage, they were for this job that got cancelled anyway, I will get an email address set up for you and Julie today." I said as I stood to get some more coffee.

"Thank you" she said as she jumped up and gave me a big hug, I am not sure if she could feel my erection against her as she hugged my nude body, but I know she could see it as she stepped back and glanced down at it.

She seemed to have a spring in her step as she went back into the house and down the stairs, I am not sure if it was from her relief or just the satisfaction of having gotten me excited. I went in and had my shower got dressed and went to find Mike.

Mike told me he would have a couple of lawyers from his office take a look at what the law said about evictions and whether or not they had acted properly, he suggested that Cheryl have them make the payment directly to the owners of the building and he would also make sure they were able to imply that the landlord was trying to take advantage of the situation, he said they would visit with the landlord and explain to him that there would be legal action taken if he was to speak to Cheryl again. I walked away from him feeling happy that it would be taken care of and went back in and explained it to Cheryl.

"I don't think I can afford a lawyer for this" she stated.

"You don't have to worry about that, they are already doing other stuff for me so this will just be rolled into it, I don't think they will even charge me more, they are already making a lot of money from me over my other issues" I lied.

"Ok as long as you are sure" she said.

"Not a problem, so did you get a laptop?" I asked.

She wiped her hands on her apron as she turned and lifted the laptop off of the counter where she had it just out of my sight, I could see it was going through the long boring start up procedure for a new Windows based computer.

"Has Julie started with hers yet?" I asked.

"Yes I think she is in the living room doing her right now" Cheryl said turning back to cooking breakfast.

"Good, let me know when they are ready to connect to the network and I will set up the router to allow access. It is easier when they try to connect I will just accept the computers into the network and you will have internet." I explained.

I walked back outside to find everyone sitting around the deck, I could tell everyone was a little excited about what was going to happen today. I just sat down when Julie came out with a cup of coffee for me, she bent down to hand it to me with her back to everyone else and her entire top opened showing me her entire chest.

"Thank you soo much for the laptop" she said straightening and fixing her top.

"You are very welcome" I replied with a smile that had to be from ear to ear.

I just had to shake my head as she turned and skipped back into the house. I looked around and saw Cathy watching me with a smile on her face. She winked at me as she got up and went into the house behind Julie.

We were just making a little small talk when Cheryl told us to come and fill a plate with food, I waited until everyone else had gone in before I walked into the house, Cathy, Julie and Cheryl were just off to the side having what looked to be a serious discussion about something in hushed tones, I could see a lot of nodding and shaking of heads as Cathy was talking, I would have to ask Cathy about that later I thought.

Cheryl and Julie were just clearing the table when Mike's cell phone rang everyone got really quiet as he answered and walked away to have a private conversation, we all sat and waited for him to come back without anyone saying a word.

"Rick, could I talk to you for a moment?" Mike asked waving me over to him.

"Ok" I said as I walked into the living room.

"They would like to settle out of court and have made an offer that I think you should listen to, they are going to fax the offer to you but i thought you might want to hear it and decide if it is worth pursuing before we tell anyone else." He explained.

"Ok what kind of offer have they come up with?" I asked.

"They are a little short of capital right now so they are offering you a percentage of the plant as well as a small monetary amount in order to settle." He said.

"Ok let's get the offer and read it over then we will decide." I said.

"There is a nondisclosure clause in the offer you are not allowed to discuss it with anyone, the offer is to you and only you." Mike said.

"Phone them back and tell them I am not interested then, if we can't talk about it and get feedback from my friends I am not interested." I said with conviction.

Mike looked at me and grinned then dialled his phone, I stood there as her told them what i had said, they must have been in the same room as the other lawyers as a couple of question as to who would get to see the offer came back right away. I heard Mike list the names of all of the people here with me and then said that was all of them, I nodded to him as he confirmed that no one else would see it then he said ok a couple of times and hung up the phone.

"They are faxing it right now, but you have to realize this is an offer to your company so it is your decision not everyone else" he stated gesturing to everyone sitting around the table.

"Oh I know that but these people are like my family and whatever I decide will affect everyone here so they should be able to at least hear and comment on the offer." I explained.