Chapter 4

Saturday dawned drab and dreary. The forecast was for storms and heavy rain most of the day and on into the evening. I was doubly glad that Melissa had stayed the night with me as I didn't want to drive any more than necessary in this kind of weather. For some reason the people of By-God-North Carolina drive like complete idiots in bad weather. The roads that had had the tar melting on them for the last few days were now wet and slick; the water was pooling in thousands of shallow puddles on the surface and the idiots acted the same as they had when it was dry. I acted differently, so they therefore would hit me if I was anywhere near them.

I made Melissa a late breakfast and we continued the conversation that had taken us late into the previous night.

"This just seems too good to be true Mel. Here I am, a lonely 60 year old and I suddenly have a teenager's dream handed to me. I don't think I can handle 3 horny women, let alone 7. And one of them is supposed to be my employer, and another your landlady. What happens if I piss them off?"

"I guess you have to start exercising your jaw and tongue then Uncle Walt, so you can keep in their good graces. A satisfied woman doesn't get pissed. I just can't believe that they are willing to help me out without even knowing me. I was just about to accept your offer to move in; the more I thought about being by myself in that neighborhood with a baby, the less I liked the idea. The Hispanics are taking over the area and I think they are starting up gangs as well. I don't want my baby shot in a turf war."

"No matter how this works out you aren't staying there then. I hated taking you to that apartment."

"Thanks Uncle Walt, and don't worry about the women. Just be yourself and they will love you. I'm sure that they aren't expecting you to make love to all of them every week or anything. What Amy explained to me is that they just want some companionship from a man they can trust. She said that the way you treat me, along with how you treated Jennifer, made them realize what they were missing. They want the romance and sex without having to worry about the breakup. This lonely girls' club has been going on for about a year now. They get together and help each other out in various ways, but they need a man; and that is where you come in."

"I know; I just hope that I'm man enough for it. I'll have to talk to my doctor about the little blue pills. Maybe if I start getting in some more exercise I can stop taking the blood pressure meds and I won't need the Viagra. I hope all the women are as nice as the ones I've met."

With the weather the way it was Melissa and I weren't going anywhere we didn't have to; so we sat in the living room watching TV. Saturday morning cartoons were pretty much a thing of the past, but the DIY reality shows had taken their place with me. "This Old House" was doing a rerun of the Concord, Massachusetts barn. I loved that show. Jessie and I had vacationed in Mass a few times and I had tried to find that house, but that area has hundreds of roads that fit the description and I never had found it.

Melissa had been lying on the couch with her head in my lap napping while I watched my show and finally about 1pm she sat up and said, "Okay Uncle Walt, you have been delaying long enough; let's go and meet your harem."

"My What?!"

"Your harem, Uncle Walt; that is what they are going to be. What else would you call them?"

"I would say that if they all want me to eat them; they would be a never ending buffet."

"Damn uncle Walt, that is just so sexy. If I ever find a guy I like again, can I send him to you for lessons before we make love?"

"You can send him, but he will probably be packing if you do. Most guys think they don't need lessons, they just know what to do. At the same time, I would like it for you to do that. It will give me a chance to size the guy up and see if he is worthy of you. If he runs, he isn't, if he stays and listens, he just might be."

"Wish I had done that with Jack, he would have run faster than a cheetah."

We were both soaked by the time I helped her into the truck and got in myself. The directions to Mika's place were fairly simple, I just hadn't had occasion to be in the area she lived in. These condos had sprung up quite a number of years ago to supply the needs of the expanding college. They were very nice and pretty upscale from anywhere I had ever lived. When I pulled into one of the guest parking spots, I saw Jennifer's Honda and Amy's van. We walked up to the door and saw that it was open, and Mika was standing there waiting for us.

"Hello Walter and Melissa. I am so glad that you have come. I was afraid that you would chicken out on us. Everyone else got here a while ago; we were just waiting for you. Come on in, and I will do the introductions."

We walked through a very tastefully decorated hallway and living room into an airy kitchen and dining area with big sliding glass doors leading out onto a deck with a hot tub.

There were women seated at the dining room table and the breakfast nook talking quietly.

"You both know Amy, and this young woman next to her is Jennifer Williams, Melissa. She was married; but took back her maiden name after the annulment. She is the one who started all of this, as I'm sure you know."

Melissa stepped forward and gave Jennifer a hug. "Thank you for helping to get my dear uncle out of his funk. He hasn't been the same since Aunt Jessie died and he lost his job. I've been worried about him."

"Oh my, you are a beauty aren't you? Well you are very welcome Melissa; I still can't believe that I had the nerve to call him."

Mika stepped forward and took Melissa's arm. "You can talk to her later; let's get the introductions out of the way first. This is going to be very awkward for most of us. At the table here are the four you haven't met yet Walt. The lady on the left is Sharon Wilks, to her left is Mary Johnson, next is Leimomi Biggle, and the last is Carla Gomez."

As she said each name, the indicated lady held her hand up, and I leaned over and kissed the back of each hand. Sharon was a lean, tall, black woman with short hair. Her face was totally unremarkable except for the amused twinkle in her eyes. Mary was the other black woman. She was very large and heavy, but without rolls of fat at her neck or wattles on her arms, just a large, very dark black woman, with flowing black hair. Leimomi, on the other hand, looked to be very short and stocky, similar to Jennifer except that she was very well tanned and not as muscular as Jennifer. Her hair was a flowing black with sun highlights and her round face smiled up at me. Carla was a typical Mexican housewife, pillowy and brown with a lot of frown lines on her otherwise attractive features and nice cleavage showing. All of them but Jennifer looked to be on the wrong side of 40 and they had obviously taken time with their appearance today.

Sharon stood up and looked at Melissa. "Why don't you take my seat honey? You look like you could use it. Mary and the others will tell you about what we have decided in regard to you; I need to talk to your uncle Walter for a few minutes."

Sharon then took my hand and led me back to the living room. "Amy tells me that you've worked as a maintenance man. Have you worked with household appliances?"

"Some, I've done most of my own maintenance over the years."

"Well, my husband and I built a business which delivers and services appliances for several of the smaller dealers in the area. We make it so they can offer delivery and service without having to keep people on their staff they only use a few times a week or hire temps they don't know. My husband did all of the service work, but I had to hire another man after he died, and this guy quit on me Monday. I've been able to get one of the dealers to do the work for me this week, but he is not available today and I got an emergency call a little while ago. Would you help me?"

"I'll be glad to Sharon. What and where is the problem?"

"The woman lives near here and her dishwasher started spitting water everywhere. It's probably the drain hose, but I am not really good at these things."

"Will you be going with me? I have some tools in the truck if you want to just go on over to work on it."

"Let me tell Mika and the others what I am doing and we'll go."

The address was only a few blocks away and as soon as I saw what the dishwasher was doing I knew that Sharon was right. The drain hose had either come off or had sprung a leak. There was a big puddle of soapy water oozing out the front of the unit, and when I restarted the cycle; the water immediately increased a lot. After stopping the cycle; the first thing I had to do was to look under the sink, and when I did, I saw that the drain hose from the dishwasher was lying slack on the bottom of the sink cabinet. I pulled and it came through the hole to the dishwasher with no resistance. I then removed the dishwasher, and with help from Sharon cleaned up the wastewater that had been flushed out. I then reattached the hose with a small screw type clamp. The spring clamp had not been strong enough for the pressure of the drain hose. The lady tried to pay us for the work; but Sharon assured her that the dealer had it covered.

"So, how do you like your new job? Saturday's are for emergencies only, we schedule all normal services for during the week. Normally this would have waited till Monday, but it was the perfect opportunity to test your capabilities. I hope you don't mind that I did this."

"I don't mind at all and I think I'll be very happy with this job Sharon. It's too bad in one respect though. I would like taking you out and maybe getting to know you a lot better. You are a very nice and lovely woman."

"What do you mean by that? I can damn well date whomever I want, I own the damn company. I won't treat you any different if you fuck me silly, well yeah I will, but it won't affect your job. I need love too Walter."

"I just didn't think that you would want to date an employee Sharon. Won't the other workers be upset?"

"I don't know why they would, I used to be married to my boss, and now I am the boss. Besides, the only other workers are my sons. Delivery guys are a dime a dozen, a good service man is not. Can you treat me with courtesy and respect at work?"

"Of course I can."

"Good, because you are all mine tonight. We need to go back and see which one of the girls is going to host your niece. She certainly is a lovely girl."

"She's all the family I have left Sharon. I love her to death. I just wish that she hadn't fallen for such a dipshit the first time. Having a baby is going to make finding a good guy that much harder now. It also won't help that the baby is going to be of mixed race. I do what I can for her, but she really needs a woman to talk to, and she'll need it even more after the baby is born."

"Don't worry about that, both Mary and Leimomi have a house and they are neighbors. Melissa will get the choice of which one she wants to live with. The idea of having a baby around again has them both smiling."