Chapter 18: The gate is open

Karen had left little doubt as to what she'd meant by, "I want the same as you, Sammy." Strangely, it was Tracy's question, "How's Becky?" that popped into my mind.

Where was Becky now? Had she graduated from college last year and selected a career, or was she continuing her education? Would I ever see her again? Would she remember me?

After John's Monday morning staff meeting, Ruby and I looked at the names of the people the managers were bringing with them. I was not surprised to learn that five of them were female, and only three were male. This complicated the hotel room assignments, but Ruby had it worked out. She'd even chosen the lucky male and female that would have their own rooms.

I scrapped the idea of using the condo because it would not be fair to isolate two or four people from the rest of the group. Late night parties, and getting to know employees from other parts of the country, were some of the reasons we had sales meetings.

At dinner that night, I told John and Suzanne about my two trips home. They sympathized with the situation my mother was in, and agreed with my decision to hire a babysitter. They laughed at Heather's feeble attempt to take a cut from Mrs. Caruthers' salary, but they became somber when I related how K.O. had reacted to Chef Clifford. John confirmed my understanding of domestic help's pay, and suggested that H R would have the appropriate forms.

"We've got to do something to protect that little boy," Suzanne said, and while I appreciated her becoming involved with K.O.'s welfare, I didn't think she had a solution.

Since the travelers would be arriving at various times on Wednesday morning, I rented a van, and Ned and I ran a shuttle service between the airport and the hotel.

Everyone congregated in the meeting room at lunchtime, and for the next three days and nights, I was kept busy trying to make the meeting a success. I reacquainted myself with the guests I knew, and met the ones that I didn't.

A young lady introduced herself to me as Penny, a leasing agent from the Atlanta office. "I was hired after you were there, but I've heard about how you charmed the widow into selling us the peach orchard for a fraction of her asking price," she said, obviously looking for a reaction from me.

"It was a fair price, considering that it had been years since the peach trees had produced fruit."

"I've heard it was V shaped?"

"I believe that's right," I said, moving on when I saw a leasing agent from Houston waiting to meet her.

There were four other females that attended the meeting, but I had a feeling that I'd get to know Penny better, and it happened sooner than I'd imagined.

John had arranged to take over the club on Friday afternoon for our company outing. Ned and I made two trips to transport our guests to the club, and most of the employees from the home office met us there. The 'Welcome Oldham Company' banner on the main building signified that the club was ours for the afternoon and evening.

The weather was cooperating, and the choice of activities, golf, tennis, or hanging out at the pool offered something for almost everyone. Of course, there were some who preferred to simply watch others. While John and Suzanne felt obligated to organize the golfers into teams, I was assigned to the tennis courts, and Ruby guided the swimmers to the dressing rooms, making sure everyone had sunscreen.

Wanda caught up with me and handed me a stack of telephone messages. There were messages from Sandra Lynch, Victor, Dora Ferris, and Gary Macon. His call was the only one that I returned, leaving a message with his secretary to say that Kevin and I would meet him at the ball field on Sunday morning.

There were twelve of us who wanted to play tennis, and since there were six males and six females, we played mixed doubles. After changing partners three times, Penny and I wound up on the same side of the net.

Unlike the other players, Penny had packed a tennis outfit, consisting of a short pleated skirt, a colorful jersey, white shoes and socks, and a red bandana she used as a sweatband. She left no doubt in the minds of me and the onlookers that she was good. It wasn't just her determined look, either. She could mesmerize an opponent by discreetly showing that her panties matched her sweatband.

It had been some time since I'd played, and I had trouble getting my first serve in, but we won every match until we both became bored. That's when Penny resorted to innuendos.

"Can't get it up?" she asked, when my serve hit the top of the net.

"Once I get it up, it will stay up," I responded, and watched her feign embarrassment.

It wasn't long before we'd exhausted the supply of challengers.

"Do you think you can beat me?" she asked.

"It might be hard," I countered.

Her response was so quick that I nearly missed it. "Hard and it stays up, too. I like that."

"Try me sometime," I said, handing her the balls to indicate that she could have first serve.

All the people we'd beaten hung around to watch us, or rather to watch Penny. She was a real crowd pleaser, posing provocatively after each point she won. But they were only getting half the show she was putting on. They couldn't hear her remarks when we were close to the net.

"When are you coming to Atlanta?" she asked, after my ace caught her off guard.

She returned my next serve, and I met her at the net after she lobbed a soft volley over my head.

"I don't know. Is there a reason for me to come there?"

"Aren't you curious about the way your peach orchard fits into the other pieces?"

"Why would that make me curious? I know how the pieces fit."

"Do you?" she asked, as she broke my serve, and I found myself down four games to two. I buckled down, but still lost the next game. We met at the net.

"You must be referring to the way the V fits into the other piece?" I asked, hoping to give her something to think about while she was waiting for my serve.

"The fit's important, but it's how long the pieces stay together that counts," she responded.

"I agree," I said, and saw that Ned had joined the onlookers. He informed us that it was time to go to the hotel and change for dinner.

"Maybe we can finish the set when you come to Atlanta," Penny said, as we collected our gear.

After delivering two vanloads of sweaty people to the hotel, I rushed home to shower and change clothes. As I stood under the shower, I considered my self-imposed rule; never fuck employees. Was I stupid? What guy turns down a sure thing? What were rules for? To be broken, right?

What if she's just playing with me? I hate a tease. Anyway, I prefer to be the pursuer, not the pursued. I turned on the cold water for a minute, got out of the shower, dried off, and got dressed. My mind was made up; I would pass.

Nine employees were outside the hotel when I got there, and Penny was not one of them. They didn't mind telling me that they'd been ready to go for fifteen minutes. The rental agent from Houston complained that they would miss out on the open bar. I ordered them to get in the van, not caring if I was breaking a law or that two of the girls had to sit on guys' laps.

Dinner was followed by awards for everything imaginable. I sat next to Wanda, and she let me know that Penny had a surprise for me.

"I don't like surprises. Anyway, I've already decided to take a pass," I said.

"Are you crazy? She went to a lot of trouble to maneuver a room swap."

"That's the surprise? I thought it would be something like that."

"She's going to tell you when you dance the first time. Don't let on that I told you, okay?"

I assured Wanda that I would not tell Penny that I'd already heard the surprise, and just to prove that I was going to take a pass, I asked Wanda to dance.

"I was thinking about you while I was shaving my legs," she said, as soon as we took the dance floor.

"What made you tell me that?"

"Penny's watching us. I wanted her to see that I can make you laugh," she said.

"I'm serious. I'm taking a pass."

"Keep telling yourself that," Wanda said, letting doubt creep into her voice.

I danced with Penny three times, and acted surprised when she told me that she'd managed to acquire the single room for the night. The dress she was wearing was sheer, cut low enough to show plenty of cleavage, high enough to show plenty of leg, and made a crinkling sound as we danced. She was bombarded with other requests to dance, and I had danced several times before she was free for our second dance.

Penny had had a couple of drinks, and I was not drinking because of my driving duties. It should have been easy to resist her rather blatant suggestions, but I'll be the first to admit that I was wavering. It's easy to forget about resolve when you're being showered with hot breath, explicit whispers, and hobbled by an erection. Fortunately, the song ended before I found out her room number.

The only reason I asked her to dance again was to make sure she knew I was taking a pass. I didn't have to put it into words. She just knew by the distance I was keeping between us, and to her credit, she didn't berate me with tantalizing condemnation such as, "You don't know what you're missing."

She must have ridden back to the hotel in Ned's car because I didn't see her again until the next morning.

Saturday was get-away day. Ruby was on hand to make sure everyone completed a questionnaire to tell us what they liked or disliked about the meeting. I told her to report to work on Monday.

"We need to do a final tabulation to know how much this cost," I said, and watched her nod to show that she would report for duty.

Penny sat in one of the rear seats of the van, and when she got out, she said, "It was nice meeting you, Mr. Oldham. You may be right; the pieces probably wouldn't have fit."

The flights were spread out and it was after two PM when I delivered the van to the rental company. Needless to say, there was a message from Karen waiting on my answering machine when I got home. I took her uncomplimentary remarks to mean that she was pissed at me for missing her softball practice.

I didn't return the call immediately. All I could do was hit myself in the forehead, and call myself an idiot. Why did I insist on being the pursuer? What was it getting me? Why didn't I take advantage of a sure thing when it presented itself? Why was I letting a thirty-one year old physical education teacher use me as her little boy's male companion?

Well, that was an easy question to answer. Just thinking of how the soft material of her baseball pants hugged her ass was enough to get me aroused. Remembering the sight of her bald pussy as it was being lowered to accept my cock, made me want to continue my pursuit. Could she still do the split? Was I reading too much in her words, "Play with me?"

John and Suzanne were wiped out after three long days of making sure our guests were well taken care of. They lounged around the sunroom most of the day, only venturing out to the pool when they saw me heading that way.

"Did that girl from Atlanta really beat you, Sammy?" Suzanne asked, in a patronizing tone that I found irritating.

"She was well on her way to winning when the match was called. I was rusty, and she's tricky."

"She won the award for leasing the most square feet. I hope tricky is not another way of saying that she's unethical," Suzanne said, looking at John for help.

"I don't believe you can compare being tricky at tennis to leasing ethics," I said, and saw that John was agreeing with me.

Not wanting to discuss Penny, the sales meeting, or leasing ethics, I jumped in the pool and stayed there until Suzanne said she'd had enough sun and went into the house. John remained seated, and I could tell that he had something on his mind.

"How's the Denver building coming along, Sam?"

I hopped out of the pool, and brought him up to date on how the tenants were falling into place, and that I was hiring Victor to assist Neill with construction. He moved on to the Baltimore building, and I had to admit that I was not ready to recommend that the trust make the investment.

"There's got to be a reason for the Lynch triplets losing their tenants," I said.

I expected more questions regarding the failure of the Lynches to retain tenants, but he accepted my assessment.

"You did a good job with the sales meeting. How would you like to take on the investors' meetings?"

John Oldham was not someone you could say no to. "Ruby did most of the work, but I..."

"Naturally, you'll need help, and Ruby is a capable administrator. I would consider it a personal favor if you would oversee the investors' meetings. Suz and I will do our part with the presentations, but we've lost interest in planning the agenda and making sure everyone goes away happy."

"Yes Sir, I understand," I said, and saw that he had something else to discuss.

"You should take a few days off before it becomes too hot to enjoy the Florida house."

How could I convince him that I didn't need a few days off? I was planning another short trip to Denver, but what made me want to stay close to home were Karen and her kid. Spending a weekend in Florida was out of the question.

"Yes Sir," I said, meaning that I would check my schedule.

I waited until nine AM the next day to call Karen. She answered on the first ring, like she was expecting my call. I told her that I would be picking Kevin up at nine forty-five.

"You assume too much, Sammy. You can't disappoint an eleven year old one day and expect him to wait around until you decide to call. What do you have against coming to my softball practice?"

"It's those baseball pants you wear, Karen."

"What's wrong with them? I wear them because they're comfortable."

"I like them, too, but seeing the material stretched across your ass makes me aroused."

Apparently, I'd said the wrong thing. At least, that's the way I took it when I heard the dial tone. I drove to the Parker house anyway, and found Kevin waiting just outside the gate. He was wearing short pants, a T-shirt, baseball cap, and sneakers. I didn't dare ask about his mother's mood, and his only comment was to say that she'd reminded him to bring a second glove for me to use.

Gary's sons had invited two of their friends, so we had six kids in all. He rotated the boys around the infield positions, placed one in left field and let one run the bases.

I told Gary that he should be a coach, and he said he would like to if he had the time.

"The boys live with their mother and her new husband. I only get them on weekends," he said.

We talked about our work, travel, and the economy. He'd never heard of Pontiac College, and I'd never heard some of the legal terms he used. His most telling remark was to say that he missed going to his sons' little league games.

"I stay away because I don't want to run into my ex and her husband. That's the reason I like to practice with them on Sundays," he said.

As we parted, we agreed to meet the following week. "Call me if something comes up. I work late so leave a message," he said.

On the way to his house, Kevin asked if I wanted to attend his little league game, and I told him I would be there. When I dropped him off, he reminded me of the time and location, like he didn't think I would really show up. Did he think I would miss a chance to sit next to Karen?

After the Monday morning staff meeting, Wanda closed the door to my office and complained about having to find a temporary place for Ruby to work.