Chapter 7

“He sounds excited to show it to you, Nancy – he should be here in under ten minutes. Sarah, could you come up here for a moment? I need to step away for just a minute.”

She came back up; I got up, and excused myself for a moment. I needed to pee since Nancy first got here. I hope I still have working indoor plumbing. I went to the business bathroom, and unleashed a mighty load. I came back up just as Dad was coming through the door, “Hello, I’m John Armstrong – which of these would you like to see?”

They talked back and forth, and then left together to see at least a couple of them.

“Are you coming back to work, and not just flirt with every woman who walks in here?” my sister said sounding pissed.

“I may have just made you some more money to spend, little lady – so behave. Have you ever heard of a Vic Armstrong? That name sounds familiar to me?” I said.

“I don’t think so, let’s get the show on the road, OK?” she said. “I need a kiss, please?

“I love you,” I said getting back down and giving her the kiss she wanted.

We started going again and were making great progress. Every file we input data from, we put a green sticker on it if it was residential (blue if it was commercial) and a circle with a horizontal line through it if there was a picture that we found. Since we were finding listings that hadn’t yet sold, we just dropped them on a printout that I had made of all outstanding Armstrong Realty listings.

If Sari took a phone call or I stopped to talk to a walk in, then matching the files to the printout was our one-person job while we waited for the other one.

At our next switch off, I went up to get all of Dad’s files from off his desk and emptied his desk drawers. Oh Boy – we found completed, or sold files, in there along mostly open listing files. There were even some documents that were loose. That would also be a one-person project.

“Hey, Sis – I was thinking earlier that there should be a microwave and maybe one of those small refrigerators back here somewhere. I just thought; maybe also a coffee maker. Dad would love that, want to go in halves on that?”

“Uh, no – I want to get you a couple presents with the money I’ve got,” she said.

“Hey there, I thought we were each other’s Christmas Present?” I said, perking her up.

“I know, but I still want to get you something from just me, OK?” she said.

“All right. We’ll go to lunch at 12:30, stop by wherever you want and get back to work sometime after that. How’s that sound, beautiful girl?”

“I do love it, every time you call me that – I never had anybody call me that until you started to a year before you left for college. Would you hate me if I said, that I didn’t want to go to college?” she said.

“It is not for everyone, I know that!” I said. “Does Mom or Dad know you’re thinking of not going?”

“No! I’m afraid to tell them that – I don’t want either of them to think that I’m some kind of quitter,” she said.

“Get to work – or I WON’T spank you?” I said.

That caused her to giggle loudly as we got back in rhythm. My personal cell rang, “Hello, this is Stuart!”

“Hey Stuart, this is Dad. She bought it. I’m going to head on back to home, to find out how much trouble I’m in with your mother – got any tips for your old man?” he said.

“Groveling, Diamonds or just old-fashioned lust has always worked for me, Pop!” I said hanging up.

I looked over and said Sari blushing, but working. We worked for another hour, then got up, knocked the new dust off ourselves and left for lunch and a bit of Christmas shopping. I turned the sign back to ‘Sorry – We’re Closed, ‘ locked the place up and we headed quickly to the DQ drive-thru for lunch and then to the best Shopping Center that was close. I sure like how she gets up next to me when we go places together.

We finished our lunch and went to the different shops. When Sari needed for me to leave the store, I did – then she came out with a bag of something from that store. She got ahead of me at the Sports Authority and firmly asked me to stay outside. She’s so cute when she wants to be tough. She is a cross between a young Meg Ryan and Anna Faris.

I saw the Jared store, so I walked in and was drawn to the earrings. I was loitering looking for something in my price range. An employee walked up to me and asked, “Got a special someone?”