Chapter 17

Sari came up and plopped in my lap. “I always thought that Daddy was homophobic, the way he acted around my gay friends.”

“Well, when fathers have a pretty girl as their daughter, and she tells him about some ‘gay’ friends, he might just think that they’re pretending to be gay, just so they can be in a room alone with their daughter. If we have a little girl, I plan to be very protective of her.”

We started a nice kiss as the door opened, and Mom walked in, carrying some brown bags. Lunch!

“Hello, you two – is your father here? I was bringing you all lunch, homemade with love.”

“Yeah, he just left to show a nice young man a couple of homes,” I said.

“Well, this is for you two, and I guess I’ll come back for your father,” she said clearly disappointed.

“We have a little fridge in the back, put it in there,” Sari said.

“OK, I haven’t been here in a long time; it all seems so different,” mom said looking about.

Jumping off my lap, Sari grabbed her and showed off the new and improved filing system, the small refrigerator and microwave in the back and where we plan to put the next desk in the plan.

That caused Mom to ask, “Why do you need another desk? Is your father hiring somebody else?”

“Me,” Sari said. “I’ll be coming in after school to be their receptionist, both Stu’s and Daddy’s! And, I will bring my homework with me, to work on, between phone calls and walk-ins,” she said, flashing her big smile and dimples.

“I haven’t heard anything about any of this before right now ... why is that?” mom said, crossing her arms.

Sari quipped, “I guess that I shouldn’t have said anything, but it’s all so exciting, isn’t it Stuart?”

“Yeah,” mom said, “Isn’t it Stuart?”

I got up, and walked to her, saying, “Joy; it will only be three days a week to start. If anybody sees any bad influences coming from this ... I will personally get her home; is that all right?”

“Well – that sounds alright with me, but if her grades slip even a little...”

“I’ll put her over my knee and spank her myself,” I said, giving Sari a wink.

Mom just held her position for a while, then came over to me and said, “While I’m sure that will put the fear of god in her ... I mean what I said. Good bye, say hi to your father for me.”

“Bye, Mom!” Sari said.

“See you later, beautiful,” I added.

Dad came back, successfully showing Daniel a few places to think about. He felt pretty sure that he would be return. Sari told him that he missed Mom, but there was a homemade lunch in the fridge for him.

He got it and sat at his desk and ate it, as I went to join my sister for lunch. After we were done, we went back to work, closing in on the finalization of this Project. When we left for the day, I told Dad that it could take one more long day to finish it. He handed me a check for reimbursement for all of the things I had purchased for the business, for which Sari gave him a nice kiss on the cheek; I got a firm handshake. We left and went to the bank on our way home.

He came home about 45 minutes later, asking everyone to come into the living room. Looking at each other as we all came together, we sat, and he began.

“No, I’m not dying, so get the worried looks off all of your faces. I stopped to have a quick meeting with our family lawyer, who is also my business lawyer,” he said.

Mom was right next to him, and said, “So what did you talk about, John?”

“A couple of things. I told him that my son was coming into the business, and I wanted to make some changes, because of that. I’ve already started the paperwork to change the name of the business to ‘The Armstrong Family Real Estate Company.’”

Sari, in my lap, hugged me and gave me a great big kiss. Mom got up on Dad’s lap and did the same. While there she said, “Did you know that your daughter was planning to go to work for you, after school?”

“Stuart and I had talked about it, only part-time at first. If she’s as good as they, both seem to think she’s going to be, I’ll be paying her minimum wage to start. Is that a problem for you, Joy?” he said to her.

He and I had never talked about this at all; it was all news to him. However, the wonderful father he is turned the lemons into lemonade.

The news got Sari up off me, as Mom got off to come over to my lap, as both sat down and we all hugged each other. She whispered to me, “Have you told your sister about what I did?” to which I responded, “No ma’am, I value my package too much, to tell her that. Maybe in a year or so.”