Chapter 1

Exiting the airport shuttle, Dan Casey thought he was glad to be in the warm weather of Florida rather than the cold snowy weather of northern Illinois which he had just left. Dan had driven down to Florida in early October but had flown back up north to spend the Christmas holidays with his son and daughter and their families. He didn’t want to welcome in the New Year there because of some memories and had flown on back to Florida.

Dan was a retired high school principal and unfortunately, a widower. He had married Jenny right after they had both graduated from college. They had a good thirty-three years of marriage and were blessed with a son Mark and a daughter Carrie. Jenny had gone back into teaching after the children were in school and was a very popular fifth-grade teacher. Dan had progressed on the administrative side of teaching and had been a high school principal for the last eleven years.

Both Dan and Jenny had been planning to take early retirement when they hit the magic fifty-five years of age mark. They had visited and liked St. Pete Beach, Florida, where some of their friends spent their winters. With a depressed real estate market they had purchased and renovated a twelfth-floor condo the year before. The purchased price was about half of what similar condos were selling for two years earlier because the real estate bubble had burst. While they had planned on renting initially after they retired, they couldn’t turn down this opportunity because of the depressed market and purchased the condo.

Their great retirement plans were shattered one night when a sixteen-year-old boy decided to steal a car and became involved in a high-speed chase with the police. This youngster ran a red light and in doing so he collided with the car that Jenny was driving which was crossing the intersection on a green light. Jenny and the youngster were both killed.

The outpouring of mourners both for the wake and funeral was large. Jenny was a popular teacher and besides their friends, a large number of her former students and parents turned out to express their condolences. Dan’s popularity also contributed to this large turnout. To say that it was a sad affair would be an understatement.

Whether or not to sell the Florida condo was now on Dan’s mind. It would be less expensive to rent rather than own but money wasn’t a problem. With his pension, Jenny’s now reduced pension, and the large uninsured motorist settlement that Jenny’s attorney brother had secured from their automobile insurance carrier as well as some personal savings and investments, Dan could afford the luxury of a second home. He was surprised when Jenny’s brother handed him another large check from the police department’s insurance carrier for their creating a dangerous situation with their high-speed pursuit. Jenny’s brother didn’t take a customary one-third fee for securing these settlements because he said that this was “family business.”

Dan decided that for now he would keep the Florida condo and accepted the funds for the replacement car the insurance company offered to replace Jenny’s car. He would leave a car in Florida as he knew the twelve-hundred-mile drive would get old pretty quick.

He did enjoy Florida’s warm weather and the activities it afforded. He golfed twice a week by joining a golf association and if he wanted to he could fish right outside his condo complex which was next to the water. For a different type of fishing, he could do a fifteen-mile drive to Fort Desoto and wade fish from shore or off one of the two piers that were there. There were other things he could do during the day which kept him busy but he had to admit that the evenings he spent being alone were boring. There wasn’t much he wanted to watch on television. He could only surf the net for so long before that also became boring. Reading the newspaper, magazines, and books was his primary evening activity.

Because of this lack of evening activities, he accepted an invitation from Marge Stillwell the condo association’s secretary to join the Tuesday night bridge group. Dan enjoyed playing bridge but he was somewhat of a novice at the game since he didn’t know many of the bridge bidding conventions. He discovered that he was not alone in his level of expertise as a number of the other participants were also at his skill level. With that being case, he wasn’t embarrassed in playing bridge with this group.

Most of the twenty-four participants who played bridge were women either his age or older than him. It turned out that he had a different bridge partner every week. While all these women seemed like nice people, unfortunately, there weren’t any women who interested him, let alone any who were also available. One of the women who played bridge did give him some looks and made a comment that indicated she was available. Since he wasn’t attracted to her, he didn’t respond to her comments.

Dan had long ago accepted the fact that he was no Brad Pitt in the looks department. Dan was just over six feet tall and weighed two hundred and ten pounds. To be frankly honest with himself, he did think he was above average in the looks department but not by much.

His now-deceased wife Jenny was a good lover and would not hesitate to be intimate with him. On average they made love about three times a week. Dan had started to take Cialis because he wanted to be ready “when the moment is right” as the ads said and the ‘moment was right’ quite often with Jenny. Without Jenny being here his love-making moments had come to a screeching halt. He wasn’t a bar hopper and even if he was, he didn’t know if he could meet women close to his age by doing that scene. It seemed to him that the bar scene attracted younger people which meant finding women close to his age wouldn’t be done at these places.

Dan was also resistive to the blind dates offered to him by his friends because of some bad experiences he had before he met Jenny. He now was thinking about reducing his resistance to these blind date offers because of his lack of success in finding female companionship on his own.

At this Tuesday’s bridge game, Marge told him his partner was a new renter in his building. The name she said was Kerrie Parker who was already here and sitting at table number three. Dan went over to the table and was pleasantly surprised to see an attractive lady probably some ten years younger than him sitting there. He introduced himself and welcomed her to the complex.

“I understand you are a new renter here.”

“Yes, we decided to get away from the cold weather and the snows of Buffalo.”

“Does your husband play bridge?”

“Yes he does but he is working in Charleston.”

They were joined by two other ladies and the dealing of the cards started before Dan could explore her comments any further.

Dan liked what he observed in Kerrie. She was younger than him and had short brown hair along with a cute face with a few freckles. From what he could see of her figure it appeared to be quite nice. What impressed him the most as they were playing cards was how she conducted herself. There was a classiness to her that was hard to explain but as they say, “You know it when you see it.” He enjoyed being her bridge partner and being in her company.

As with all card games, it helps when you are getting the cards and Dan and Kerrie were fortunate that they were getting the cards this evening. Kerrie was aggressive in her bidding and she bid and made a small slam on one hand. They had the highest point total when the session was over and won the pot which consisted of the two dollars each participant contributed before the cards were dealt. Dan had enjoyed himself being with Kerry. He asked her if she would be his bridge partner next week. She said she would and Dan informed Marge of the arrangement as they were leaving.

He had had a chance to talk more with Kerrie while walking back from the clubhouse to the condo building.

“What is your husband doing in Charleston?”

“Ralph is a business consultant and was working with a business there. While he was working the plant manager had a heart attack and died. They didn’t have anyone ready to fill that position so they asked Ralph if he would temporarily take that position. He said he would and they gave him a one-year contract. There were some indications that the contract could be extended depending on Ralph’s results.”

“How come you’re here and not there?”

“We had signed a three-month lease before the offer to Ralph was made which we had to honor or lose the large deposit we made. Ralph tries to come here every other weekend.”

“It must be a little lonely for you.”

“Oh I still work, I’m a flight attendant and have been able to manage my work schedule because of my seniority. I work on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. I leave here at seven and I’m back here at six, weather permitting of course.”

As they were waiting for the elevator Kerrie said, “Does your wife play bridge? I noticed the wedding ring you’re wearing.”

“No, I am a widower. If I took the ring off the white band it would leave would be there. It would give some people the impression that I was trying to hide my marital status so I just wear the ring.”

Dan gave Kerry a short version of how he became a widower.

The elevator stopped at the twelfth floor and they both exited. Kerry’s rental condo was right across from the elevator while Dan’s condo was down at the end of the corridor. They wished each other a good night.

Dan was into his routine of golfing and fishing which caused the days of the week to go buy pretty fast. He was looking forward to playing bridge with Kerrie again.

Tuesday night finally came and Dan wasn’t disappointed. Kerrie looked good in the skirt and sweater she was wearing. Her good looks offset the bad cards they were getting. He didn’t care that they weren’t doing that well in playing bridge because he just enjoyed being in Kerry’s company.

Dan thought that Kerrie’s husband was a lucky man. He also couldn’t help but think and wonder what kind of a lover Kerrie was and how she would be in bed. He thought that she would be good and that was because of the aggressiveness she displayed in bridge bidding. She wasn’t hesitant in going for what she wanted.

The golfing and fishing activities for Dan presented some challenges for the rest of the week mainly due to a cold snap and some rain. He was hoping that this was only a temporary change in weather. Some of the locals told Dan that January was usually the coldest month of the year in Florida. He hoped that the weather would soon change back to the sunny weather he had become accustomed to.

Dan was coming back from food shopping and was waiting for an elevator on Saturday morning when Kerrie walked into the lobby. She had also been doing some food shopping.

“Hi.”

“Well hi yourself.”

“Is Ralph home this weekend?”

“No, there was some sort of an employee recognition affair at work that he needed to attend. He said he should be able to come here next weekend.”

“Any plans on doing something?”

“Not really, why do you ask?”

“You could keep me company and go out to dinner with me if you want. I just hate going to a restaurant alone. It’s a little embarrassing and makes me feel uncomfortable. I can understand if you don’t want to go with me although you will break my heart as having dinner with an attractive flight attendant has always been a fantasy of mine.”

Kerrie laughed at Dan’s offer of dinner and said, “Sure, why not as it beats staying at home. What time do you want to go?”

“How about six? Because you’re married and some of the busybodies here in the complex would start a rumor if they saw us walking out together, I think it would be best if you met me at my car in the parking garage under the building. My parking space is at the south end of the building.”

“You’re probably right on that. How should I dress?”

“Nothing fancy as I thought we could go to the Bonefish. Some of my golfing buddies have been impressed by the food and their service.”

“See you at six.”

Dan’s asking Kerrie to go to dinner was a spur-of-the-moment thing that surprised him. He didn’t know what possessed him to do it. Her acceptance surprised him even more. It would have been embarrassing if she had said no to his invitation. He was glad that he did ask her and now was looking forward to going out to dinner with her.

He gave some thought to Kerrie being married. He had cheated on Jenny once during the marriage and was not embarrassed to think that he didn’t regret doing it. Maybe he wasn’t the nice guy people thought he was because if allowed to bed Kerrie even though she was married he knew he would do it. He however would let Kerrie make that decision if they were ever to cross that bridge.

Dan had showered, shaved, and was wearing a sport coat without a tie as he waited for Kerrie in his car. He was starting to worry that she had changed her mind because she wasn’t there at six. Just as he was about to give up he saw her walking to his car around six-fifteen and gave her a wave.

He could see that she was wearing a knee-length dark blue dress and high heels. It also looked like she had spent some time putting her makeup on. She was one attractive package.

Dan exited his car and opened the car door for her saying, “You should know that I tell it like I see it and Kerrie you are one attractive lady.”

“Thank you for saying that, it’s always nice to hear those comments.”

Dinner with Kerrie was a delightful experience. While the pre-dinner drink and food were good, the company was even better. She was an excellent dinner companion not only because of her looks but also because of her intelligence. Dan really enjoyed talking to and being with her.