Chapter 3

Craig met with Nancy at work the following day and told her that both of them were going to spend the day reviewing the outstanding loans that were on the books to see if they could sell any of them to Fannie Mae. He said that he foresaw that interest rates would be going up in the near future and the low interest rate, thirty year fixed rate loans they had on the books would be a killer. They needed to get these mortgages off their books. Unfortunately for the bank, most of the loans on their books had been renegotiated down to four percent. He didn’t understand why they kept the loans instead of transferring the loans to Fannie Mae and collecting the servicing fee.

Craig stuck his head in Phil’s office later that morning and asked him if he could buy him a cup of coffee. In the break room, Craig told Phil about his first day, his visit to Erin Shakley Realty and what happened there.

“You said that it was somewhat of a mystery as to why Ed was in the motel room when he had the heart attack when you first called me. Just between you and me and no one else, I wouldn’t be surprised if Erin was there with him. I don’t know that to be a fact but I would think that was a possibility from what happened yesterday and what I think she was offering me.”

“I have seen Erin and the way Ed talked about her... , well... , that could be true. I do know Ed wasn’t that happy in his marriage but it is best if we keep this to ourselves now that he’s gone.”

“Agreed, now I would like your approval to transfer Paula from the insurance department to my department” and went on to tell Phil the reasons why and what he had promised her.

“We can do that, in fact the insurance department is a little overstaffed so that isn’t a problem. I’ll tell Carol the supervisor about the transfer. Let me ask you a question, do you like baseball?”

“Yes I do and I am a White Sox fan. Why do you ask?”

“I and some of my friends are splitting a skybox at US Cellular Field for the season with three other groups. For various reasons I sometimes can’t go when it’s our group’s turn to go to a game and have these tickets. I was wondering if you could use them.”

“Yes on a Friday or Saturday night game. I wouldn’t be that interested if it was a weekday night.”

“I do have two tickets for this Saturday night and they are playing Boston. Interested?”

Craig said he was and Phil gave him the tickets.

Craig phoned Monica that afternoon and asked her if she liked baseball. She told him that she played left field on her college’s softball team. She said she would like to go when he told her about getting some tickets for this Saturday’s game. They made arrangements for when and where he would pick her up. They discussed getting a bite to eat at an Italian restaurant on Taylor Street before the game. He thought he would keep it a secret that these were skybox tickets.

Late Friday afternoon Paula stuck her head in Craig’s office and asked if he had a minute, which he said he did.

“I just got back from seeing Erin at her realty office and had her sign the contracts on the repos she has from us. She’s not a happy camper about this change in our business arrangement. She foresees and I agree that the ending of this gravy train of new listings she was getting is going to financially hurt her. She was trying to convince me to do business as usual but I wouldn’t budge. I think she was actually hitting on me. Can you believe that? Then she slyly inferred that she could make it worth my while if we would change this new procedure. I didn’t know why Ed was using her for these referrals but maybe now I do.”

“I have similar concerns. Any new repos should go to the new realtor and send any of these remaining repos at the end of the three months to this new realtor as well. I just as soon cease doing any business with Erin. I don’t feel comfortable in having a business relationship with her. Please don’t say anything about Erin to anyone. It would serve no purpose.”

“Okay Boss, will do.”

The remainder of the week was relatively quiet and Craig was starting to look forward to Saturday’s date.

Finding Monica’s townhome was easy thanks to the GPS. It was a large two bedroom unit in a nice community.

The door to the townhome was opened by a younger version of Monica, a college aged young lady.

“Hi, you must be Craig. I’m Kelly, Monica’s daughter.”

“Is school over?”

“Yes, but I will be only home for a little while as I will be going to the ROTC summer camp. I’m hoping to become a pilot.”

“That is something noble to shoot for. I hope you make it.”

Monica appeared wearing dark slacks and a white blouse. This was the first time he had seen her in something other than a business suit and she looked good. She was a very attractive woman no matter what she wore. He could only wonder what she looked like when she wasn’t wearing anything and thought that it would be very nice.

They had a quick meal at a restaurant on Taylor Street and were off to Sox’s park after they finished eating.

It was quite easy to find their skybox. They saw there were five other couples there when they entered. All of these people were a few years younger than they were and warmly greeted Craig and Monica while they introduced themselves. They said Phil had told them to expect a replacement for him and his wife and hoped they would have a good time.

Craig and Monica were offered drinks which they accepted and exchanged small talk as they watched the game. Craig initially didn’t know what all these people did but later he learned that two of them were attorneys, one lady was a schoolteacher, and another lady was a software programmer. There was some interest expressed by two of the couples when they learned that Monica was an investment advisor and they asked her for her business card.

The White Sox won the game five to three. The highlights of the game were the two home runs the Sox hit which set the fireworks off. Coming in second to the highlights was the cheesecake that was served in the skybox. It was an enjoyable night and one Craig would like to do again.

Back at Monica’s townhome, she asked Craig if he wanted to come in for coffee. With the odds being that Kelly was home, Craig declined the offer and thanked her for going out with him. Monica thanked him for taking her to the game and moved to give him a little kiss before she left his automobile. The touch of her lips on his lingered as he watched her walk into her townhome.

Craig was doing some food shopping on Sunday when he felt a tapping on his shoulder. He turned and found himself looking into Brea’s eyes.

“Hello stranger, I haven’t seen you at bingo anymore.”

“My going to bingo was a one-time thing. Lori asked me to go which I did just to please her. Bingo isn’t my cup of tea. Do you still go to bingo and are you still teaching?”

“Yes I go there as it is something to do. It is one more day of teaching and I’m done for the summer. I hope you didn’t feel uncomfortable by Lori trying to play matchmaker.”

“Maybe a little but it’s just that I just don’t like to have people watching me when I meet an attractive woman. I know they are watching to see what happens between us and quite frankly it is none of their business.”

“Thanks for the compliment and I know what you mean. It’s nice that Lori is concerned about me but I wish she would stop. Maybe it’s something in her genes that makes her keep doing this.”

“Well Lori isn’t around now and school is over for you tomorrow. I’m wondering if you would like going to see a movie with me.”

“Yes I would.”

“There is a new James Bond movie playing that has some good reviews. I’ve seen all of the Bond movies and I was wondering if you would like to see the movie this Wednesday.”

She said she would to go and arrangements were made as to when he would pick her up. They also agreed among themselves to keep this bit of information a secret from Lori.

Craig saw that Brea had made a serious effort in her appearance when he called for her. She was wearing a nice pants suit and her red hair was down. The makeup she had on couldn’t hide the few freckles she had on her face. The freckles made her look younger than she was. She was a tempting package overall and Craig couldn’t understand Lori’s comments about Brea not having any male friends.

They had a sandwich at a local restaurant. She seemed to be an interesting person to talk to. He noticed that there were a lot of I... , I... , I’s in her conversation, but that was only a minor irritation. He thought that there had to be something else and wondered what it was.

There was no conversation between them at the theater as they watched the movie. Craig thought he would give the movie a three star rating as it was pretty similar to the other Bond movies he had seen. Bad guys wanting world domination, interesting gadgets, good-looking women, and car chases were the similar threads.

While parking at Brea’s condo, she asked him if he wanted to come in for coffee. He could see some disappointment on her face when he declined her invitation, saying that it was late and he needed to go to work tomorrow. He said he would be in touch.

Based on what Lori said and the way Brea acted, Craig thought the odds were in his favor that that he would be bedding her in a short time if he went into her condo. He didn’t want her to think that the only reason he was going out with her was to bed her. That admittedly was the main reason he had in asking her out but he thought they would make love for sure if he asked out a second time. Brea would be under the impression that he wasn’t taking her out just to go to bed with her. Devious on his part maybe, but Brea would feel better in the long run if he went about it this way.

He phoned Monica two weeks later and asked her if she wanted to go out to dinner with him. She said she did as her daughter had just left for summer camp. Further, that her daughter going away always puts her on a downer. She doesn’t know how she’ll handle it when Kelly goes on active duty.

Dinner with Monica was nice as usual. The two drinks she had seemed to brighten her spirits. The V cut of her neckline brightened Craig’s spirits.

She asked Craig if he wanted to come in when they got back to her townhome and he accepted her invitation.

She put her purse down when they got inside and turned to look at Craig. It seemed to him that she didn’t know what to do and was waiting for something to happen. Craig thought he would test the waters as he moved closer to her and placed his hands on her waist. She looked into his Craig’s eyes and must have realized that this was what she wanted because she put her arms over his shoulders and kissed him. The intensity of the kiss increased as her mouth opened and her tongue searched and found his. It was like something had been unleashed in her as the kissing continued.

His hands were going up and down her back stopping periodically to squeeze the two globes of her butt. One of his hands moved upward and cupped her breast.

She moved her head back from his while his hand was still cupping her breast and still in his arms said, “I knew this would happen if I invited you in.”

“Do you want me to stop?”

“Oh no, we’re just getting started,” and went back to kissing him.

She took his hand after some time and led him to her bedroom without saying anything.

Making love with Monica was what he expected it to be, slow, romantic, and caring. She seemed to want to make sure that he was being pleasured and he was of the same mind in regard to her. She moaned when he worshiped at her most private part and told him that he was wonderful as he did that. He told her she was wonderful while she was mouthing his shaft and her cool hand was cupping his testicles. For some reason they both seemed to want to compliment the other on their lovemaking skills.