Chapter 6

By any stretch of the imagination it wasn’t a good night and next day for Craig. In fact, most of the following days weren’t that good because of what he had witnessed at Monica’s townhome. He was in a constant stupor because of her involvement and being intimate with another man.

In analyzing what had happened, Craig knew that all the arguments were against him. Since he slept and fooled around with other lovers why couldn’t she? There was no agreement between them as to fidelity and he never told her he wanted a committed relationship. These were all true statements that he couldn’t refute. He couldn’t come up with a good reason of why he expected her to only be intimate with him?

He still didn’t know if he could say he loved her but he thought that he had felt more for her than he had for any other woman. It was just a matter of trust to him and Monica had broken that trust. He couldn’t acknowledge to himself that trust was a two-way street and he had no problems or guilt in sleeping with other women. He was condemning Monica for what she had done while giving himself a pass for what he had done. He knew was being hypocritical but that’s the way he was and that’s what he felt.

In thinking further about this situation, Craig tried to reverse their position and thought about how Monica would react if she caught him with either Lori or Laura. He honestly didn’t know what she would do but if he had to put some money on it, he thought the odds were that she wouldn’t be happy to say the least. In a lighter moment he thought that she probably would be extremely pissed. Maybe he really didn’t love her if he still wanted to sleep with other women.

Monica being with Glen had diminished the feelings he had for her and he just couldn’t forgive her. He didn’t have any further contact with her since that night. He thought he could honestly say that he didn’t know if she even she wanted his forgiveness. He didn’t make any attempt to contact her and she didn’t make any effort to contact him. He thought that maybe he was too much into himself if he was thinking about his giving the forgiveness. Like it or not, he needed to get this behind him and get on with his life.

There was no reason for him to contact Monica since he could handle his investment accounts online. She was apparently also thinking the same way since she hadn’t made any effort to contact him since this incident.

For something to do and get what happened off his mind he phoned Phil at Albany to see how things were going. Phil was happy to hear from him and asked Craig how his wintering went. Craig told him about having a good time and said he probably would repeat doing it again next year.

Craig asked Phil how things were going and if he wanted Craig to come in and review the mortgage department as they had discussed him doing before he left.

“Things are actually going pretty well in that department. Nancy is doing a bang up job. I don’t need you to review that department, at least not at this time. That is not to say your expertise isn’t needed.”

Craig didn’t interrupt Phil to remind him that it was he, Craig who trained Nancy and recommended her for promotion.

“I don’t know if you saw it in the papers or heard on the news, but there was a horrific accident between a truck and car in Rockford, Illinois, early last week. The two men in the car who were killed were Bob Kovar, who was the President of States S&L and Ray Rafferty, who headed up their mortgage department.”

“Bob’s wife Emma, who had worked at the S&L, is someone I know and is now the President of the S&L. Her father-in-law Frank, who was the President before he retired and gave the job to his son is coming out of retirement to work with Emma and help train her as to what a President does until she’s capable of handling the duties by herself.”

“I briefly spoke with her at the wake last week and while she’s comfortable with her father-in-law training her, she does have a problem in replacing Ray Rafferty. It wasn’t a large mortgage department but there is no one there capable of assuming the duties. She wants to replace Ray with her son Ryan, who just graduated from the university with a business degree but he is young and does not have any banking experience. Besides the anticipated claims of nepotism by other employees her primary concern is the proper functioning of that department.”

“I mentioned your name and said that if I were her I would hire you to train her son. I said that you don’t want to return to permanent full-time employment but that this is something you might consider doing. I told her about what you had accomplished at Albany and that I gave you my highest recommendation. She asked me to e-mail your contact information to her which I just did. If you’re interested in doing something like training her son, I would suggest that you give her a call now. She could use your help in getting past this tragedy.”

“Sorry to hear about this accident. What you said about this anticipated claim of nepotism hits home with me. I was subjected to those claims when I was working and it wasn’t fun. It eventually worked out for me and maybe I can help it work out for her son. I won’t make any promises about doing this but I will call her.”

After ending the call Craig thought that maybe training the son was just what he needed to get on with his life and forget about what happened with Monica. He picked his phone up and placed a call to States S&L asking to speak to Emma Kovar when the call was answered.

“This is Emma Kovar.”

“Emma, my name is Craig Jacobs. I was just talking to Phil Campbell and he suggested I give you a call about training your son in the mortgage department.”

“Oh Mr. Jacobs, I am so glad you called.”

“Please call me Craig.”

“Did Phil tell you about the situation?”

“Yes he did and my condolences on your loss. I know these must be difficult times for you.”

“You can say that. Would you consider training Ryan? I might be prejudiced but he is a smart boy, excuse me man. I think he could do a good job with the proper training.”

“I would like to do what I did at Albany before I went to work there prior to committing to doing this training. It would be for me to come out and review the department and its operation to get a feel for it and to see if it’s something I want to do. Training your son is one thing but I won’t have time to train and straighten out a mess if one exists. Can you understand what I am saying?”

“Yes I can and when do you want to come out?”

“Is tomorrow okay?”

“Yes it is and I will expect you.”

Pulling into the parking lot at States S&L, Craig saw that the drive here was eighty one miles from his home. He knew he wasn’t going to like driving this distance every day if he accepted the position. Some accommodation would have to be made because of this travel distance.

After telling the good-looking receptionist who he was there to see he saw a lady with a smile on her face coming out of a hallway and head towards him. She introduced herself as Emma Kovar and asked him to follow her to her office.

They sat down and Emma said that while Phil Campbell gave her a fine recommendation about Craig, she didn’t know much about him and asked him to tell her about himself and his work experience. He gave her a full and complete version of his work experience. He mentioned the problems he had in the claim of nepotism.

Emma was listening intently to what he was saying. He studied her to see her reaction to what he said. He guessed her height at five foot four inches and weighted about one hundred and forty pounds. She had short dish-water blond hair with a figure that was a little on the heavy side from what he could see in the business suit she was wearing. He did like the sincerity he heard in her voice when she asked him questions.

When Craig was done talking she asked, “Do you have any questions for me?”

“No... , not yet anyway. Please introduce me to your son and let me interview the mortgage employees and look your operation over. I’ll let you know what I have found and decided by the end of business today.”

Emma phoned her son and asked him to come into her office.

Ryan her son came into the office and introductions were made. Craig was impressed with him. He was about six feet tall and a handsome young man. It looked to Craig that Ryan could have been a college athlete.

Craig told Emma he would see her later and turning to Ryan said, “Why don’t you show me around and buy me a cup of coffee.”

Ryan took Craig to the coffee room and started talking about the department. Craig immediate corrected him to eliminate the ‘Mr.’ when talking to him and to just use his first name. As Ryan talked Craig came away with the impression that Ryan was serious in wanting to learn how to manage the mortgage department and that he was grateful for the opportunity. He sounded very sincere when he said that he wanted to do the best he could, not only to not embarrass his mother but as a tribute to his father who he deeply admired. Craig was moved by his comments.

Craig was introduced to the members of the department after coffee and interviewed them. Craig asked questions about loan procedures, the number on the books and the situation on repos. There were a number of repos but with a twenty three percent unemployment rate in the area, he could understand that. Craig liked what they were doing in trying to avoid repos and how they were handling them if they couldn’t avoid repossession.

He asked Emma if she had some time to talk to him at three thirty and she said she did.

“I think your mortgage department is well organized and a good operation. I think there can be some fine tuning on how you are handling repos by trying to first sell them before getting a realtor involved and also installing a sweat-equity program, but that’s not a major problem. We can talk about that later. My first impression, Mom... , is that Ryan is trainable and I think I could do it to a point where he could handle the operation in a short time. This nepotism thing that was mentioned and as I said before is something that I experienced when I first started. I’ll try to see that doesn’t become an issue here. I do have a concern about the eighty one miles it is from my home to here. I wouldn’t enjoy a daily drive of that length.”

“I thought of that and there are two solutions that come to mind. The first one is we could rent you one of those suites they advertise which is nothing more than a glorified motel room with an efficiency kitchen. The second option would be for you to reside in the coach house we have on my property. It came with the property and my husband’s pet project was to fix it up for any guests we might have. He had just completed the project before his tragic accident. I think it’s better than a motel and you would like it. In fact, I will throw in one home-cooked meal once a week as a further enticement.”

“Sounds interesting and can we talk salary if you want me to do this?”

They did talk salary and there was no problem in arriving at an agreement. Emma further sweetened the pot with an offer of a bonus at completion of the training.

Craig started training Ryan the next day. Craig was pleased by Ryan’s reaction to his training. Ryan asked a lot of questions but to his credit he never asked the same question twice. Ryan was assigned manuals, rules and regulations to read and Craig tested him on his comprehension and retention which was good. Employee evaluation, budget preparation, salary administration, repossession handling, loan paperwork preparation and execution, Fannie Mae standards and procedures, various reports, as well as loan exceptions and many other subjects, were all covered in doing Ryan’s training. It was intensive but it seemed to Craig that Ryan was up to the task.

The perceived danger in doing this type of training was that Ryan would start to rely on Craig being there to answer any questions he would have and he would become reluctant to make decisions on his own. To that end, Craig had let Ryan administer the department for the last month he thought he needed to be there with Craig only observing what Ryan was doing. Craig wouldn’t say anything and even let Ryan make some small mistakes. He knew Ryan would learn from his mistakes and not repeat them. Craig held a conference with Ryan at the end of each day to discuss what had happened, what things Ryan did right, and the areas he could improve upon.