Chapter 3

It was a Saturday, and Mom and Dad were waiting to talk with me when I returned from the beach. I went in, took a quick shower, and changed into some shorts and a t-shirt before meeting with them. Mom started the discussion, "Don, your father and I are really proud of your success at your new job, but we wanted to talk to you about what your plans for the future are." I just looked at her, and she continued. "Right now the minimum wage is under five dollars an hour, and many adults with families live off of seven to ten-dollar an hour wages. That's in the fifteen to twenty thousand dollar a year pay range. We spoke to Mr. Malone, and he said that when he gave you the job he hoped that you might sign up one store a week that would each sell a hundred filters a month. He said that you're on track to average around fifteen a week not including that huge deal you completed yesterday."

I still didn't know what to say, so I remained quiet. Dad spoke up, and said, "You've caused some problems for Mr. Malone. Some are good problems and some not so good. Mr. Malone is going to have to add-on to his production lines so he can meet the new demands. In addition, he'll have to hire new workers. Those are good things. He also has a sales manager that makes a lot less than you do now, and other sales people who have been with him for a while are in the same boat."

At that point, I spoke up, and said, "I'm not an employee, I'm a contractor. I'm not going to apologize for working hard or making money, and I won't talk about it or flaunt my earnings, but I used my ideas and hard work to earn the commissions I made. When I spoke with Mr. Malone, I told him that if the commission was the right percentage for the first order then it was the right percentage for the hundredth order. He even bumped my first few months' commissions on new accounts."

When I finished, Mom spoke up, "We aren't saying that you didn't earn it, and that Mr. Malone wants you to skip your senior year of high school. He does however want to take you to the builders show in Vegas over your spring break. We just hope that you'll want to save or invest that money instead of spending it all."

"I will need to buy gas and food. I might start dating some more and I plan to have a couple of surfboards instead of just the one I currently have, which could help me when the waves are bigger or smaller. That leaves taxes and savings for the rest. I'll look at investments, but I don't know that much about them."

"We can help you in both of those areas. Do you need to set up a budget or talk about what you plan to do?"

"I need to figure out the taxes, because I simply don't know anything about how to handle them. I plan to save my money for now, so I can buy a house after I graduate. Right now, my truck works great for both work and personal needs, so I'll keep using it. You'll probably receive some nicer Christmas presents this year. I won't be a miser, but I don't plan to waste my money either."

Dad said, "Don, as your mom said, we're both very proud of you, and happy for you. We don't want to see you make any mistakes with what you're making. Would you mind if we reviewed your finances with you quarterly? That's how often you'll have to submit your taxes. We can bring in a CPA to set you up, and keep you out of trouble."

"That's fine with me."

That seemed to appease them, and the conversation ended.

Sunday, I mowed the lawn, and washed my truck. As I was washing the truck, Courtney came down, and helped me with the washing. She said, "Mom saw you out here, and thought that I should help, as a favor for taking us to the beach."

"Didn't you tell her that you paid me in blowjobs?"

"No. I don't think she'd understand. Emily started her monthlies yesterday, and I expect that we'll be ready to move on to the next step sometime next week. We're both nervous, but excited about it."

"Not as excited as me. Two cute girls are any man's dream."

"Thanks, but we're excited too. What are your plans for the day?"

"I plan to come over, and swim in your pool."

"I'll go fix us lunch, and tell Mom that you're coming over. See you in a few minutes."

With that, she skipped off while I put away the hose and cleaning supplies. I already had on my bathing suit, so I called in to Mom to let her know where I'd be. I knocked on their door, and Courtney's mom answered. Regina Hall is taller than Courtney at close to five foot ten. They share the blonde hair, blue eyes, and small chest. Her smile was very pretty, as she invited me in. Courtney had the grilled cheese on the stove, and it was almost ready to eat.

Mrs. Hall had me sit at the table in the kitchen, and she sat next to me, as Courtney finished up. "How has your summer been so far Don?"

"Great, I've been working for Mr. Malone at Airflow Technologies. I surf a couple of times a week, and Courtney has let me use your pool more than a few times. How is your summer going besides work, work, and more work?"

With a small laugh, she said, "Mostly work. I'm going to rent a place over at the beach for a week, and take Courtney and Emily. They enjoy it when they go with you, so I figured they'd like to spend a week over at New Smyrna Beach."

"That sounds like fun. We aren't going anywhere this summer, but we try to take a trip out–of-town for the holidays in the winter. I go to the beach enough, but Dad hates the sand."

We ate lunch, and then went out to the pool. I like to swim, so I swam about 20 laps before settling back on the steps to rest. I looked over to see Courtney and her mom both in bikinis, and lying on the chairs next to the pool. I walked over, and Mrs. Hall was looking very good alongside her daughter. Courtney asked me to put some suntan oil on her back, so I did. Mrs. Hall was fidgety, and I saw her adjust herself before asking me to put some oil on her, as well. I started at her shoulders, and then when I finished her back, I moved down to her feet, and worked up her legs. I noticed that little by little, she had spread her legs, and I could clearly see some wisps of hair peeking out. I went for broke, and worked the oil right up to the line where her suit met her legs. My thumb applied pressure to her vulva, as my fingers spread the oil. She didn't complain at all, and sounded out of breath when I asked if she needed anything else.

I grabbed hold of my towel, and unwrapped my book and my sunglasses that were inside of it. I wiped my hands on the towel before putting it on a chair, and then I put on my glasses, and began to read. I took frequent breaks to look over the top of my book, and gaze at the two women sunning next to me. Thirty minutes later Courtney was going in to use the bathroom, and find us some drinks. As soon as the sliding glass door closed behind her Mrs. Hall rolled on to her side, and looked at me.

"I overheard Courtney and Emily talking about you the other night. It sounded like you were making the most of a good situation. I now know that you'll take advantage of any situation that might come up."

"Do you want me to apologize or come back after Courtney goes to spend the night at Emily's?"

"I don't need oil on my back at night."

"We can see what else might come up."

"I'd like for you to come over, so we can talk without the girls. I overheard quite a bit."

"There isn't any school tomorrow, but I have to work in the morning. See if Courtney wants to stay at Emily's, and I'll stop by."

"I'll call Emily's mom, and see if she'll free me up for the night."

Courtney brought me a Coke. She was on her back when she picked up the oil. She looked at me, but her mom gave me the 'look', so I went back to my book, and Courtney applied her own oil. When we finished sunning ourselves, I returned to my home.

After I finished dinner with the family, I excused myself, and walked down to the Halls.

When Mrs. Hall came to the door, she was wearing a tennis outfit with shorts and a sleeveless top. She let me in, and then she offered me a drink. I passed, and sat on the couch.

She sat in the chair next to me, and took a minute to collect her thoughts. "Don, one day last week Emily was spending the night here. I went up to pull the laundry out of the hall hamper, and overheard the girls talking. Normally I try not to snoop, but what they were saying was hard for me to ignore and walk away from without listening. So, I stood in the hall listening for around fifteen minutes. When I finally left to return to the living room, I'd forgotten about the laundry, and just needed to sit down."

If she was looking for me to jump in, and admit to having sex with two almost fifteen-year-old girls, she was crazy. I didn't say anything since she didn't mention my name or ask me a question. I knew that she wanted me to comment by the way that she was looking at me.

"What's going on with the three of you?" she finally asked.

"What did they say was going on?", I asked.

"It sounded like the three of you are having sex."

"I'd never talk about a woman who I was having sex with. But, hypothetically what if there was a guy out there having sex with your daughter? What would you want him to do? Is he hurting her or forcing her in any way?"

"It sounded like the hypothetical guy wasn't forcing her, and that she was enjoying it."

I got up, and walked to the kitchen. I got a can of Coke, and came back to the couch. I was getting warm, so I cracked the top, and took a big gulp of refreshing soda. I handed the can to Mrs. Hall, and said, "That sure is refreshing and enjoyable, but I shouldn't drink anymore. Can you close that lid back?"

"I can't close the soda can. You've already opened it. Ah, I now see what you're saying. My baby has already opened that can, and I realize that I'm not going to convince her to stop doing what she's doing. I'll probably need to quit my job or hire a twenty-four hour nanny if I want to stop her."

"If it isn't with Mr. Hypothetical it could be with Mr. Substitute, but he could be not as nice, pleasing, and enjoyable with no pressure or force, as your daughter learns about the sexual aspect of being a woman."

She put her face in her hands for a minute. "My little girl is growing up, but I wasn't as adventurous at her age."

"I think that if she trusts the person that she's with, and has her friend along for support and protection that she'll take it as far as she wants, and not feel like she's being forced into doing anything. I'd bet that she's still a virgin, as far as her being with a guy. You might want to sit down, and have a talk with her before she takes the next step."

"I've been out of this since Dr. Hall moved on. I split my time between work, and raising my daughter. I don't know if I could teach her more than she could probably teach me at this point."

"You understand responsibilities, emotions, and consequences. Those are concepts that you could talk about with her, but I wouldn't wait too long. She might have plans for Mr. Hypothetical, and we already figured out that you can't close a Coke can after you've opened it."

She nodded, and stood to let me know that it was time to leave. I stood, and pulled her in for a hug. She needed a strong shoulder to lean on. I felt the urge to grab her ass, but didn't think her head was in it right then, so I held her until she pushed back. I kissed her forehead, and said, "Courtney is a good girl, whose just experimenting to figure out what these changes to her body are all about." She walked me to the door, and I went home.

I wasn't sure what to do on Monday, so I went into the office. When I entered the office area, I asked to see Mr. Malone. He was busy getting the week started, so I had to wait for thirty minutes. His secretary let me in, and he asked me what was up.

"Before I go out and sell more filters, I wanted to make sure that was something that you wanted me to do. I don't want to hurt production or cause problems in sales. I can live off the accounts I have, but I've never been one to sit on my ass all day. I can go visit existing accounts or help with the marketing products for Bell Air."

"Don't you worry about that other crap. That's my job. You worry about selling, and keeping your customers happy. We'll be making some changes, and hiring some new people. I have a person working on the marketing materials, but it sounds as if you already have some prices, so it might help if you talked to them. We don't keep Mr. Tipton from making sales calls, and during the last six years that he's been here, he could have called on Mr. Bell anytime he wanted to. If you don't mind, for just for this week, let's have you work with the person with the marketing materials and visiting your existing customers. Make sure they're happy, and let me know if they have any suggestions that would help."

"I started most of my customers with the delivery of a few cases on a trial basis. If they like them, then my next job will be to convince them to use us exclusively. Can I buy their old inventory at cost to make room on the shelf for my stuff? I can afford it at ninety cents a filter. If I do that, I'll have them sign a one-year exclusive deal. If they sell four cases for every one case I have to buy, then I'll break even. I hate to see that other crap on their shelves."

"I've never done that. I usually let them use up their inventory. I like your idea better, and since I'll be making more money from the Bell account, I say go for it, and I'll cut a check for them."

"Cool, that's even better than me paying for it."

"Don, you look at things, and try to figure out what's best for you. Most of the time it is also what's best for the company. You've offered to invest your own money in your success and in turn my company's success. You might think that you have deep pockets now, but I have deeper pockets. If you have an idea, bring it to me, and we can talk about it. Help Sarah with the marketing stuff, and then go back and buy a bunch of crappy filters. To support this, we're going to start running a second shift. We can use the same machines, but we'll need to hire more workers. That means that we can spread out the cost of the machines over more filters per week. We can also spread out our taxes, land, building, and executive salaries over more filters. We'll have more employees and more maintenance on the machines, but in the end, that's minimal. What that all means is more profit for me, and I like that."

"Thanks for giving me this opportunity. My parents are rather freaked out, but proud of me, as well. If you feel like I tricked you into the deal we have, then I'm willing to talk about it. I don't want you to become upset with our deal."

"It didn't turn out like I thought it would, but then again, you were willing to put your money where your mouth is, and do the work. Trust me, I have no complaints. I'm happy with the work your brother is doing, as well. He's made some suggestions that make sense."

I thanked him for his time, and went to find Sarah. When I found her, she had a telephone book opened on her desk. After I introduced myself, I asked her to come with me. She stood up, and then she followed me. I saw that she was empty-handed, and let her know that she might want her purse and a pad to take notes. She got those, and I led her out to my truck. Thankfully, it was very clean, (thank you Courtney). As we drove, I told her about the deal that I'd made with Mr. Bell. I explained the concept and the pieces that made up the package. As we continued to drive and talk, I could see that was gaining a better understanding of the entire project.

We pulled up in front of a small warehouse office space. I went in, and said hello to Barry, the guy whom I'd met the week before. I introduced Sarah to Barry the owner, and we talked about the project, and his portion of the entire process. Barry said that he could handle the work. We'd place orders every three months for the calendars and magnets. He'd store them in his warehouse, and deliver them every week or two. He said that if it would help that he could have the flyer printed and delivered at the same time, and made a pitch for making the boxes.

Sarah told him to give us a price on the fliers because it would be helpful to have everything delivered to us at once from one supplier, but that we already had a box contract that could, and would print what we needed. Barry showed us the quality level of the merchandise, and we spent a couple of hours marking up a calendar with what we wanted on it. He'd have the prototypes to us in two weeks. I was glad that Mr. Bell spoke with Mr. Malone that he had sent along his artwork.

Sarah was cute, and was happy to have lunch with me. She waited until after she ordered to let me know that she had a boyfriend. I didn't let it bother me, and dropped her back at the office before going to meet with my customers.

The first place I visited turned into an interesting meeting. He had a full selection of our filters, and he had placed the old ones on sale for fifty cents each. When he told me that he had close to a hundred old filters, I bought all of them. He looked at me funny, and then said, "I always wondered why vacuum cleaner salesmen and car salesmen always wanted to buy my old stuff. Now you want my old filters. It's hard to give them away."

"I don't want your store to look messy, so I'll buy them, and throw them in the trash back at the office. I guess the Airflow filters are selling well?"

"I've placed two re-orders already. I had my first customer come in, and buy his second filter. He said that in just three weeks that it had collected so much dust that it was time to replace the old one."

"Would you like for us to come up with a multi-pack or do you like to sell them individually?"

"What would be the savings?"

"I don't know, but instead of the boxes we could shrink-wrap four for ten bucks. I can talk to the boss if you want to see how they sell. You'd make more per sale, but less per filter. I'd see if we could deliver the pack of four to you for nine dollars, and you could sell them for ten. That would be a dollar a sale instead of fifty cents a filter. Would you want me to ask?"

"Sure. I like to give my customers what they want. If they have an extra filter or three then they'll be reminded to change them more often, so my total sales might end up being the same or more."

"I just had an idea. Would you be willing to give me the names and numbers of your suppliers?"

"Well I don't usually give that stuff out; why do you want it?"

"I'm working with another customer that gives out calendars to his customers to remind them to change the air filters. If I could convince a couple of other suppliers to work with me then we could add all the 'honey do's'. Time to mulch; time to plant the garden; time to change the air filter in the HVAC unit; time to fertilize the lawn, and any others that you want. The suppliers could pay for it, but it would have your name, location, and phone number on it. You could even mark the days that you were planning to have sales if you plan them that far in advance."

"No cost to me sounds good. I'll find the names for you."

We talked some more, and so far, he was happy with the ordering and billing process. I told him that I'd be going back to school soon, but that he could leave a message on my machine, and I'd return the call the same or next day. He wished me luck in school, so I went off, and did the same thing at a couple of other stops. I kept receipts for when I purchased the old filters, but one guy decided to keep them to give his customers a choice. I had to stop by my bank and take out some extra cash to finish the day.