Bullding a Greater Family

She paused for a moment and then asked, "Do you get along with her well? We have this non-relative thing in the company because of some problems we had with family crap in other areas. We feel that cousins shouldn't be too much of a problem."

"Yes, Mindy and I get along just fine. I know that she has done well with the company since she went into account management but I don't know a lot of details. Is that going to be a problem?" I tried to keep the nervousness out of my voice.

"Not from my point of view. My concern is that you can be objective about her and the others in her office. One of the first things I will be having you do is evaluate and compare everyone in the local area. We will have a joint reception for everyone within the next two weeks so I can meet them. After that, we will have a smaller meeting with the top people to introduce the new program to them. As long as you can evaluate her fairly, we won't have a problem."

"When I evaluate things, I almost don't care who is involved. I process the data and try to find out the strengths and weaknesses wherever they lie. You could give me the data on the people without their names and I could still do the job."

"I like that attitude. That must be the agent over there. Let's go see what we will see."

An hour and a half later, we went back to my car. Both of us were very unimpressed with what we were shown. The office was on the twelfth floor and featured a lot of windows and glitz but small offices and support areas. The agent pointed out several other buildings with space available. She also pointed out several apartment areas from the elevated view from the offices. Vicki quickly killed continuing the tour when she asked the agent about seeing some space in the Turtle Creek area. The agent looked disappointed and replied that she focused on the areas north of the freeway but that she knew the agent who worked that area. She called her and arranged for us to meet her tomorrow morning at nine to look at a couple of places. Vicki accepted that and told her that we needed to leave for another appointment.

When we got in the car, I asked, "Do we have another appointment?"

"Hell no! I just didn't want to waste anymore time out here. Take me back down to the Turtle Creek area and show me around some more. If we can find a place for dinner, that would be good too. Are you free tonight?"

"No; I have this new boss who demands that I be available to fulfill her needs. After I take care of that, then I will be free."

"Oh I am going to have fun with you. You understand me completely. Tonight, we need to be back at the hotel by eight so I can go over some stuff with you. You should be out by nine. Can you be at the hotel at eight for breakfast before we meet the agent?"

"That will be no problem. Let me put it this way; I have a new job and you will need a lot of support getting things set up and going. Assume that I will be available when you need me. If I have a conflict, I will let you know in advance. How does that sound?"

"That sounds like you are going to be very busy. Tomorrow, dress casual for the morning. Our lunch meeting is at the hotel with some of the local managers to introduce ourselves to them. A sport coat and tie would be nice but not essential. Our dinner tomorrow night is more formal. I'll let you go around four to change. We need to be there at seven. It is in Fort Worth."

"Then we need to leave the hotel by six to get there at seven."

"That's good to know.

"And Saturday morning, if you are going out of the big airport, we need to leave about two hours before your flight to get you there in time to check in. If you are going out of Love Field, we can leave about an hour and a half before your flight."

"I'll have to let you know after I look at the travel arrangements. So, show me around the area here."

I drove her down Oak Lawn, Maple, and Lemmon before I drove farther into Highland Park. She seemed to be more and more impressed as we drove around. I felt comfortable telling her that I was free tonight because Mindy had texted me that she wouldn't be home until nine or later. I had texted her back that I was good with that.

At six, we stopped in one area and walked around. There was an eclectic group of boutiques and cafés that Vicki seemed to be very comfortable with. After walking around, she led us into a wine café that featured a variety of pasta dishes and Moroccan food. With a guitar player in the corner, we had a pleasant glass of wine and later a nice meal of salad and roasted chicken with pasta and vegetables. We talked about ourselves and our likes and dislikes. I felt that we were very compatible and I didn't see anything but our marital status that might get in the way of a good relationship. We left at seven thirty and I drove her to the hotel.

Once back up in her room, she made a pot of coffee and we sat down after she brought out two boxes from her bedroom. She handed me the smaller of two boxes first. "This is now your laptop. It is a top of the line one with lots of memory and storage. For now, use your home internet connection. When I get back, I will bring you the information to log in through our corporate router and server after I get your account set up. Right now, I have loaded the information on all of the local people and offices in a spreadsheet. For the next two weeks, we will focus on them. After that, we will start looking at the more distant areas. If you can, I would like you to evaluate these people on several criteria. First is number of accounts. That by itself isn't important but we will use it as a benchmark. After that, I would like them evaluated by profitability and then also by the size of their accounts. I want to introduce this new program first to those who are most profitable and have accounts of a certain size. Later, we will make it available to everyone. Can you have that done by Wednesday when I get back?"

"Sure; I can do that by Saturday night and send it to you if you want to look at it before you get back."

"That would be nice but don't bust a gut over it. If I could get them by Monday or Tuesday so I can get familiar with them, that would be very nice. I will want to discuss them with you before we hold the reception. I also want you to set up the reception hopefully within the next week or two. There are fifteen offices in Dallas and Fort Worth with about 150 people. Some place central with good hors d' oeuvres. It won't be a dinner reception, so it can start around seven or eight. Some place central would be good and we should plan on being out of there by ten. I don't want anyone getting drunk. Oh, spouses are invited too. When you have the place, send it to me and I'll send the announcement to the office managers."

"Will do." I said while hoping that the concern I felt didn't show on my face.

"This other box has files on each office and their performance as well as information on each employee. You might want to go through there and see if anything else stands out that might be important other than the numbers. Hold on to it and keep it safe until we get an office to keep them in. That is the work we will be doing next week. In addition, when we decide on an office, you need to start looking for a receptionist. I would prefer someone who is experienced, has a good telephone voice, and can set up some of the receptions in the future. We won't have many day-to-day client visitors but will probably have some regular employee meetings in the office conference room. I will also want you to get us office furniture when we find a place. We could ship some down from corporate but that would cost us as much as buying new. Find a place and we will pick it out together when I get back. Questions?"

"None so far. I'm just wondering what I am going to do with all of the free time I will be having." I grinned.

"You keep that up and I'll be busy finding things for you to do." She grinned back.

"Ok, let's don't go quite that far. The fact is that I already know someone who would make a great receptionist. She worked at the last company I worked for and she has just been working temp jobs since the buyout. I'll set up an interview for you with her when you get back. I also know where I would go for office furniture. I assume that you don't want the typical cheap furniture. This place has a wide variety of styles, they are of good quality, and the prices aren't horrible. They are higher than the office stuff at a typical discount place but I consider them competitive for what you get."

"Now I know that I was right about you. If you trust the receptionist, go ahead and hire her. She can be part of the office and furniture hunt unless we luck into something tomorrow."

"Fine; how much is a receptionist worth?"

"You said that she was experienced and that would put her in the $30,000 range. If you feel that she has growth potential with skills that will help us, think about $40,000."

"Do great social skills, the ability to create killer presentations along with writing and editing reports, and great internet ability rise to the level of skills that will help us?"

"If she is that good, start her at $40,000 with a raise after three months."

"That should seal the deal. I'll talk to her tomorrow and let you know."

"I'll tell you what, if she is interested, see if she can go to the dinner tomorrow night. Then I can meet her and offer her the job myself."

"I'll call her early tomorrow. I don't know if she is working this week or not."

"Good. That is what I have for today and I can't tell you how thrilled I am to have found you. Honestly, I felt that I would be very lucky to find someone through the company contacts. I expected to spend most of next week sorting through resumes and picking some to talk to. You have moved me ahead by at least a week and probably two or more."

I dropped into my Texas best 'Ah Shucks' mode, "Why darling, it is my pleasure to take care of all of these little old things for you. Just call me whenever you need to."

She laughed heartily and replied, "With that attitude, life is going to be good for both of us. Can you carry both of these boxes? If not, I'll call for a bellman."

"I can carry two boxes easily." I stood up and put the computer box inside the other one and began to lift them.

"There is one more thing about this job that I didn't mention. I was going to hold off until I got to know you better but now I am not going to wait. I am going to be down here alone and my social life will be work for quite awhile. I am an affectionate person when I am off work and would like a kiss in the morning and evening when you arrive and leave. Is that a problem?"

"Let me put it this way. You are a drop dead gorgeous woman and you probably know that based on the way you carry and present yourself. It would be an honor and a privilege to kiss you good morning and good night. However, I will only do that if you have a smile on your face showing that you are happy or if I feel that you need a lift. Can you live with that?"

"Yes, I can. And you will notice that I am smiling tonight and will be again in the morning. And a peck on the lips will make me frown."

I took her in my arms and she came to me easily. When my lips met hers, I felt total acceptance and positive response. A few moments later when I broke the kiss, my only hope was that she couldn't feel the rampaging hardness that pressed against her abdomen.

"You will notice that I am still smiling and you passed your last audition. I will expect another one just like that in the morning. Just come up when you get here."

I gave her a short follow up peck for my benefit and picked up the boxes to hide a rather obvious bulge. She was still smiling when she opened the door and let me out. During the elevator ride down to the lobby, I realized that if it stayed at this level, I wouldn't have a problem with Mindy. However, if it went much farther, I might have a problem. I reminded myself to think with my big head first. I had a wife to take care of my little head although we hadn't practiced that very often since my layoff.

I was a little surprised that Mindy wasn't home when I arrived at quarter past nine. She had said that she should be there before then. I unloaded the boxes and took them into our study and then unpacked the laptop and plugged it in by the sofa in the living room. I was quickly lost in exploring the available software and found everything that I was familiar with. There was a link to the corporate network that was unavailable. I opened the spreadsheet and found the file on the local employees and opened it. A quick scan confirmed what I expected to find. Mindy wasn't the top producer in volume but was near the top of the profitable ones and had a decent number of higher value clients. Then I just scanned the others to see who else stood out.

It was after ten when I heard her car pull in the driveway. I logged out of the spreadsheet and set the computer on the side table and rose to meet her at the door. She came in with a huge smile and met me with a kiss and a hug.

"I am sorry I am later than I said but what a great night. I had dinner with one of my sorority sisters, Susie and her husband. I don't think you have met her. Anyway, her brother was with them. He just sold his business in California and is moving back here. Susie wanted him to meet me because he wants to put part of his money away for retirement. We are talking about a couple of million dollars. He was also asking me about where he could invest in some regular but safe places. I need to talk to my boss about that tomorrow. We do handle some regular investments but I haven't gotten involved in that part yet. This could be a major client addition for me. I uh...I am supposed to go to a party at Susie's house tomorrow night with him. I hope that you don't mind."

"I won't mind if you don't mind that I have to take my new boss to a dinner in Fort Worth tomorrow night."

"You got the job! Great. What is Vick Sanders like? Can you work with him?"

"Um, Mindy, I hate to tell you this but Vick Sanders is Vicki Sanders; Mrs. Vicki Sanders and you will get to meet her soon when we have a reception for all of the area employees. I have to set the reception up this week."

"A woman? Is she good looking? I don't really care; you said that she was married. I think I can trust you."

"That's good because she is very good looking and you can trust me as much as I can trust you with this new millionaire."

She grinned and said, "Then maybe we both ought to worry a little bit because he is very nice but also very handsome."

"We do have a minor problem though."

"What is that?"

"We talked about us being cousins but your file also says that you are married. That didn't come up except that she wants to invite the spouses to the reception next week too."

"I guess that I can say that my husband is out of town or something like that."

"That will work for the reception but it might become an issue later. I suspect that she will want to get to know you better as time goes along. She has a new program to introduce. I don't know anything about it yet but we will be selecting a few people to start it with. From the basic information I know so far, it looks like you might be on the short list of who she will want to meet with."

"Really! Wow, that would be good for me. We'll have to talk about this as things develop. So tell me about your job. Is it what we talked about?"

"Yes, more or less. Right now, I am her chauffer to get around to find things. We are going to look for office space tomorrow and then a place for her to live. This week I will set up the reception and continue showing her around. As we get settled, I will be doing analysis work although she didn't say specifically what. Oh, and I am going to try to hire Marla as our receptionist. I need to call her in the morning."

"Um, Marla knows us; you probably need to warn her to be safe. Is...is your office going to be with us or near us?"

"I already figured out about talking to Marla; she won't be a problem. And we probably won't be near your office. She wants a central place and we are going to look near Turtle Creek in the morning. The agent Vicki had called showed us the Galleria today and it sucks. She says that we are consolidating parts of the region and I suspect that she will be calling people in more often than us going out to the offices."

"That will be safer for sure. So, what is she going to pay you?"

"$60,000 and a bonus after the new program gets started."

"You must have really impressed her. I am whipped; let's go to bed. Both of us have had a busy and long day today and it likes more of the same tomorrow."

"I'm with you. For the record, I like her and think I can work well with her. She seems to respond to me too. I feel really good about this both short-term and long-term."

Mindy yawned as she said, "I'm glad." We walked back to the bedroom and were quickly asleep.

The next morning, I was up and dressed at the same time Mindy was for the first time since my layoff. She kissed me good bye as she left, she said, "I might be late tonight. I have no idea how long the party is going to last. I expect that I will be home before midnight though."

"Fine. Our dinner tonight is in Fort Worth and I would expect that it will be midnight before I get home. I'll come home around four thirty to change."

"I'll probably change around normal quitting time. So have fun. Well maybe, not too much fun." She grinned at me.

I grinned back and said, "The same to you." I decided to wait about fifteen minutes before I left and would call Marla from the car.

Once I was on the road, I called and was greeted with, "I told you last night to not call me, you piece of shit. I'm married and I don't want to have your babies or even kiss you good night."

"Um, Marla, this is Bob Calvert and while I would love to father your children, I don't think that dipshit would like that."

"Oh fuck; I'm sorry Bob; I went out with some friends last night and this jerk kept hitting on me. When I wasn't looking, he took my cell phone and called his phone. He said he was going to call me. I think you can guess the rest."

"Yes I can; and just how is dipshit these days?"

"He is the only way he knows how to be; a dipshit. That is why I was out with the girls again. If I could find a decent job, I'd file for divorce in a minute and wouldn't look back. Are you working again?"

"As of yesterday, yes I am; and if you clean up your foul mouth and dress pretty, you too will be employed on Monday."

"You sure do make it hard on a girl at 7:30 in the morning. Tell me about the job and yes, I am very interested."

"I thought you might be. It started out as a receptionist job for a new office but after I told the boss about your writing, editing, Internet, and presentation skills, it was upgraded to something more like an office manager something."

"I'll take it if it pays more than thirty five."

"Thanks what I figured."

"If I give the boss a blow job, will that cinch the job?"

"I doubt it; he is a she and a blow job probably isn't in the cards unless she is keeping a secret from me."

"Ok, I eat pussy too. So what do I have to do?"

"Clean up and become your beautiful self. I will pick you up around five thirty and we will pick her up at six. We are going to a big dressy dinner in Fort Worth. If you impress her, she will hire you before the night is over."

"How dressy?"

"Not formal but business nice. I will wear a sport coat and tie and if she wears what I met her in, she will be in professional eveningwear."

"I can do that. Call me later and make sure I got it right. I need some more sleep. Dipshit came in drunk at three this morning smelling like cheap sex. I had to sleep on the couch because it was so bad."