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Here We Go Again Ch. 02

By: Just Plain Bob



"Your decision Miss Michelle. Do you want me to show you around or not?"

"I don't suppose it would hurt and it would keep dad happy. How do you want to handle it?"

"Just tell me what your schedule is and what your interests are. In general just let me know what you want to know."

"For starters a good parts place. My water pump went out. I've got the old one off and I need a replacement for it."

"There are two places within ten minutes of here. A NAPA and an Auto Zone. You could give them a call in the morning and see which one has what you need in stock."

"None open this time of night?"

"Nope. Both close at seven."

"Tomorrow is Saturday. Do you have to work?"

"Sometimes I do end up having to work weekends, but I'm free this weekend."

"Can you start showing me around tomorrow?"

"I can."

"We can start by going to whichever place has the parts I need."

The parts places opened at eight so I told Michelle that I would pick her up at nine. By then she should know who had what she needed. I made my goodbyes to Hank and Ronnie and headed for my apartment.

++++++++++++

I picked Michelle (call me Mickey) up at nine and she was dressed the same as she had been the previous evening although it was a different sweatshirt and different baggy pants. I took her to NAPA to get her parts and then I offered to take her to breakfast and she accepted. Over breakfast she asked:

"Tell me the real reason you are doing this."

"There are actually two reasons, but both of them are basically the same. My boss asked me for a favor and I agreed to do it to stay on the good side of him. Stay in his good graces. The second reason is that if your father has his way he is going to bring you into the business when you graduate. Somewhere down the line I expect that you will end up being my boss so I would also like to be on the good side of you."

"So it is a career move on your part."

"Does that make me all bad?"

"It is something that I can understand, but my coming to work at dad's company is not a given. It is a possibility, but by no means a sure thing."

"Why wouldn't you?"

"I may feel the need to prove myself and I'm not sure that I could do that working for my father. I believe he would tend to give me things without my having earned them and I would be looked at as getting favorable, but unearned treatment."

"You know that's bullcrap. What's the difference between you coming to work and being seen as getting preferential treatment or something happening to your dad and you having to come in and take over? You are an only child so you will inherit."

"Not necessarily. Ronnie could get the nod."

"I can't see that happening. I've been there three years and I've never seen her in the place. You would be better off already working there so you would be familiar with things."

"We don't need to talk about it now. I've still got two years of school to get through."

When I took her home she asked me if I needed to leave right away and I said that I didn't.

"I could use an extra pair of hands for a couple of minutes if you don't mind."

I followed her into the garage where instead of a car I found a Silverado long bed with a camper shell on the back. Next to it was a large Snap On tool box and I do mean large. A bottom, a center section and a top box and I know Snap On isn't cheap.

"I didn't know that your dad was a mechanic."

"These are my tools bubba ad even though I know it is rolling around in your head I don't want to hear it."

"Hear what?"

"But you're a girl."

"Well you do have to admit that you have a pretty impressive set of tools. I know mechanics that have worked at it for years and who don't have a set up that good."

"My stepdad was a Snap On distributor. The bottom box was a birthday present and I got almost everything else at cost."

"But why?"

"I always wanted to be a mechanic."

"So why a business major at a four year school when you could have taken diesel mechanics or some other type of mechanical training at a community college?"

"Because even though I always wanted to be one once I started working as one I found that it didn't agree with me. I didn't like what oil and grease did to my skin and I hate broken nails. I'll do my own work, but that's all. What I need for you to do is hand me the tools as I need them. As short as I am I have to stand on this milk crate to work and things will go quicker if I don't have to keep getting down and then back up."

I did what she asked and watched as she installed the water pump and all the hoses. As she threaded the fan clutch onto the shaft and tightened it using an adjustable wrench and a three pound maul I said:

"Maybe I should rethink becoming your dad's son. As much as I've paid for maintenance on my cars it would be nice to have a wife who could do it for me and save me all that money."

"You wouldn't like the trade off."

"Why not? What would it be?"

"You would have to do the laundry, the ironing, wash the dishes, mop the floors and do the windows because I would be out in the garage."

"I could probably do most of it, but I'm not sure that you would want me doing the ironing. Last time I ironed anything I burned a hole in my favorite shirt."

I watched as she installed the fan shroud and finished up. She closed the hood and said:

"Now that I've got that out of the way what are we going to do for the rest of the day?"

"How about I show you around the town and point out some of the places you will need to know about as a student at State?"

"Works for me. Let me wash my hands and we can go."

I showed her around the town and then drove over to the campus and parked. We got out of the car and took a walking tour and I pointed out the administration building and the buildings that she would have classes in as a business major."

"Where are the buildings where the engineering classes are held?"

"Why would you want to know that?"

"Because when I go to work for my dad it will help me to know a bit about drafting, hydraulics and electrical systems."

"I thought you said that you weren't going to go to work at your father's company."

"I said that I wanted to prove myself before going to work there, but I know that realistically I'll probably end up working there. The pressure from dad to get me there will be intense, but I want some experience behind me when I finally do give in."

It was close to five when she said, "You bought me breakfast so how about I buy you dinner?"

I had nothing better to do so I said okay. She asked me if there were any good barbecue places around so I took her to The Old West Barbecue on Wolfenbarger Road. Over ribs she asked me why I was so down on women so I told her about Ann, Becky and Fiona. 

And then of course I had to ask her why she didn't trust the male of the species. Her experiences mirrored mine to a degree. She had a steady boyfriend and found out he was seeing another girl on the days she couldn't go out with him. He was followed by a guy who cheated on her with her ex best friend. He was followed by a guy who she really cared for right up until she found out that he was only dating her to win a bet. It was common knowledge among the guys she had dated that she was a virgin and intended to stay one until she married and some of his buddies told him that he was wasting his time if all he wanted to do was bed her. He bet them a hundred dollars he would bed her by spring break.

"Once I found that out I enticed him into my bedroom, let him get undressed and then I laughed at him and told him that I would never let a penis that small touch my body. The best part was that I had hidden a video camera in the room and I made sure that all of his friends got a copy of it."

"Ouch!"

"He deserved it."

"I'm sure he did. Remind me to stay on your good side."

"I don't have any worries there. You pretty much have to stay on my good side. You expect me to be your boss some day right?"

She had me on that one.

"So what are we going to do tomorrow? What else is there that I have to see?"

"I don't know. Maybe places where kids your age hang out."

"I am not a kid bubba and I don't usually hang out with people my age. Most of them are too immature for me. Where do you hang out?"

"I don't."

"What do you do with your free time?"

"I bowl in a men's house league on Mondays and Thursdays. I stop for drinks and to shoot pool with some guys from work on Wednesdays and the rest of my time I'm usually in my easy chair with a good book."

Or spending time with Shirley, but I didn't tell her that.

"That's not much of a life."

"It suits me.'

"You don't even occasionally date?"

"Nope. I've already told you I'm pretty much soured on the opposite sex."

"That doesn't mean that you shouldn't date and have fun. Just don't get emotionally involved."

"Do you? I mean given your distrust of the male of the species."

"Sure I do. I just avoid getting into relationships,"

Easy for you to say I thought as I looked at her. I doubted that guys were beating a path to her door. She could probably look better if she did something with her hair instead of wearing it in that horrible looking bun sitting on the top of her head. She could get rid of those ugly looking horn rimmed glasses with contacts or Lasik surgery. Then again maybe those changes wouldn't help. It would depend on the body she kept hidden under her baggy clothes. I wasn't sure that anything could help her if she were chunky or fat.

She was intelligent, easy to talk to and had a good sense of humor, but I didn't know any guys and doubted that many existed who would be attracted to a girl because she was intelligent. Intelligent and decent looking yes, but just intelligent no.

Then I had to give myself a mental slap alongside my head. I WAS enjoying my time with her. There was no physical attraction, but we did get along well together. She said something that I didn't catch and I said:

"What?"

"I asked if you played golf."

"I do go out with friends from time to time, but I'm not very good at it."

"Good. I like it when I shoot better than whom I'm playing with. Daddy told me that we have a family membership at Greenbriar. How about we enjoy a long walk and fresh air tomorrow. You know; chase the little white ball around?"

"I guess I could do that."

"Bring your swim trunks. We can lay around the pool when we come off the course."

I dropped her off at her house and headed back to my apartment just in time to hear the phone ring. I answered it and it was Michelle.

"I can get a tee time of 7:20 if we are willing to play with two other members otherwise we won't be able to get off until around noon. What do you want to do?"

"Take the early one. I'll pick you up around a quarter to seven."

"See you then."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

When I picked her up I wondered if she owned anything other than sweatshirts and baggy pants.

We signed in at the pro shop and met the other two who would make up our foursome. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I already knew one of them. Fred Amesly was one of my clients. We shook hands and he said that he didn't know I was a member and I explained how I came to be there and introduced him to Michelle. The other guy in the foursome was Fred's son Ralph.

We had time for a cup of coffee before the starter paged us and then we were off. I found out right at the start that I wasn't in the same class as the other three. All three of them were straight down the middle and I was off to the right in the rough. Michelle and Ralph birdied the hole. Fred made par; I was a double bogie and it went on like that the rest of the eighteen holes. Michelle was a five over par seventy-seven. Ralph and Fred were eight over par and I shot my usual hundred and two. Talk about being embarrassed.

The only good part for me was that I went the eighteen holes without losing a ball and that was a first for me. Fred told me that he would rag on me for being beaten by a girl "Except for that fact that she beat me too." Ralph said he was going to ask Michelle for lessons. Michelle didn't hear any of the talk because she had gone to the women's locker room to change and she told me that she would meet me at the pool.

Fred and Ralph left and I went to the locker room to change. When I got to the pool I looked around and didn't see Michelle so I found a lounge chair and sat down on it only to hear:

"What's the matter? You too good to sit with me or are you just ashamed because I waxed your ass?"

I looked over and saw a sight that almost took my breath away. The bun was gone and the hair was in a pony tail that hung down to the middle of her back. The horn rimmed glasses were gone and the baggy pants and sweatshirt had been replaced by three tiny pieces of yellow material that left damned little to the imagination. Why she went out of the way to hide that magnificent body was a question that begged to be asked.

:Excuse me, but do I know you?"

"Very funny."

"No it isn't. The way you look right now is one hundred and eighty degrees from the way you looked the last two days. The only way I know you are Michelle is from the sound of your voice. Care to tell me what is going on?"

"You won't like it."

"Why not?"

"Because I prejudged you and it will probably piss you off."

"Why would you prejudge me?"

"Just the way daddy told me that he had lined up a guy for me made me think bad thoughts. Some asshole only doing it to suck up to daddy and maybe see a way to marry into the business. I was partly right. You were honest when you told me that you were trying to stay in the good graces of daddy and get on the good side of me. If you were the type of guy to try and get ahead by seducing the boss's daughter I thought I would make myself less appealing. Then if you did come on to me I'd know for sure that you were an asshole.

"You let me know about your distrust of females right up front and over the last two days you've shown me that you are an alright guy so I decided that I could go back and be me."

"I may not be too trusting of the opposite sex, but I'm still a male and putting a package like that in front of me is just plain wrong. You had to know it would tempt me."

She smiled and said, "What did you expect me to do when you laid down that challenge in front of me?"

"What challenge?"

"You told me that you didn't trust the female of the species and so I have to prove to you that you can. I have to show you that you had the misfortune to get three bad apples in a row."

"Why would you even think of trying to change my mind? As I remember that conversation you told me that you don't trust men any more than I trust women."

"True, but that doesn't mean that I've given up on them. I have lots of friends who are in good relationships and if they could find a good man so can I if I keep trying. I've heard it said that you might have to kiss a few frogs before you find your prince. So what are we going to do next?"

"Why ask me? The deal is that I'm supposed to show you around. Where do you want to go? What do you want to see?"

"I haven't been to a movie in ages. Maybe after I work on my tan for a while we can catch a bite to eat here and then catch a movie. Okay with you?"

I told her that it would work for me and that's what we did and it set the tone of our relationship. Maybe twice a week and at least one weekend day for the next month Mickey had something that she wanted to see or do and I got the call to be of service.

++++++++++++++++++++++

It was the end of the fourth week and we had just left the Museum of Natural History. Mickey asked me to take her to The Stage Stop which was a restaurant a little ways out of town. As we were driving toward the place she asked:

"Do you like me?"

"Of course I do."

"Then why haven't you tried to kiss me?"

"Probably because I didn't want to get slapped."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because you don't trust guys any more than I trust girls."

"I thought we had already gotten that conversation out of the way that day at Greenbriar. Are you going to go through the rest of your life never taking a chance at finding something worth having?"

"Probably not but who knows; maybe I might."

"I know you have some interest in me because I've seen your pants tent when you look at me."

Which was true. After the bikini episode at the country club she had started to dress to show off the package and I do have to admit that it was one hell of a sexy package. I was seeing Shirley a lot more often since Mickey started showing off the goods in better wrappings. I just glanced over at her and said:

"I won't deny that you are one very sexy looking lady, but you are off limits to me."

"Why in the hell would you say that?"

"Because you are the boss's daughter."

"What the hell does that have to do with anything?"

"Remember back when we first met and you told me that you probably wouldn't be coming to work at your dad's company? The reason you gave was that you didn't want people saying that you were moving up in the company because of favoritism instead of ability. It is the same with me. I don't want it said that my moving up is because I'm tight with the owner's daughter."

"That's ridiculous."

"No more so than your fear."

"I've seen the way you look at me bubba. Are you going to tell me that you would turn me away if I threw myself at you?"

"Why would you throw yourself at me? You don't even know me that well."

"I know you a lot better than you think I do. My dad thinks highly of you and I trust his judgment. We've spent a lot of time together this last month and I've learned to trust you. I've never spent more than a week with a guy that he didn't try to get me in the sack, but you have gone a month without even trying for a kiss. And again, I do know that the interest is there because I can see it.

I was torn. When I had picked her up she was wearing CFMs with a four inch heel and a mini-skirt and she was correct in that the sight had given me a woodie. Sitting next to me in the car the mini-skirt rode up allowing me to see an astonishing amount of well turned leg and I was sprouting wood. But I was serious in that I didn't want my advancement in the company to be seen as the result of a relationship with the owner's daughter.

Dinner was good and our conversation was general in nature. I asked about her classes and how she was doing and she wanted to know how the expansion at the plant was coming along. I wondered at that. As much as she talked about not wanting to go to work at her dad's company she sure did ask me a lot about what was going on there.

After dinner and a couple of drinks at Bud's Bar I drove her home and as I parked in front of her house she looked over at me and said:

"I think that it is time to take this to the next level" and she slid over next to me and said:

"Kiss me Robert."

I gave her a peck on the lips and she said, "I said KISS me Robert" and she took my head in her hands and laid a scorcher on me. When she pushed her tongue in my mouth I gave up the fight and responded. It turned into one of the hottest make out sessions I'd ever experienced. When she finally pulled away to go into the house she said:

"You show promise Robert. We will need to work on it."

I walked her to her door and she kissed me again and asked, "Will I see you again to morrow?"

"If you would like."

"I would Rob; I really would."

"I'll call you" I said and she kissed me again and went into the house.

I did call and the next day we had dinner and took in a show. That led to several dates and a month later Mickey was on my bed crying out "Oh yes!" Three months later we were engaged to be married and that is when things started to get complicated.


Here We Go Again Ch. 02



+++++++++++++++++++++++++

When Mickey told her father that I had proposed and that she had accepted he called me into his office one day at work.

"I know what a fine man you are Rob and I'll be glad to have you as a son. I know that you will treat my baby right, but there is one little matter that has to be taken care of before the nuptials. I have to ask you to sign a prenuptial agreement."

"I don't have a problem with that."

"I didn't think that you would."

He took a document out of his desk drawer and slid it across the desk to me. I picked it up and said:

"I'll have my attorney go over it and then get it back to you."

When I got back to my office I sat down and read the document and I thought that it seemed a little one sided to me. The way I read it the only one protected by it was Mickey. I called my dad and he called his best friend John who was the family attorney and got me an appointment to see him.

John checked out the document and told me that it was completely one sided and that if the marriage ended for any reason whatsoever I would be totally screwed. He made some suggestions and I told him to go ahead and make the changes. The next day I picked up the papers and called Mickey and asked her to meet me at my bank and when she asked what for I told her that many of the bank employees were notaries and they could witness our signatures when we signed the prenuptial agreement.

"What prenuptial agreement?"

"The one your dad said that I'd have to sign before we got married."

"I don't know anything about a pre-nup and I'm not signing anything until I know what it is about. We can talk about it tonight."

"I bowl tonight."

"Then we can discuss it tomorrow. That will give me time to talk to daddy and see what is behind this."

When I went over to her house the next evening is when everything went to shit.

"My dad gave me a copy and I guess it is okay. When do you want to meet with a notary?"

"I've made some changes to the document he gave me to sign. You need to read it before we sign."

I gave her the reworked document and she read it. I could see her frowning as she read and then she said:

"What the hell is this crap?"

"What?"

"We haven't even set the date for the wedding yet and you are already talking about adultery and infidelity? I'm not signing this!"

"Why not? There is nothing wrong with it. It is more even handed than the one you dad came up with and you were willing to sign that one."

"Well I'm not signing this piece of shit!"

"And I'm not signing the totally one sided one that your father drew up."

"You don't trust me?"

"Of course I trust you or I wouldn't have asked you to marry me."

"Then what is with this prenuptial crap?"

"Your father is the one insisting on it not me."

"He explained it to me and his makes perfect sense. All his does is keep the business in the family."

"No that isn't all that his does. According to his version if the marriage ends for any reason whatsoever you keep everything. Any reason at all Mick. My fault, your fault, nobody's fault; I walk away with nothing. My version exempts the family business from any settlements brought on because of divorce and it ensures that the division of the remaining assets is equal except in the case of infidelity. In the case of infidelity the offending party leaves with only what they brought into the marriage. It is a fair and even handed approach."

"Well I'm not signing it" she said as she tore it in half and threw it at me. "As far as I'm concerned there is nothing wrong with the one my dad showed me and that's the one I'll sign."

"You may see nothing wrong with it, but I won't sign it as it is."

"Then I guess there isn't any need to pick a date for the wedding since there isn't going to be one."

"If that is your choice so be it" I said as I got up and headed for the door.

"Where are you going" Mickey asked and I didn't answer. "Come back here Ro..." and the door closed behind me cutting off the rest of what she was saying.

When I got home the light on the answering machine was blinking and the counter showed that there were five messages. I hit the play button and the first message was from Michelle. "How dare you..." and I skipped to the next message. All five were from Michelle and I deleted them all without listening to them and then I unplugged the phone and went to bed.

++++++++++++++++++++++

I didn't feel like fixing my own breakfast in the morning so I left my place a little early and stopped at a Denny's to get a bite to eat. As I drove into work I thought over the conversation with Michelle. She was perfectly willing to sign an agreement that gave me nothing, but refused to sign one that covered us equally. I had to wonder about that. The more I thought about it the more sure I was that if a prenup was going to be required for the wedding to take place it was going to be mine.

I was not surprised when I got to work to be called to come see Hank in his office. I walked in and he waved me to a seat and then he went right to it.

"I understand that you and Mickey had words last night."

"We did."

"Care to bring me up to speed on it?"

"I took the prenup you gave me to my attorney and had him look it over. He told me that it was entirely one sided and suggested some changes that would give me some protection also. I had him make the changes and I called Mickey and asked her to meet me so we could sign and have our signatures notarized and she said she didn't know anything about it and wouldn't sign anything until she knew what it was. I'm guessing she talked to you and you explained it to her.

"Last night she told me she had read your document and wanted to know when we could meet with a notary. I told her I'd made some changes to the document and suggested that she read it first. She read it and blew up on me. She told me that she would never it."

"You made changes to it? Why?"

"My attorney pointed out that it was totally one sided in favor of Mickey. A divorce for any reason whatsoever would give her everything and me nothing. I had my attorney change it to give me equal protection and Mickey said that she would never sign it the way I had it written and I told her that I would never sign the one you gave me."

"I don't understand. What was wrong with mine?"

"The way it was worded it gave Mickey everything in case of a divorce and I got nothing."

"I didn't write it. My lawyer wrote it. I remembered what I went through when Michelle's mother and I divorced so I told him I wanted to make sure that Michelle didn't end up losing part of the company in a divorce. He wrote it up and gave it to me and I didn't bother reading it. I guess maybe I should have, but I've always trusted Avery to look out for my best interests so I didn't bother to check it out. What changes did you make?"

I told him and he said, "That sounds fair to me. What didn't Michelle like about it?" I told him and he just shook his head and then asked:

"So what now?"

"I don't have a clue boss. Things were a little heated between us when I left to go home. So much so that I unplugged my phone to keep from talking to her."

I went back to my office and my secretary handed me a bunch of message slips. Four were from Michelle and I tossed them into the trash. Any talking we did would be after I'd cooled down since her "No need to pick a date for the wedding" was still on my mind.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Some times when you have weighty thoughts on your mind you forget the simple things. Things like when your dad owns the business you have easy access to the place. My office door opened at eleven-twenty and Michelle walked in. Before she was six inches into the room she said:

"Why aren't you taking my calls?"

"Why should I? After you ended our engagement why would I want to waste time talking to you?"

"I did no such thing!"

"You damned sure did. You flat out said there was no more need to pick a date for the wedding since there wouldn't be one. To me that meant that the engagement was off. You were absolutely clear on the fact that you would not sign my version of the prenuptial agreement and I will not sign the one your father came up with."

"I told you why I wouldn't sign yours."

"Yes you did and I have to wonder why. What you found objectionable was the infidelity clause and that got me to thinking. Why would you object to that? The only reason that I could come up with is that you figured somewhere down the line you might feel like straying and having a fling or two and you didn't want to be financially penalized if you got caught."

"That's a rotten thing to say. I never realized that you were such an asshole."

"Whatever" I said as I looked at my watch and stood up. "I have to meet a customer for lunch" and I walked by her and out of the office.

When I got back from lunch I found Michelle's engagement ring sitting on my desk pad. I shrugged as I mentally thought that my luck with women was staying true to form.

+++++++++++++++++++++

The next three years went by and I continued to rise at work. By my sixth year working for Hank I was Vice President of Marketing. Michelle had graduated with her degree in Business Management and much to Hank's displeasure had gone to work for another company. I told him to get over it because she would eventually come to work for him.

Michelle and I had minimal contact, but when we did run into each other we were civil (but only just). Michelle married, but it only lasted a year before ending in divorce. Rumor had it that infidelity was involved, but rumor wasn't clear as to who was the guilty party. She married again and that one lasted two years before ending in divorce, but I never knew the reason.

For my part I never married and I continued to see Shirley for my needs. I once jokingly told her that as much as I saw her maybe we should just get married. She laughed and said:

"We could, but only if you want a slut for a wife. I like variety too much to settle for only one cock."

At least she was up front and honest about it.

After three years at her other job Michelle resigned and came to work for her father. She went into Sales so she wasn't in my section, but the fact that she had come into the company changed things for me. I was under no illusions as to who would eventually take Hank's spot when he decided to retire and given our history I just could not see myself working for Michelle.

I told Hank that I could see the handwriting on the wall and that I was going to start looking for other opportunities. He told me that he understood where I was coming from, but he couldn't afford to lose me.

"Not only do I heavily depend on you, but I need you here when Mickey eventually does move into my spot. She is going to need dependable people working here."

"I'm sorry boss, but I just can't see it working."

"What if I sweeten the pot?"

"What do you mean?"

"Instead of a year end bonus I give you ten percent of the company stock and a ten year employment contract?"

"Ten percent? Who do I have to kill?"

"Just don't leave the company. Mouse is smart enough to grow into the job, but she is going to need a guiding hand and a steadying influence."

"You are taking it for granted that she will listen to me and I'm not as certain of that as you seem to be."

"Give my little girl some credit Rob. This place is going to be her livelihood and she is not going to do anything to screw it up and she is smart enough to consider any advice she gets."

I did agree to stay and Hank did give me ten percent of the company. I figured I had at least five years before I would have to face working for Michelle.

I was wrong.

To be continued.



Here We Go Again Ch. 03



Two years after striking my deal with Hank Marsha, Hank's secretary, called me in a panic. She had gone into Hank's office and found him face down on his desk and she couldn't get him to respond. I told her to call 911 and I rushed over to his office. I felt for a pulse, but couldn't find one and I got him on the floor and started doing CPR on him and I kept it up until the paramedics arrived, but it was no use. He was gone.

Knowing that Michelle and Ronnie didn't get along all that well and figuring that I would break the news a little more gently than Michelle would I called Ronnie first and let her know what happened and where the paramedics were taking Hank. And then I called Michelle who was in a meeting at the Hilton. I was a little shocked at her response to the news.

"He's dead? You are sure about that?"

"I am."

"Well if he's dead there is nothing I can do so I might just as well stay here and finish the meeting."

I didn't even say goodbye; I just hung up the phone on her.

I got together with Marsha and reviewed Hank's calendar and then got on the phone and cancelled several appointments that he had. Then I went down on the plant floor and informed the rank and file that Hank was gone. While I was performing that sad chore Marsha paged me and said that I was needed back in the office as soon as possible. I hurried back to the office and she said:

"Halsey on line two."

I picked up the phone and said, "Good morning Bart. What can I do for you?"

"I just called Hank to verify our lunch date and found out what happened to Hank. Who is in charge now that Hank is gone?"

"I'm not certain, but my guess is that his daughter will pick up the reins. Why?"

"We were supposed to meet for lunch at two and sign our renewal contract. I need that contract in place before the bank will release the funds I have to have for the expansion and retooling I need and I'm under some deadlines as far as locking in the contractors. I've got till end of business tomorrow to lock them in or they will be taking other jobs and I will have to get back in line until they can get the time to get back to me."

"Let me make some calls and I'll get back to you."

I called Avery Collins who was Hank's attorney and filled him in on what had happened. Then I told him of Halsey's call and asked him who could act for the company in the absence of Hank. He surprised the hell out of me when he said:

"You can."

"I can?"

"You are an owner of the company and right at this moment you are the only official owner by virtue of your ten percent holdings. The other owners are not really official until the will is read and even then who is going to be in charge is not cast in stone."

"You are sure about this?"

"Absolutely."

"I'm not sure how his daughter is going to take it."

"Don't sweat it. You have legal standing."

I called Halsey back and told him I would meet him for lunch and we would get the contract signed. Then I asked Marsha if she knew where the contract was so I could look it over before meeting Halsey. She went into Hank's office and came back with his briefcase.

"Everything you need is in there" she said as she handed it to me. I went back to my office, opened the brief case, found the Halsey contract and went through it. It was a straight forward renewal with nothing changed except it was extended for three years.

Once I knew where I was on Halsey I called Ronnie and asked her if there was anything I could do for her and she told me not at the moment, but in a couple of days she might need my help. I told her not to hesitate to call if she needed anything at all.

Once I got off the phone I went back into Hank's briefcase to see if there was anything else that needed urgent attention. I found a couple of contracts with sticky notes on them outlining changes that Hank had intended to make and I decided to review them when I got back from lunch.

I met Halsey at Mario's and we signed the contract and then I went back to the office. I got on the phone and made some calls to people whom I thought should know about Hank's passing and then spent the rest of the afternoon reviewing the contents of Hank's brief case. There was nothing out of the ordinary with them and I gave Marsha the rough drafts of the contracts with the changes that Hank wanted and asked her to type them up.

I stopped for a beer or two on the way home and as I worked on them I wondered what the morning was going to bring and if I was up to it. One thing I knew for sure is that I would be facing Michelle and I was not looking forward to it.

++++++++++++++++++++

I arrived at the office at eight and at eight ten Marsha called me and told me that Mrs. Haight (Michelle) wanted to see me in her office.

"Tell her I'm too busy right now to run down to the Sales department."

"She isn't in her office in Sales. She has moved into Hank's office."

"Well I'm still too busy right now. Tell her I'll give her a call when things clear up here."

Three minutes later my door opened and Michelle stormed into my office.

"What the hell do you mean that you are too busy to see me? If you value your job you had better get your head out of your ass if you expect me to keep you on here. I want to know where the hell you get off signing contracts on behalf of this company. I did not authorize you to sign anything and that goes for the contracts that Marsha says she is typing up for you now. You do not commit my company to anything without my approval. Do you understand that? And when I call you to my office you had better get off your ass and get there. Are we clear on that?"

"Actually I'm quite clear on a couple of things. One of them is that your father's attorney has assured me that I can sign contracts on behalf of the company. I called him and cleared it before my meeting with Halsey. Another thing I'm quite clear on is that until your father's will is read and we see how he distributed his assets and who gets control of the company I am a vice president and you are only the manager of a department. My advice to you is to get back to Sales and do what you are supposed to be doing there.

"And there is one more thing I am absolutely clear on. Your father gave me a ten year employment contract when I told him I was going to look for another job rather than end up working for you. You can buy me out of the contract, but you can't fire me or lay me off. Now get out of here and let me get back to work." 

"You haven't heard the last of this" she snarled.

"Get out Mrs. Haight before I call security and have you removed.

"You wouldn't dare!"

I reached for the phone and she turned and stormed out of the office. I called Marsha and asked her to come to my office. When she got there I described my meeting with Michelle and told her until such time as Hank's will was read and we determined who would be running the company that she should take her direction from me.

"Don't sweat pissing off Mrs. Haight. If it gets down to it I will have personnel assign you to me and Mrs. Haight will not be able to let you go."

"But why wouldn't Mrs. Haight take over the company?"

"Maybe Hank left the business to his wife. Maybe he left half to his wife and half to his daughter or maybe he had a favorite cousin that he left part of the business to. Maybe he didn't even have a will and his wife and Mrs. Haight will have to fight it out in court. The only thing I am sure of is that I am untouchable unless whoever takes over wants to buy me out of my contract which still has eight years to go and as long as I am untouchable so are you.

"I'm not saying to openly antagonize her; I'm just saying that you should quietly check with me if she asks you to do anything that will have an impact on the company or the people who work here. Don't misunderstand me here. I'm not asking you to take sides. You have worked here for over ten years and you were with Hank for over three and I am also assuming that you have become attached to the company and would like to see it prosper. All I'm asking is that you keep the best interests of the company in mind. Can you do that?"

She nodded a yes and I asked her to get back to the contracts I'd asked her to type up.

Marsha was no sooner out of my office than I got a call from Ronnie asking me to meet her for lunch. I told her I could and we set it up for twelve-thirty at Tricocci's.

She was already there sitting in a booth in the back and she stood up and gave me a hug when I got there. Jared took our order and then Ronnie said:

"You are no doubt curious about why I wanted to meet you for lunch."

"It did cross my mind."

"I'm getting a jump on the competition."

"Competition? You will need to explain that one to me."

"Please don't think bad of me for bringing it up when poor Hank isn't even in the ground yet, but to me this is extremely important. It was his heart by the way. What they told me is that his heart just quit. Anyway. With Hank gone my sole source of income is going to be what I get from the company. His insurance will pay off the house, the cars and all the credit card balances and I will have some left over, but not much. There is little in savings. Hank put all the money back into the company.

"I'm going to have to go back to work and my only work experience is as a secretary and it won't pay enough for me to pay my taxes, utilities and the like unless I live very frugally. I'm going to need the money I can get from the company and that is where my problem lies. To be quite blunt about it Michelle and I don't get along. She was never very happy that her father married someone only six years older than her. She also blames me for the breakup between her dad and her mother even though it was her mother getting caught with her lover that caused the divorce."

"I still don't understand the bit about getting a jump on the competition you mentioned."

"I know what Hank's will says. The company will be split equally between me and Michelle. I'm afraid that with Michelle working there she will find a way to screw me over and that is what I am trying to prevent."

"How does having lunch with me help you?"

"If I can get you in my corner she won't be able to screw me over."

"I still don't understand where this is going."

"Michelle and I only get forty-five percent of the business each. If I have you on my side I will have fifty-five percent and control. Michelle isn't dumb and she knows that your ten percent of the company will be needed for her to control things so I decided to try and get to you first."

"Why would you want control? And what do you mean by control?"

"Together we would have fifty-five percent so we could give you the presidency instead of Michelle taking over the company. I believe the company will fare better with you running it instead of Michelle. I know that Hank always meant for her to take over from him, but I don't believe she has been there long enough to learn enough to run the company properly whereas you have been there quite a while and Hank depended on you. Hank thought highly of you and that's good enough for me. I trust you to keep the business profitable and that will be to my benefit."

"You know Michelle will fight it. She has had her heart set on taking over so she can get even with me for ending our engagement."

"You were right to do it. Her two marriages ended in divorce because of cheating. I really believe she knew she couldn't be faithful and that is why she wouldn't sign the agreement you handed her. So; can I count on your support?"

"I will consider it, but I won't commit to anything until I see how things shake out when the will is read. I would suggest that since you have a vested interest in the company as long as you are going to look for a job it might as well be at your own company."

"I don't think that would be a good idea. Can't you imagine how Michelle would lord it over me as a mere secretary?"

"Were you a good secretary?"

"Pretty good. I was Hank's secretary for six years before he married me."

"So I hire you as a secretary and then promote you to my personal assistant and as a PA you will make more than a secretary. Not only that, but you will learn about the changes that have occurred since you left and as an owner you may decide to take a more active role in the running of it."

"I'm not sure that Michelle will like that."

"Her likes and dislikes don't enter in to it. If you are right about what Hank's will says the company is as much yours as it is hers. Besides, I think the big explosion will come when she finds out that I'm a part owner and she won't be able to screw with me."

"I'm sure she knows."

"I wouldn't bet on it. She didn't know about the employment contract that Hank gave me when he gave me my shares. Also if she knew I doubt that she would have tried to get pushy with me this morning."

"She did what?"

I told Ronnie what had happened and she started laughing. "You threw her out of your office? God, but I would have loved to see that."

"Well it sure didn't do much to make my working relationship with her any easier."

"Don't worry about it. Unless Hank changed his will without telling me we will be able to keep her from making a mess of things. Now; who do I talk to about going to work?"

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

At four that afternoon I received a call from Ronnie.

"They released Hank's body to the funeral home. The funeral will be Friday at nine and Avery told me that the reading of the will can be at any time I select. I want to get things settled as soon as possible so I told him to set it up as soon as he could. He just called me back and said we could do it Thursday at two. By three we will know what is what."

My confrontation with Michelle caused her to step back and take a 'wait and see' attitude and she avoided me at work which didn't upset me at all. I did admit to being just a tad worried though. I hadn't been entirely truthful when I told Michelle that I had an employment contract and that she couldn't fire me. If she did somehow get control of the company she could fire me, but if she did she would have to pay me the balance of my contract. With eight years remaining and at my current salary of 100k a year it would cost her 800k to show me to the door. The question was did she dislike me enough to pay that much just to see me gone?

The reading of the will went as Ronnie had said. I wasn't there, but Ronnie filled me in. Hank left his shares in the company to be equally divided between Ronnie and Michelle. The wording was that his 'holdings' were to be split evenly between his wife and daughter. Michelle assumed that it meant that she owned fifty percent of the company and it wasn't until she told Ronnie that she would take over the running of the company that she found out she only owned forty-five percent.

When she told Ronnie that she would take over Ronnie told her that the decision as to who would be in charge would have to be decided at an ownership meeting. Ronnie told me what Michelle had to say to that.

"You and I are the owners and I'm qualified to run it and you aren't. You know nothing about running a company."

"Maybe not, but Rob does."

"What does Rob have to do with this?"

"I think he is a lot more qualified to run the business than you are."

"That's a matter of opinion. You and I own the company and you and I will run it and I'm sure that you realize that of the two of us I'm more experienced than you."

"You and I only own ninety percent of the company. That's why we need an ownership meeting."

"Nonsense. Daddy left the company to us. You were at the same will reading that I was. Daddy left it to us."

"Your father left his holdings to us. He only held ninety percent of the stock."

"Who has the other ten percent?"

"Rob."

"Rob? How in the hell did he get part of a family held company?"

"He was going to quit and the only way your dad could keep him was to give him a long term employment contract and part of the company."

"Why didn't daddy just let him go?"

"I think Rob is more important to this company than you realize. Whatever. We are going to have to have an ownership meeting to see where we go from here."

++++++++++++++++++++++

Ronnie called me and asked me if I could meet with her and Michelle to discuss the running of the company and I of course agreed to do it. We met in the conference room at work. Ronnie, as the head of the family now that Hank was gone, started out the meeting by saying:

"We need to figure out our best options for moving forward. It is my belief that you need to assume the presidency Rob. You are the only one here with the background and experience to do the job."

"I don't agree" Michelle said. "Granted, I haven't been with the company as long as Rob, but my experience here and my previous experience before I came here qualifies me for the job. In addition this is a family owned company and starting with my great grandfather who started the company only family members have headed the company."

"You have a point there as far as family members are concerned" Ronnie said, "What do you think Rob?"

"I know what Hank wanted. We talked about it often enough. He fully expected that one day Michelle would run the company and I believe that eventually she should. But I also know that as late as two weeks ago Hank thought she needed at least another three or four years before she would be ready."

I turned to Michelle and said, "His plan was to let you finish the year in sales and then move you to production for two years. After production he was going to give you a year in outside sale and then move you into Marketing as my assistant for a year. Then he was going to create the position of executive vice president and move you into it. I think it is a good plan and I think we should stick to it, but with a few minor changes."

"What changes" Ronnie asked.

"Move to production now, but only for nine months to a year and then only nine months in outside sales. Nine months should be enough to learn all our territories and meet all of our customers."

"I don't really think I need to do all of that. As far as I'm concerned I'm ready to take over now."

"I'm going to side with Rob on this. If it was what your father wanted then it should be done" Ronnie said. "I propose appointing Rob as president of the company until such time as Rob feels that you are ready."

"I am opposed to that" Michelle said. "I'm family and I believe I am ready."

"Then I guess it is up to Ronnie to decide" I said.

"How do you figure that" Michelle asked.

"Simple math. My ten percent says not you. Your forty-five percent says you. Ronnie's forty-five percent either gives you ninety percent and control or it gives me fifty-five percent. Note that my ten percent says not you. It doesn't necessarily mean it has to be me. If a member of the family being in charge is a sticking point I can throw my ten percent to Ronnie and make her the head of the company."

"You aren't making any sense here Rob. If I'm not qualified according to you how in the hell can you think she is qualified?"

"She knows the company from being your father's secretary for over six years and I can act as an advisor to her."

"Why couldn't you do that for me?"

"Because she would listen to me and you wouldn't. I know you too well Michelle. If a decision had to be made on what we should do and I said we should do A you would say no and that we would have to do B. You might take advice from some one else, but our background would have you ignoring anything I would say just out of spite."

Then Ronnie said. "I intend to get involved in the business. But not at that level – at least not for a while."

I saw Michelle's face when she heard "At least not for a while" and it was obvious that she didn't like hearing that and her face hardened a bit. When Ronnie went on to say "I'm going to throw my vote to making Rob the president of the company effective immediately" Michelle stood up, said, "This is bullshit. It is not what my father wanted" and stormed out of the room.




Here We Go Again Ch. 03



"That sure went well" Ronnie said.

"It went like we knew it would when we had lunch the other day."

"What now?"

"We get you on the payroll as my PA and begin getting you ready for the next big fight."

"Another one? Over what?"

"What your role will be when we deem Michelle to be ready to take over."

"My role?"

"I am assuming that you are going to want to protect your interests as an owner and to do that you need to be in a position to have a voice in what goes on. By the time that happens we need to have you ready to be on an equal footing with Michelle. You may not have a business degree like Michelle, but we can make sure that you have enough real world smarts to hold your own. Of course I could be wrong. You may just want to sell your shares, take the money and walk away."

"Not going to happen Rob. Hank always intended that the business go to Michelle and I won't do anything to prevent that."

The next day was a rainy dismal day; a day fitting for a funeral. As Hank was laid to rest I hoped that I had done what he would have wanted.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

By noon Monday I was moved into Hank's office and Ronnie was on the payroll. Ronnie and Marsha knew each other because Ronnie had broken in Marsha as Hank's secretary when she left to become Hank's wife.

My first order of business was to move Michelle into production. She bitched until I told her to do it or get fired.

"You are an owner and we can mail you your share of the profits, but you are also an employee and you will do your assigned duties or start drawing unemployment."

She gave me a murderous glare, but she moved to production and surprise surprise she loved it. Actually it shouldn't have been a surprise that a girl who had always wanted to be a mechanic would like working around machinery. Two weeks after she moved to production I was doing my daily walk through of the plant and I found her in a pair of coveralls and up to her elbows in a turret lathe that had operating problems. I asked Abe, the day shift floor supervisor about it and he told me that she wouldn't let him call the factory rep.

"She said she could fix it."

And she did.

The next surprise for me was Ronnie. She sucked up information like a sponge picked up water. It turned out that she had an Associate Degree in Business Management which she never got to put to use. She had applied for a job at the company, but there had been no openings for a recent graduate, but there was an opening for a secretary. When Ronnie saw Hank it was love at first sight and she took the secretary's job just so she could be near him and it paid off for her.

There were unintended consequences in making Ronnie my PA. It was six months after taking the job and we were in Dallas doing some contract negotiations. We were staying at the Regency and after a long day of talking with the people from Arbis International we went back to the hotel and had dinner in the hotel restaurant. When we finished eating Ronnie asked if I would join her in the lounge for a drink.

The lounge had a live band and we ended up dancing a few numbers. Remember that I had once referred to Ronnie as a Goddess? Dancing with her had some predictable results and a couple of times Ronnie came into contact with those results, but she didn't give any indication that she noticed.

After a couple of drinks and dances we called it a night and went up to our rooms which were adjoining and had connecting doors. I was undressed when a knock on the connecting door caused me to put on a robe and answer it. I opened the door to find a naked Ronnie standing there.

"Don't say a word" she said as she went to her knees in front of me, pushed the robe open. Leaned forward and took my cock in her mouth. I was taken by surprise, but I made no attempt to fight her off.

It had been a month and a half since I'd last seen Shirley so it didn't take long before I was ready to blow. I told Ronnie I was going to shoot and I tried to pull out of her mouth, but she clutched the back of my legs and wouldn't let me go. "Oh well, her choice" I mentally said and stopped trying to pull away. Ten seconds later I let go and Ronnie swallowed it all. She would let go of my legs until I was soft in her mouth and when she did let go she said:

"Don't say a word. We are both single adults and I don't know about you, but I need this."

She stood up, took my hand and led me to her bed. The covers were all ready turned down and she got on the bed, spread her legs, looked up at me and said:

"Hurry!"

I stood there looking down and drinking in the sight and she said again:

"Hurry Rob. Please hurry."

There wasn't any way that I was going to hurry. It might never happen again so I was going to pack as many images of her into my head as I could. She got impatient, sat up and took my hand and pulled me down on the bed with her. 

She tried to mount me cowgirl, but I was still flaccid from her blow job so I pushed her away, put her on her back and went down on her. I ate her to an orgasm and by then I was up and ready again so I moved up and pushed into her opening. She was wet and ready and she pushed back at me as she moaned:

"Oh God yesssss."

I slid about halfway in and her hands grabbed my ass cheeks and pulled and the rest of me went in. After that it was screw, suck, screw, sixty-nine and screw and at that point I was done. I just could not get it up again to save my ass (or enjoy hers).

When I woke up in the morning it was to the sound of the shower. Not being at all clear about the previous night I didn't know if I should get up and join Ronnie in the shower or go back to my room and take my shower there. I decided that if she had wanted to shower with me she would have awakened me so I got up and went to my room.

I showered and shaved and when I came I came out of the bathroom I found a fully dressed Ronnie sitting on my bed. As I reached for my boxers and trousers she said:

"I needed last night and I honestly didn't think you would mind. Hank and I had a very vigorous sex life and I was used to getting it four and five nights a week. I've gone six months without and I needed it bad. I had fully intended to go out last night and see if I could find someone who wanted to play, but at the last minute I asked myself if I wanted to take a chance on a stranger and I decided that I didn't. With my luck I would have hooked up with a serial killer or some guy with three or four social diseases. You are a very attractive man and I know you well enough to know that you are safe. I hope you aren't too upset with me."

"Upset? Why would I be upset? I've been hoping that it wasn't what our English cousins call a 'one off' and I was hoping that you might want to do it again tonight."

"I would very much like to do it again tonight."

We concluded negotiations early in the afternoon and went back to the motel where Ronnie pulled me into her room saying that we needed to work up an appetite for dinner and then she started stripping off her clothes. No dummy me I quickly undressed and joined her on the bed. We never did get dressed to go out for dinner. We settled for room service.

In the morning Ronnie woke me with a blow job and then rode me cowgirl until we both got off and then we showered and went down to breakfast. Over breakfast Ronnie asked:

"How open are you to a friends with benefits relationship?"

"I could handle it."

"It is too soon for me to consider a new long term relationship, but I am a healthy girl and I do have sexual needs and you are pretty good at satisfying those needs. There is just one thing though. I want to keep it a secret when we get home."

"We haven't even gotten off to a good start and already you are ashamed to be seen with me?"

"Don't be silly. I want to keep it from Michelle which means I need to keep it secret from everyone else so no one can clue her in."

"Why would you care about what Michelle thinks?"

"I am afraid of what she might do if she thinks that you and I are becoming a couple. It might give her the idea that she would never get to run the company since the two of us would have fifty-five percent and could always hold her back. If she started thinking like that God knows what she might do."

"I don't think that you have anything to worry about, but if keeping it secret is what you want then that is what we will do."

++++++++++++++++++++++++

For the next four months Ronnie and I were able to get together twice a week on average and during that period we made three trips out of town where we used every night we were gone. I was pretty satisfied with my sex life and I wondered how long it was going to be before I had to go back to seeing Shirley.

We had just come back from a three day trip to Atlanta and I was sitting in my office going over some budget figures when Marsha paged me and told me that Mrs. Haight was there and wanted to see me. I told her to send Michelle in. Michelle came in and took a seat and I asked her what she needed to see me about.

"It is personal and not business."

"Go ahead; I'm listening."

"What happened to us Rob? What happened to what we had."

"As I remember it you broke our engagement. I came back from a meeting and found your ring sitting on my desk."

"Why did you just accept it? Why didn't you try to talk to me?"

"What would have been the point? You were adamant that you would not sign my pre-nup and I certainly wasn't going to sign the one that your father came up with."

"We could have gotten married without either one of those stupid agreements."

"Maybe we could have if we hadn't gotten into the argument over them. You were just fine with the one that was all your way. The only one protected by that one was you. I had to ask myself why you wouldn't sign one that protected us both and I didn't like the answer I came up with. At that point even if your dad would have torn his up I was going to insist that you sign mine. Knowing that you wouldn't do it I saw no reason to chase after you. Also, I noticed that you made no attempt to ever see or speak to me again and that pretty much told me that we were through."

"You have no idea how many times I wished that I could have had a do over. Wished that I could go back in time and change things so we would end up being together. Why couldn't you understand how that infidelity clause upset me?

"I can ask you the same. Why couldn't you understand how upset I was that you were perfectly willing to sign a document that protected only you and refused to sign one that would protect us both? Forget about the infidelity clause. Under the one you were willing to sign I got zip regardless of the reason for the divorce. Let me give you a couple of examples and they are by no means way out there. They actually happened to people that I know.

"Suppose that we got married and after a couple of years I was in an accident that left me a quadriplegic and in a wheel chair for the rest of my life needing constant attention and care. You look around and see that you are still young and you decide that you just can't handle thirty or forty years taking care of me and you divorced me. Under your dad's document you would have walked away with everything and I would have been destitute. That's exactly what happened to Dave and Sherry Forbes. Fortunately for Dave Sherry didn't get it all. It was a fifty/fifty split.

"Or take what happened to Leanne and Russ Barnes. After seven years of marriage Leanne lost all interest in sex and refused to make love with Russ anymore. He tried for two years to try and get her to give him a love life and she wouldn't. He begged her to see a doctor and find out what the problem was and she refused so he gave her an ultimatum. Give him a sex life or he was going to go out and find a lover. She still refused and then told him that if he cheated on her she would divorce him so he divorced her. If it was us you would have been the cause of the divorce, but under your dad's pre-nup you would have gotten everything and I would have gotten nothing."

"I would never have done any of those things."

"You can say that, but you never really know what you will do until you are actually in a situation where you have to make a choice. Here's another. After ten years of marriage you meet a guy and sparks fly and it is love at first sight for both of you. You don't fuck him, but you come to me and tell me that you don't love me anymore and that you want a divorce. Naturally since you don't love me or want me anymore I let you go. Under the terms of your father's agreement you walk away with it all even though I did nothing wrong. Those are just a couple of examples. The fact is that no matter what happened to cause a divorce be it your fault or mine you would get it all. All the pre-nup that I came up with did was male us equal. Whatever. It's all water over the dam."

"It doesn't have to be."

"Doesn't have to be what?"

"Water over the dam. You don't know it, but I've never been able to put you out of my mind or put you behind me. We are both single. We could give it another shot."

"You can't be serious."

"Why not? The only thing that kept us apart was pride. Pride kept you from coming after me when I left my ring on your desk and pride kept me from crawling back to you when I saw you weren't coming after me. I've never forgotten you Rob. You were the first of my three biggest mistakes."

"I was a mistake?"

"No; my breaking up with you was the mistake. The other two were my first and second husbands. The irony of it is that the pre-nups I had with both of them was the one that you came up with and that I said I wouldn't sign."

"What happened? Neither one of them lasted very long."

"Two things actually. One is that they weren't you and the second is that I was me."

"You were you?"

"You knew what my plans were going to be when I graduated. I was going to prove myself before coming to work for daddy. The job I worked my way into involved lots of travel and late nights and it turned out that neither of the two assholes I married could keep it in their pants when I wasn't around. So what do you think? Want to give me another chance?"

"I admit that it is tempting, but I've been a bachelor for so long that I'm afraid that I'm too set in my ways."

"Nonsense! You stay in your shell because you still don't trust women. We had a good thing going until we let our pride screw it up and I'm betting that we can get back what we lost if we just try."

"Let me think on it some."

"All I'm asking for is a chance Rob."

++++++++++++++++++++++++

"So what are you going to do" Ronnie asked.

"I'm prone to giving it a try. I did love her you know and in truth I've really never gotten completely over her. The problem that I have is you. I've gotten quite attached to you. So much so that I have been considering asking you if you would like to make our relationship more permanent."

"That's sweet of you to think that well of me baby, but I'm not planning on getting married again. I'm happy with out friends with benefits relationship, but I'll understand if you want to end it. That said, you need to be very careful if you are going to hook up with Michelle. Don't forget that she has already shown a penchant for cheating on her husbands."

"Actually she hasn't."

"Hasn't what?"

"Cheated on her husbands. Divorces are a matter of public record and I had my attorney look into it for me. In both cases Michelle is the one who filed for divorce claiming infidelity and neither one of her ex's fought the divorce. But that isn't the real reason that you are leery of me hooking up with Michelle is it. You are thinking that if I'm with Michelle I'll vote my shares with hers and that worries you. Right?"

"The thought did cross my mind."

"All I can do is give you my verbal assurance that I will not do anything that will cause you grief. I may make a decision or two that you might not approve of or agree with, but they will all be for the good of the company which will ultimately benefit you."

"That's all I can ask for. How much longer do I have you?"

"I think that under the circumstances it should end now."

"How about we end it now, but on a happy note" she said as she started to unbutton her blouse.

I did say she was a goddess right?

++++++++++++++++++++++

I started dating Michelle and inside of a month it was like we had never been apart. She moved out of her apartment and into my condo and we set a date for the wedding.

We did our best to keep our work lives separate from our away from work lives, but we were not always successful. A disagreement at work inevitably followed us home. The first one was one that I would never have expected given the way she had acted when she, Ronnie and I had our first ownership meeting. When I told her it was time for her to move from production into outside sales she told me that she didn't want to move.

"You need to. You need to know all there is to know about our customers in order to be effective when you take over the company."

"So I don't take over the running of the company. I don't really need to. You are doing just fine."

"You know that your dad always wanted you to be sitting in the president's chair."

"What's the difference? Me or my husband? It is in the family and that was always his major concern."

"One of his concerns yes, but I was his closest confidant and I knew what he wanted and what he planned and it was that you run the company. I made it clear in that first meeting with you and Ronnie that I would take the presidency until you were through the program that your father laid out and then let you take over. I owe it to your dad to see that it happens."

In the end I won that one and she moved to outside sales. Three weeks after the move we were married in a civil ceremony and, leaving Ronnie in charge, we took a week off work to honeymoon in Las Vegas.

Yes, Ronnie was left in charge. She had come a long way since starting as my PA. She didn't have the in depth knowledge of the company and it's operations that I had and that Michelle for the most part had, but she knew enough to be capable of babysitting the place for a week or two.

After Vegas we settled into our married relationship and it was instantly obvious that I had fucked up in making Michelle leave production for outside sales. Just as she had rolled up her sleeves and dove head first into production she took on outside sales the same way. She was gone three or four days a week as she travelled to learn the territories and the customers.

I was used to having her in my bed every night and her absence wasn't setting well with me, but how could I bitch when it was my fault? When she was home we made up for lost time, but only having her home for only two or three days at a time pretty much sucked.

The original plan of Hanks called for Mickey to spend a year in outside sales, but at the ownership meeting I had decided to change it to nine months, but now, after only five months I was thinking that six months would be enough. I had just about Made up my mind to pull Mick out of outside sales and take her to the next step in Hank's plan when everything changed.

+++++++++++++++++++

It was a Monday and Mickey had left to go on her western swing. I was in the office working on budget projections when Ronnie came into the office.

"Good morning boss."

"Morning Ron. How are you doing?"

"I'm horny, are you?"

"What?"

"Simple question boss. Are you horny?"

"Why would you ask me a question like that?"

"I already told you. I'm horny. If you are too maybe we could help each other out."

"Are you out of your mind?"

"No, but apparently your wife is."

"What does Mickey have to do with this?"

"Since she isn't going without I figured that you shouldn't either and since I'm horny I thought we could take care of each other."




Here We Go Again Ch. 03



"Have you been drinking?"

"No; I've been thinking. You aren't going to like this boss, but you need to know."

She dropped an envelope she had been holding on the desk and pointing at it she said:

"I wasn't going to say I warned you, but I did and you pooh poohed it. All of Michelle's reports and expense accounts come across my desk and I sort the stuff before sending it to you. I noticed something in Michelle's paperwork that made me curious. On every one of her trips she makes a stop in Rawlings. All of our other customers she sees once every two or three weeks and a couple only see her once a month, but Rawlings gets her once a week, but there hasn't been any change in her order levels for the place.

"You know I have always been a little leery of Michelle so I took it upon myself to check out her visits to Rawlings. That envelope contains what the private detective found out. You aren't going to like it one little bit."

I gave it a quick read and she was right; I didn't like it at all. I looked up at her and said:

"Here on the desk isn't going to work for me, but if you are still horny come quitting time I believe I'll be able to help you out."

When Ronnie left I did a deeper read of the detective's report. On the seventh, four hours after kissing me goodbye Michelle arrived in Rawlings and checked into room 107 at the Circle 6 Motel. Half an hour later a man knocked on the door of room 107, it opened and he went in. Two hours later he left and a half hour after that Michelle came out, got in her car and drove off.

On the fourteenth Michelle checked in to room 118 at the Circle 6. Twenty minutes later the same man who had joined her on the seventh knocked on the door and three hours later he left and shortly thereafter Michelle came out and left. Subsequent investigation found that the man was Randy Thomas and I recognized the name. He was a classmate of Michelle's and I had met him at some of the parties that Michelle drug me along to. I wondered how long it had been going on. Was she seeing him back when we were engaged? No matter. She was cheating on me and now I knew it.

I spent the day thinking on what I should do and by days end I had decided to do nothing. I decided to take a 'wait and see' stance, but in the meantime since Michelle had broken her vows I considered myself released from mine. At five Ronnie came into my office and asked:

"Are we on for tonight?"

"Indeed we are. The question facing us right now is do I feed you first?"

"I'm always a little sluggish after eating. How about we work up an appetite and then get a bite to eat."

"Next question. My place or yours?"

"Mine is closer."

We walked in her front door and she immediately started dropping clothes as she led us to the bedroom. I followed suit and was naked by the time she had the bed covers turned down. She still had on her thigh high nylons and heels and when she started to unbuckle the ankle straps of her shoes I told her to leave the heels on.

"Nothing is sexier than a naked woman in heels" I said and she laughed and said:

"Dirty old man."

She hadn't fibbed when she said that she was horny and she reduced me to a burned out husk of a man. We never have dinner. In the morning we showered together which put us back on the bed and it was a good thing I was the boss because we were late getting to work.

At ten I got a call from Michelle.

"Where were you when I called last night?"

The lie rolled off my tongue as smooth as silk. 

"Marshall was in town and we went out for dinner and drinks which was a mistake. After a couple of drinks he started crying in his beer about his troubles. He caught his wife in a motel room fucking an old college classmate of hers and I had to hear all about the nasty divorce he was going through. I would have walked out and left him there except for the fact that he does a lot of business with us."

And Lord didn't I wish I could have seen her face when I said that. Old classmate and motel just had to have registered on her.

"You should have called me. I was worried when I couldn't reach you."

"I had no idea where you were."

"You could have called me on my cell."

"Oh, right. I keep forgetting about them. I almost never use mine. Don't even know why I even bothered to get one."

"Well if you aren't going to be home tonight call me and let me know. I have trouble falling asleep if I don't at least hear your voice every night."

"I should be home tonight."

"I'll call. Love you. Bye"

"Love you too. Talk to you tonight." 

When Ronnie came into the office a little latter I asked, "Are we still on for tonight?"

"Absolutely."

"We will have to use my place. I need to be there when Michelle makes her nightly call."

"Can I suck your dick while you talk to her?"

"I'd be disappointed if you didn't."

And so it was that when Michelle's call came in at nine thirty-five I pulled out of Ronnie's pussy and she took my cock in her mouth as I picked up the phone.

"That was fun" Ronnie said after I hung up. "Tomorrow I want you in my ass while you talk to her."

I made it happen.

Thursday I was on my back and Ronnie was ridding me cowgirl while I had my conversation with my wife.

As we drove in to work on Friday morning Ronnie said, "I wish she wasn't coming home today. I'm getting used to having you every night. I suppose she is going to want to do you every night she is home. Just don't give her everything you have because I'm going to want some Monday."

"I'll do my best to save you some."

"Can we lock your office door Monday morning? I want you to do me on your desk at the same time she is doing her thing in Rawlins."

"Not a good idea. Much too likely that we would be discovered."

"Spoil sport!"

"Sorry, but if we were discovered here Michelle would eventually find out and I don't want that."

"Why not?"

"I'm not ready for the confrontation. Besides, if it gets out it might put a damper on our activities for a while."

"We wouldn't want that. At least I wouldn't."

"I wouldn't either sexpot. You do know that you could have saved us all this trouble if you would have said yes way back when I asked you if you would like to make our relationship more permanent."

"That was then stud; this is now. Ask me again when you get around to dumping her."

+++++++++++++++++++++

Michelle breezed into the office at four in the afternoon on Friday and did her usual:

"Want to leave early? I've got a week of going without to make up for."

My normal response to that was to tell her to turn in her paperwork and run on home and get ready and I'd be along shortly after five. But this time I told her that I had to wait for an important phone call and I didn't know how late I would be. She gave me a funny look, but then left my office. From the window of my office I could see the parking lot and when I saw Michelle leave I called Ronnie into the office.

"Head on home and get ready for me. I'll stop by on the way home for a quickie just so I can give Michelle seconds."

"I like the way you think lover. Don't be long"

As I drove over to Ronnie's I thought abut my relationship with my wife. I'd seen no slackening in Michelle's attitude toward me. She wanted to make love from the time she got home until she left again. The snuggling and cuddling were still there and when we stayed home she was always close and touching. According to the private investigators that I'd put on her what she did in Rawlings is the only time she strayed. But how could she be the way she was with me and still cheat?

Ronnie answered the door in my favorite outfit – bare except for high heels and it wasn't a quickie and I didn't get home to Michelle until eight. Michelle was a tad miffed with me.

"I only have sixty some hours with you until I'm gone again and I don't want to lose even one minute of it. Now hurry up and get your pants off."

++++++++++++++++++++

For the next three months I spent the nights when Michelle was gone with Ronnie and then it was decision time. It was time to take Michelle out of outside sales, make her the executive vice president and ease her into running the company.

Ronnie was totally against it. She wanted me to continue at the helm, but I had made Hank a promise as he was lowered into the ground that I would see to it that his little girl would someday run the company and it was a promise that I had to keep.

I suspect that Ronnie's opposition was because it would mean that Michelle would be around making Ronnie's meetings with me more difficult to arrange. I wondered if Michelle would resist leaving outside sales and her visits to the Circle 6. Then again maybe her lover would just start visiting here. 

My biggest problem was that I still hadn't figured out what I was going to do about Michelle straying. In fact I wondered even if I should. Given my relationship with Ronnie Michelle and I were on an even footing, even as I had that thought I knew it wasn't so. Yes, what I was doing with Ronnie was technically cheating, but to my mind once Michelle broke her vows I was released from mine. SHE was cheating. I WAS getting even. 

I finally decided to maintain my wait and see stance. I would keep an eye on my wayward bride and see what happened when I took her out of outside sales. If that ended her thing with Thomas and she didn't take up with someone else maybe – just maybe – we could hang in there. Even as I had that thought I knew it was bullshit. Maybe, just maybe, we could hang in there, but only after I had confronted her about it. My pride, ego or whatever you wanted to call it had to know why and most probably for how long. The answers to those and possibly a few other questions would determine if we could hang in there or not.

Ronnie was pulling for Michelle and I to crater and I did have to admit that the odds were in her favor and I would have no problem in moving from Michelle to Ronnie. Michelle did have a slight edge though. The fact that I hated to fail was on her side and a divorce for any reason whatsoever was a failure. And she had one other small advantage - I loved the silly bitch! Just as I would scramble to try and save one of the company's accounts I would try to save the marriage. IF it could be saved.

++++++++++++++++++++

What is it that they say? Man plans and the Gods laugh? My plan to wait and see took a severe hit at 4:20 Friday afternoon on May 12th. Michelle was sitting in my office having just gotten home from her northern swing. I told her it was time to pull her from outside sales, name her as executive vice president and start easing her into a more active role in running the company.

I was not at all prepared for her response. 

"Won't that put a crimp in what you have going with my step-mom?"

It caught me by surprise, but I pride myself on being quick on my feet.

"No more than it will cause problems for you and Randy Thomas."

"It won't cause me any problems at all. I very much doubt that he will make the trip here just to get laid."

"And what if he does?"

"That pretty much depends on you."

"Depends on me? Why? What do I have to do with it?"

"Couple of things. One, you have known about it for at least four months and you haven't done anything about it. If you continue to do nothing and he comes here I'll probably see him. Secondly, if you do kick me to the curb I'll be free to do what I want and if he comes to town and calls me I probably will see him. If you don't kick me out I'll tell him to fuck off and die. It is all up to you."

"Care to tell me how we got to this point to begin with?"

"Technology and pharmaceuticals."

"You need to be clearer than that." 

"On one of your business trips I went to a party and got fed a date rape drug. Randy was there and he took pictures of the gangbang with his cell phone camera Two days later he came up to me and told me that he had always wanted a taste, but didn't want to be one of many. He told me that if I didn't want you to see the pictures I was going to have to give him sex.

"Knowing you and your history with the opposite sex I opted not to take the chance that you would be understanding and so I gave in to him. It was just before graduation and once he had returned home I thought I'd seen the last of him. My bad luck that on my first trip to Rawlings he saw me, made the same threat and then asked how you would like knowing that he did me every week up to graduation. I couldn't see a way out and I've been seeing him every Monday since then."

"So how did you find out that I knew what you were doing?"

"Randy is a cop and he spotted the surveillance right away. He used his cell to call a couple of his buddies and they braced the guy and he told them everything."

"Once you knew that I knew why didn't you tell him to go to hell?"

"Because I liked fucking him and I thought I might as well just keep at it since you were going to kick me out anyway. But you didn't do anything so I kept seeing him and waiting for the hammer to fall and when it didn't happen I figured that you were up to something so I put a PI on you and found out about my stepmom."

"You say you liked fucking him. How long was it going to be before you dropped me for him?"

"Don't be silly Rob. I'd never cut you loose. Yes I liked fucking him. But I didn't care for him as a person. He was a fucking blackmailer. All he had going for him was a big cock and you would have to be a woman to understand what a big cock can do for a girl if the guy who has it really knows how to use it. So tell me Rob; how long has this thing between you and Ronnie been going on?" 

"Ever since she told me what she had found out about you."

"Ronnie told you? How the hell did she find out?"

I told Michelle how it had all come about and she said, "I would never have done that. True, I wasn't all that happy that I had a step mother who was only six years older than me and it did piss me off that daddy had so quickly replaced my mom with someone that I considered a gold digging bimbo, but she made daddy happy and she never treated me badly." She paused and then said, "So what happens now?"

"You become executive vice president and we get you ready to take my place.'

"No silly; I mean what happens to us?"

"I don't honestly know Michelle. I don't know that there is an us anymore."

"I can't blame you for thinking that, but for what it is worth I do love you and I do want there to be an us."

"For the time being you need to move into the spare bedroom."

"For how long."

"Until I can figure out what I want to do."

"We can get by this Rob; I know we can."

"Maybe Michelle, but I wouldn't bet a lot on it."

++++++++++++++++++

Michelle moved into the spare bedroom and we co-existed in the condo. We even rode to work together on most days. Of course she managed to be seen naked or scantily clad by me as she tried to tempt me and it got so bad a time or two that I had to leave the house. It wasn't easy being close to Michelle at home and at work, but we managed to stay civil with each other as I groomed her to take over the company.

I'd already started looking for another job since I didn't think that I would be able to step down and continue to work for the company. It would be to hard to go from being the king to being one of the commoners.

Once again the saying that man plans and the gods laugh came into play. Michelle called for an ownership meeting. We held it in my office and Michelle opened the meeting by saying that we needed to make some changes and that they needed to be made now before things got away from us.

"Like what" Ronnie asked.

"Apparently our president is seeking other employment and I feel that we need to lock him in here. I propose that we offer him a twenty year contract extension on top of what remains of his current contract. In addition I think a ten percent increase in his compensation package is in order. What say the rest of you?"

"That is not what your father wanted. He always intended that you run the company. I have to turn the reins over to you."

"Maybe so, but I will be the one to say when I think I'll be ready and from where I'm sitting I think I will need twenty more years of seasoning before I'll be ready. What do you think mom?"

The "mom" caught Ronnie by surprise and she looked from Michelle to me and then back to Michelle as she tried to figure out what was going on. Finally she said. "I don't think that it will take anywhere near twenty years to get you ready. Maybe one more, but I am also a firm believer in not changing horses in mid stream. Your father did intend for you to run the company and I think you should, but I am going to leave that to you and Rob to work out. That said I am in favor of extending Rob's contract,"

"Do I have any say in this?"

"Of course you do. We can't stop you from quitting. But quite frankly you would be a fool to do it and the last thing you are is a fool."

Michelle opened her briefcase and took out a document and slid it across the desk to me saying: 

"I took the liberty of having this drawn up. Look it over. If you sign it I will sweeten the pot by having ten percent of my shares in the company transferred to you. Now if you will excuse me there is a problem in production that I want to delve into."

She got up and left the room. I looked at Ronnie and asked, "Were you part of this?"

"No. It caught me completely by surprise, but I am in full agreement with her."

"I can't help but wonder what she is playing at."

"Oh come on Rob; you can't possibly be that dense. If you leave the company it is likely that you would have to relocate. She can't get the two of you back together unless she keeps you close."

"So why did you back her play? I thought you wanted her out of my life so there would be room for you."

"That was when I thought she was cheating on you because she didn't care about you. I know different now and I won't be the one to play home wrecker. Hank was the love of my life and even though Michelle and I didn't get along all that well I will not be the one to stand in the way of his daughter's happiness. I owe the man that much."

I sat there quietly thinking about what she'd just said when she added:

"Come on Rob; face it. You love the silly bitch and you always have. The scales are more than balanced. She had two hours once a week with her blackmailer while you were spending all night with me every day she was gone. And it is obvious from what she just did that she is willing to go to great lengths to try and keep you. You know how much she wanted to sit in Hank's chair. But she just gave that up in an effort to keep you close."

"I just don't know Ronnie."

"Sure you do. You know that she was one hundred percent dead on when she said that based on your past experiences with women she didn't dare let you find out what had happened. Even though it wasn't her fault she knew how you would look at it."

"I just can't get past the fact that by her own admission she kept doing it because she liked it."

"Get your head out of your ass lover. Of course she liked it. Good sex is enjoyable. God knows you seemed to enjoy what we did together."

"But she didn't have to do it once she knew she'd been found out. She could have said "Fuck you asshole. You can't threaten me any more because now he knows. But she didn't. She kept seeing him."

"Yes she did and I can't fault her on it. There isn't a woman alive who isn't a virgin who has never wondered what a really big cock is like I've wondered and I can't say for sure that I wouldn't go for it if I had the chance. And that's even if you and I were still together. You are bigger than Hank was. Not by much, but enough to make me feel a little bit different when we made love. So if you being just a little bigger makes a noticeable difference in how I feel how much different would it feel with something bigger that what you have?




Here We Go Again Ch. 03



"Add to that she was already fucking him and if she liked his size why quit when she knew she had been caught? Once she knew that you knew she expected a confrontation so she might as well enjoy it while it lasted. What is important here boss is that you love her and she wants you. Sign the contract Rob. Sign it and I'll match whatever she gives you in the way of company stock. I've got work to do so I'm going to leave you with your thoughts" and she got up and left the office.

I watched her go as I thought about what the two women had proposed. Michelle was absolutely correct when she said I'd be a fool to turn it down, but the sticking point would be my working relationship with Michelle if I decided to go for a divorce. And Ronnie had just pretty much eliminated my fall back position by telling me that she would never do anything to stand in the way of Hank's daughter's happiness.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Of course the stumbling block in the way of putting things back together was the bugaboo that was there in most divorces. 

The trust issue.

Could you believe your other half's protestations of never again? If she kept seeing Randy because of the size of his cock would she spread for another guy who had a big one? Could you take her at her word and believe that she meant it? How would you ever know? It would be ungodly expensive to keep a PI on her whenever she wasn't with you. And even f you were prone to do it could you follow her yourself every time she went out? The answer to that was no. So what did you do?

I spent the time between putting out fires at work thinking on the subject and then it was time to go home. It was one of the few times that Michelle and I didn't ride to work together and so I spent some of the time driving home thinking on the problem and I came up with a solution just about the time I pulled in the drive. It was the only thing that I felt would work, but was Michelle willing to go along with it? If she refused we were done.

She was going to have to sign the prenuptial agreement that she had refused to sign back when she broke our engagement, but there would be a major change to it. If either party got caught cheating on the other party their shares in the company would be forfeit. If Michelle really meant what she was saying she would say "Where do I sign" without any argument and as far as I was concerned that was the only answer I would accept. "Where do I sign" or "Do you have a pen" were the only acceptable responses. Any other response would mean the end of our marriage. "We should talk about this" and we were done. "This seems a little draconian" and we were done. "I don't know about this Rob" and we were over. Only willing acceptance without discussion would work.

I took out my cell, called my attorney and told him to dig out the old pre-nup and put in the added change. He said he would have it ready for me at three the next afternoon and I put the cell back in my pocket and went into the house.

Michelle was already home and she had dinner ready so I washed my hands and sat down to eat. We talked about some things going on at work and then, dinner over, I asked her if she had anything going on the next night.

"Nothing I can't get out of. Why?"

"We need to put an end to what is going on between us. One way or another we need to move on. I have had a damned near impossible time trying to figure out what I need to do. I think I've finally found a way to force a decision to be made. I'll have what I need in place by this time tomorrow night so after dinner I want us to sit down over a glass of Brandy and see what we can make happen."

"I don't care what it takes Rob. If it will put us back together I'm all for it."

"We will see if you still feel that way tomorrow."

+++++++++++++++++

There was a lot of work piled up on my desk and most of it was fairly urgent, but I wasn't making a whole lot of headway. My mind was on what was going to happen around six that evening. Fortunately I had a PA who was pretty good at getting me to get my head out of my ass and I got most of the work out of the way before I had to make my three o'clock visit to my attorney.

I stopped at Barney's Bar and Grill for a beer or two while I read over the pre-nup and got myself in the mindset that I needed to be able to deliver my pitch. Once I thought I was as ready as I could be I headed on home. Michelle didn't have dinner waiting, but she did have a bottle of Brandy and two sniffers on the table when I got there.

"I didn't cook because I wouldn't be able to eat anyway. If you are hungry there are leftovers you can stick in the microwave."

"I'd rather get right to it" I said as I sat down and poured us both a glass. "I want you to let me get all the way through this without interrupting me. There will be plenty of time when I'm done for you to have your say.

"I've thought long and hard on this and it always comes down to can I trust you and sorry to say the answer I always come up with is that I just don't know. You hear the phrase "Once a cheater always a cheater" and you have to wonder if it is true. You said that you really didn't want to do it and you told me why you did it and while I don't think I would have reacted in a negative way toward you I can see where you thought that I might. But what I am having to look at is that even after you knew that I'd found out about what you were doing you kept doing it because, by your own admission, you liked it. Enough to take up with some other big dicked fucker somewhere down the line?

"You can say that it will never happen again and you can swear on a stack of bibles that it will never happen again, but can I be sure of that? Can I bet my life on it? No I can't. And I can't watch you 24/7/365 and even if I could what kind of marriage would we have?

"Make no mistake here Michelle. The issue here is trust. Can I trust you if we put things back together and quite frankly the answer to that question is that I don't really know if I can or not. 

"There is another saying that sooner or later cheaters always get caught. With that thought in mind I decided on a path to follow. I decided to make cheating and getting caught so expensive that you would have to do a lot of serious soul searching before doing it."

I handed her the document that I'd picked up at my attorney's office and said:

"Read it and sigh it Michelle and we will go to work on putting our relationship back on track."

I watched her as she read it and I saw a frown appear on her face and I saw her lips become a grim straight line, but then I saw her shake it off. She finished reading the document and set it down on the table and stared at it for several seconds and then she looked up at me and............