Chapter 111

Two years ago, when I was downsized out of corporate life, I bought a small RV and went looking for a new life. I was downsized from my career and my marriage in the same month. Twenty years with the company and eighteen married to Diane. At the time either event would have been a crushing blow to me but together they damn near killed me.

In my little RV I wandered around America and parts of Canada for almost six months. I was a traveling hermit. I felt useless and unnecessary. Eventually my wandering led me to the Pacific Northwest. It was late spring and most of the snow was gone. I stopped one morning at a truck stop to gas up and have a late breakfast and for some reason I picked up a local paper. As I ate breakfast I read. Near the back of the paper I saw an ad for a fishing resort for sale.

When I was a kid I loved to go fishing. I spent every moment I could out in a row boat on a lake, fishing. Work, family and bills came along and I hadn't been fishing in many years. I called the number in the ad and made arrangements to go look at the resort.

I bought it! It came complete with six guest cabins, a main lodge with a managers/owners suite, a small diner, a dock with six boats, and a convenience store on two hundred acres of lake front property. The guy who owned it was eighty-three and was more than ready to move to a care facility. I made a very good deal with him. He wanted to move to a care facility and I agreed to pay for his living expenses for the rest of his life. Since the place he had picked provided everything, rent, food, medical and anything else he needed for $2800 a month I agreed.

It was the bargain of the century! The old guy lasted five months and passed one night in his sleep.

I spent three months repairing, painting, remodeling and otherwise sprucing up the place and getting everything ready to open the resort again. The old guy had left me very good records and information so I was able to transfer his licenses and everything easily. When I opened I quickly learned that this was more than one guy could manage by himself. I spent the first four months running. I needed help!

I hired a couple of locals to help but found that they came with attitudes about work and ethics that didn't work for me. They were lazy and cheated both me and my guests. I still needed help.

When the seasons changed the bookings slowed down so I had a spare moment I went back into search mode, looking for good help. I placed ads in papers near and far with poor results. I placed an ad on the web and got a few responses. Actually I got two hundred responses! I set up phone interviews with about fifteen different applicants. Those interviews were very helpful. They narrowed the field to three. They were each in different cities about two days drive from me so I loaded myself into the RV and went on a road trip.

I liked the first applicant the best and had I not set appointments with the others would have hired her on the spot. After the third interview I called her and asked if she still wanted the job. She did. I asked if she was ready to begin the next day. She needed three days to be ready to move. I asked how she planned to get to the resort. She was going to take a bus to a town near the resort and call me. I said that in two days I would pick her up and we could drive in my RV back to the resort. That's exactly what we did.

On the day I picked her up Monica was a woman about thirty-five, very short blond hair, a nice figure if you like women who are a bit slender and have almost no breasts. She stood about five-eight or nine. When we interviewed she was wearing jeans, western boots, and a western shirt. None of the outfit was new, but all of it was clean. She was clean. Her nails were short and unpainted. When she shook my hand there was strength in her hand. This woman knew about work. When I picked her up she was wearing a different shirt, jeans and the same boots.

As we drove we talked. She had lost everyone in her family five years before we met. An accident had taken her two kids and husband. She had been scraping by ever since. She lost her house and was living in a rooming house when she answered my ad. She was still in the emotional well I had been climbing out of. She felt lost, alone, unnecessary and unneeded.

As it got dark I asked if she wanted to stop for dinner. She said that if the kitchen in the motorhome worked I should stop at a market and she would show me that she could cook. After all, cooking was one of the things I hired her to do.

After we left the market I found a place to park for a while and she made dinner. As I sat and watched her work in the tiny kitchen there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see the local law. He asked why we were parked here. I told him we were just parked while we made and ate dinner, if that was OK. He said it was. Monica invited him in for a cup of coffee and perhaps to join us for dinner. He had the coffee and declined dinner. As he got up to go back to work Monica asked if we could stay in the parking lot for the night. He agreed that we were probably not much of a risk so it was OK.

I had thought I was going to need to find a motel. My RV is small enough that it only has one real bed.

We ate dinner and Monica proved she could cook. After dinner Monica looked at me and said, "I invited myself into your bed with the sheriff as a witness. If I was out of line, I apologize."

I admitted that it had surprised me. I had a lot of thoughts about having a woman in my bed again. Monica said we could clean up dinner and go for a walk. While we walked I could think. When we got back I could convert the dining area into a bed for her or she could join me in my bed.

The evening was cool and as we walked Monica was quiet. As we passed homes we smelled fires in fireplaces, dinner odors, the smells of fall, and the noises of a small town settling in for the night. At some point I realized we were headed back to the RV. I took Monica's hand in mine as we walked.

Her hand was quite cold. I was wearing a t-shirt with a wool Pendelton shirt over it. She had on an old western shirt. I put my Pendelton on her. She took it and stayed quiet.

When we were back in the RV I started the heater and had her sit at the table. While we walked I had thought about her in my bed and the implications. Now, I wanted to talk about all that.

"Monica, I've never thought as hard about an invitation to share a bed as I've thought about this one. I'm your new boss. It could change our relationship before we have even arrived home. It will change our relationship. So, I want you to be clear about what getting into bed with me means.

If you get into my bed it means that you are my woman. You are no longer single. You are mine. It means you can count on me treating you with respect and affection and firmness. It means that when I ask you for something I expect you to comply. If I ask you for pancakes, I expect pancakes not an argument or excuses. I will not order you to do anything and every request is an order. Is all that clear?"

"You don't demand but you expect obedience."

"Yes. That will be true on the job weather we have a more intimate relationship or not."

"Good. I won't feel ordered about but I will know that if I'm asked to do something, you understand that the answer is always going to be yes."

"I promise that I will meet your needs as best I can, as long as I know what they are. I can't be expected to know what you want if you don't tell me."

"If I need twenty pounds of flour I need to tell you I need twenty pounds of flour."

"Yes. I will treat you as my partner in everything. I will still pay you, as agreed, but the relationship will include you in decisions, planning, and everything else. When you interviewed I promised you a cabin of your own. If you come to my bed you will live with me. If anyone asks you will say you are my wife and partner. Oh, and one more thing, if you come to my bed you will never have pubic hair. I will never again have a woman in my bed that is not smooth down there."

"Beginning tonight?"

"Tonight and every night from now on. Now you know what getting in my bed means and the choice is yours."

"I need to think about it. Is the offer good just for tonight or can I think about it for a while?"