Day Forty-two - Sunday
Sue was murmuring, making sounds as if she were talking in her sleep. She was also holding me to her, clutching me tight enough that a nipple was jammed against one of the big arteries, I think they're called the carotid arteries, in your neck making me get light-headed.
When I pulled back a little to let blood flow, Sue said, "No, no, don't go, no." Pulling her back into me, holding her so her womanly form wouldn't restrict my breathing or blood flow, I kissed her neck and cheek to reassure her I wasn't leaving. That must have penetrated her dream as her eyes opened with her dark brown eyes peering into mine.
At first, there was fear in her eyes then, as she became more aware in her awakened state, her body became less tense and she began to relax. Sue kissed me on the cheek, "that was a horrible dream. I don't usually have bad dreams, but that one was terrible. We fought over something, I don't remember what it was, but you were stuffing things in your duffel bag, saying you were going back to the platforms. I was holding you, trying to keep you from leaving."
There were actually tears in her eyes with one running down her cheek. I hugged her to me, moving up so I could kiss her eyes, "I love you, Sue, I know everything has been fast and loose, but I love you dearly. We are partners, friends, and lovers."
"When we got together, Steve, you unlocked something in me. I had hidden away, especially from men; I was ashamed of my looks, being fat, my oversized breasts, my scarred leg and face. But you somehow appeared at the exact right time. I had lost weight, I was confidant that my business was going to support me, and it seemed like the scars on my face just disappeared. Then when we got together, it was so special, so sexy, so erotic, I thought I would burst. When we were at Ruth's that first day, I got jealous thinking she was going to take you and I wouldn't be able to have you, but I stole you away and I've enjoyed you as I've never enjoyed a man before.
Then the night we first were in the hot tub with Charlie and Shawna, I realized how much I loved you and how much you really loved me. You trusted me to enjoy myself with another man. When he pushed inside me I was looking at you with Shawna and knew I loved you so very much. That's when I first really realized how much, and that's when I told you I loved you, remember?"
I kissed her on the forehead again, "I remember well and have even laughed, thinking of how funny it was for me to be feeling so close to you, while thumping the guy's wife who was inside you. I was looking at you enjoying your pleasure and watched, with a soaring heart, when you mouthed "I love you" to me."
"This has been fast, hasn't it? You have been on vacation now only six weeks and look what all you've done. When I walk around this place, our new home, then go out on our new patio, I feel like a queen in my domain. That's the only way I can describe it. I just wonder what we could possibly do for an encore."
"I like all of the space and the patio too. Most of all, I love all of our friends enjoying it with us. When I add the pool table, we're going to have a very complete game room."
All of a sudden, I had an idea. I sat up in bed and said it, "What do you think about us picking up a couple of video games, and maybe a pinball machine? We could even find one of those pong coffee table games. I think we should get rid of some of the lawn furniture and get a couple of couches and chairs with end tables and coffee tables, so that part of the patio would feel like a family room. We could still have the patio furniture, but it wouldn't be the center of activity. What do you think?"
"The games sound neat but I don't know about the couches," Sue contemplated. "Everybody seems to like to sit at the tables. May be even more tables, small tables like nightclubs have, with four chairs around them. If we had four of those, they could still be close together so there wouldn't be anyone left out of a general conversation."
"Let's watch and see how people use the big table and the little tables. I think if we make changes now, it should be gradual, to keep the place comfortable."
"I agree honey," Sue said giving me a kiss. "I have to pee, let's take a shower. It's almost time for coffee."
The shower was soothing, playful, and degenerated into some really good fooling around. Sue complained that even with the shower, stuff was going to run down her legs for an hour.
We both dressed in shorts and T-shirts, knowing we were going down to the shop this morning to show it off to everyone. With coffee made, I walked out onto the patio and turned on the lights over the patio furniture and the end of the long table.
Tiny and Ruth were first this morning, dressed to go to the shop. Glenda and Martin came over, already dressed as well. I said I was going down to the Seven-Eleven to get some donuts real quick, and jumped in my pickup to get them. I was back in less than five minutes, but that's all the time it took for the other four couples to get there, dressed and ready to see the shop. Abe and Alice were pulling up as I put the donuts on the table.
We drank a few pots of coffee and ate up the three dozen donuts. We cleaned up the crumbs and prepared to go. Sue and I would take Charlie and Shawna, Tiny was taking Glenda, Martin, Jim, and Hanna in his big Suburban, and Tom, Betty, Al, and Joan were riding together. Abe and Alice followed.
The convoy left the park, and after the short drive, pulled into the parking lot of the freshly painted building. The big S&S sign really stood out. Charlie laughed and said, "Good thing you have enterprises underneath or the other S&S we know and love might have a problem with your name."
I agreed, "I thought of that, but there are other companies with the same name, but none with enterprises."
I opened the big front doors. Everyone walked into the showroom. Since it was two floors high, it felt very expansive. The first thing you saw though, was the S&S embedded in the floor. I said I thought we would display a race car frame hanging from the ceiling tilted to give everyone a look at the cage to see how it is formed. Underneath it I wanted to put a frame with painted sheet metal and wheels and tires. The car would be the S&S special. We would number it "13" or something like that.
On the other side, I'd like to hang a bike frame from the ceiling, with a drag bike underneath it, and then put one of the smaller mobile generators in the center to highlight our rebuilding ability.
I showed everyone the two offices in the rear of the showroom and how they had big windows that looked out into the shops. We went through the big swinging double doors into the show area. I turned on the lights and you were almost blinded by the bright white walls, ceilings, and floors. There was a blue and black stripe running completely around the room at the height of the area between the first and second floor of the offices. There were two distinct work areas that had giant S&S logos embedded in their floors as well. The place looked and smelled brand new.
I explained that one side would be for welding, and the other devoted to sheet metal at this point. If the sheet metal idea I had didn't work out, we would find something else that did. I told them to picture all our equipment and supplies stored along the walls.
Next was for Abe. I had everyone wait a second while I led Abe into his area and turned on the light. I thought he was going to cry. The place was beautiful, all white except the tops of the workbenches. I pointed out how I thought he might arrange his parts washer and bead blaster. He couldn't get over that on the far end there was a place already set up for parts, complete with various sizes of bins and drawers. This was a technician's dream.
When everyone else came in Charlie, Shawna, Jim and, Martin all went nuts, saying they wanted to work for me too. I told them that the one who might eventually do a lot here would be Shawna. I showed everyone the extra large door opposite the one we had come in to the shop, and described what was going to be out that door in a few days. As soon as I said dual paint booths, Jim and Charlie looked at each other and said, that does it, we're coming to work here.
Charlie said, "We met at a body shop school. We were both Harley junkies so we ended up going to MMI in Orlando. Jim landed the job at the dealership, while I liked working in a small shop like Jan and Dell's.
I told them the paint booths were for Abe's big mobile equipment and for the sheet metal. We would do the basic painting for the customer before delivery and they would do all the fancy painting.
I looked at Shawna then said, "But, I want to go take a bunch of pictures of one of Gene's cars and have Shawna do her thing with the air brush. I'm going to have her do our showroom car to practice on."
Shawna's blue eyes were shining and she showed a lot of teeth while smiling big at the coming opportunity.
Pointing up toward the second floor of the office area, I told them to note that not only did the first floor offices have a view of the shop so did the second floor.
We took the shop stairs to the second floor office area. The room we entered was the lunchroom, complete with a view out into the shop. It had a sink, a place for a stove and a refrigerator, plus a big area for tables and chairs. I made a mental note to get what was needed right away so the guys would have a place to eat lunch.
When you left the lunchroom, directly across the hall was a large room with a conference table and chairs remaining from the former owner. The room had windows on the two outside walls and a big window out onto the showroom. I said I planned on leaving this to be a conference room, as I'm sure we would have a need for it over time.
The hallway was really a balcony over the showroom. You could look down onto the showroom floor and out the front windows while walking back and forth.
There were four good-sized offices off the balcony. Each had a big window that looked out into the showroom area and each had a window to the shop. If you were at a desk you wouldn't be able to see the showroom floor but the window that way did give you daylight and would make the office less claustrophobic.
The end office, nearest the stairway was pretty fancy. The first thing you realized was that it was considerably deeper than the other offices. I realized then that the office was over the old tool room where the welding supplies had been. The room had a lot of built-in bookshelves, a private wet bar area that had folding doors, and a cabinet area, also with folding doors, that was built for a TV. The woodwork was very expensive. The contractor had painted what walls he could and he had taken time to polish all the woodwork. It looked really nice, complete with huge corner windows that gave a panoramic view of the entire shop, as well as a side window to the outside.
Tiny asked, "Is this going to be your office?"
"I don't think so," I said undecided as the room was really nice. "I think I would rather be on the first floor, close to everything that's going on."
"I was thinking that office was probably going to occupied by some guy I'll hire as CFO in the future. It won't be long until I'll need a person to just handle the finance part of the business. As it is, I'm going to have to have a bookkeeper to help with the payroll and stuff. I would rather focus on building the business, and training people to train more people, instead of messing with the books."
Tiny and Ruth were looking at each other funny. Ruth said, "I was a bookkeeper when I met Tiny. I can do that kind of work. Hire Tiny to set up your books and I'll do the paperwork. You probably only need me a couple days a week at first. Get real big, then hire Tiny to sit in that big office."
"That might be a great idea, Ruth. I'll think on that a little and talk to both of you later."
We walked back downstairs on the showroom staircase and looked around again to picture the place with product being shown and people milling around.
Shawna asked, "How soon are you building the paint booths?"
"Monday," I said getting an even bigger smile from her.
Shawna looked at Charlie, "You know you have room on the other side of the building to have another shop like Abe's. I'll bet you could probably find a guy to build motorcycles in there for you. Or with your welding business, you could have some kind of body shop."
"Shawna, don't be saying stuff like that. I have a good place to work, and so does Jim. We don't need to complicate our lives," Charlie said trying to rein in Shawna's daydreams.
"I might build on something like that so it could be used part time by a little redheaded motorcycle mechanic. If you produced bikes like mine, you would be busy."
"I'll do it." Shawna jumped on my comment. "Jan and Dell don't like us working together all the time anyway. They only pay me for part time even though I'm usually there every day. You make me a work area and I'll bet we can get the work."
Charlie said, "There goes my ace motor and tranny builder. I'll probably have to sub out work to another shop. Jan and Dell will have to start paying to have a whole job done instead of just pocketing the extra for the heavy work."
Jim added, "We need another shop to do some of our extra work. We've been too busy to do everything ourselves so we have been looking for a good motor and transmission rebuild shop. Get Shawna to head up a shop like that and I'll get you plenty of work."
"Something to think about, that's for sure," I said thinking these guys were all pushing me even faster than I pushed myself.
"Oh yeah, let's go out the back, I want to show Abe what I bought yesterday."
We walked through the shop. I pushed the button for the big overhead door to lift then led everyone to the forklifts. Abe had big eyes while looking at them.
"My thinking is that we would keep the big one to lift the big mobile units around, as well as the other fork lifts. We probably will want to keep one of the others for running around in the shops. What do you think Abe, want to rebuild some fork lifts?"
"Damn right. I know every nut, bolt, and circuit in those things. Shoot, you have more than I can do now, I'll never get caught up," Abe said thinking of the work ahead.
"Not to worry, like I asked you before, we're going to look for some more people to help rebuild stuff. Come look at the generators and compressors I bought."
Abe just stared, "With the stuff I have to do at the storage place and all this, there's more than a year's work here, a lot more."
"Not with four or five helpers under your direction. I think we could probably turn out eight to ten units a month," I said giving Abe my optimistic appraisal of what we could do.
"That would be big business, Steve. Somebody would have to be on the road full time, buying used equipment and selling it to dealers. That is probably at least two more people."
"You could be right, Abe. We'll see where it leads us," I said then turning to point at the new big truck. "How do you like that thing to haul your equipment around on? It has a hydraulic bed that slides down like the tow trucks, only this one's is bigger and heavier duty."
I took him to the two pickups. "Sue bought these for us. I wanted to only get one for you but she got one for each of us. I'll register them Monday and we'll get Shawna to put our logo on the doors, along with what we do. I'll have her do the big truck and the specialty welding truck so they will all match."
Sue said, "I want Shawna to do the Mustang like it was a race car. That would be good advertising."
Shawna said, "just what you guys need, a big titted babe advertising in a painted up Mustang. The cops will probably stop you for soliciting."
I looked at Al and Tom, "Do you think we can get moved by Tuesday? I have two guys coming over to help. We have the other old big truck and this one to haul stuff plus we have the big forklift that will put the big mobile stuff on the trucks."
Tom said, "we should be done Monday. You're going to need an electrician for the compressors. I see you bought another, one so you might need a plumber to split up the air pipes, and you'll need another dryer as well."
"Think about it today and give me a list tonight," I said, thinking that there was a ton to do tomorrow. "That's for everyone. Sue and I are going to visit with her Mom and Uncle for dinner then we'll be back home. We'll make our plan for what everyone will do tomorrow. Let's get out of here."
We split up. Some of us drove back to the park, while some were going out to dinner. Sue and I went home, washed our faces, dressed in our casual dress clothes, and left for her uncle's. We got into Sue's car that was still somewhat of a mess from the burglary. The car wouldn't start. Something was disconnected.
Instead of messing with it, we decided to take the Mustang. It wasn't registered yet but it did have a temporary tag. Sue actually let me drive the hot rod down to Bayshore. The car was fun. It had lots of power, plus the former owner had installed throaty glass pack mufflers that rumbled nicely as you drove.
When we pulled up in her uncle's driveway, Sue had to brush her hair out real quick. As we reached the door, the butler opened it and welcomed us. Once again we were shown into the parlor with the guy saying he would be right back with some before dinner drinks.
Ben and Beth were sitting, waiting for us while sipping what looked like mint juleps. My, my, the south will rise again. That stuff is too sweet for me.
"So, Sue, you've bought a building, what are going to do with a hundred thousand square foot building and over ten acres in a commercial area?" Ben asked with a little sarcasm in his voice.
"Actually, Steve is buying the building, I'm just financing it, or renting it to him, or maybe I'll just give it to him. It's going to be his new shop. And we have already made provisions to enlarge it."
"You're making it larger than a hundred thousand square feet? What for?" Ben now was almost testy.
"Steve is adding a building with two paint booths for his equipment rebuilding operation and for the race car sheet metal he's manufacturing."
Ben raised an eyebrow then asked with a real sharp edge to his voice, "When did you go into the race car business?"
"That's how I've been making a bunch of money. You know I've been manufacturing NASCAR race car frames. I have enough business that I've had to hire a couple of men. Now that I've taught them to work the way I want, I can integrate even more guys to work the way I want them to. I think we're going to be able to put out about fifty to a hundred grand of work a week.
"The sheet metal fabrication is an offshoot. If we can produce enough of it, we will have crew chiefs come in and we'll help build the cars in my shop, which will free up their shops for preparation of other cars for their next race. I think that kind of service will bring in a bunch of revenue."
"You think, you're not sure," Ben said still aggravated.
"Uncle Ben, don't act like this. It's my money. Steve has probably put near fifty thousand into the business this week and has put a deposit on another two hundred thousand to be paid out next week. He's going out on a limb too, you know. He couldn't have bought the building outright, but he probably could have gotten a loan on his own for it. I want to continue to be a part of the business, so I'm helping in a way I can."
"What did you spend fifty thousand on, Steve?" Ben was asking a little more cordially.
"Let's see. I paid to have the new shop thoroughly cleaned and painted so we can open there with a spotless work area. It's nice to work in that kind of an environment. I had to buy another compressor, I bought four forklifts to use and some to rebuild and sell, I think it was five used generators and four compressors to rebuild, a large truck to deliver and get equipment with, and two pickup trucks for company use."
"I bought a cute little Mustang convertible too," Sue added.
"How did you pay for all of that? Did Sue give you money?"
"I had it, I used some of my savings, but I had it. I've still got all of my 401K money, plus I haven't touched my Fidelity accounts."
"Fidelity accounts, you have Fidelity accounts, as in plural?" Ben was prying. "How did you get multiple accounts?"
"I only have two. One is a low risk fund. That's where most of my money is and the other is a very high-risk fund. I only have about twenty-five percent there. So far the high-risk fund has done well. Each time it builds up, I transfer the excess to the low risk fund."
"How did you come into all that money?" Beth asked.
"I saved it. I worked up in Alaska for a while and there really isn't anywhere to spend the money there unless you're a drunk. I worked in the Oklahoma and Texas fields, but that was almost seven days a week, so I just worked and saved, and I just spent a good while at seven days a week on oil platforms in South America. I worked straight through, instead of a week on and a week off. I didn't have anything to spend money on, so I saved it. I used my dividend check to buy all the stuff I bought for the house and to get the patio built."
"You spent more money improving that run down park?" Ben asked.
"Well, it's not really run down. The park owner does a good job keeping up his buildings. He really does do a good job. I wanted our patio to be bigger and more fun. We have a lot of friends that come over in the morning for coffee and join us for a beer in the evenings. We're now even sharing supper between us almost every night. The families take turns providing the meal for everyone. The improvement was for our better living, not the park owner."
"How many people or couples are there?" Beth asked.
Sue volunteered, "Seven, including us, Mom. Sometimes another older couple comes to visit but they are hardly ever there for supper."
"Steve, you must make friends fast. Sue isn't social like that," Beth said.
I chuckled, "She may not have been social before, but since we've gotten together, she's been very social and has made a bunch of friends. Even our business contacts think she's special because they know she's a worker."
"Mom, Steve is a magnet. He draws people to him constantly. He doesn't realize it but people just want to be around him, whether it's doing a job, or teaching a new guy, or just out having fun. People follow him around like puppies."
"Hush, Sue, I'm not all that. We have a good time and others want to have a good time with us. That's how life works."
"Well come on, Mr. and Mrs. Popular, let's eat. We have a treat today," Ben said, standing to usher us into the dining room.
We had something I wouldn't have expected. Roast pork, rice and black beans. The Latin cook had made some delicious rolls to go with it. Sue and I found out she was a Cuban immigrant, so this was her type of food.
After dinner we went into the game room and lounge again. Ben wanted a re-match. This time he had been practicing and beat me seven to five games. I didn't lie down for him but he showed he was dominant. I figured that when we got our table, I would practice and clean his clock again. I checked to see what kind of cue Ben used to make sure I had one like it the house when we played in the future.
Beth said Ben and her were going to stop by our place soon so they could look at our new house, as well as the improved patio. I told them to let us know so they could eat supper with us and all our friends.
Sue drove the convertible back to the park, enjoying the power of the little car. The patio was full of our friends, still excited about the new shop.
Sue and I changed back into shorts and T-shirts then joined the group with our own pads of paper.
Abe had come over and was working with Al and Tom, planning how they were going to move everything and in what order. They were taking into consideration the other guys that were coming to work for a day or two. I told them to put one of the new frames in the showroom so we could hang it. The other frame and the sheet metal I wanted to be placed in the two separate shop areas as I was going to get Gene to come over to show off our new digs. It looked like they had it under control.
Abe said he had called two men that used to work for Onan. They were going to come by to see us. He thought they would be good to start working on more equipment.
Shawna said she would bring her small gas compressor and paint equipment to do the trucks. She was going to take some time to plan the Mustang but would have the trucks done tomorrow.
My list was pretty big. There was insurance and registration of the vehicles, which included the old big flat bed. I needed a fridge and stove for the lunchroom. Sue's car needed to go to the dealer to get repaired and we needed to get an adjuster out before we did that. Hope Sue's insurance people didn't give her shit. I needed to contact the construction contractor to build the paint booths out from the building so Abe's shop could be widened by at least twelve feet.
I also thought we might as well build out on the other side for a good sized body shop, custom motorcycle shop, custom paint shop, or whatever it might me used for. It would probably become a versatile shop for Jim, Charlie, and Shawna. I wanted the lot area paved with asphalt right away along with a three-quarter enclosed storage area. Kind of like a long open garage for good used equipment, forklifts, and possibly rebuilt stuff, waiting to be delivered.
I needed to order more materials for frames and sheet metal. I was confident my idea of pre-formed panels would be popular. I needed to get Gene and a crew chief over right away.
We needed an electrician and a plumber for the air. We needed an air-conditioning tech to check out the building air as it was going to get hot soon.
I asked Sue if she wanted to go to the place on Dale Mabry to look at pool tables. She was up in a flash. Tiny and Martin came with us in the Mustang.
The store had "Brunswick" on the window, which is why I went there. The place was really big. I told the man what I wanted. I could see the table from the front area we were in, but he led us to some tables that were for someone's fancy living room. Carved legs, curved legs, weird legs, pink cloth, black cloth, everything but what I wanted.
I looked at the guy and said, "I want a Brunswick Gold Crown, period. You have one over there," I pointed at it. I want in installed with Simonis, I think it's 760 cloth. I want a good table, and a, not fancy, but bright, effective, pool table light." Do you wish to sell me what I want or do you wish to keep wasting our time?
We walked over to the Gold Crown. It was used, but not terribly abused. He said it was the only Gold Crown he had in stock at this time. He finally gave me a price that seemed reasonable that included the cloth, and all new rubber rails. I made sure he was going to sand down the old glue on the rails so the rails wouldn't have any waves in them. I gave him a list of cues I wanted, a cue rack, two sets of quality balls, and four pool chairs. I gave him half and said the other half would be paid upon delivery and setup.
He hemmed and hawed about when, then finally said he could install it Wednesday morning. We left a little mystified as to how someone could stay in business arguing with his customers the way he did.
On the way back home we stopped by a popular appliance store. I looked at the prices of a new stove and fridge then decided to buy used.
Back home, Tiny went for his Sunday paper. He looked through the want ads and used my cell phone to call about a stove and a couple of refrigerators. He told me to grab my hand truck and let's take my pickup and get some stuff.
It only took us an hour and a half to pick the stove and the fridge, drive it to the shop and carry both of them upstairs to the kitchen. We set them in place and hooked them up. Both were clean and ready to use. The freezer was already getting frosty by the time we left. That was one more thing off my list and we were able to pick them up for about ten percent of what new ones would cost.
At home we celebrated that tomorrow would be exciting, as we would be moving into the new building. Tiny and Ruth were excited for us, Glenda and Martin were excited for Sue and I, as well as Ruth and Tiny. Ruth was already planning a trip to a used office furniture store to start filling up the rooms. I told her that she was in charge of buying the furniture. I wanted a desk with a comfortable chair, and a small table with four chairs. I would probably need a file cabinet. The rest was up to her.
Tiny brought up a problem I had not thought of. We would need phones, or a phone system, or something like that. We would also need some form of paging throughout the place, including the outside area. I said I would call a few dealers in the morning to schedule some appointments, meanwhile we needed to have the lines from the storage place relocated. That could be faster.
We ordered pizza. I think they thought we were fakes as I ordered ten pizzas, hoping it would be enough. Sue and I made up a giant container of salad and mixed some grated Parmesan cheese and Caesar dressing into it for everyone to have a salad before the pizza got there.
The delivery guy was happy to find us saying he was worried we weren't real even though the phone number checked out. I gave the kid a fifteen-dollar tip. I'm sure that made his day as well.
We put away our notes, cleaned up the place, then Sue and I went for a long walk. We ended up at the pool to swim for a half-hour then sat in the hot tub with some other folks for fifteen minutes or so. Back home, I mentioned to Sue that we should probably get her company to make, or order us, a bunch of coveralls for the folks. She said she thought she could get her manufacturer to make them if we came up with sizes. She would talk to them tomorrow after she got her insurance company going on her car.
I reminded her to insure the Mustang and we could go to the registration place together. I was planning to register the new stuff and the old truck at the storage place under Steve Sharp, Inc. so it would be easier to handle ownership and insurance.
We watched TV for a while then cuddled up and went to sleep kissing.