The next morning, I saw that fitness model girl, Angela, and invited her and her boyfriend to dinner on Wednesday. “We’ll be having a couple of friends over,” I explained. “We can make a little dinner party out of it.”

“That would be nice,” Angela said. “Should we bring anything?”

“No, don’t worry about bringing anything, just yourselves. It’ll just be the six of us- you and your boyfriend, the couple I mentioned, and Emmy and me. Not a big deal, just dinner, and maybe a bit of hanging out and talking afterwards, that’s all.”

At work, I reminded everybody that I was going to be attending grad school, so Tuesdays and Thursdays were going to be half days at the most for me. It isn’t as if it was a surprise, but still, I wanted it to be well-known that I wouldn’t be available on those two afternoons. I also made it clear that my recent visit to the Bay Area office had driven home how important it was that I still showed my face up there, and I committed to scheduling every other Friday in San Jose.

Other than these things, work was pretty much the same old same old. The only real break from the typical was that I had driven in to work in my new orange BMW.

“Hey, did you get a new car?” Jake asked, sticking his head in my office. “Or did somebody else steal your parking space?”

“Yeah, new car,” I said. “My wife got it for me for my birthday.”

“Um, not to put my foot in my mouth, but isn’t a BMW sedan a step down from your Aston Martin?”

“Yeah, in some ways it is,” I agreed. “But it’s newer, and maybe a tiny bit less conspicuous.”

“Not in that metallic hot lava color, it’s not,” he replied.

“Maybe not,” I conceded with a laugh. “Hey, have any lunch plans?”

“It depends- are you buying?” he asked.

“Yeah, I was thinking of that brewpub down in Venice, the one where we took your granddaughter?”

“Let me guess- you bought the place,” Jake said, not fully inside my office, not just leaning in the doorway.

“Well, signed the deal, anyway. All the final paperwork is still pending, and of course, the liquor license is always a hassle, but yeah. It’s ours now, barring any last-minute hiccups. Bought the building, too, in a separate deal.”

“What time do you want to head out? I need about twenty to clear up my desk,” Jake said, heading for the door.

“Nice car,” Jake said, admiring the M6 as we headed south to Venice. “Much easier to get into than your Aston, too.”

“And I’m not looking upwards at peoples’ hubcaps in this, either,” I agreed.

“Are you gonna miss the Aston Martin?” Jake asked.

“No, because I still have it,” I countered. “I can drive it any time I want.”

“Must be nice,” Jake sighed, looking out the window.

At the brewpub, Jake asked about the hospitality side of the business. “I know you brought that Aussie guy down from San Jose with you,” he began. “He’s the scout for your restaurant acquisitions, right?”

“Yeah, Sandy. That’s the guy.”

“I’ve talked to him a couple of times in the hallway, you know, but that’s about it. He doesn’t spend much time in the office, does he?”

“No, for two reasons. One is, mostly he does field work, talking to the owners of the places we’re considering, and the second, we don’t really have room for him in our space there on Wilshire. Sure, he’s got a desk, but it’s jammed into a room with three other desks, and nobody there really has any elbow room. As a result, he’s been mostly working from home,” I explained.

“Must be nice,” Jake said.

“We really need to move into a larger place,” I said. “I don’t know if you met Nash, my commercial acquisitions guy. He also came down from San Jose?”

“Can’t say I have. Maybe, but the name doesn’t ring a bell,” Jake admitted.

“Well, I had him out looking for a new place to set up shop, and he’s identified three possibilities. Maybe you could drive by and take a look at the three when you’re out doing inspections? I’d be interested in getting your feedback.”

Just then the waitress came to ask if we were ready to order, and I asked her about a waiter that we’d met a few weeks before- young guy, good-looking, sleeve tattoos?

“That describes about half the guys that work here?” she said with a completely straight face.

“I think his name was Tommy,” Jake put in.

“Yeah, Tommy. He’s been working nights the last few weeks. Why? Can I give him a message for you or something?”

“Nah, it’s no big deal,” I said.

“So, you were asking about Sandy?” I prompted Jake once the waitress left with our orders.

“Well, no, not about Sandy, but about the hospitality division. Well, it’s new for us here in the Santa Monica office, you know? Our office has just been property management, that’s it, up until you brought in these new guys, and I’m not sure how everything is gonna work.”

“Well, so here’s the deal,” I said. “The property management stuff is going to continue, same as it ever has. Sure, more and more of the properties you’ll be handling will be ones we own and not just for outside owners, but the process is the same, all in all. Now, the Santa Monica office has a really small commercial portfolio, and that’s going to increase with time as well, so we’ll probably need to staff up on that side, but that really isn’t a change.”

Sipping my iced tea, I went on. “So the hospitality division, and the entertainment division, those will be completely separate. Sharing the same office building, when we get our new place, but with a separate suite number and all that.”

“Entertainment?” Jake asked, curious.

“Yeah, since we have a handful of live music venues in our portfolio, we do a certain amount of promotion, but not much, really. That market is pretty saturated, and a few of the big players do whatever they can to squeeze out the little guys, you know?” I said.

“So when we move into our new place, wherever that winds up being, you’ll consolidate everything under one roof, but it’ll still be three different businesses, in effect,” Jake said, getting a clear picture.

“Four,” I said. “I plan on doing more venture capital down here, too.”

“So, in addition to the people we already have working in the office right now, you plan on staffing up for three more, um, divisions. Yeah, I can see why you’re in a hurry to move out of that place on Wilshire.”

“It’s a nice enough office, and the location is good, but really, I’d have to clear out all the other tenants from the building just for room for us, and the owners are asking a ridiculous price anyhow,” I said. “And even then, we wouldn’t have facilities for the trades.”

“You mentioned wanting to bring that work in-house,” Jake said. “I guess you would have that be a fifth, um, division?”

“Up in San Jose, we have a facility for the trades. A warehouse and workshop, plus a decent-sized yard for the trucks and heavy equipment. It’d be convenient if it could be at the same site, or at least adjacent,” I commented.

Just then the waitress set down our plates and refilled our drinks, so we stopped talking shop and dug into our food.

On the way back to the office, Jake asked, “Do you do that often? Eat at restaurants you own?”

“Yeah, I try to,” I said. “Just like doing the site inspections with you and the other property managers. I think it’s important to actually see the real-world part of the business, not just the financial spreadsheets, you know?”

“George Loeltz never liked to do inspections,” Jake mused, looking at the scenery.

“He ran the company very differently than I do,” I said.

Emmy wasn’t home when I got back to the apartment, so after I changed out of my work clothes I fired up the laptop and got back into the funding proposal I’d been chewing on at the office. Sure, it was as dry as the Sahara, but it needed to get done.

Emmy got home around six thirty or so from the temporary rehearsal space, in an unusually grumpy mood.

“I hate the space we have to work in,” she groused when I asked what was wrong. “It is small, it is too hot, and the neighbors are- well, they are not nice people,” she said.

“Why are you guys even putting up with that place?” I asked. “If it sucks that bad, why not find a space like you guys used up in Palo Alto?”

“I miss our rehearsal space up there,” Emmy said, still grumpy. “I wish we had a place like that here in Los Angeles.”

“Baby, you should have told me you were having such a hard time where you guys are. I would have found you something better.”

“I do not like to always ask so much of you,” Emmy complained. “You do so much already.”

“Do you know why I do so much?” I asked.

“Because I do not really do anything except practice and work on my music,” Emmy said, not breaking out of her bad mood. "I am very sorry for that."

“I do so much because I love you, and want you to be able to focus on your music,” I said. “Anything I can do to make your life easier so you can concentrate on your music, well, I’m happy to do it for you.”

“You are too good for me,” Emmy said as I wrapped her up in my arms. “I do not deserve you.”

I kissed the top of her head and gave her a gentle squeeze. Sometimes words aren’t the right thing to say, so I just held her, breathing in the scent of her hair, feeling her breathing against my chest. We stood like that for a while, neither of us saying anything. It seemed like a really long time, but realistically it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes.

Finally, Emmy sighed, letting out some of the tension I’d felt in her body.

“I would appreciate it if you could do that for us, Leah,” Emmy said, capitulating. “Could you please find us a better practice space? One similar to what we had in Palo Alto?”

“Of course, Em. Of course.”

I led Emmy to the bedroom and sat her down on the bed, then went into the bathroom and started filling the tub. Once I was satisfied with the temperature, I went back into the bedroom, only to find Emmy sitting exactly where I’d left her. I knelt down and untied her big, stompy Doc Marten boots I’d gotten her, pulling them off and sliding her socks off as well. Then I stood up and helped her to her feet. I reached around behind and undid the zipper, then pulled her little summer dress up and off. Sliding my hands down her sides, I hooked my fingers in the waistband of her panties and slid them off, too, leaving her completely naked.

I stepped back to admire her slender beauty, and when my eyes finished their slow walk across every inch of her nude body and settled on her eyes, I saw that she had a sly little grin.

I reached out and she took my hand, so I led her into the oversized master bath and helped her into the big soaking tub. She stepped right in, even though the water was scalding hot.

“Are you going to join me?” Emmy asked as she settled into the hot, hot water.

“In a few minutes,” I said. “I need to let the water cool off a little bit before I can get in. So just go ahead and relax, and I’ll be back in a few minutes.” I lit the scented candle on the counter and flipped off the lights on my way out, leaving Emmy to relax in peace for a little while.

I called and ordered dinner from the Japanese place downstairs, and when they said it would be forty-five minutes for delivery, I figured that gave me plenty of time. I stripped off my jeans and T shirt, bra and undies, and joined Emmy in the still very hot bath.

I have no idea how she could be comfortable in such hot water, but I'd come to expect it. She liked it about twenty degrees warmer than I did, so I always had to ease in very slowly when I took a bath with Emmy.

“Feeling any better?” I asked when I finally settled all the way into the tub.

“I am now,” Emmy said in a soft voice, as she turned around and slid my way to lean back against me. I wrapped my arms around her just below her breasts and pulled her in, nice and snug, loving the feeling of her skin against mine. I was also loving the view, as I looked over her shoulder in the light of that single candle, watching her breasts rise and fall, her nipples emerging and then submerging again with every breath.

“Leah,” Emmy said so softly it was almost a whisper.

“What, babe?” I asked.

“I just like to say your name, that is all. Leah. It is the most beautiful word ever invented.”

“You’re silly,” I murmured, kissing her behind her ear.

“No, I am absolutely, completely correct,” Emmy said, a hint of indignation in her voice that I would naysay her claim. “It is, without a doubt, the most aesthetically pleasing conjunction of sounds ever uttered by a human being. Leah. You see? Sheer perfection, rolling off the tongue.”

“Well, that’s a coincidence,” I said.

“What do you mean?”

“Emmy is sheer perfection on the tip of my tongue,” I said.

“Oh, my!” Emmy gasped, pretending to be scandalized. “How could you insinuate such naughtiness?” she asked, turning around to face me.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I answered, as innocently as I could make it. “All I said was that I enjoy Emmy on the tip of my tongue.”

“Well, O.K., then,” she said, settling back against my chest. “I am glad we cleared that up.”

We chatted idly like that for a while, soaking the day’s stress away in the hot water. It was nice, just spending some quality time with Emmy like that, enjoying the comfort of her body snuggled up to mine.

Truth to tell, I completely lost track of time, and when the doorbell rang at first I failed to understand what it was. In fact, I’d only ever actually heard the doorbell once or twice before, so it took me a moment to put it together.

“Oh, shit!” I exclaimed, startling Emmy as I stood up and stepped out of the tub.

“What is it?” she asked, puzzled by my reaction.

“I ordered dinner from downstairs,” I said, wrapping a towel around myself. “That’s gotta be the delivery.”

Emmy went to get out of the tub, but I said, “No, just stay there. I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.” I rushed into the bedroom to grab some cash for a tip, then hurried to the door as the doorbell rang for the third time.

“Sorry I took so long,” I said as I opened the door, but it wasn’t actually who I was expecting.

“I’m sorry,” Angela said. “I didn’t- no, I’m sorry,” she said, turning to go, but I reached a hand out and stopped her.

“What’s going on?” I asked, concerned by the tears I saw in her eyes. “Come on in.” I gave her a gentle push towards the living room, and she only resisted a little bit before she followed my instructions.

I could tell I was falling into a comedy bit by the way the towel around me kept wanting to slip and undo the wrap, causing me to hold it with one hand while the other was still on Angela’s lower back, guiding her towards the couch.

Of course, it was at this moment the doorbell rang again, so I apologized to Angela and told her to have a seat, while I went back and opened the door again, this time for the delivery guy. He handed me the first bag and I handed him the tip, which I still had in my free hand. With my second hand I did the best I could to tuck the end of the towel in tighter, then took the other bag the delivery guy held out.

“Thanks!” I said, and used my foot to shut the door. Walking back to the living room, it was at this moment that whatever god it is in charge of comedy decided to make his (or her) move. Just as Angela had turned on the couch to look my way, I held up the bags and asked, “Are you hungry?”

Of course, it was at this precise moment that the towel came untucked and fell around my ankles. Sure, I could feel it as it was happening, but there was precious little I could do about it, holding two decent-sized bags of Japanese food in my hands. All I could do, really, is watch the towel on its inexorable mission to expose me in front of our downstairs neighbor.

Angela watched, too, and the moment seemed to be in slow motion as the event transpired. Finally, after an agonizingly long time (or so it felt, anyhow), the towel landed on the ground around my ankles with a soft thump.

I looked up at Angela, and she looked up from the towel at the same moment. When we made eye contact, the look of surprise on her face was almost worth the embarrassment. Her eyebrows had disappeared up into her hairline, her eyes were as big around as saucers, and her mouth was forming a perfect circle as she failed to come up with anything more clever to say than just, “Oh!”

I sighed, letting my shoulders droop a bit. “Here, let me put these down,” I said, and turned back to the kitchen counter to set the food down. I was about two steps away from retrieving my towel when Emmy poked her head into the living room to see what was going on.

“Leah, why are you naked?” she asked.

“Her towel just fell,” Angela said, trying to explain.

I picked up and rewrapped the towel around myself, doing my best to regain whatever shred of dignity I could.

“Emmy, this is Angela, the one I was telling you about. She and her boyfriend live down on the fifth floor.”

“Fourth floor,” Angela said, correcting me. “We live on the fourth floor.”

“They’re the couple that I invited over for dinner on Wednesday,” I explained, trying to move past the events of a few moments before.

“Oh, it is nice to meet you,” Emmy said, moving over to greet Angela, who’d gotten to her feet to say hello.

Emmy had taken the time to throw on the T shirt I had been wearing earlier, so at least she wasn’t in immediate risk of flashing our neighbor as I’d just done. That said, I could tell that she had nothing on underneath, and although the T was long enough to reach mid thigh, there was still a possibility of more comedic nudity ahead.

Satisfied the towel was going to stay put, I said to Angela, “Well, I guess that got you to stop crying, didn’t it?”