**** Chapter Seven – Planned Preparations ****

I had a lot to do to execute my private plans and I was going to need help. The obvious answer was to ask Traci to assist. Hell I should have known that wasn’t going to happen and should have realized that she was already too busy, she simply looked at me with her typical disdain and then made a phone call. She didn’t attempt to keep the conversation private, she actually looked me in the eye as she said into the phone.

“Hi Sonya, you got the job. How soon can you be here?”

After a moment she added, “Great, see you then”

Ending the connection Traci looked at me and said, “Your new PA, Sonya, will be here in just over an hour. She’s bringing lunch.”

And just like that I had a Personal Assistant.

An hour and a half later the door popped open and Sonya bustled in laden with bags of food for everyone there. She was the same old Sonya I remembered from back when she worked at my old firm. She had left seeking “New Horizons”, but apparently the sun never fully rose on those horizons and here she was now as my brand-new PA. Sonya spread the food out on the counter of the guest house kitchenette. She sat down opposite me at the table, gave me a smile, pulled a battered laptop out of her bag, looked at me and asked “What’s next?”

I simply laughed.

Now I’d always liked Sonya: she was bright eyed and energetic with a positive attitude and personality. Physically I would describe her as short to middling height, curvy and very feminine; she wasn’t a runway model but she was strikingly pretty and oozed happiness, fun and energy. I couldn’t figure out Sonya’s genetic background but she had skin colored somewhere between a deep tan and sweet caramel. If pushed I would have called her race American, just that: American.

I looked over to Traci, who appeared to be watching me closely, and said “Get Sonya an account and a charge card to use”.

Looking back at Sonya I followed up with “Get a card from Traci and buy yourself a useable laptop, we’ve got work to do.”

The first task I put Sonya on was chasing down property, my future plans included running a horse ranch and raising purebred dogs up in near Teton National Forest. That was beautiful country and close enough to my favorite brother’s house to make family part of my life again. I had been in the Marine Corps and then SoCal for so long that family wasn’t really part of my life anymore.

David’s Wealth Management firm had a real estate attorney/manager on call and I wanted to put him to use, I gave Sonya the basics of what I wanted and set her to work. We’d probably have to purchase and combine multiple parcels to get what I wanted and this would probably involve more real estate agents and municipal officials than I wanted to deal with. I just wanted to see a list of my options with estimated prices, values, and chances of success.

That being done I started shopping for a new truck.

I was a Mopar guy, always had been but I want to try and make a good decision here and get the best truck to suit my needs. I spent more than two hours researching all the new trucks on the market and was sorely tempted by some of the new electric manufacturers. But in the end I settled on the Dodge Ram, this was going to be just a utility truck and once I reached my destination I could take my time and pick out a pretty toy for day-to-day driving. So I printed off the information on the truck wanted and headed to the local Dodge dealership.

Car dealerships are always a royal pain in the ass and I quickly discovered that even if you were walking in and paying cash it really wasn’t any easier. I knew that this dealership didn’t have the truck I wanted but our friendly internet had helpfully told me ahead of hand that there were two of them available in the local area and exactly what the sticker price was. I knew that inter-dealer vehicle transfer were a common thing and actually required by corporate if you wanted to be a dealer.

You would have thought I would have been the salesman’s dream customer.

Nah, I got the same old run around with attempts to point me to another vehicle, upsell me on pointless services and insistence that I reconsider their lease and finance offerings. I put up with almost forty-five minutes of babbling irritation before I demanded to speak to the general manager. Five minutes later the sales manager came into the office to greet me, so I upped the ante and demanded to speak with the owner or I’d be out the door and on my way to the next dealership who would value the cash I was about to hand them. Well that statement definitely generated a look of concern and consternation.

I spent the next ten minutes or so sitting in that grubby little office scrolling through my phone and trying to decide on the trailer I wanted to buy, price wasn’t a consideration but design and quality were highly important. Predictably and annoyingly, I was eventually fetched by the sales manager and escorted to a set of double doors on the second floor of the building, I guess I was going to see “the boss”, more importantly I decided to remember that I was having fun. And fun I did have.

I was brought through the doors into an opulent office, there was a very nice desk centering the room with two decent chairs sitting in front of it. The surface of the desk was festooned with expensive desk knick-knacks and a pair of high-end computer monitors. Off to the left there was a door leading to somewhere, behind the desk was a credenza with the appropriate family pictures, behind that was a glass wall overlooking the car lot. On the right was a comfy looking couch next to a wet bar. The sales manager gestured to one of the chairs in front of the desk so I walked over to the couch, got comfortable and went back to my phone checking my email and shooting off a few messages.

Predictable another twenty minutes passed by almost to the tick when the side door opened and an attractive woman somewhere around my age entered the room, I politely rose and stepped forward to shake her hand.

“Josephine Taft” she announced as she shook my hand.

She kept that handshake intentionally going long enough for me to take in and appreciate her appearance. Starting with her well-manicured hands, her three-inch stilettos, and up her long legs. Those legs were delightfully accented by a very professional pencil skirt and her ample bosom artistically framed by an elegant professional blouse which was obviously unbuttoned at least two buttons too low. It was an amazing display and those breasts did look recently restored, enough to look almost young again. Everything failed from the neckline up, her neck showed her age and her eyes showed her stress, even her well-practiced sales smile didn’t quite smile enough.

She gestured to one of the chairs across from her desk so I smiled and nodded, she sat down and went immediately to her computer monitors. I countered by grabbing the chair, setting it down beside her desk then pulled out my phone to look at my recent messages. As I focused on my phone I was tracking her out of the corner of my eye and caught her glancing at me with a look of consternation and confusion.

I heard two small, muffled thumps from under her desk confirming my suspicion that the outfit was simply a business ploy. It wasn’t hard to figure out, no professional businesswoman wore cruel shoes because she liked them. Those shoes were part of the ploy along with the blouse unbuttoned too low and the reconditioned decolletage.

It was too easy, after she gave and turned back to me I kept my focus on my phone for another thirty seconds before I looked up at her. I placed the print-out of the truck I wanted and plainly said, “I came here to buy this today.”

I paused for a minute and continued, “I was prepared to pay that price in cash, until your folks started giving me the run around.”

She started to speak but I cut her off forcefully, “During the extraordinarily annoying period of time that your people kept me waiting to make a simple purchase, my team has informed me that this entire enterprise is on the brink of financial failure.”

Confusion and embarrassment flooded her face and she stammered to respond, I piled on the pressure by continuing, “So I’m told I have three choices: One I can walk out and buy my truck elsewhere. Two I can purchase your debt, fire you and have my people get this company back on track or Three I can offer a cash infusion with the stipulation you adhere to the advice we give.”

I sat back for a moment and simply watched as the emotions raced across her face, I experienced a feeling of sardonic and sadistic pleasure as she settled to resignation. After I watched her basically collapse in her chair I decided it was time to take pity on her, there was a good chance this wasn’t completely a mess of her own making.

I abandoned the attack and my next words were kind yet decisive, “I want my truck and I want it delivered tomorrow”, she merely nodded and picked up the phone. It only took a few minutes but that was done.

“Josephine”, I said to her “I’ll arrange the cash infusion you need to keep your family business alive but you will report to my business managers and you will be on salary.”

She merely nodded that resigned look never leaving her face.

“Keep in mind” I said, “your family business is safe and the knowledge of this transaction will be held confidential”.

I stood, turned and walked away, but before I opened the door to leave I turned to her and said, “Just stop being the play girl and get down to business, you usually only get one “Life Buoy” thrown to you in this world and you just got yours.