Chapter 43

Jerry woke in the morning with his arms around Jenny. His morning wood pressed against her. He loved the fact that she insisted they sleep nude together in bed. It was a minor thing, but illustrated the huge difference between this and his first marriage. A sigh of happiness escaped from him. Six months of marriage had not diminished the passion he felt for her.

“You’re awake,” whispered Jenny making it sound more like a question than a statement.

“Yeah.”

“Good. Now put that hard woody to good use,” she said with a giggle. She’d been lying there for five minutes fantasizing about him waking.

“Your wish is my command,” Jerry quipped with delight as he ran his hand over her body. Her enjoyment of sex was a constant source of amazement to him. Every morning since getting married, they woke and enjoyed each other.

She loved the feeling of being covered and taken by her big man. It made her feel protected and loved.

Jerry finished with a low roar a few seconds before Jenny emitted her scream of pleasure. Rather than rolling off her, he stayed covering her with his large body. She enjoyed it and would have protested in an attempt to keep him in place. With her arms and legs wrapped around his body, she cooed, “This is so good. I wish I could keep you like this all day.”

“And why shouldn’t we?” asked Jerry knowing the answer. Every morning they had the same conversation.

“Because we got kids to feed and businesses to open,” replied Jenny sadly. She really wanted to stay like that for another few minutes.

“I declare this a cold breakfast day,” said Jerry, “and that means we can stay here a little longer.”

“Goody,” she squealed and hugged him harder.

Jerry was in heaven. He didn’t want to leave her arms, much less her presence. Any fears that he might have had about her turning into his ex-wife upon getting married had disappeared. She loved him, she wanted him, and she did everything in her power to take care of him. Although it seemed impossible, it only made him love her even more.

The time in each other’s arms passed and it was time for them to face the rest of the world. Jerry said, “I guess I should get up now.”

“Yeah,” she replied with a sigh.

Jerry entered the dining room, showered, shaved, and dressed, to find the rest of the family seated around the table with bowls of cereal in front of them.

Smiling, he said, “Good morning.”

Smirking, Bill said, “Ever since we moved back here, Dad’s gotten lazy. It seems to me that he sleeps in an extra half hour every morning.”

The comment caused Jerry to blush when he recalled what he was doing during that extra half-hour. Without missing a beat, Jenny replied, “Oh, he was plenty energetic this morning.”

Melissa tittered at her father’s embarrassed reaction knowing that Bill had been trying to get exactly that reaction. It amazed her how the newlyweds acted with each other. Her dad seemed to be twenty years younger and a whole lot happier. Jenny came out this morning glowing. Giving her father a break, she asked, “So what are the plans today?”

As Jerry sat down, he answered, “Today’s Friday. Work for us and school for you two.”

Jenny said, “I was thinking that I’d come here after work and prepare something to eat. When Bill gets out of school, we’ll drive over to the slum house and wait for you. Melissa could spend some time with her friends and then come over to the house. We’ll have a nice little dinner before you go over to Henry’s.”

“Sounds good to me,” said Bill.

Earlier that week, Melissa had written the largest check of her life getting her swimming pool set up for the season and the heater serviced. The pool was ready for use and she hadn’t had a chance to try it out. She suggested, “Why don’t you come over to my house and cook there? You wait for Bill here and then come over. I’ll meet you there. We can swim while things are cooking.”

“Sounds even better to me,” commented Bill looking forward to an after-school swim.

“That does sound like fun,” said Jenny. She tried to remember where she had put her old bathing suit.

“Great,” said Jerry while adding the milk to his super sugared cereal, “sounds like a plan to me.”

Jenny turned to Melissa and asked, “What are you going to do after dinner?”

“I’ve got a date tonight,” answered Melissa.

The announcement brought a sudden silence to the table. It was the first time she had ever mentioned having a date. Bill was the first to recover and asked, “Who?”

“Ben Sanders,” answered Melissa with a smile. She knew the guy was considered a geek, but he had been very understanding when she had dinged his car in the parking lot at school. One thing had led to another and before she had been aware of what was happening, she had agreed to going to a movie with him.

“Ben? He’s shy. How did he ever work up the nerve to ask you out?” asked Bill surprised at the identity of her date. Ben was terminally shy. As far as he knew, Bill was one of the few people at school that Ben even talked with on a regular basis.

“I have no idea. We were talking in the parking lot and the next thing I knew I was agreeing to a movie,” answered Melissa with a shrug.

“I’m impressed. He’s really a nice guy,” commented Bill. He found it even more impressive that his sister was going out with someone who wasn’t in the elite clique on campus. He would have bet money, and hence lost it, that she wouldn’t date outside that group.

“How do you know him? He’s a senior,” queried Melissa amazed at her brother’s knowledge of people on campus. It seemed to her that everyone on campus knew him.

“He helped me on my history paper. He’s really into old photographs and located those civil war pictures I included in my paper,” answered Bill.

“Huh?”

“You didn’t know that he wants to be a photographer?” asked Bill.

“No, I didn’t,” she replied. The information was good to know. At least she had a topic of conversation that might hold her through any rough patches in the date. She said, “I’ll ask him about that.”

Jerry and Jenny watched the exchange between the two kids with interest. Jerry asked, “So what time will you be coming home?”

“I’m not really sure. Probably around eleven or so,” answered Melissa. She wasn’t about to announce that it was her first date and she was nervous about it.

It was a pleasant drive to work that morning. Jerry had taken the old truck. He enjoyed the reactions of the other drivers as they passed or drove beside the truck. Even after two years, it still had an impact when someone saw it for the first time. Pulling into the parking lot, he parked the truck where it could be seen from the street. It wasn’t that he was showing off, but that he was really proud of it and enjoyed showing people that an old car or truck was a work of art.

He went to the front door and unlocked it, finding that Martin was already at the front desk booting the computer. The young man looked up at the noise of the door opening and said, “Good morning.”

“Morning. You’re here early,” said Jerry.

“Woke up early and had nothing to do,” replied Martin as he stepped around the counter to the coffeepot. A fresh pot of coffee had just finished brewing. He poured a cup and handed it to Jerry with a smile.

“Thanks,” said Jerry. He looked around and saw that the store was basically ready to open. It was fifteen minutes before opening time. He commented, “Good job on getting the store ready to open.”

“Thanks, boss,” replied Martin with a smile. He returned to the counter and watched the computer go through the startup screens. He commented, “Looks like Mike and Karen are going to be busy installing the computer systems for the next few months.”

“Yeah, I’m proud of them,” said Jerry. He sat down in the chair next to Martin and took a sip of his hot coffee. He put the cup on the counter and said, “They are really changing the way the company operates.”

“They are? How about you?”

“I’m just an old fashioned manager of a small business,” replied Jerry with a smile. He winked at the younger man.

“Right.”

“How are your classes going?” asked Jerry. Martin had gone to three-fifths time this semester. He worked six mornings a week and attended classes in the afternoons and evenings.

“They’re going well. I’m enjoying working half days instead of working full time. I’m taking a full course load, so that doesn’t give me much free time. Still, my grades are good, the money is good, and I’m dating occasionally,” answered Martin. His social life had taken a hit, but it didn’t disturb him nearly as much as he thought it would.

“Three and a half years to go?” asked Jerry.

“Three. I’ve already signed up for summer school,” replied Martin. He had investigated exactly how many courses he had to take to get a degree in business and plotted out how he could graduate in the least amount of time possible.

“Ah, that’s good,” replied Jerry. He was pleased with how hard Martin was working on his education. Part of the agreement for the special part-time employment was to maintain a 3.0 or better. Martin was definitely doing better than required, as was Carlos.

“Carlos is doing well,” said Martin. The young Hispanic man was graduating the community college that semester. He only had two years left and would spend them at the local state university. It was a change that made Carlos nervous, but Martin was sure his friend would handle it without a problem.

“I’m glad to hear that,” said Jerry. He wondered what he was going to do when both of them graduated college. It was about time for Mike to move up in the company and he’d need a new assistant manager. Of course, that would mean Mike and Karen would have to move to another store for Mike to get a manager position. He didn’t want to choose between the two young men as to which would get the job.

“Looking forward to having a Saturday off?” asked Martin.

“Yeah,” said Jerry. He had asked Mike to adjust the schedule this week so that he could spend the day with his family. Mike had gone one further and said that he would start swapping Saturdays off. He hadn’t thought about starting to take Saturdays off.

“What are you going to do?”

“Jenny is closing on the sale of her house tomorrow,” answered Jerry. The sale of the house had taken longer than Jerry had anticipated, but Jenny was unwilling to compromise very much on the asking price. For a short period of time, he had assumed that she hadn’t wanted to sell it. That idea was quickly squashed when she nearly exploded after he suggested she keep it. She had remarked that it was the time of year and that in the spring the housing market would pick up again. Based on what happened, it appeared that she was right.

Martin recalled Jenny mentioning something about that. He joked, “After that, I bet you go out and blow all that money on a shopping spree.”

Jerry laughed at the idea and was about to follow up with another suggestion when the telephone rang. Martin picked up the phone before it had even finished ringing. Jerry glanced at the clock and saw that it was five minutes after opening. It looked like it was going to be a busy morning. He stood and waited for the order to get printed.

For the hour before Karen and Mike showed up, Jerry pulled orders while Martin took them. It was a busy morning. When Mike came in, he went to Jerry and said, “I’ll pull orders for a while.”

“Thanks. I’ll take care of some of the office work for a change,” said Jerry with a grimace at the idea of the work that waited for him in the office. Al Sinclair had requested that he design new reports for the stores that utilized the information in the computer. Jerry had been sweating over that job for the past month.

Karen looked up when he entered the office and handed him a sheet of paper. She asked, “Is this what you wanted?”

Looking over the sheet, Jerry was very impressed with what she had done with his idea. Sitting back, he examined the graph and smiled. “That’s perfect. It’s easy to see how much it cost to operate, how much we sold, and how much we made.”

Karen said, “I noticed that the operating costs are seasonal.”