Chapter 8

Come Saturday, Derek is more than ready for his second and last date with Chrissy. She is a special girl and he is happy for her. It is a testament to one’s soul that is measured by both how much you care for others and how much you are cared for.

“Eric.”

“Yeah, my man.”

“In route, be there in twenty.”

“I’m a wait’n!”

As Derek is making the drive over to Eric’s his mind goes back to the rest of the week at work. Everyday a new report showed up on his desk that Al Denton, Craig Denton’s first son, is taking his anger and frustrations out on his workers in his divisions. Finally on Friday several of the workers took their lunch-hour to come up to Derek’s office and file a formal complaint.

“He is constantly yelling at us, blaming us for a lack of productivity as the reason why he’s not running the company while his father is away.”

“What’s your name, dear? And what exactly are we talking about?”

“I’m Carrie Hendrix and of course we work in the research department that Al Denton oversees. He has always been an arrogant ass of a vice president because his daddy owns the company, but lately he has become more verbally abusive and is always right over our shoulders making sure the twice amount of work he has been assigning us is getting done.”

“Any chance he has touched or maybe sexually harassed any one?”

“He always has thought he is a ladies’ man, but not that I know of. I know that he did grab Alice’s arm when she tried to walk away from him verbally berating her for making a typing error.”

Alice is a younger woman with red hair. Derek turns to her, as she is one of the five who have come up. Before they got into this Derek called Megan and Sarah down. Megan asks, “Did he hurt you when he grabbed you?”

“No, he just made me feel stupid.”

“Damn!” Everybody looks at Derek when he says that. “Oh, well if he had hurt you or sexually harassed you I could have gone outside of the company to do something about him, but as it is I’m going to have to take this to Mister Denton. Thank you, ladies, for bringing the severity of the situation to our attention. We will do something, I promise.”

The girls seem temporarily pleased with that promise. As soon as they leave, Derek looks at the three amazing women in his office and he sighs. Casey and Sarah are ready, willing and able to assist however they can, but it is Megan who also sighs because she knows that this task to take it to Mister Denton is solely going to land on Derek’s shoulders.

As Derek is looking at the amazing girls before him he smiles and picks up the phone. Megan starts to make everybody leave, but Derek says, “No, that’s okay, stay.” He dials the phone. “Hi, Misses Denton, this is Derek Jennings from work.”

“Of course, Derek, I know who you are. How may I help you today?”

“I was wondering if Craig was up to taking a phone call or perhaps I could come over this Sunday and have a chat with him.”

“He is asleep at the moment, but I think he would love the company. You have shown more consideration than anybody, other than Sarah, of course.”

“Well, thank you, Carrie. Would a late lunch on Sunday be good?”

“We’ll see you then!”

“Thank you and I’ll be there Sunday. I have something I have to do for my baby sister, but I’ll be there about two-ish.” Derek hangs up the phone and tells the girls, “It’ll be better in person.”

“Want me to come?” asks Megan.

“Actually, you have all read the complaint and you just heard the ladies from that department, so if it’s not too much of an imposition, I’d like it for all three of you to come along.”

They all agree and now all four of them are sighing.

As Derek turns onto the last street to get to Eric’s house he sighs again. He knows Craig Denton is a professional businessman, but he also knows Al is his first son and that it could get ugly fast. So many parents are blind and go into vicious denial when it comes to their children.

As Derek pulls up to Eric’s house he sees Eric, Tasha and Chrissy standing out in the driveway. It appears the girls had also just arrived. Derek notices that Tasha and Chrissy are wearing summer dresses that look adorable like an Easter dress. Tasha’s is red and white; Chrissy’s is yellow and white. They look absolutely stunning.

With the immediate driveway full, Derek parks over by the detached garage. He smiles as he walks up to them and then he says to Chrissy, “You look amazing, babygirl.”

“Thank you.” she replies, hugging him.

Both Eric and Derek are wearing casual dress pants with nice tee shirts.

“Tasha, beautiful as always.”

“Hey! You have your own girl to compliment,” teases Eric.

“Well, then get to it, brother.” Eric being no fool promptly kisses Tasha.

“Oh my! Now that’s a compliment!” says Tasha, smiling.

Both Chrissy and Derek hold hands. “Are we ready?” asks Derek.

“Yeah, let’s go!” They all pile into Eric’s four-door Maserati.

As Chrissy and Derek get comfortable in the back, Chrissy tells everyone, “It’s about an hour out of town. Your nice car should make it down the dirt road okay.”