THE HEAT GOES ON... August (Part 163f)

THE HEAT GOES ON… August (Part 163f)

Janie had been right. She’d left a pot of clam chowder on the stove to simmer. I knew my father would do the same thing and his reasoning was that the simmering drew the flavor of the clams out. She was more than willing to talk now that the situation with the stove was over. In the few minutes it took to get back to the club I learned that she had two kids… a girl who was a pre teen and a boy who was eight, daughter Anne’s age. As we pulled into the parking lot she told me they hadn’t yet sold their other house but they knew if they didn’t buy the house we’d just left it would be gone before they did. Their kids had been enrolled in Summer programs in that area and were still involved for another week. They’d be attending the local school and she wanted to know  something about it. I told her to look up Elle after the racing lessons and she’d help her out. I’d liked Marty right from the time I’d met him and was thinking that maybe this would work out to be another good new friendship.

It was just nuisance work on the race car. The rim for the tire that had been blown out on Saturday night was bent and couldn’t be fixed. The concern was we only had two spares and that definitely wasn’t enough. My old friend, Jay, from back when I worked in data processing for the County, had the equipment to make the wide ones we used. I hadn’t talked with him about it but offered up to the guys that I could find out if he could help us out. When we packed up to go home it was decided that Joe and Alan would help Cliffy load the car on the hauler on Saturday so there was no need to come on Friday night. That was a pleasant surprise. My immediate thought was to do something with Elle like go to the movies. I knew if I made the suggestion I’d have a better than 50/50 chance of doing it rather than have Elle decide what to do. I’d wanted to see The Odd Couple because I was a fan of Jack Lemmon and this was about the last chance to see it. All I could do was to hope I could ‘sell’ it to Elle.

We both got up at the same time the next morning. I wanted to tell Elle about my idea for the movie first thing but she had something to tell me… that she’d met Janie at the sailing club and really liked her… and that we’d been invited to her house on Saturday night. Upon hearing that I ‘lost it’, and don’t remember what I said but it wasn’t good. I know I threw in the fact that Saturday nights were my race nights and I was going to the races… period, end of sentence. I don’t remember us saying anything after that. It was definitely not a good way to start the day… but it did get better.

A pleasant surprise at work was to see Joanie sitting at Trish’s desk. I walked up and asked if she was there “for real?”. I got a big smile as an answer. Seeing her there reminded me that I’d wanted to ask Laura about Joanie’s supposed boy friend. At my desk I wrote one word on a piece of paper… Laura. However, it took until late afternoon before I could see her with Joanie not in sight. As soon as I mentioned Freddie’s name she made a face. It took a little persuasion to get her to put the look on her face into words. Briefly, she admitted she didn’t like him and thought he was “creepy”. When I asked her if she’d discussed the way she felt about him with her she just shrugged her shoulders. Knowing her, as I’d come to, it was to be expected. She’d grown up a lot since she was hired but was far still pretty much a work in progress when it came to being assertive. I closed the conversation by telling her to keep a close watch on the situation (dating) and if she thought it didn’t seem quite right to let me know. She gave me half a smile as she stood up. Then she told me that a she had a boyfriend too. The irony of it made me smile.

Trish spent most of the day showing Joanie the basics of her job. Bret had collected the data from the branch and when he gave it to me I asked how dealing with Jerry had gone. He laughed and said he’d only talked with Betsy. I remember riding with him and called him a “chicken’ for avoiding Jerry. He didn’t think that was funny. Just before the doors were closed for the day in walked Lynda. It was the first time I’d ever seen her in the bank. She didn’t come in to see me but went right to the teller line. In one way I was glad because Trish had sort of teased me when she’d called a couple of times. But, then I wondered if Trish even knew what Lynda looked like. On the phone she had a very sexy voice and, when I thought about it for a few seconds, decided I could go down the teller line and say “Hi” to her without the threat of a verbal ‘jab’ from Trish. When I walked up to the window she was at she barely looked up at me but I did hear her say something like “I’ve missed you…”. The most fortunate thing about that was that we were at Letitia’s window. I was sure the innuendo and meaning of what Lynda said were way over her head. With nothing ‘pressing’ for the rest of the afternoon I responded by asking how late she was staying at the brokerage. She held up one hand with her fingers spread. I didn’t say anything more but just nodded as she headed for the door.

I had no preconceived notion in mind as I headed for the brokerage office. After the recent success with a stock purchase and the reinvestment of the money I’d been following the stocks in my trust a lot more closely. I’d intended on visiting the office at least once a week because Stan, my broker, would put aside some things for me to read. I hadn’t been over there in over a week so that was the reason… at least that was what I was telling myself. The office door was locked and after a knock Lynda appeared and opened it. She started talking almost before the door was closed. I’d casually mentioned that I was involved with a race car and she, in turn told me her father-in law’s auto dealership sponsored a car. What she was saying was completely out of the blue and I didn’t quite follow it at first. She wanted to know about the car… where we raced… top of motor and more. I tried to slow her down a bit but she pretty much ignored me. I hadn’t planned on staying long, wanting to be home by 6pm but this was worth being late for.

She'd gone into her work area but was standing while she rattled off her questions. Finally, she sat down and smiled when she said "Well... ? I started to answer but when she sat back in her chair I got a quick view of what I call the 'magic triangle'... that little white thing I could sometimes see up the skirt of some females wearing a mini skirt. Seeing it, I stopped talking for a few seconds. That made her smile... a lot and she leaned forward to pull a chair that had been pushed aside over to invite me to sit. When she leaned forward her knees, which had been together, spread and the 'magic triangle' widened. But she pushed on for me to answer the questions about the race car.

The reason for her interest was that her husband who worked at the dealership was not happy with the car they were sponsoring. She was hoping we were using a Chevy motor. I didn't know what to say or do. It seemed to be an off hand sponsorship offer and something we desperately needed. When I told her were running a Ford motor she put her hands up and said something like "Oh well... I tried." I had no idea what the sponsorship covered so there really wasn't much I could say. She was obviously trying to help me but we had to be running a Chevy to be considered.

To be continued...