The Possibilities

"Do you need to sleep on it, Roger?"

"Not on your life. When?"

"Yesterday! Now I've got to go to a picnic."

"What?"

"It's a long story; we'll chat."

As one would expect there were rocky moments, more than a couple of knock-down drag out fights but all in all the CEO had picked the right people---people who knew the business and respected each other. Bill decided to let Mike Fernandez work with his charges for a while before making any drastic changes. Surprisingly a couple who had seemed deficient came around under good leadership; only one had to be severed. And one accepted an early retirement package.

Marketing was another matter; the top two were gone almost overnight. One had a history of questionable behavior with female subordinates. The other, the titular head of Marketing was a do nothing empty shirt who had made his mark by taking over well run departments and destroying them. Both were out the door within three days. Several of the people they had promoted were far less qualified than people under them. Fortunately they knew it and accepted lower positions.

An extremely talented woman who had been driven out of marketing a couple of years earlier by the "good old boy" system was brought back to take it over. While Mike Fernandez easily out weighed her by a hundred pounds and stood eight inches taller, they were equally matched in grit and tenacity. They battled often; fortunately they had come to respect each other over the years. It occurred to Bill that had they been husband and wife the makeup sex would have been cosmic.

There were surprisingly few turf battles; as the CEO had pointed out they all had enough on their plate and didn't need to build their empires. The only real disagreement which bubbled up to Mike Kearing was anything but a turf battle and far from personal. They literally were stuck on the issue of where training should reside, whether there should be a single training entity, what level of training should reside within the major departments assisted by corporate resources and at what point training became an overall corporate function. Even at that the participants were not miles apart, just differed on the details.

Mike had resisted creating a new, independent training directorate and he hated matrix management relationships. Each of the four principals wanted to control training for their people. HR always thinks they should run training in spite of the fact that they have little real world experience in the various business disciplines. Within Bill's world, Sales wanted to control rep training but Marketing expected to develop product and program specific training tools. Distribution and Manufacturing felt competent to conduct their own training but needed resources. The old COO who had no real dog in the fight came up with a compromise that everyone agreed to try. In the end, everyone had to bend---including the CEO.

"The issue in training has always been finding the right people, people who have actually done the job and done it well---and have the skill sets to be good trainers. Without real world knowledge and experience the trainer gets no respect. We've all been in a training session in which the person at the front of the room knows no more than what is written on the lesson plan. Why not make training a career path stop? Having a stable of folks who have done training in a formal setting would pay huge dividends down the road. Look, we're trying to do the same thing with HR, legal and finance---why not training?"

"It's essentially a staff function." Injected the Chief of Staff. "Put it under me. I know you don't want this worm to grow out of proportion, Mike, but training is important enough that it needs its own voice. But we don't need to increase head count---the rest of you need to provide the staffing; you've all got good training people in your worlds. If people understand that it's a temporary move, not a lock in----and after a suitable interval they return to their preferred worlds with no loss of advancement potential---they'll be fine with it. On the other hand, for those that really have an affinity for it there needs to be a career path."

Miraculously they all agreed on who should head up the new training entity and no one grumbled about funding or staffing. Another crisis averted. People began to accept and even appreciate the new structure. People in the field could get answers quickly. People knew who was in charge of what and at least for the foreseeable future the investor community and the customer base were pleased.

Bill somehow found time to move; he bought a house and a few acres not twenty minutes from the office. He finally could have a dog. Fearing one dog would become lonely, he got two. As the first few months zipped by work became less hectic and his thoughts turned back to his life...or lack thereof. The book the CEO had given him was still in his brief case; he decided to call the publisher and inquire.

"Hi, I'm not sure who I need to talk to. My name is Bill Shilling and I very much enjoyed a book by one of your authors, Mary Lantine, and wanted to find out if she had anything else in print and where I could buy it or them."

"Well, Bill thank you for calling! We are a very small publishing firm, more or less a one man---or woman---operation. That would be me, Martha Bennett. In answer to your question, while Mary had completed another book it's not in publication yet. We recently entered into an agreement with a major book chain. As a matter of fact Mary is out on the road right now visiting their outlets for book signings. Where are you located? I can check her schedule and see if she's going to be attending a signing at a store near where you are."

Bill told her. "You're in luck! Mary will be signing books close to where you are...tomorrow afternoon from one to three. Let me give you the name and address of the store."

Bill knew where the store was; it was a major national book chain. It was located five minutes from his office and barely fifteen from his home. He checked his calendar, rescheduled one small meeting and blocked out the time.

Mary Lantine was not yet a best selling author so folks were not lined up in front of the small table next to the coffee shop at the book store. Bill grabbed a new copy of her novel and approached her; she turned and smiled. His heart stopped for an instant; his breath caught in his throat. It was the sea green eyes...a smile at first and then a look of confusion.

"Elaine?"

"Yes?" Not yet full recognition...uncertainty.

"You probably don't remember me, we went to..."

"Bill?"

"Bill."

"I remember you Bill...I remember you very well."

"Mary Lantine?"

"An anagram of my...maiden name: Elaine Martin."

"Your maiden name...of course. I always assumed that you and Russ..."

"We did right after I graduated; we moved back home...we were married for ten years...no children. Divorced six years...a very long story which I don't enjoy telling. Russ has since passed on."

"I'm very sorry."

"A product of genetics and his chosen lifestyle." Mary intoned with just a hint of sorrow and a tinge of bitterness. "How about you?"

"I was married...no children...divorced about the same length of time."

"The last time I remember talking to you was..."

"At the Hut...we sat together and talked for an hour or so."

"I remember it as if it was yesterday. You live near here?"

"My office is five minutes away and my home fifteen."

"How long are you in town for, Elaine?"

"I have another signing a couple of hundred miles from here tomorrow evening. I was going to hit the road---or at least head for the airport--- as soon as I'm done here at three..."

"Don't. Stay over...we could have dinner...catch up."

"I don't have a place to stay and expenses are pretty tight."

"I have more room than I know what to do with; you're welcome to stay at my house---you can even have your own floor...unless you'd be uncomfortable. Do you have a car?"

"The book store picked me up at the airport."

"I need to get back to work and clear my schedule. I'll come back and pick you up at three o'clock sharp."

"Okay. I'll be here."

"Great!"

"Would you like me to sign your book...I hope you enjoy it...I..."

"I've already read it...several times. My boss lent me his copy. Why don't you sign it while I'm gone...as Elaine Martin, not Mary Lantine? I'll pay for it when I come back. Actually, I'm going to buy two. Here's my boss's name---he loves your work. If you could sign that one now, I'll take it back with me and give it to him."

"You got it!"

Bill was walking on air ten minutes later when he walked back into his office. Mike Kearing was unencumbered; Bill walked up to him and wordlessly handed him the book.

"Wow! I had no idea she was in town---and you got it signed! 'Take good care of my special friend Bill and thank you for your support.' You know this lady?"

"It's a very small world, Mike." Bill said, briefly bringing the CEO up to speed. "As a matter of fact I'm going to juggle my schedule this afternoon and go meet her when she's done at the signing. "

"Did you and she have something back in high school?"

"Yes and no?" And again Bill gave his boss a brief synopsis of the hour he and Elaine had spent together so many years ago.

"Anything I can help you with as far as your calendar for the rest of the day? Hell it is Friday."

You and I were scheduled at 3:30 PM---update on the proposed 'take down' of the facility in Jersey. Since I retired from grave digging we really don't have a resident funeral director. I'm thinking we may need to set up a duty roster---like a military notification of next of kin detail roster--- for this kind of stuff. I put together a training manual---lessons learned. It's nasty work but it's educational and enlightening. It might just be a good thing for our up and coming managers to go through the experience at least once. I'm thinking of sending young Roger out there to handle it. He's adapted remarkably well in Dallas and Mike knows that business well enough to keep an eye on things in his absence. What do you think?"

"I like it---like it a lot! That work taught me to care about people...grounded me...humbled me...honed my sense of compassion---and toughness. I look back on it kind of the same way I look back on that Asian cluster-fuck you and I were both involved in. I hated parts of it but I'm a better man for it. Go with it! He'll need a team---share the 'wealth' with your peers so he has the best people possible. And that would appear to take care of our 3:30 PM meeting! Now get out of here."

As Elaine settled into the leather seat beside him for the short drive to his house Bill was in a very unnerved state with which he had little experience. He was flustered. He thought he should make small talk. He wanted to say so much more. He snuck a glance at her...her skirt has slid up and he could just glimpse a bit of thigh....stocking tops. Her scent crept into his consciousness. His cock stirred; the confinement was uncomfortable but the sense of arousal exhilarating. He wanted her as he had never wanted any woman in his life. He wanted her body...every nook and crevice...he wanted her heart. He wanted to profess his undying love to her...tell her those words that he had thought about for so many years. Where to begin? She wasn't really helping; she was silent. What was she thinking? Did she have feelings for him?

He opened her door for her...another even more alluring glimpse of thigh. She was standing very close to him...well inside his personal space. As if a giant hand had pushed them together they were in each others arms...their lips pressed together...probing...testing...their bodies connected...their collective heat building...their hands roamed...they whimpered...the die was cast. They somehow made it inside the house; a brief interlude to settle the pups who were displeased to be left outside but accepted their fate. Clothing fell as they moved toward the first floor bedroom.

Twenty-two years of wondering, wishing and imagining left little room for preliminaries. She wanted him inside her; he quickly obliged. They were in that instant a single entity connected by every fiber of their being. They wept...sobbed...they giggled almost uncontrollably. They grinned likes little children on Christmas morning. Each heart reached out for the other latched on and vowed never to let go as long as they remained beating. All sense of caution, fear, uncertainty and insecurity vanished. They each said the three special words over and over with no inhibition or fear of failure. In the bliss of post-coital tenderness they held on to each other almost desperately, praying that what had just happened was more than a dream. Elaine spoke first.

"I was a virgin that evening you sat down with me at the Hut. You could have had me that night, Bill...I wanted you like no boy or man I had ever met...ever have met. I knew it wasn't to be. You were off to find your fortune; I was, from the female perspective, terribly insecure and unsure of myself. I didn't really understand back then why boys didn't flirt with me...ask me out. You wanted me that night---didn't you Bill?"

"Like no woman before or since. I was eighteen and stupid; you were Russ's girl. I had no intention of ever coming back there to live. Later I even wrote out the speech I wish I'd delivered."

"Do you still have that speech?"

"Not on paper but it's engraved on my mind and my heart. Give me some time and I'll get the courage up to deliver the words I should have delivered twenty-two years ago."

"Russ was always a lot of fun. He made me laugh. He was the first boy who paid any attention to me. He never really tried to get in my pants. I found out years later---after we were married---that my pants weren't the kind he preferred to get into. I went back and taught school and tried to write. Russ couldn't produce the required product for children...not that our love life was particular frequent nor exciting.

"My parents ended up buying us a house on the same street as theirs. I woke up one day and figured it out. I filed for divorce; Russ didn't fight it...signed the papers without reading them. The town was aghast. Everyone loved Russ...what was Elaine's problem? I never went public about his indiscretions---but Christ, it's a small town, people had to know. I moved about fifty miles away; I've since moved three more times---a little farther away each time. I don't care for where I am now...don't know where I belong."

"You belong with me, Elaine now and forever. You always did; life just got in the way and delayed it a few years. College didn't turn out the way I planned the first time through. The military and the war were an unplanned interruption. My marriage? Two lonely people who didn't belong together---couldn't grow together. I've spent the last decade of my corporate career doing shitty work, traveling constantly, relocating every few months. I always thought about you; I figured you and Russ had gotten married and were living happily ever after---at least that was the impression I got when an old friend from up there looked me up a number of years back and I asked about you."

"Small world, Bill."

"I used to buy that answer but it's all too strange to be coincidence or accidental. A man I had just met---my current boss---handed me a book one night after we had shared a couple of bottles of wine together. He shared your book because I had told him that I too enjoyed writing, stuff not that far removed from what you write. I'd never told anyone that I knew what I enjoyed writing. I was as captivated by your words as he was.

"Yesterday, I happened to see the book in my brief case; it's been a busy few months but I had a free moment so I called your publisher---the day before you were going to be here? Sorry, call it serendipity, fate or design but you are right this minute where you've always belonged...in my arms and you are not getting away from me twice in this lifetime. Any questions?"

"Just one. Tell me what you wrote...what you wished you had said to be that night twenty-two years ago."

"Okay. I'll give you the short version slightly abridged only because we've already covered some of the events of the past twenty-two years...here goes:

"Elaine, your are the brightest, cutest most interesting girl---no, woman---I've ever met. You excite me at this instant like no one I've ever been with. Someday when I have my life together, I'm going to come find you. Hopefully you'll be available. If you are single, then I will ask you to marry me, you'll say yes of course and you and I will live happily ever after---together. And I will love you and make love to you like no man on this earth could ever do---totally, absolutely and completely---you and no other but you until I die. Any questions?"

"That's amazingly sweet, Bill. We hardly knew each other. Twenty-two years is a very long time. How can you be so sure twenty-two years after an improbably conversation that hardly lasted an hour?"

"Do you have any doubts?"

"Not fair! I asked first. Life has given me a pretty thick skin; I'm still a terribly grounded and practical girl."

"And I'm not prone to flights of fancy. I did fall in love with you that night. I also fell in love several months go with Mary Lantine---lucky me! Same girl! We connected that night; I never really understood it. I was always fascinated with you---all the way back to when you were in the seventh grade and I first met you. We bumped up against each other throughout high school; we were in a number of activities together---not always accidentally on my part. We grew up in the same little world. I wanted to ask you out...you dad scared the shit out of me. I worshipped you from afar but could never get the courage to tell you. By the time I finally did it was too late. You were always sweet, kind and caring. You were smart; you had a quick wit.

"Now as I'm lying here with your delightfully naked body pressed tightly against me---you always turned me on in your cheer leading outfit---I can't imagine having any other woman in my arms---ever. Plus---at least for me---and you know how guys are, making love with you was beyond anything I could have imagined."

"Actually it was far more an amazingly satisfying and terribly urgent fuck but you can take a shot at making love to me later. I still have that cheer leading outfit, Bill but I don't travel with it. It still fits; I did have to take out the seat a little." They were becoming playful.

"I love your seat---always did."

"I caught you checking out my tush on more than one occasion...I always figured you for an ass man."

His hand had strayed to the subject of their conversation. Wordlessly he rolled her on her back and moved his mouth down her body toward her special place, cupping her amazing rump in his strong hands. She came quickly, whimpering as the arousal built, gasping when the crescendo hit her. She pushed him on his back and allowed her full lips to trace the same route on his body that his had taken on hers. She teased with her lips and tongue...grinning...caressing his sack with her warm hands, tantalizing him agonizingly with her talented mouth. As she tired of the game and sensed that he could stand no more, she engulfed his hard prick and brought him to a screaming orgasm in a matter of seconds. Swallowing his salty load she nuzzled his crotch and hard stomach. He pulled her up and kissed her...probing...touching...caressing.

To her surprise and delight it took only a few minutes of hand work and Bill was again erect. Another quick trip inside her hot little mouth and the deed was done. Moving up on her knees she rolled her exquisite rump inches from his face, reaching back with her fingers, and inserting them inside her steamy slot, encouraging him...spurring him on...showing him what she wanted...needed. He mounted her and made her his again in a single deep thrust, laying claim to her perfect body...asserting his possession of it.