The ride to Sally’s office didn’t take long. Her company resides in a flat two-story building along one of the main roads out of the city. I found an employee waiting for me at the front door when I walked. An older lady with heavy thighs bulging against her dress held out her hand with a limp wrist handshake.
“Mr. Dagger, I’m Tonya, Mrs. Vaugh’s editor. It’s a pleasure to meet such a local celebrity. My boss asked me to escort you around if you arrived early.”
I smiled politely while sensing a wary vibe coming from this woman wearing a load of makeup and a colorful turban around her head. She walked me through a series of doors to the back of the building. As she regaled me with the history of the company, I discovered a large factory-like room where a large printing press noisily ran. Employees stacked and bundled a line of books coming out of the machines.
“Since we’re a small publishing house, we produce limited runs of our author’s novels,” she explained over the din.
After a quick trip through the small warehouse, we took a back stairway to the second floor. The sounds of the machinery faded to nothing as we entered a conference room. Sally sat at the head of the long table that took up most of the room.
“Hello, Lane. I’m so glad you could come over,” she said while coming to greet him.
Sally shook his hand, then gave me an unexpected hug with one arm while Tonya exited the room.
“Well, that’s some greeting,” I said. “You have an interesting company. I guess you wanted to talk about your business from the tour I received.”
She pointed to a seat while nodding.
“Yes, you own a substantial portion of this business, so I knew you needed to see what you purchased.”
As she sat next to me, I immediately noticed her cleavage, nicely defined by the white dress she wore.
“Well, there’s no hurry. I talked to Adele about it. She’s not in a rush. I mean, you’ve got plenty on your plate still.” My eyes avoided hers. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t go to Joe’s funeral.”
Sally wrapped her arm around mine and laid her head on my shoulder.
“You had enough problems just staying alive. You don’t need to apologize. I’ve said my goodbyes and I’m at peace.” She lifted her head and gave a weak smile.
“Like you told me, keep.”
I avoided rolling my eyes at that statement.
Like I’m the one to give advice!
“Thank you. I’m seriously happy that you’re doing better.”
My eyes kept glancing at her smooth, lightly freckled skin leading down to her breasts. The woman’s closeness made me nervous and excited.
“So, what are we doing for lunch?” My question came to divert me from an interesting fantasy coming to mind.
“Oh, I’ve got an idea,” she said playfully, then rose from the chair. “But first I need to give you this.”
Sally went to the other end of the table and picked up a folder. She brought it back and her blue eyes appeared to light up as she spoke.
“This just needs your signature. It gives you forty percent of the company and lays out the terms of the loan repayment. I had our lawyer draw it up. You mentioned it was Adele’s money, so she’ll need to sign as well. That is, if the terms are agreeable to both of you. We can have the company pay back the money with interest if that’s something you prefer.”
I took the folder and glanced at it. Of course, I’m pretty clueless to how this will work, so my plan is to get Adele involved. Like Sally said, it is my wife’s money.
“I’m hungry. Let’s get lunch,” I replied with a grin.
Sally smiled, then led me out of the conference room.
