Brittany Buckles

Jack stopped for a moment and put his hand on the hood of his old truck, as if he were saying goodbye.

While I had him sign his name a few dozen times, I noticed him looking around. Not seeing what he was looking for, he turned to me.

"Where's my original salesman? I want to make sure he sees me driving away in the new truck he thought I couldn't afford."

"Um, I fired him after the way he treated you."

I don't think he would have been more shocked if I had professed my dirty thoughts about him.

"Seriously?"

"Yes, it was the right thing to do. I really shouldn't share company business, but I told you I wouldn't lie to you."

He looked at me with those dark brown eyes, his expression turned curious like he was reassessing me.

"I must say, Brittany, once again you have surprised me. You're quite a woman."

With those words I became a shy stuttering school girl.

"Um, thanks. I, um, I just want all my customers to be completely satisfied no matter who they are."

There, did I manage not to make myself look as nervous as I felt?

He looked at me with a warm but incredibly sexy smile.

"I think you will completely satisfy me."

I felt myself blush horribly, I was sure it was very obvious. Was he flirting with me, or just giving me a professional compliment?

We wrapped up the paperwork and I led him to his new truck. I went over all the bells and whistles, taking my time, not wanting him to go. I asked him if he would mind a few pictures for our social media pages.

Thankfully he agreed. Normally I would just snap a couple pictures and be done. Today I took a few pictures of him and his truck, and then had one of the salesmen take a few pictures of us, me handing him the keys and shaking his hand. I found myself holding on a little longer than necessary, and he caught me smiling as I looked up into those eyes. What was it about his eyes that drew me in so badly?

After he left, I went through the pictures I had taken earlier. I found one of him standing in front of the truck, wearing a big smile with his brown eyes dancing with enthusiasm. I posted it to our social media pages with the following caption.

"I am very sad to inform everyone the beautiful F250 Limited everyone has been drooling over has finally been sold. Thanks to another happy Buckles customer."

Chapter 2

Jack

I was a happy man driving home in my new truck. But what I couldn't get out of my mind was the enigma named Brittany Buckles. I could smell bullshit a mile away, so I could tell she was truly genuine.

Very few women like her would give me two seconds of their time, and yet she went out of her way to be friendly to me. I know it had to be my imagination, but it almost seemed like I flustered her and she was flirting with me.

She was the type of woman any man would dream of. She has the beauty to make Marilyn Monroe jealous, blonde hair, bright blue eyes and an amazing smile. She also had a body that belongs on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

Her physical looks weren't the most impressive traits about her though. She was tenacious in hunting me down after I stormed out of there, and then she had the nerve to look me in the eyes and not lie to me. The biggest shock was that she had the backbone to fire her good ole boy salesman, a large intimidating guy who had to be twice her age.

I shook it off and decided she was just trying to salvage a sale and keep a new customer happy. After all, why would a woman like her ever be interested in a guy like me?

Once I arrived home, I put the new Betsy in the garage and prepared myself for a few hours of yard work. To many people it was a chore, but to me it was a relaxing way to channel my energy. Even though I rarely had visitors, I was proud of the landscape I had created over the years. Tending to the roses always made me think of my mom, they were always her favorite.

Brittany

Jack Costello has turned my life upside down, and he doesn't even know it.

My evening ended the same way the previous one had, except now I had a picture to look at while I pleasured myself. The weekend flew by, and I was proud our sales were through the roof. My personal opinion is when Earl left, it was like a breath of fresh air for the rest of the staff. It gave me more ammunition when my brother came back on Monday.

Sunday came and I was lost. Since it is the only day the dealership is closed, it's the day I get caught up on my sleep, and my chores done, laundry, shopping, etc. I worked out twice trying to take my mind off Jack, to no avail. The only thing that brought me momentary peace was a self induced orgasm while looking at his picture.

Monday morning, I steeled myself for a showdown with my brother. I still wasn't sure where my newfound will came from, but I was starting to like it. Every Monday morning, we had a management meeting. I wondered if I would be summoned to his office before or after.

I didn't have long to wonder as my secretary told me I was to report to my brother's office immediately.

John was older than me by four years, and we were never close growing up. He was very much like my father and grandfather, all business and believed women were subservient to them. I knew before stepping foot in his office he was going to instruct me to hire him back.

"Hello John, how was Scotland?"

"It was great until I found out you fired our most tenured employee. Care to explain?"

"I'm the assistant general manager. Do I need to explain myself for every decision I make?"

"Not usually, but in this case why don't you enlighten me."

"Earl has been pushing the envelope, thinking he's untouchable. He pushed too far this time."

"You need to hire him back."

"No."

The look on my brother's face was priceless. He just sat there for several seconds with his mouth hanging open.

"No?"

"No. If I do, it will totally undermine my authority."

"Then you should have thought about the consequences before you made a decision like this on your own. Call him and hire him back."

"If I do, three things will become inevitable, and you won't like any of them."

"Those are?"

"First, you will lose your coveted President's Award for customer service. He has been rude to any customer who doesn't fit his stereotype, and it has gotten unbearable. You barely received it last year, you wont get lucky again. No presidents award means you won't get a GT40 to sell every year. What do we make on each of those again?"

I could tell by the look on his face it was a concern he already had.

"The next reason?"

"You will be facing a sexual harassment lawsuit as soon as he gets back. Since I fired him, I have had many of our female employees thank me. It sounds like he has been making condescending sexual comments to many of them."

He took his glasses off and leaned forward in his chair, finally paying attention to what I was really saying. I am sure he was too high above the grapevine to really know what was going on in the trenches at his dealership.

"And lastly?"

"You will have to find yourself another assistant general manager. The minute he walks back into the door, I will walk out forever."

Now he was shocked, but he didn't believe me.

"Bullshit."

"I'm not kidding. Did you not see the sales numbers after he was fired? Do you think it's a coincidence they are way up?"

"You would walk away from the family?"

"Well, if my own brother doesn't have my back over a shitty salesman, what kind of family is it?"

The realization of what I was saying was evident by his guilty look. It was a kick in the stomach to him as the look of understanding spread across his face.

"Well done, Brittany, you are becoming quite the executive."

I left his office with my head held high. I stood up to my brother, making the dealership a better place to shop and work, and while keeping my cool.

The rest of my day was a whirlwind of activity as always. Mondays were one of the busiest days for the lot, closing deals and following up on sales leads from the previous week. After a long hard day, I returned to my apartment and suddenly felt alone. I didn't have many friends, and my family was more like business associates. My own mother felt more like my boss than family.

I curled up on the sofa and proceeded to drink most of a bottle of wine while staring at the picture of Jack. Why was this guy in my head so badly? I wanted to text him, but what would I say?

Hey Jack, how is the new truck?

Can I see you naked?

I started laughing at myself wondering what his reaction would be. I started and erased a dozen texts before shutting off the phone and curling up on the couch to go to sleep. I didn't even bother getting up and going to the bedroom. I had almost dozed off when it hit me. Tomorrow I would make a follow up visit to make sure he was satisfied.

Chapter 3

Jack

I watched with satisfaction as the freight truck pulled away. I had worked hard through the weekend to get this order finished, crated, and shipped.

Ten refurbished portable x-ray machines were heading to two hospitals in Mexico. Outdated by American hospital standards, they were still widely used in smaller hospitals all over Central America.

The machines were one of my most popular and profitable pieces of equipment I sold, and now I was ready to relax for the rest of the day. I took a nice hot shower and hopped in my truck to do a little grocery shopping.

Like yard work, cooking is a way for me to relax. Many people detest the thought of having to cook, but give me a little music and time in my kitchen and I am a happy guy. I had no agenda for the rest of the day so I decided to spend it making a good dinner and relaxing for the rest of the night.

I opened a bottle of wine and put on some Brothers Osborne. I mixed up a loaf of bread and left it to rise while I whipped up some dill butter spread. I was just getting ready to start making the pasta when the driveway alarm chirped. Since it was almost five, I ignored it expecting it to be UPS with a delivery.

When the doorbell rang, I quickly dried my hands and hurried to the door, actually excited instead of annoyed for once. I knew it was probably the delivery guy, but the thought it may be Brittany popped into my head just the same.

I opened the door, and to my surprise there she was, looking amazing but slightly nervous. For the first time I saw her with her hair down. She had it brought over the front of her shoulder leaving one side of her neck exposed. Her shirt was unbuttoned just enough to show a hint of cleavage. She shyly bit the bottom of her lip and I knew something was up.

"Hey Jack."

Brittany

I was up early, excited and nervous for what I planned today. I put a little extra effort into my morning workout and carefully prepared myself for work. It is hard to look sexy and appealing yet stay professional. I decided to wear a black skirt with a white blouse I could unbutton a little after I left the dealership.

Tuesdays were the slowest day of the week for us, which just made time drag even more. A little after four I had enough boredom, I informed our sales manager I was taking the rest of the afternoon off. My brother just spent a week in Scotland golfing with the other male members of the family while I ran the dealership. He better not complain to me about ditching early for once.

I stopped at my apartment to make sure I looked great before driving to Jack's acreage.

Once again I appreciated how peaceful and serene his acreage is. I walked up to the front door, hesitated, took a deep breath and nervously rang the doorbell. This time I didn't have to wait nearly as long before he answered. I was slightly disappointed when he didn't answer in only a towel again.

"Hey Jack."

"Brittany. Hi, how are you?"

"I'm great, how about you?"

"Good, although I'm surprised to see you. What's up?"

"I just wanted to stop by and see if you're happy with your new truck."

I could tell by the look in his eyes he knew I was lying. I started getting nervous wondering what the hell I was doing.

"Yes, I love it, but you could've just called. What made you drive all the way out here?"

I swallowed hard and decided to go for it.

"This may be very unprofessional, and you can tell me to leave if you want, but I was wondering if you would be interested in having a drink with me?"

By the look on his face, this was the last thing he expected me to say. When he didn't answer right away, I started to panic and backed up.

"I'm sorry, this was dumb of me."

"No wait, I was just cooking dinner and enjoying a bottle of wine. Would you be interested in joining me?"

I broke into a wide smile relieved I hadn't crashed and burned yet.

"I would love to."

He led me into the kitchen, ingredients were spread out all over his countertop.

He turned down the music, picked up a glass and showed me a half empty bottle of Stella Red.

"Stella ok, or would you like me to open something different?"

"Stella would be great thanks."

Suddenly I was nervous again. I hadn't thought about what would happen if I made it this far. Luckily, he saw the look on my face and came to my rescue.

"Would you like to help cook, or just watch?"

"My cooking expertise is limited to what I can heat up in the oven or a microwave, but I am willing to give it a shot if you tell me what to do."

He had a small pile of flour on the counter, to which he added another cup. He cracked some eggs in a bowl and handed me a fork. He poured part of the egg mixture into the middle of the flour.

"You start mixing while I pour it in, when it gets thick, switch to your hands and start kneading it like play-doh."

I was enthralled, having never done anything like this before. He added a splash of olive oil and a dash of salt. I started kneading it until it was a beautiful golden color.

"Ok now form it into a ball."

He laid out a small sheet of cellophane for me to lay the ball on. He rolled it up tightly and sat it to the side.

"There, while it rests, we'll make the alfredo sauce."

"It has to rest?"

"Yeah, if you try to roll it now you will have a sticky mess. In thirty minutes, it will roll out smooth as silk."

"Ok chef, what do I do next?"

He put a silver saucepan on the stove, turned on the heat and added more olive oil.

"Chop up these heads of garlic as small as you can and add it to the pan."

I was intently cutting and didn't notice he was just standing there watching me with a smile on his face.

"Is this like when Tom Sawyer tricked his friends into painting the fence?"

"No, I had to stop and watch, you have such an intense look on your face."

He turned the heat down low and handed me a spatula, while pouring in the heavy cream.

"Just stir it nice and gently. Would you prefer chicken or shrimp with your alfredo?"

"Oh, shrimp for sure!"

"Shrimp Alfredo coming up."

A timer went off and he removed a loaf of bread from the oven and set it on a rack to cool.

"My god it smells so good."

"Wait until you taste it!"

He brought out a big pot he filled with water and another frying pan went on the stove for the shrimp.

"Holy cow, who's doing all these dishes?"

"Don't worry, if you cook, I'll clean."

Soon the kitchen smelled amazing. I was totally at ease, having the time of my life. I was so intent on cooking I forgot I should be nervous. We chatted about trivial things and drank wine while we cooked together.

He showed me how to roll out the dough into a thin sheet we cut into noodles. While I was cutting the pasta, he added cream cheese, parmesan cheese and lastly some freshly chopped basil from his garden to the alfredo sauce.

"Remember, whenever you are cooking pasta, salt your water. It should always be saltier than the ocean."

"Really? I never knew. I make a mean mac and cheese out of the box and will have to remember to salt it next time."

Jack moved with such grace, there were no wasted movements. He sliced the bread, sauteed the shrimp and cooked the noodles while I just stirred the sauce, there was food everywhere.

Suddenly I had a bad feeling with all this food, I may be interrupting his plans.

"I'm not intruding on anything, am I?"

He looked at me with a look of surprise.

"Of course not. Why?"

"Do you usually make all this food for just yourself?"

He looked at me with those dancing brown eyes and laughed.

"I usually make a big meal every two or three days, then I have plenty of leftovers. Sometimes I have long days in the workshop and don't have time to cook. When I am caught up and have time, I cook, it relaxes me."

Somehow everything came together at the same exact time. The freshly cooked shrimp scampi lay on a bed of fresh noodles and alfredo sauce. He led me to the dining room table where he laid out a plate of steaming hot bread and a small bowl of green butter.

"What's this?"

"It's butter with dill and seasoning salt mixed in, delicious with fresh bread."

"We killed this bottle of wine already. A Stella Rose will taste great with this, sound good?"

"You had me at Stella. I don't care what comes after."

I was so at ease, I didn't pay attention to how much I was eating. Looking at my empty plate I realized I had eaten two huge pieces of bread along with an entire plate of pasta and shrimp.

"My god, you must think I'm a pig eating all of this."

"Nah, I just see a woman who is eating good food for once in her life. Would you like to take some for your lunch tomorrow?"

"I should be polite and say no, but this is too good to pass up."

He looked at me with a warm smile.

"Honestly, that's the biggest compliment you could give our cooking."

"Don't give me any of the credit. I just stirred the sauce."

"It was a joint effort, each of us added something to make it better."

"Well, the least I could do is help you with the dishes."

"I will never turn down help with dishes."

Where did this domestic side of me come from? Cooking, volunteering to help with dishes? Doing dishes at my house usually consisted of throwing the take out containers in the garbage and putting a few things in the dishwasher.

I was drying a few of the pans while looking out his kitchen window, admiring his view.

"Your yard is fabulous. Can we take a walk when we're done?"

"I would love to."

We finished the dishes and he held up the bottle of wine.

"Looks like there are two glasses left. Shall we kill this one off too?"

"Yes, but then I'm done. I still need to drive home at some point."

I thought to myself, please say I can just stay the night.

As we walked around his yard, I admired all his different flower beds full of roses.

"Your roses are amazing. You do all this yourself?"

"Yeah, I enjoy it. My mother loved roses, and when she died six years ago, I decided to keep her memory alive by growing them."

"That's so beautiful."

"Would you like a bouquet to take home?"

"Really, you'll give me some?"

"Of course, they are meant to be enjoyed and shared. Point out the colors you like and we'll cut them as we go."

"Do you have any white ones?"

"No, that's one color I don't have."

"For years, I've had a fantasy of getting twenty-one white roses on my birthday."

"When's your birthday?"

"September 18th."

"Oh, less than a couple months away. Hopefully you will get them this year."

"I'd be amazed if I did."

"So I know it's rude for a guy to ask a woman this, but how old are you?"

"I will be twenty-seven this year, and since I shared, how about you?"

"I turned twenty-nine last month."

We walked around the yard. Every time we came to a new bed of roses, he asked me if I liked them and would cut one or two. Soon his free arm was full of roses.