Chemistry Ch. 02

We sampled a lot of wine and bought a few cases that they would ship to my apartment in LA.

The restaurant that I booked was a short walk from the cottage. We had a wonderful meal and started to talk about our future. I asked her if she would like to join me in LA once she had completed her MBA. She paused in thought long enough to get me worrying that I had misjudged our relationship. She was actually just looking for a bit of concern to creep onto my face when she smiled and said "Of course I will. I am really happy with us."

"Great, Also send me a copy of your non-compete clause so I can have a lawyer look at it. Maybe I can find somewhere close for you to work." And I gave her a wink.

We leaned toward each other and exchanged a long kiss.

The evening was a bit cooler that night, so when we got back to the cottage, I lit a fire in the firepit and we enjoyed more wine and roasted marshmallows. We talked about the two of us going to Wisconsin at some point so I could meet her parents.

We relaxed that night in the cottage. We drank some more wine, watched a bad movie, and then went to bed.

It was wonderful waking up with her in the morning. I kept my hands to myself, but during the night her shirt slid up and showed me her wonderful nipples. She must have noticed me moving around as she pushed me away and said with a big smile, "Don't get any ideas. No touching."

"Grrrr, well I guess a kiss will have to do." I pulled her in for a kiss.

Unfortunately, we had to pack and go back to reality. We took our time getting back to San Francisco and had a nice dinner before she dropped me off at the airport. She agreed to come down to LA the following weekend. She was going to need to do some work on her MBA though. As I watched her drive off, I thought to myself, "Not sure how long I can wait." I licked my lips tasting her lipstick and headed for my flight.

The next week was more working with the team figuring out the required equipment. Some wouldn't be available for another month. We started working on what we could.

Jennifer sent me her non-compete agreement. I reviewed it with Ted. The non-compete was very specific in that she couldn't do research for a competing chemical company for 6 months after leaving the company. However, it didn't say that she couldn't manage research projects. She just couldn't be directly involved in the research itself. I know it was a bit of a stretch, but it was enough for me to talk to Susan and George.

I met with them and proposed that we hire Jennifer as the Research Manager. Since Los A Chemicals wasn't big on research, we needed someone to head it up and take some pressure off of Susan. The manager would handle contracts, status, getting the required resources, etc. Once the non-compete expired, she could then get more hands-on. Her experience at Prentis would be valuable. They asked if I would be OK working for my girlfriend. I said that I was working for my mother and was having my future managed by my ex-fiancé, so this should be a piece of cake. I also discussed my plans for the future and after a quick discussion, they agreed, but they wanted to talk to her before we offered it to her. I suggested that we have dinner on Saturday night and they can grill her then.

=======

The weekend came and I met Jennifer at the airport and drove her to the apartment. I asked her how much MBA work she had and if she could free up Saturday. She said yes. If she worked tonight and Sunday before her flight back. I said that would work well.

When we got back to the apartment, she started to work away while I made dinner. I then cleaned up and did some work myself before we crashed for the night. She tried to get hints about Saturday, but I would only say that we had to be somewhere at 10 am.

At 10 we arrived at the first house. During the past week, I started a conversation with the real estate agent who found me the apartment about looking at houses. I was eventually going to need something more permanent.

Jennifer looked at me with a puzzled look on her face. I said, "I thought we could have some fun, thinking of a future together and looking at potential houses that we could live in."

She looked excited and almost knocked the real estate agent over on the way through the door of the first house. We had looked at 4 houses when we got to the 5th and last one of the day. I had seen all of these on paper but wanted this house to be last. I thought it looked like the best fit for us.

As we toured, the word "Wow" kept coming out of both of our mouths. The house had been fully renovated with a 3 car garage, massive kitchen, 4 bedrooms and 2 offices. One of the bedrooms was the master with a shower that could fit 5 or 6 people (I just needed it to fit 2) and a bathtub that could easily fit two people. When we went to the backyard, there was an amazing view, a swimming pool, and a hot tub. The look on her face told me that this was the one. I nodded to the real estate agent, and she started to put some paperwork together. I quickly sent a text. Jennifer's phone rang shortly after the text. Jennifer answered it.

"Susan, what can I do for you?" She asked. There was silence for a minute. She looked at me and said, "Can you give me a minute, Susan wants to talk to me about something." Jennifer then stepped into the backyard.

I had pre-arranged this with Susan. My birthday was next week and Susan was to keep Jennifer busy for a few minutes asking what I would like for my birthday, while I threw the offer letter together with the real estate agent. I wanted the buying of the house to be a surprise for a later date. The house was listed for 6 million, but she recommended a starting offer at 5.7 million as the house had been on the market for a few months. We got the paperwork done just in time for Jennifer to return.

I had to keep up the ruse, so asked, "What did Susan want?"

Jennifer paused for a minute trying to think of something and said, "Susan was making a dish tonight that she wanted to know if I had made it before and if I had any tips on making it."

I just nodded accepting the explanation. We wandered a few more minutes around the house and I said, "Just think, one day maybe will be buying one of these for our future family."

She gave me a hug and a kiss, "That sounds like a perfect dream."

We thanked the real estate agent. I also winked at her. We had already agreed to have a follow-up call on the offer on Monday.

We went back to my apartment and freshened up. At this point, Jennifer was in full teasing mode and started to change in front of me. I still wanted to wait for the special occasion I had in mind, but she was making it really tough for me to continue to hold on.

We arrived at Susan's place. George and Nancy were already there as well as Susan's kids Patricia and Frank, along with Patricia's fiancé Jose.

I introduced Jennifer to Frank, Patricia, and Jose and we chatted in the family room while Nathan and Susan put dinner on the table.

We chatted about various things during the meal. I got to learn about Frank's job teaching English in High School and Patricia's Chemical Engineering job. Jose works for an investment firm, so we discussed investments for a little while. For dessert, they brought out a birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday to me. This was my first birthday with my father's side of the family since I was 3. I cried and thanked them all.

After the cake, Susan and George asked Jennifer if they could have a chat. They went off to Susan's home office while the rest of us relaxed in the family room.

When they returned, Jennifer looked excited and both Susan and George gave me the thumbs up. We chatted some more and everyone said goodnight.

On the drive back to my apartment, Jennifer asked, "Did you know that they were going to offer me a job?"

"I might have known something about that", I said with an evil grin.

"Was that your idea?"

"I might have been involved." I replied.

She punched me in the shoulder, leaned over, and kissed me on the cheek. "This will mean that I will be your boss."

"Well, temporarily." I said.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, my original plan after graduating was to take a research position at a college and teach. Once we get this fuel into production, I am hoping to do that. Then my career will be separate from your career. You will do great things with or without me there."

She gave me another kiss on the cheek. "Thank you for your faith in me."

We crashed early so she could get up early to continue with her MBA work. Now, with the job offer, it was more important than ever that she complete that on schedule. While she worked, I did something exciting, laundry. I also made lunch and dinner for us. We had a nice make-out session on the couch and I dropped her off at the airport. Before she left I told her I would bring the written job offer with me when I came to San Fransico next weekend.

The week was relatively uneventful. Well, unless you talk about closing the deal to buy the house and getting Jennifer's job offer put together. Those were huge for me.

I had to bump up the offer on the house by 100k, but still got it under asking. The house passed inspection and I set the closing date for 4 weeks.

I wrote in the offer that I would be allowed 2 visits to the house and got in touch with Susan's interior designer. We were going to meet at the house for a walk-through.

=======

I flew into San Francisco on Friday night. Jennifer picked me up and we grabbed a quick bite to eat before settling in at her place for the weekend. She was in her last push to complete her MBA, so I gave her as much time as possible to get work done. After the next month, we would be in the same city, same company and same house (although she doesn't know it yet.)

Saturday for dinner was going to be stressful. Birthday dinner with my mother.

Jennifer came with me to the restaurant. I had told my mother that I was bringing a plus one as I figured that with Jennifer's job offer in hand and being so close to finishing her MBA, not much could go wrong if it got out that we were together. Mother was already there, and unexpectedly, so was Heather. She jumped up to give me a big hug but then saw that Jennifer was there with me. Let's just say the atmosphere got a bit icy. I squeezed Jennifer's hand to let her know that we were there together.

Jennifer said, "Hello Heather."

Heather icily replied, "I didn't know that you were dating."

I figured that I should step in. I only wanted to tell half-truths at this point. "Well, after I broke up with you and quit, Jennifer called me a couple of days later to see if I was OK. We got together and had a very nice talk. We had spent so many lunches and dinners together, you know because you were too busy, we thought we would see if there was something more between us and started to see each other. We don't know where it is going, but we thought we should try."

Heather looked upset and glanced at my mother. I had the feeling that maybe they were going to attempt to try and get us together tonight, but Jennifer's presence put a hitch in their plan.

My mother decided to speak up, "Well, Jennifer we are glad to see you here to help us celebrate Thomas's birthday."

We ate dinner. Heather and my mother tried to ignore Jennifer at this point and tried to grill me on what I had been doing for the last month. I just said that I was close to sorting out a place to do my research. A couple of times I squeezed Jennifer's leg under the table to make sure she knew I was still there and that she was in my thoughts while we were in this torture session.

They then made the play to bring me back in the fold telling me how well things were going with the fuel. Jennifer squeezed my leg at this point as she had let me know on Friday night that the issues I predicted with their fuel were starting to show.

After dinner and a cupcake with a candle, we said our good nights. As Jennifer and I walked over to her car, we could hear Heather and my mother arguing about Jennifer. Once we got into Jennifer's car. I said, "I know you weren't planning to hand in your resignation for another week, but if things get bad with Heather, you can trigger that early. If you need anything, money, moving out of San Francisco, etcetera, you know I have you covered."

Jennifer looked at me with a big smile and hugged me.

When we got back to her apartment, we were just settling in when her mother called. Her mother didn't want Jennifer to worry, but her father was sick and in hospital. He was OK and probably would be there for a few days. It was some kind of respiratory infection. Jennifer asked if she should come home. Her mother said no. They chit-chatted a bit more about her father's condition. Jennifer seemed less apprehensive when she got off the phone.

We talked about it. As we were ready to go to bed, I suggested, "Why don't we both take next Friday and the following Monday off and fly to your parents to visit? Based on what your mom said, he should be out of hospital by then."

Jennifer agreed that that would be a great idea. I added with a grin, "And besides, you then have an opportunity to show off your wonderful new boyfriend."

She laughed and said, "Who would that be?" and pushed me onto the bed and jumped on top of me showering me with kisses.

She dropped me off at the airport Sunday night. I had her signed offer letter safely with me, which I happily handed to Susan and George once I got into the office on Monday.

On Wednesday I met with the interior designer, Cheryl. She had gotten a copy of the floor plans from the recent renovations, so verified that the dimensions were correct, and she took lots of pictures. I wanted her to draw up a design that we would review with Jennifer. I wasn't stupid enough to start having painting done without Jennifer's input.

Jennifer and I both got Friday and Monday off, so booked our flights to visit her parents. Jennifer confided in me that her relationship with Heather in the office had gone cold. Heather only talked to her when she had to. We think Heather was relieved that Jennifer would be out of the office for a few days.

=======

On Thursday night Jennifer flew in from San Francisco and we had a flight scheduled first thing Friday morning to her hometown of Madison, Wisconsin.

Her dad was feeling better and was resting at home. Jennifers mother, Mali, met us at the door to her parents' house. Jennifer gave her mother a big hug. Her mother took a minute to size me up and said, "So, you are the guy that my daughter has been gushing about for the last few years. Welcome!." She gave me a big hug while I glanced at Jennifer who turned beat red.

"'Gushing' about me?" I said.

"Well, I might have mentioned you a couple of times to my parents.", Jennifer said with a smile.

Her father, Arthit, was resting in a lazy-boy chair watching TV. He made to get up to greet us and was summarily chastised by both Jennifer and her mother and told to stay sitting. He rolled his eyes at me and I gave a helpless shrug showing sympathy to him.

Jennifer hugged him and I shook his hand. He said he was so happy that Jennifer finally found someone that she was willing to bring home to meet them. We spent the day chatting. They told me their story of emigrating to the US and why they chose Madison. I told them about myself, my mother, and the family that I had rediscovered.

After dinner, he was getting tired, so he retired to bed. Mali said that he should be back to full strength in a few days, so we shouldn't worry. She then retreated to their bedroom after showing me the guest room. Jennifer shrugged. She had told me that her parents were fairly conservative and we would be sleeping apart. They knew they couldn't control what she did away from their house, but the ground rules were strict in their home. I had told her that it was a small sacrifice to make.

On Saturday, we hung around the house. Jennifer had some MBA work to do and I helped her mother with making lunch. That evening Jennifer arranged for us to go out with her friends from high school and university. They were already all married, so I had the feeling that I was in for a grilling.

There were 12 of us at the restaurant. Throughout dinner, her friends were sizing me up. I started to feel more well done than my steak. Jennifer would glance at me with a big smile on her face. She told me before dinner that she was happy to be "showing me off."

After dinner, we went to a dance club. She dragged me onto the dance floor where I made a fool of myself.

While she was on the dance floor with some of her friends, her best friend, Harper, sat beside me and told me that she had never seen Jennifer so happy, so I must be doing something right. However, warned me that if do something to hurt her, there are 10 of us here that will hunt you down.

I told her that only good friends look out that way for their friends. I asked her for her phone number so I could reach out to her if I needed any advice on Jennifer. We quickly exchanged numbers before Jennifer got back to the table. I guess Harper and I looked guilty because Jennifer asked us what we were talking about. I just replied that Harper was just telling me how much pain I would be in if I did anything to hurt her.

Jennifer laughed and then dragged both Harper and myself back onto the dance floor.

We were exhausted by the end of the night. We made out on the front deck of her parent's house before crashing, into our separate beds for the night.

Sunday was relaxing again. Arthit was feeling much better and was up and around doing chores. I was helping him out in the backyard when he decided that since it was the two of us, he decided to press me on our relationship.

"I hope you understand, but I worry about my only child." he said.

"I understand. Hopefully, I will be in the same position worrying about a child one day and hopefully, that child's mother will be Jennifer."

He gave me a big smile and hugged me. I figured that I didn't know when we would visit again, so I gave him a rough idea of my plans with his daughter. I swore him to secrecy and then told him about the house and if things progressed, if it was OK with him if I asked her to marry me.".

He slapped me on the back and said, "She has been talking about you constantly for the last year. That you were the perfect guy for her, but she was sad that you were engaged to someone else. I know that we have only just met you, but so far you seem to be matching up to the hype. You make my daughter very happy and I am sure that you two will be together for a long time. And if you decide, one day to pop the question, I would be happy to have you as a member of our family."

I thanked him and gave him a big hug. I then told him, "Well, I am hoping that when that time comes, you can be there in LA to see it."

We were smiling when we came back into the house. Jennifer looked at us suspiciously. "What are you to smiling about?"

I replied, "Arthit was just telling me about how much trouble you got into as a little girl. I told him that you still like to get into trouble." And I winked at her. She turned red and punched me in the arm.

We had to return home on Monday. Arthit and Mali gave us big hugs as we left. Her dad was mostly back to full strength and would be going back to work later in the week.

On the flight back we chatted about the visit, her parents, and her friends. She told me how much her parents liked me. Jennifer was so much more relaxed now that she had spent time with her father and that he was going to be fine.

Back at home, on Tuesday, I called Jennifer's best friend Harper. I asked her if she could keep a secret from Jennifer. She said that she could. I told her about the house and was wondering if I could put my interior designer in contact with her to see if she could help give suggestions for Jennifer's style. My experience with Jennifer's style was her apartment that has a card table for a dining room table, but that doesn't help. Harper was excited and said that she would be happy to help.