Evil Woman

"How soon can you be in Brazil?" She asked.

I was shocked! I get to go back!? I fumbled over my words, fortunately she was not listening that hard to my confused reply.

"Tell you what," she said, "I'll get with corporate travel and try to book something with you, let's say," she added, "how about leaving on the 17th. I'll get back to you with the details. Look for my email." She told me, and then she was gone.

Wow. Not only did they accept my idea, but I was going back to help implement the program.

Later that week I received a dossier of my travel to Brazil. I would be traveling with someone from our forest science department who would explain the planting techniques to the Tikuna.

Meanwhile I emailed Mafii. Two weeks later I heard back from him and he welcomed the visit. The Friday before I was to go I finally heard from Jack Valentine.

"Kevin," Jack began, "I hear you're going back to South America. Congratulations on your idea. Good thinking son." He took a deep breath and continued. "Kevin, once you return I want you to fly up to corporate. I have some ideas on your future to discuss."

"Thank you sir, uh Jack," I replied. "I'd like that."

And with that it felt like my career was most definitely moving in the right direction.

The trip to Brazil went well. I traveled with Jerry Matthews, the forest science expert. A nice guy, fairly quiet, and if we weren't talking about trees, kind of boring. We met once again at the same Tikuna village as the first time I had been there. Mafii greeted me like we were old friends with a warm embrace.

That night between Jerry and I we explained what we proposed for the tree planting and the compensation. It took a while to get our point across. And then a group of Tikuna, including Mafii, discussed what I assumed was our proposal in their native language.

After a long discussion Mafii turned to me with his big smile, grabbed my hand and shook it just once.

"Kebin," Mafii told me, "we have deal."

The rest of the trip was just working on details and techniques. There was a lot to go over.

"Kevin," Jerry said to me on our next to last day, "I nearly forgot but I was instructed to get some pictures with you and the Tikuna in the rainforest. Not sure why."

Huh, I thought? So the next day we took some pictures. That night at the large dining table once again I sat with Mafii. After dinner I asked if we could visit the orphans again. With a big smile he agreed.

We walked the trail through the brush and suddenly, I heard it before I saw anything, it was like music, the most beautiful sound. I heard the laughter through the leaves and I knew we were near the orphanage.

Mafii and I stood and I nearly became emotional watching the children laughing and playing. It made me question a lot of my own values. These children had next to nothing, not even parents, but their happiness and joy for life was so strong.

It was a successful trip and all too soon Jerry and I were heading back. I felt proud of the success of the mission and I felt like the success could help me in my career at Van Duzen. But beyond that I was glad that some of my ideas may affect the lives of others. The lives of the Tikuna.

I was back in the office only two days when I was informed that I was supposed to be at corporate by Thursday night. I had a scheduled dinner with Jack Valentine and Charlie Flanagan. Corporate travel had handled all the travel arrangements and I was emailed the itinerary. Dinner Thursday, meeting at the branch Friday morning, flight out Friday evening.

We met at a water front restaurant called Willapa Bay. It was almost like a cross between a job interview and a sales call. With them trying to sell me. They, mostly Jack, alternated between telling me all the great trajectories my career may take, and then asking me how I would handle various business scenarios.

Occasionally Malarkey would chime in with a question or a comment. It seemed like his questions were all designed to make me look slightly bad to Jack. My original sense of not quite likening the guy was reinforced. Furthermore he was a slob. I saw small flecks of the food he was shoveling down stuck in the edges of his untrimmed mustache.

The dinner ended, mostly positively and the following day we met at the corporate branch at Crescent Creek.

The office at Crescent Creek was modern and nearly twice as large as my Orange County office. The conference room was all glass and much larger than the one in my office. There was a lot more activity too. The phones were ringing, I heard many voices behind cubicle walls talking about products, shipments, and sales. It was an exciting environment.

The young attractive receptionist led me to the conference room. There I met Janet Haines, who introduced herself as the HR Specialist. I noticed she had a file folder on the table in front of her. About ten minutes later Jack and Charlie showed up.

"Kevin," Jack began with a warm sincere smile on his face, "we want you here. There is a product manager's position open here at our flagship corporate branch. The job here is different from what you are doing in California. The business is nearly three times as large here. The pace is a lot faster here also. Further, you will be asked to be more a part of the sales team and meet with clients."

"That all sounds great Jack," I said, "is there an offer?" I asked.

"Janet has all the details," Charlie chimed in.

"You will work with the branch," Jack began, "but Charlie will be your manager over import products."

We discussed a few more details and Janet gave me the offer, I was surprised. It was almost double my current salary. I spent some time with Janet filling out paperwork and she showed me around introducing me to various people. At 11 AM Jack drove me to the airport.

"Son," he said, "if there is one piece of advice I can give you, it's this. Buy real estate, anything you can. This market is going to explode, in fact it's already starting to. I promise" he added, "you will be glad you did."

Quickly we were at the airport. With handshakes and congratulations I was off to untangle my life in California, and begin the next chapter with Van Duzen Forest Products.

The next three months were a whirlwind. Even before I left Orange County I had taken Jack's advice to heart and contacted a real estate agent in Crescent Creek.

They had a going away party for me in Orange County. Julia even showed up. At one point she asked if I could escort her home. I was seriously tempted, but in the end, I was done playing that game. I declined with promises to contact her next time I'm in town. I knew I wouldn't.

Shortly after arriving I bought a house in Wildwood, not far from where I went to high school at Saint Thomas. It was a fifteen minute commute to my new office, even with traffic. Not bad.

The house had two bedrooms with one bath and an unfinished, dry basement. Structurally it was fine, just a lot of updating, and the yard was way overgrown. It was at the closing that I was met with a big surprise. The listing agent was none other that Melinda Manning. The dream girl from high school!

At first I don't think she recognized me. I kept staring at her, and finally it must have hit her.

"Kevin?" She began, "hey, we went to high school together, right? Do you remember me?"

"Hi Melinda." I said. "Of course I remember you." I told her.

And then we were talking. Comparing notes on different people from high school that we still knew about.

"Hey, after we're done here," she said, "let's get a soft drink or a cup of coffee." She said with a big smile.

I quickly agreed.

There was a Starbucks a block away. I noticed Melinda looked heavier than I recalled. Still wonderfully proportioned and a beautiful face, just heavier.

She noticed me looking.

"I'm three months along," she said to me.

Confused, I stopped, "you're what?" I asked.

"I'm due in March" she told me.

Suddenly through my dense skull I got it.

"You're pregnant!" I stated the obvious. "How did that happen?" I asked, still confused and surprised by her revelation.

She paused and looked at me with a slightly amused expression.

"If you recall from sixth grade health class," she began, a half smile on her face, "the male inserts his erect penis in the womens vagina and then fertilizes her egg with his sp... "

"I get it," I laughed, interrupting her.

We sat and chatted. She told me that she and Jon Pierre had married a few years out of high school. They already had one child together, Esme who was sixteen months old. It sounded like this first pregnancy was the major motivation for their marriage.

"After this one," she said, "I'm getting my tubes tied.

I was surprised by the intimacy of our conversation. In high school I rarely spoke to her, she seemed to be a caste above me. Now we were talking about specific details of her reproductive system.

She went on to tell me that when she first became pregnant with Esme, she took her real estate exam. She really liked selling real estate and had become successful fairly quickly.

"What does Jon Pierre do?" I asked.

I was fully expecting her to say he was a CEO, an investment banker, or was playing some type of professional sports.

"Right now," she began.

When anyone ever replies to a question like this and starts with the phrase, 'right now' that's not normally a very positive sign.

"He's selling cars at Cadee's" she said, not quite making eye contact with me as she said it.

Huh, I thought. The boy wonder from high school was finding the real world a bit more challenging, I thought. I said nothing

We chatted a bit more and said that she and her old gang from high school normally had a girls night out every few weeks. She told me Taylor sometimes came to these events. The same Taylor Pilkington I had a crush on throughout high school.

Finally it was time to leave. This time I got a full hug goodbye. Once again, I never even got near enough to Melinda in high school to get a handshake! Now I'm getting a hug?

"Tell Taylor hello for me next time you see her." I said to Melinda.

She didn't reply, but she did give me a particular look as we departed. A look I couldn't quite comprehend.

Over the next two years I would have to say my life was good. Professionally I was growing at my job. I was one of the youngest product managers in Van Duzen history. I was involved in the sales process to a larger degree too.

I met the head buyer at McClain's Lumber, Allen Church, and he and I hit it off, in fact we became personal friends. We bought a quarter interest in Mariner season tickets together and hung out regularly. This was particularly important since McClain's was our second largest account from the Crescent Creek branch. It was also great to do business with someone you genuinely liked.

One other thing professionally that got me a lot of notice. When Van Duzen presented their environmental 'Green' media campaign there was a photo of me and Mafii in the rainforest. I was pointing to something and Mafii was gazing in the same direction. The forest, the river and sunlight mixed to create a cool non-posed picture. Jerry Matthews had taken the photo when we had traveled to Brazil that one time together. Van Duzen spent a lot of money to present this environmental advertising campaign to the market. And my image always seemed to be front and center.

My idea and now my photo, so prevalent (I one time saw the picture on the side of a city bus) made me a minor celebrity at Van Duzen. This had to do something to help my career, I thought.

I also was enjoying my non-work life. I spent time with Allen and some of the other younger guys at VDFP. And I also hung out with a few women.

Ever since the whole deal with Julia I vowed to date casually. I made it clear fairly quickly with any women I hung out with that I was not interested in a long term, exclusive, relationship. There were a few hurt feelings along the way, but I had been honest up front.

And then it was me who had their feelings hurt.

I was seeing a young woman that worked at VDFP in the corporate office, not in my Crescent Creek branch office. Her name was Gilly, short for Gillian. She was cute, petite and blond. After the second time we hung out I gave her the whole, 'I'm not looking for a serious relationship' speech. I tried to make sure we had that conversation before we had sex. Just so there were no misunderstandings.

Gilly seemed to not be terribly phased by my proclamation and we kept hanging out together. In fact, before I knew it, I really started to like her. We had become sexually intimate and she was fun in bed. I began to think more and more about Gilly and found that I wanted to spend more time with her.

One Saturday morning I met up with Allen. We went for a run through Prospect Park. Our ritual was to grab a coffee and when the weather was nice and cool off at the outdoor cafe in the town square. This was a busy area with people out celebrating the weekend.

As we were sitting with our coffee this particular morning Allen nodded across the plaza.

"Hey, isn't that the chick you were with a couple of weeks ago?" He asked.

I glanced over and there was Gilly and some guy walking towards us holding hands. We were directly in their path and she hadn't seen me yet.

"Yes," I said to Allen, "I think it is."

Abruptly they were upon us, in fact I had to retract my legs or the guy may have tripped.

"Kevin!" Gilly said, surprised but not seemingly embarrassed. "Hi. This is Brock." She introduced us.

We had a fairly unawkward short conversation and then they walked off, hand in hand. As Gilly walked away she looked back, smiled, and wiggled her free fingers at me.

I was slightly stunned. I noticed both of their hair was wet, as if they'd just taken a shower. Had it been together? I could not possibly be unhappy with her. It was I who set the rules of our relationship/friendship.

Still for some reason I was bothered. I re-vowed to not get too serious with any of the women I hung out with.

And that worked for a while,

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

It was probably two years after I moved to Wildwood and once again it was another Mariners game and another Mariners loss. As was normal I was with Allen and we decided to stop at a popular bar not far from Safeco Field. We had decided to have one beer and call it a night.

The bar was called Bellflower and it was crowded and we grabbed the single empty seat at the bar. We carved out a little room to discuss the plight of the baseball team.

Shortly after we arrived I noticed a group of attractive women at a booth across from us. At first in the muted darkness I didn't recognize them. But there was a familiarity about the group. After a few moments I realized the blonde was Taylor Pilkington. And though I couldn't see her because her back was to us, I heard Melinda.

This must have been the girls night out Melinda had once mentioned to me.

I walked over.

"Can I buy you guys a drink?" I said as I approached them.

"No thanks," I heard Melinda say, not even turning to look my way. She might as well have said fuck off.

But then I guess Taylor recognized me.

"Kevin, Kevin Gerard!?" Taylor exclaimed.

"How are you guys doing?" I asked with a smile on my face.

At that Taylor stood up and hugged me. Flashing through my mind this was the most physically intimate we had ever been including our few dates in high school. I could feel her soft breasts as her hug mashed them into my chest.

Not to be outdone, now Melinda stood up, I got a similar hug and also a quick kiss, half on my cheek, half on my lip. Wow! I could tell she was a little buzzed, but still, this was Melinda Manning! I thought despite the Mariners loss this may end up being a good night.

Everyone crowded together and I grabbed a chair and introduced Allen to the group. Allen begged off claiming he had to be up early. And so it was Taylor, Melinda, two other girls I knew from high school, and me.

We sat and talked into the evening. I limited myself to just two beers, I had to drive, but the girls must have had other transportation plans. Words were becoming slurred.

I told them about my job at VDFP, and one of the girls recognized me.

"So, that's you in the jungle in those pictures?" She said.

She was familiar with the Van Duzen environmental message. I basked in my minor celebrity-hood.

I learned that Taylor had an on again off again boyfriend. currently they were on. Melinda now had two children ages three and a half, and two. She and Jon Pierre were no longer 'together'. She also told me her dad was sick with a neurological disease. Her mother took care of him full time. She helped out when she could, but she was a single mother of two with a full time job.

"These nights out," she slurred, "are my time to finally have some fun."

It seemed odd to think the most popular girl in high school now had an ordinary life with all the stresses and problems of normal people.

As the evening wound down I inquired how everyone was getting home. I felt fine, I had been drinking ice water for the last hour.

Both Taylor and Melinda lived closer to me and the other two lived the other way and seemed comfortable Uber-ing home. Melinda and Taylor accepted my offer of a ride.

On the route home Taylor was first and I dropped her off at her apartment. She thanked me and as I politely held her door open I got another hug from her. Too bad she was 'on again' with the boyfriend I thought.

Melinda lived in a rented condo not all that far from me. She was slumped in the passenger seat and as I pulled to the curb in front of her building she initially made no move to get out of my car.

"Uh, Melinda," I began, "you're home." I told her.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, she paused before she answered.

"I know," she said, "can we just sit here for a minute."

I got it, she wanted to delay the pressures of her life. Two small children, the stress of work, and her father's medical condition sounded like a large burden that she and her mother shared.

"You know," Melinda began, "you're a nice guy, Kevin Gerard." She said, now staring at me, half lidded, as if completely noticing me for the first time.

I was confused. In normal situations I'd probably be ready to make a move, but for some reason, with Melinda, I didn't.

I guess it really didn't matter because she made the move.

As she looked at me, she moved closer, wrapped both arms around me, and kissed me passionately full on the lips. The kiss lingered and her right palm was now firmly splayed across my left thigh. I was becoming aroused.

For a brief instance my deepest high school fantasy, I thought, may actually happen.

But then she pulled away, once again staring at me, eyes half open, straight in the eye. She looked at me for that moment, took a deep breath, shook her head, gave me one last peck on the lips and exited the car.

"Call me, Kevin Gerard," she said to me as she closed the door and turned to go up the walk.

I sat there in front of her condo watching her as she walked in. What just happened? 'Call Me' she had said? The best looking girl from high school wants me to call her? Was it just the alcohol I wondered? I guess I would soon find out.

The next day I did call Melinda. At first I thought I had made a mistake, she didn't sound all that happy to hear from me and there was some type of minor commotion happening in the background. Finally I asked if she'd like to have dinner next weekend.

"Yeah," she said, "let me see what I can arrange. I'll call you back." She told me without great enthusiasm.

And that was that. To be honest I really didn't expect to hear from her. And after no call back by Tuesday I was thinking there may not be any type of date with Melinda. But then, Wednesday night at about nine PM, she called.