Jill and Richard's Delayed Wedding

It was a year after he stopped making his final fruitless trip to the five-star hotel bar on Sunday, and Richard had the commercial car driver deliver him late night from the airport to his apartment. He was exhausted and frustrated and thinking about who might replace his zone manager in Saratoga. When he got out of the car, he noticed a new sign at the entrance to the high-rise building where he lived that said, "Welcome to the newest Sunrise Properties addition." But real estate transactions happened every day thousands of times, and such would not immediately affect tenants, so Richard paid no particular attention. He opened his apartment door and started dictating a food order to a delivery service.

After he had finished the list of items and gave a credit card number, a hand reached around from behind him and grabbed his phone and said, "Operator, Please make that two orders instead of one." She then handed the instrument back to him smiling. He turned and looked squarely at Jill Parkman.

She put her finger to his lips and said, "If you are wondering why and how I am here, meet your new building manager. My Dad and Uncle's company bought this building while you were away, and I have every legal right to be here because I am your new superintendent. I dropped by tonight because two days ago your maid service person said you were due back today. I haven't moved into this building yet and took the liberty of taking a shower in your bathroom if you are wondering why I am wearing your housecoat."

Richard was speechless and collapsed onto his recliner chair, but never took his eyes off of Jill. He felt at once overwhelmingly glad to see her, yet hostile at the same time that she would stay out of his life and then suddenly return unannounced after dropping out for a year. He finally found his voice and said, "Whoever is doing your hair now is certainly well qualified to make you look lovely."

She said, "Oh, I still go to your Newberry street shop but make my appointments under a different name and Melissa is my stylist."

"Oh, I see. Thanks for your business, at any rate, Jill. But, what are you doing here in my apartment now?"

She laughed gaily and said, "I wanted to tell you that I love you madly and try one more time to seduce you. I like to think that you love me, but that you won't act on it because I am your customer. So as far as you are concerned, I no longer sit in your chair at the shop because I am Melisssa's."

Richard said, "I don't believe you would like to hang out with me, Jill, because I am a one-woman-at-a-time man, period - Uh, the philosophy people call me a 'sequential polygamist' because I don't share or trade up or down."

Jill was struck by his succinct, hit-the-spot response and fully understood the vastly complex sentence he had just spoken. She said, "Richard, seriously, I never stopped loving you and have spent this past year learning all aspects of Sunrise Properties operations - even representing the company in court once, for example, for the first time in my career. I work very hard - and focused when I am not thinking of you. And, I have been saving my money because of your influence, and I will independently launch my own business in time. Another reason I did all that work is that I have hopes that you remain in love with me as well - now that muddled Jill has begun to reclaim her life. I have almost worked out what I want to do with my life - and you are a part of it."

Richard was shocked at her 180-degree change in attitude. At that moment the food was delivered, and the two sat down to eat a late dinner and continued talking about their respective past year. Richard said, "Business is good, and I expect my first quarter of profitably operating in Saratoga will be next quarter." It was an effort to keep eating because Richard wanted to hold Jill so badly as his male hormones were now fire-hosing and he knew she was naked under his robe.

She said, "Sunrise Properties are growing, and I need a building superintendent for the 48 unit I am still trying to manage, even while I am commuting between both buildings now. But more than that I need you to hold me at night, so I don't wake up screaming from loneliness anymore."

He said, "Hold that thought while I take a shower and brush my teeth, will you?"

When Richard returned from the shower wearing only his briefs, Jill stood in front of him but now was naked. The hairdresser was unstable on his feet and reached for a lamp post for support. He smiled and said, "I always guessed you were a 'number ten' beneath your designer clothes, but Dear God, you are over the top!"

The combination 'make-up' and 'first-time' sexual coupling exhausted both of their bodies. They had rolled over and over and around the thickly carpeted floor, and both were reluctant to turn loose even much later when nature called. Jill looked at him and said, "I have no idea how I can work tomorrow because my arms will still be around you - oh thank you, Richard, for coming into my life. "

For the next year, Life was overwhelming and ecstatic for both the lovers. Jill had opted to share Richard's apartment at his invitation. The next change came on their first-anniversary celebration of living together. Jill asked, "Could we get married, Richard because I want to have a child?"

He was slightly shocked, and thought, "Even though she was making some progress in her career, she is just thrashing around for the most part. Richard said, "A little one in our life would be a joy, I think, but we would not be marrying our fortunes together, though, because I have no fortune just a lot of debt - did your Mom and Pop put this bug in your ear?"

"Yes. My parents would like to have a grandchild as they are now in their mid-50s. You don't need vast holdings, but you would need to agree not to try to take mine or our child's fortune at some point in the future should you change your mind about us."

!!

Two days following Jill's Bachelorette party, the driver parked in front of Richard Black's building trying to get the bewildered gentleman's attention: "We are here, Sir."

Walking into his empty apartment's MBR, he saw Jills clothes littering the floor, and the traveler's introspective thoughts were: "How very strange I never noticed that she leaves her dirty clothes on the floor for someone else to pick up - a lady never does that. In the kitchen, he found a sink full of dirty dishes because the maid service will routinely come in the morning - and she should at least load the dishwasher. He watched the video clip again that was attached to an email from the PI he had read on his iPhone. Then he remembered, "I kept this apartment spotlessly before Jill moved in with me. Now just look at it. We are different people! Assuming she didn't have an uncontrollable urge to continue to suck cocks, how long would it be before we were screaming at each other because we are different people? Should I call this off or not? No, I am not going through with this crazy marriage!"

At that moment the front door was keyed open and in rushed Jill over to her significant other's arms standing beside the kitchen sink. She tried to put her arms around him and said, "Oh Darling, why didn't you call me the moment you landed and I would have rushed right over and tidied up the apartment before you got home?"

He blocked the forward progress of her arms and said, "Jill, let's go to my desk and talk."

Once there he reached into a desk drawer and pulled out his airline ticket for St. Kitt wedding bash this coming Friday. After he had handed it to her he said, your father might get a refund on my ticket because I am not going to be a member of the wedding party."

Jill burst out with a blood-curdling scream and collapsed on the floor. Richard got a wet cloth and a glass of water and finally revived her. She tearfully asked him, "Which one of my friends told you I did something an engaged woman would not do?"

The man she madly loved all of a sudden ignored her question but said, "We are too unlike each other, and our marriage would not work, Jill. Think about you and me. We never needed to get married for us to have a child. I do love you madly, and it will take many months for that to die, but even so we should not be together. We are different people, Jill."

She was subdued now and had dried her eyes and finally said, "What happens now, Richard?"

He replied, "Well, I have a lease agreement on this apartment that won't expire for another ten months. You can move to any one of the vacant units in this building - and I will help you if you wish. But you and I just shouldn't be together after this."

His ex-fiancé stopped for a moment's introspective thought, "Richard can not possibly know about my indiscretion with that stripper. What is going on? Why is he doing this? Why is he a different person from when he went away? Should I tell him what I did in a drunken stupor? Would it make any difference to him?" She said, "Darling, my poor Dad, and Uncle have lots of money on the line for this junket that is non-cancelable at this late date, so would you please inform them that you are not going to marry me - and why you are not going on this Caribbean wedding adventure?"

"Jill, you know the reasons yourself a lot better than I do and be certain I haven't changed at all except that I realize that to get married would be a mistake for both of us."

"Something precipitated your change of mind, Richard, even if you won't tell me what."

"Wait a minute! If there were something that caused me to change, you would know better than me just what it was. So, I suggest you tell your father the whole truth in plain words, and let the chips fall where they may? At any rate, I need to pack an overnight bag and check into a hotel for a day or two while you move your things." Richard left the kitchen with Jill crumpled on the floor loudly crying.

Harry Parkman was a mid-50ish thin and graying man. He sat at his desk reading income and expense reports of each of the eight Sunrise Properties. Lines would appear on his cheeks and forehead as he grimaced reading the detailed reports. He penciled a note and said to himself, "I desperately need a competent manager there, as that slacker, Gibbons, is gaming our system watching the clock until his retirement, so what to do?"

Harry put that in the back of his mind as his secretary squawked, "Your daughter is on her way in to see you."

Jill walked into the spacious, well-decorated office and placed Richard Black's airline ticket on his desk in front of him before even a greeting. She started crying and said, "Richard will not marry me and will not take advantage of your generosity and fly to St. Kitt with us. Further, He has asked me to move out of his apartment."

Her father said, "Just a minute, Dear Jill." He levered the squawk box and said, "See when my attorney has time to visit me?" Turning to his daughter, he asked, "What precipitated this, Sweetheart? He did not just wake up and not love you anymore? Start at his saying goodbye the last time he traveled."

"O.K. It was a passionate moment that morning, and Richard asked the commercial car driver to wait while we finished, so would be able to get himself out the door. Then my bachelorette party was that night starting at ten."

She paused for a moment tearfully and then continued, "Two male dancers were entertaining non-stop at first 18 of us, and by the closing time there were 12. The stream of dancers performed almost naked on the table in front of us while the cheap, tinny music assaulted our eardrums. We kept ordering bar drinks. As usual, Dad, I drank too much."

A smile came to Harry's face remembering his youth and asked, "Did you reach up and grab the dancer's 'Weenie?'"

Jill put her head on her father's desk squalling now and said, "More than that, I put it in my mouth for just a moment when he was squatting in front of me so that the others could not see..."

Harry abruptly stood up and screamed, "You did what? A paid gigolo dancing for his supper? Of course one of your friends saw it and told Richard."

"No, the other girls were focused on the second dancer and could not see me crouched between his legs. I was a crazy drunk, Daddy, and it meant nothing."

"Did you tell Richard when you next saw him?"

"No, Dad, if I don't admit it then it didn't happen, and he is supposed to accept me no matter what."

"My darling daughter, Jill, did they teach you nonsense thinking like that at that Swiss boarding school, as you could not have learned that from your Mom or me." Harry depressed the squawker and said, "Tell my attorney never mind about visiting me." He patted her head lying on his desk and said, "Go on back to work and end your relationship with Richard in a business-like manner - he is an outstanding man, but there will be others, Darling. Maybe you should make a note of the whole Richard Black Affair in your 'lessons learned' book."

!!

It was over two years later, and Jill had recuperated from her broken heart to the point that the only time she thought of Richard was when she first lay down trying to sleep at night. She would grimace every time she recalled her embarrassment when family and friends who had traveled to the resort and guzzled all inclusive premium alcohol. They all pretended they were having a wild time. The renown resort experience was perfect in one sense for several of her friends and relatives, however, because there was plenty of opportunity for 'getting it on' with a strange partner - all expenses paid. Jill got through her days now, one at a time, working 18-hours often because the sadder but wiser lady had bought her first apartment house as the initial step in building her own business. She still managed two buildings for Sunrise as her day job. There simply was no time for a social life as filing judgments on skips, collecting charges for damage to the apartment, and eviction procedures were her daily fare. All of that went on while supervising staff who kept up with routine operations and maintenance filled her days.

Serendipitously, Barbra Hallman, who was to have been her bridesmaid, came into Jill's Sunrise Office and said, "Hey Girlfriend, Surprise!"

Jill jumped up, and the two ladies hugged each other and talked a few minutes of greetings while bringing each other up to date on what the other was doing. "Finally," Barbra said, "I just got a cash settlement from my ex-second-husband and had an estate sale for my deceased grandmother's place plus some previous earnings that I had saved. I have low 7-digits of money that I need to put somewhere to make at least five percent ROI. Any ideas?"

"Well, if you want to be my silent partner and go in business with me, I have some ideas. First, you and we together do not have enough money to buy land and build an apartment house, but we can still make some money, and 5 percent ROI is doable in our fucked up world even - and a better return after the first year."

Barbra said, "I am all ears."

"Those people moving into the apartments which are sprouting up all over the city are leaving their big houses to size down, and they need off-site storage room. We could jointly buy one or two public storage facilities - Dad would underwrite us - and get in on the ground floor."

Jokingly, Barbra asked, "You sold me. Where do I sign?"

"Assuming you are serious, you would need to lean forward so Daddy's Attorney could see your showcase boobs and nipples and implicitly promise him a hot night in paradise between your legs and he would set us up in a partnership pro-bono. I would insist, Barbra, on being the managing partner. So if you want to make some money, spread your legs for a lawyer, and be my silent partner, then 5% ROI is a conservative estimate of your earnings after the first year."

The ladies talked the current market and noted what storage places were available for sales, about each one's investment, and the net result was a 52/48 limited partnership with 4% to the attorney as payment and tiebreaker. They shook hands and Barbra asked, "I hope your lawyer has a big cock because my husband found out I had been fucking Richard Black's manager on Newberry Street, Jerry Mason - who had been doing my hair for three years. I am damn tired of my dildo since neither men are cutting me now. On top of that, I am sick-and-tired of deflecting toothless sharks who want to make it happen for me with their sex tool. Geesh!"

The two, friends since childhood, roared with laughter and had now completely relaxed in each other's company. Jokingly, Ms. Parkman raised her hand in a mock religious gesture and made the cross and said, 'Bless you, my Child', but you sure wouldn't want to walk a mile in my shoes."

"You look to me like you have it made, Jill. Men queue up to even say good morning to a wealthy and available lady not yet thirty. Why do you repeat that?"

"Huh! Barb, About once a week I diddle myself with a small dildo and recall some exciting times that Richard and I once had together. In my 18-hour workdays, I don't have the luxury of finding someone I could seduce and then getting it on with him."

Barb said, "Well, there are lots of men out there, even though progressive education has to a large extent pulverized almost all the brains to the extent that the ability to reason is almost extinct amongst those in our age group. But, given that, do you intend to make love to a dildo for the rest of your life, Jill? What exactly do you have planned going into the future?"

"Yes, Barb, you are on-the-money right, and that problem you spelled out is on my list of ones to solve as I nervously inch closer to 30 YO. So, if you should come across a focused-on-his goals achiever, tell him you know a beautiful woman whom he would like and is desperate to meet him."

Barb rose to go and walked around the desk to hug the neck of her best friend in all the world, and said, "Like hell, I will! If such a man should exist, he is mine, and you won't even know about him. Oh I forgot to tell you, according to my ex-hairdresser lover, your Richard is still floating around lost without you, but he is working his ass off in that he now has 41-shops. Jill, you have turned out to be just like your ex-..., work! Work! Work! while remaining focused on your goals, you forget to smell the roses along the way."

"You have it all wrong, Girlfriend. Mostly what I smell along the way are Assholes. Richard was the one rose I smelled, but I didn't make the cut. But, thanks for the compliment about my working, Barbra."

!!

While Barb and Jill's visit was going on, Richard Black was in a 'Gentleman's Club' - otherwise known as a high-dollar 'tits-n-ass' joint that featured advanced exotic dancers. This particular one invited certain ladies - who were known prostitutes - inside to solicit business from the patrons on the quiet. He had finished his work and watched the dancing while enjoying a drink and some bar foods as he fended off a barrage of implied sexual solicitations. His preference was to wait there rather than in the airport and would leave early for his 9:30 shuttle flight to Boston.

About an hour before he was to take an Uber to La Guardia, a stunningly beautiful but older lady solicited him speaking her native French.

She had Richard's complete attention. Answering her in his rusty French, he said, "Please sit down, Miss, and I will buy you a drink for the pleasure of talking to you - have you had dinner?"

Shocked, the whore looked at the gentleman and said, "No Sir."

"I have no interest in bedding you, but I offer to buy a couple of hours of your time and a deli sandwich so I can practice speaking French. Interested?" They negotiated a price and left to go to a deli down the street. The two walked out amidst the envious peers of Monique's marveling that the 'aging' Hooker had gotten a client early in the evening.