Meeting a Woman 02: At College

"I suffered through the rest of my freshman year. When we returned the next fall, I was excited that maybe she would come to me and that we could work on our relationship. But she never came to me. I've always been a believer in never chasing love. If it doesn't meet you halfway, you will never catch it. In this case, I felt like it was her that had stopped our relationship before it even started. I was very honest with her and told her that I respected her decision about relationships during her freshmen year and that it made a lot of sense for a lot of good reasons. So I wasn't and I'm still not mad at her."

"At some point during our sophomore year, I decided to try and start dating again to see if I just needed to move on. But it was no use. I tried to date three different young ladies that all had good character and each of them met my high standards, but there wasn't anything there for me. The bar had been set too high by your daughter sir."

"So after that, I didn't even try to date. At some point I hope to heal enough and that there will be enough days that have passed that I'll be able to appreciate the laugh and love of another woman. But it wasn't today, and I'm sure it won't be tomorrow."

"That is as open as I can be with you Mr. Monk."

"Well, Joey, that is about as big of a shit sandwich that I've heard of in a long time. I'm sorry you've had to go through that. I wish there was something that I could do to help you, but I still don't want to meddle in things between you two. I love her too much for that and I have that much respect for you and the way that you have conducted yourself."

"I wish I at least had some advice for you on this Joey, but I don't even know where to start."

"I understand Mr. Monk. I don't think there are any real answers on this one. The ball has been in her court for 3 1/2 years and she isn't interested in playing ball. It's that simple."

"Time will tell young man. Time will tell."

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He was offered the job the following week. He liked the starting pay, they would move him to Florida and pay for his apartment for the first 12 months. The company had a block of apartments that they allowed their new or transferring employees to use for the first year. It was a great addition to the benefits package.

Graduation went well. His folks were able to make it and he got to spend some time with them before his move to Florida.

He got to the apartment and got settled in about 3 days before his first day of reporting to work. He was excited about this new start in his life.

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He got to work and had to fill out all kinds of new paperwork and then start attending about a week's worth of new-hire training that goes over policy and procedures to keep everyone out of trouble.

Guess who walks into the first training class? Yep, you guessed it. It was very odd how it reminded me of almost exactly how their first meeting with the hiking club turned out. She was just a little late and took a seat up front. He was in the back and went unnoticed, that is until attendance was taken.

He knew he was going to be toast, the guy was going in alphabetical order. So he would be right before her. It was the same script as before. He gets to his name, Joseph Dominic Mason. It was like she got struck by lighting. She flipped her head around and instead of the smile he was expecting, she changed the script to a scow.

He raised his hand and said here just like a good little boy does in school. He knew he was safe until the first break. Maybe he would get lucky today and there wouldn't be a break? Probably not and he couldn't tell you a thing the guy said for the first hour. But then it was break time. He did have to pee so he scooted out a different door and got things taken care of before she found him. There was only one exit from the restroom and she made a beeline right at him.

"What are you doing here?"

"I work here."

"Duh, why did you have to come work here?"

"Because your father asked me to apply for three of the open positions."

"Why would my father ask you to apply here?"

"Because he has been a mentor of mine since we met that one weekend."

"Why did you have to ask him to be your mentor?"

"I didn't ask, he offered to be my mentor because he said he thought a lot of my character. I'm sorry if my being here offends you, but it was the best job offer I received and your father assured me that nobody knew that he knew me. So I did get this job on my merit. If you can't deal with me being here, then you need to grow up. I waited for you to come to me for two months at the start of our 2nd year and nothing. Not one extra word to me that wasn't absolutely necessary. So I tried to move on. It hasn't been easy and there are still some low days for me, but I just can't continue to allow your rejection of me to control my life. I'm not mad at you. I still think you are a good person. I think we can still work together professionally. We will just have to figure out how. Now I have to get back in there because I can't tell you a word he said that first hour. I don't want to get fired on my first day. I'm sure I'll see you around."

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Work was great. He enjoyed what he was doing and things were going great. He and Josephine did find some peace and were able to work together. They did similar jobs but reported to different team leaders. He thought that helped out a lot.

They had been there about six months when they were sent to Vegas for a seminar for 3PL vendors. They were told our jobs while there were to network and get to know people. If they didn't come back with over 100 business cards each, then they did something wrong.

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The flight out to Vegas was easy. We were getting in later in the day for Florida time and somewhat late for Vegas time. The shuttle took us to the hotel, Cosmopolitan, and it was a stunning place. I happened to be in line first and got all checked in. So I moved off to the side to wait for Josephine. She had been there for about 5 minutes and something was obviously wrong. All of the staff were looking at their screens and managers and tech people were coming out of the woodwork. I walked back over to her and quietly asked what was going on. She said that there was something wrong with the reservation system. I told her I was going to go set down and pointed to the area I was planning to go to. She nodded her head and said she would catch up with me as soon as they got her in the system.

It had been another 10 minutes and she still wasn't there, so I sent her a text and asked what was up. I thought maybe I'd missed her and she had already gone up to her room. But she said she was still in line and could I come to stand with her. I told her I was on my way.

I stood with her for another 20 minutes and still no real updates. There was a Grand Puba of managers that finally arrived on the scene. He asked for everyone's attention. He said that they were having major issues with their reservation system. As of now all reservations that were in the system had somehow been deleted. They would try to restore from a backup but this had never happened before and they weren't sure of a timeframe for resolution.

She looked at me and down at her phone several times. Then her eyes locked on me.

"Nic."

"Let's go Fi."

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We arrived at my room and it was an unbelievable room. It had a living area with a full couch, a coffee table, and a tv. There was a kitchenette section with a microwave and a tiny sink. A fully stocked mini fridge. The bathroom was huge. It had a whirlpool bathtub. A glass-enclosed shower with a shower head on two opposing walls. It was literally big enough that you could fit 4 people in there and they wouldn't be touching. There was also a separate room for the commode.

And one more thing. One bed. At least it was a king.

We quickly unpacked and then headed back down to find our conference room so that we could check-in. At least that was working.

We got our IDs, meal tickets, and a goodie bag filled with items from the vendors that were sponsoring the conference. They were expecting over 500 people at this conference. It was a 4-day conference and we would be staying here for 5 nights

I told her after checking in that I had already planned to go back to my room and go to sleep. Something about flying always makes me tired. I told her if there was something she wanted to do, I'd go along with her and she could take one of the keys and come whenever she was ready.

She thought sleep would be a good thing as well. So we headed up to 1701 to get a good night's rest. When we got back in the room, we had to make some type of ground rules. The bathroom was completely open except for the small outhouse-sized commode room. There was one corner with a chair in the bedroom that didn't allow viewing access into the bathroom. We agreed that if someone was going to shower that the other would need to be out of the room or in that chair. The bed was a king so we should have plenty of room there. Everything else we would make up as we went along.

We hit our first snag when it was time to get into bed clothes. She said she thought that she would have a room to herself so she didn't bring any bedclothes. I said then I presume you sleep in the nude? She blushed and said she did. I immediately said, well don't let me stop you. Guess what, she still remembered how to slap my arm and laugh.

I asked if she wanted a t-shirt or a dress shirt. She asked, if I use a dress shirt, then that will leave you one short for the week. How about a t-shirt? I pointed to my open suitcase and told her to take her pick. She asked about shorts. I said I only had one pair of sleeping shorts, so she could have them if she wanted, but then I'd be in my underwear instead of her. She said she would manage.

She went to change first, and I changed over by the chair so we ended up getting done about the same time. We hadn't talked about the sink, so when I glance over when she was washing her face, I got a really good show. I guess my t-shirt wasn't as long as she thought.

When she came to bed, I did mention it to her. She smiled and said she already knew. So is that how it's going to be all week, you teasing me? She said maybe. I smiled and called her an evil woman. She of course slapped my arm again. I asked her what she was doing on my side of the bed. She just shrugged her arms and said she didn't know. I told her she better figure it out before I made a rule about staying on her side of the bed. I also told her in a fake mad voice that she better not steal all of the covers either. She giggled and found her way over to her side of the bed.

"Nic?"

"Fi."

"What if I get cold in the night?"

"It looked like you were already cold. But you should go and adjust the thermostat."

"What did you say, pervert?"

"What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas Fi. If you are going to show them to me, then let the show begin."

"Well, I never....."

"I still haven't either Fi."

She just shook her head and called me a goofball.

"Good night Fi."

"Good night Nic."

And that was the first of five nights.

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The morning shower routine was awkward, to say the least. We made it ok, but it just didn't feel right sitting in the corner while she was in the shower and I'm sure it was the same for her. Hopefully, we could figure something own, but we might just be stuck with it.

We had breakfast at the buffet at the conference. It was nothing fancy but it was good and I did go back for seconds. We each got 5 business cards from people at our table. 5 down, 95 to go.

The conference was focused on 3PLs getting up and giving you their sales pitch to tell you what they could do for you. So the conference was a mixture of 3PL users and providers. Other presenters were giving an overview of what their 3PL provider was doing for them. It was all very interesting.

By lunch I was ready to eat again. Go figure. We sat at an 8 top and it was full this time so we got 6 cards each. 11 down, 89 to go.

Each day had a keynote speaker and the program had the time slot reserved, but it looked like they set it up so that it was a surprise each day who would be presenting. So after lunch, we headed into the main auditorium and waited. Soon enough, the MC came out and introduce the first day's keynote speaker.

It was Mr. Monk. We could see that our company was one of the larger sponsors but we didn't know that he would be speaking. What a great honor to hear him speak at something of this magnitude. Needless to say, his presentation was flawless and most of the other 3PLs could have just gone home. They weren't getting any new business after that. He spotted us and gave us a quick wave before he walked off stage.

He must have texted us both as soon as he got off stage. He asked us to meet him in the lobby and he was waiting on us when we got there. He said he would be in town until about noon tomorrow and wanted to have dinner with us tonight if we could join him. We both thought that would be great. I was remembering our time at that German restaurant. He said he had reservations for us at Tom Colicchio's Heritage Steak in the Mirage. He said that it was an upscale place and that he had taken the liberty of getting something for us and was having it delivered to our room She must of somehow already texted him or called and told him while I was in the shower for him to already know we were staying together.

He said there would be a car to pick us up at 7 pm sharp and we would eat at 7:30 pm. We assured him we would be there on time. He told us to skip the rest of today's presentations and go do something fun, but don't be late. We had maybe 2-3 hours to do something before we would need to be back. Not a lot of time but we would find something fun to do.

I asked what she thought of taking a Gondola Ride. She was all for it so we grabbed a taxi over to the Venitian and found that there was an open spot in the schedule that we could slip into. We were in the gondola in less than 45 minutes of leaving our hotel. I tried not to think of it as being romantic, but it was hard when she was leaning into me and had her arms wrapped around my left arm the whole time. It took about 30 mins to go around their mini-city setup. I enjoyed it.

When we got out we found our way to the taxi stand and were back in our room in less than 25 minutes. The timing was really good. It was a little past 5:30 so we had a decent amount of time to get ready. We both wanted to grab another shower before we left. I told her she could go first since she might take longer to get ready. She went to the shower, I went to the corner.

When she came out, she was wrapped in two towels. One around her hair and the other around her body. I got up to head to the bathroom and gave her an evil woman comment. She stopped me and asked if she was good, could she be at the sink fixing her hair as I showered. I asked her if that was a good idea. She said she didn't want us to be late and the way she wanted to fix her hair would take a little longer than normal. I agreed and told her no peaking and gave her a wink.

I don't know if she peaked or not, but she was surprised when I came out in only one towel. I don't think she had ever seen me bare-chested. I just walked by and mentioned that two could play this game.

I told her that I'd slip into my monkey suit thing in the outhouse and she giggle and grabbed at her towel before it fell. When I came out she gave me a wolf whistle. I stopped and told her I thought her hair was going to look gorgeous. That got me a nice smile without the slap this time. I just went to the chair and sat until I was needed.

She grabbed her dress bag and headed into the shower area. I don't think it would have worked in the outhouse. My jaw dropped when she came out. Her hair and light makeup were perfect. The dress was tight where it needed to be and nothing was loose. The only thing she needed was help with the zipper in the back.

I then grabbed both of her hands and held them in front of me and looked into her eyes. She said that I didn't need to say a word. She could see it in my eyes. I slowly twirled her one time and then stopped her after the turn and just said "Wow Fi. And good job, we are 15 minutes early."

She grabbed her phone and asked if I could hold it for her because her dress didn't seem to have any pockets.

Were hurried downstairs, found our driver, and made our way to the Mirage with at least 5 minutes to spare. We went to the front desk and gave them our names and I was handed a note.

It said, "Joey, I had to take an important meeting tonight but didn't want you kids to miss out on a night out together. Please enjoy yourself and I'll plan on taking you to breakfast in the morning. Andrew."

I handed the card to Josephine and she just smiled. She asked the guy at the desk when the reservation had been made. He said about 3 weeks ago. How many people did the original reservation include? He said only two and the reservation has never been changed. Very well, thank you, sir. He asked if we would like to be seated now and we told him we did. The meal was probably the best that either had ever had. He had a filet and her salmon. They each had a glass of wine with dinner, something neither had done very often.

As they finished their meal he received a text. He glanced at it quickly and it was from her dad. He said he had also arranged for them to go and see the fountain show when they were done eating. He showed the message to Josephine and her eyes lit up a bit more. When the dishes were taken away, our server come to and said that if we would follow this man, and pointed to him, he would escort us to a private viewing area for the show.

I stood and reached out my hand and she took it while she got up and then immediately place her arm inside my arm and off we went following our escort to the viewing area. He put us in some type of cart and we went a few blocks to a very secluded VIP spot at the Bellagio. The show was a little over 20 minutes but was very interesting and choreographed perfectly with the music. We stood and held hands the entire time.

We found our driver and he got us back quickly to our hotel. Then to the room. She said the night was perfect except that her father forgot to plan for some dancing. She asked for her phone, and in a few seconds, some nice slow jazz music came out of her speakers. She said her phone down and then prompted me to ask her to dance.

I asked her to grab her phone and we would go to the living room area. I moved the coffee table over and we had a nice little dance floor.

I grabbed her hand and gave her another twirl and then grabbed her waist and gently brought her toward me. She extended her hands behind my head and then our eyes locked and we just did the slowest slow dance ever. Her hands were playing with the back of my hair and absolutely driving me crazy. I didn't realize the back of my head was an erogenous zone. The things you find out in Vegas, and now I can't tell anybody.

After another few songs, her hands dropped from around my head to around my waist. She pulled herself into me and that left my hands no place to go, so I moved one up and cradled her head to my chest and the other around her shoulders.

Another few songs went by and she looked up at me and asked if we could go to bed now. I just nodded my head. She grabbed my hand and led me to the bed. She took off my jacket and tie and put in on the chair. Then she unbuttoned my shirt and slide it down my arms and placed it on the chair. Then she just unfastened my belt and let my pants hit the floor. She pushed me back onto the bed and then pulled off my shoes and socks and put those under the chair.