Territory Manager

Paco was this douche kid whose parents had money. I had a brief memory of him having parties in Mexico. Vaguely I recalled Stout hanging out with this guy.

"Once we got there the guys got all physical. I never slept with any of them." She told me. "But we did get kind of crazy a few times." She told me as she nodded toward the computer screen.

"Didn't sleep with them," I said. "But you did strip in front of them." I accused her.

"Shari and I only went topless. The others were a little wilder." She told me and looked up with a hopeful look in her eyes.

I was still pissed. Pissed off at a couple things.

Number one, I was planning on marrying this woman. How many other videos are circulating around? Number two, could I trust her? This was pretty slutty behavior. And finally number three, when we went to the nude beach in Hawaii, I felt this was a special gift for me. Sure others saw her, but she was exposing herself for me, I thought. Now I see that maybe she did this a lot more than what I thought.

"I don't know Crystal," I said. "I'm going to have to think about all this." I added and shut down the desktop.

For the rest of the evening she apologized and wept. As much as I wanted to hold her and tell her all was going to be okay, I didn't. I had to think through this incident, and our future together.

That night I slept on the couch. I left early the next morning heading to Western Montana for my sales calls. Throughout my workday, I didn't speak to Crystal. But I did think about her. I came to the conclusion that for us to move forward I needed to know about her history. Because of comments I had heard I had avoided that discussion with her. Tonight we would need to have that talk.

The only problem was, she didn't come home that night.

I knew she had given up her apartment and her roommates had moved out too. She no longer had family living locally, and I didn't know of any particularly close friends. I guess I'll just wait for her to call, I thought.

But I received no phone calls. I sent her a text. 'just checking in'. Nothing.

I then started thinking about my life with her and how things would be like without her. Without her my life would have a gigantic hole in it. I guess we just needed to have a long discussion about a lot of things.

I decided to call my sister.

"Janet," I said. "Hey, I need to talk to you about something...."

"Roger." She interrupted.

"Janet, just hang on a second, I want to tell you.... "

"Roger," She began.

"It's Crystal!" I said. "We had a fight. She's not home." I told her.

"I know." Janet said slowly. "She's here." My sister told me. "Well actually she's not here now. She ran to the store. She'll be back in a half hour or so."

And then my sister and I had a discussion. A discussion about Crystal, about the party in Cabo, about Paco, Stout and that crowd. And then finally a discussion about my future or more specifically, Crystal and my future.

I was shocked to hear that my sister went on one of these Mexican party junkets with those guys. I had no idea. I told her I didn't want to hear her details. She told me she wouldn't tell me anything anyway. But she did say other than a little tit flashing, not much else happened. At least on her trip.

Somehow knowing my sister had done this too, I felt slightly better. We talked a little more and finally I asked her to have Crystal call me when she got back.

"Tell her I've calmed down, and we need to talk." I said to Janet.

Later that night Crystal did call and when I finally got her to quit apologizing we had a long talk. I learned that she had been with five guys sexually before me.

When I reciprocated and gave her my history, I had more than double the amount of sexual partners she did. I started feeling like a hypocrite.

We talked long and late and finally I got her to stop crying. I think things are going to be okay. This was a discussion at some point we were going to have to have. Finally I came to the conclusion that Crystal had a fairly normal past and nothing that she had done was all that bad. In fact my sexual history was far more promiscuous than hers. It wasn't even close.

For a moment I thought I might actually thank that asshole Stout, the guy who sent me the video. After a quick second thought, nope, I'd probably still beat the shit out of him if I saw him again.

Life went on. And I think our relationship was stronger after this last ordeal. Three months later I did propose. I asked my friend Oscar to be my best man. My sister Janet would be the maid of honor.

One of the things Mr Bellows did for us was have a prenuptial agreement prepared by his attorney. He explained it was a way to protect both of us and it was most likely never to be enforced. Neither Crystal or I understood much of what Mr Bellow's attorney said to us, we just signed where we were told. I trusted Arthur Bellows and Crystal trusted me.

It was not a big event. Neither of us were from large families. Her mother lived in Colorado and she had an older brother who was in the Army that flew in. We had a handful of friends and almost the entire employee list from B&B, where we both worked. To my surprise Graham McKenzie flew in for the event.

We honeymooned in Hawaii, this time trying the Big Island of Hawaii. We had a great time enjoying the beaches, the ocean, the jungles and the waterfalls. No nude beaches, but plenty of nudity back in the hotel room. It was wonderful.

Once we were back home our lives together developed a nice rhythm. Crystal was doing well as the receptionist at B&B, occasionally helping out on other office functions.

My territory continued to grow. I was now second in sales most months, to Kevin, our other local guy. Louisa who was in our southern market would occasionally surpass me for second, it was healthy competition.

I took Mr Bellows' advice and saved almost all my commissions. He gave me the name of a financial advisor who helped me with my investments. My little nest egg was not so little anymore.

One day I received an email from Mr Bellows concerning Cedar School. Cedar School was an educational experience put on by one of the big mills in Western Canada. We would fly into Vancouver on a Monday and then have three solid days of product education, flying home on Friday. There would be a number of people going from different companies. I was the only one going from B&B.

I was excited to tell Crystal about Mr Bellows sending me to Cedar School. When I did tell her, I could tell she was not that excited. Hmm?

"So how long will you be gone?" She asked.

I re-explained the schedule to her. When she was abnormally quiet I questioned her further. Finally she opened up to me.

"I just hate it when you're not here." She told me, and then added, "I don't like being alone. It reminds me of when I was growing up. No one was ever home. I hated that."

I assured her that it would only be for a few days. I was excited to go and I soon forgot about any of Crystal's misgivings.

Tuesday morning our group all met in the assigned conference room. I noticed three people at a table at the front of the room. A large bald man, a younger guy maybe five years older than me, and finally a dignified looking older gentleman with a full head of snow white hair.

As we settled in the older gentlemen addressed us.

"Good morning everyone," he greeted us with a trace of some type of accent I could not place.

"My name is Ian McKenzie. My grandfather started Canadian-Pacific Forest Products and I am proud to see our business continue to grow." Ian stated.

"The training will be led by Bruce Johnston," the larger man waved to us as a way of introduction.

"And finally your host while you are here is my son, Graham." He said. "I hope you all learn a lot. If there is anything I may do to make your visit more pleasant, do not hesitate to let me know." Ian concluded. With a small formal bow to the group, Ian McKenzie left the room.

At lunchtime I found myself at a table with Graham McKenzie. My initial impression was that he was an arrogant little asshole.

That first night a bunch of the cedar school students went out to the bars in Vancouver. I stayed in and reviewed the material we had been given that day.

Wednesday morning I noticed a few of the attendees looked pretty rough, hungover looking. I was glad I had stayed in.

At lunch Graham McKenzie approached.

"We missed you last night mate," he addressed me.

"Oh, yeah, I wanted to go over the cedar material." I told him.

"You've got to give your mind a break every now and then." He told me. "Maybe you can join us tonight?" He asked.

"Maybe," was my reply. I stayed in on Wednesday night too.

When I spoke to Crystal she was fine, but not as enthusiastic as she normally was. My questions were met with one word answers. I couldn't quite tell if she was just sad because I wasn't there, or was she mad at me for some reason? I let it go. We'd get through this.

Thursday morning was a repeat of Wednesday with people looking hungover. This time one guy rolled in about 9:30 AM looking like he had just woken up, and another guy from Oregon never made it. I was glad I had a clear head.

Thursday at lunch Graham sat at my table directly across from me. The more we talked the less I disliked him. He was funny, a bit of an arrogant loudmouth, but he did it with a disarming charm. This time when he asked I promised to go have a drink with the group after cedar school ended.

We met at the hotel but Graham soon had us in some bar in the more run down part of downtown Vancouver, The Timbers.

It was a mixed bag of professionals from the nearby office buildings and blue collar working men. We found a spot and settled in. It was just north of being called a dump, but was crowded and active for some reason.

I found myself at the corner of the bar with Graham and a few others. Graham was pounding down the drinks with what appeared to be little effect on his sobriety.

I noticed right behind Graham two large working men in plaid wool coats sitting at the bar. By this time The Timbers was packed with little free space.

Graham was telling one of his outrageous stories and he made a gesture while holding his glass and his drink splashed onto the face of one of the large men sitting behind him. Graham did not even notice and kept on with his story.

The big guy looked angry. He grabbed Graham and spun him around. Graham, not realizing what had happened, was confused and looked a bit angry at this intrusion himself.

"Hey pal, get your hands off of me." Graham told the big guy.

"Fuck you, you little shit. You spilled your fucking drink all over me." The big guy said.

At this point the guy still was gripping Graham's shoulder. Graham made a twisting move to remove the guy's hand and during that, he elbowed the big guy.

The big guy stood up and shoved Graham. I jumped in and thought, maybe if we buy them a round we can diffuse this. Most of these barroom disagreements were just accidents and can easily blow over.

Not this one. The combination of Graham's inability to back down and these two big guys desire to pick a fight was the perfect storm. Graham told them we would settle this outside.

I thought, oh no, here we go again.

We found ourselves, with the usual crowd looking for some cheap entertainment in the back alley behind The Timbers. Somehow through the shoving and anger I was now paired off with the other big guy. I didn't want to fight him..

"Hey listen," I said to the other guy, a big slightly overweight redhead with a red beard.

And while my defenses were down he hit me. His punch grazed my forehead as I ducked. It still connected and I saw stars for a second.

My instincts kicked in and I moved away. I needed a moment to clear the cobwebs. I circled the redhead staying out of range of his clubbing attempts.

I watched him and immediately understood something about him. He was a brawler. Not like Darryl who had no real fighting skill, I guessed Red had been in his share of fights. He knew nothing of boxing rules or strategy, what he wanted to do was get in tight and do damage based on brute strength.

His hands were up tight to his face, elbows tucked and he kept moving forward. He was strong, but slow. I snapped off left jabs peppering his face. These would slow him but he would continue toward me relentlessly. It was not long before I could see him getting tired. His hands did not stay up quite as high.

So far, other than his first punch, he had done no damage. His nose and right eye were red from my jabs. I hit him twice in his large gut. That stopped him, and then I hit him with a left-right combo in the face. He reached to grab me and I moved away snapping a hard left to the side of his jaw. That stunned him.

I glanced over to see Graham taking a bit of a beating from the other guy. I needed to end this with Red quickly I thought.

Another left-right to the head, and then a combo to the gut. He was on the edge, no defenses up, standing glaze-eyed. One final left-right, and then one more right and Red fell to his hands and knees, not quite out but close.

Immediately I moved to help Graham. I yelled at the other guy to stop and he turned and threw a roundhouse at me that I ducked. I hit him twice in the face, that stunned him, and then Graham kicked him in the balls. He collapsed.

With both guys on the ground, for the moment we were okay. Who knew if they had more friends nearby. Waiting around was no strategy. We weren't sure if the cops were coming, a few of their buddies, or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for that matter. It was time to leave.

"Let's get out of here," I said and our entire cedar school group ran back down the street, led by a laughing and bleeding Graham McKenzie.

We ended back at the hotel bar, laughing and telling stories of the fight. Graham eventually got drunk and swore a lifelong friendship to me.

Little did I know at that moment how important that friendship would be.

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

Life went on and in my mind it was a good life. Crystal and I were having fun, traveling a little and for the most part things were good. No scandalous ghosts appeared out of her past. She did not like it when I was occasionally overnight or if I was on the road late, but I felt we could work through those small things.

Work for both of us was good. Crystal's job was not hard and she seemed to thrive in the structure of having set expectations and reporting to a superior. She was not great on ideas, but did what was asked of her quite well.

My sales had grown. My commissions were up. I did part of the local area, the smaller customers, and also went east into Idaho and the extreme western part of Montana. Kevin Mills had the big accounts in the local market. Kevin and I weren't particularly close, but we were certainly not unfriendly.

As Mr Bellows had instructed me, I saved my commissions.

My friendship with Graham McKenzie grew. The entire experience during Cedar School cemented the relationship. He turned out to be a great guy. Can-PAC was a major supplier of cedar for B&B and my close friendship with Graham helped the relationship between our two companies.

Things seemed to be all okay. And then the rumors began.

Arthur Bellows had to be in his late sixties. He was at the office every day and quite active in the business. But more and more of the responsibilities were being shifted to Mr Bellows son, Ted.

Ted was a smart man, late 30's I'd guess, but fairly introverted. Though I was confident he understood the business, he certainly didn't have the interpersonal skills his father did. That was important in our business.

There was talk of Arthur Bellows retiring. Once, when he and I were alone talking, as we occasionally did, I asked him about his future.

"Oh I don't know Roger," he answered me. "I love this business, I don't know what I would do if I didn't come into the office every day." He added.

Not a specific answer, but somewhat reassuring.

As time went on, it seemed like Mr Bellows was around less. And the rumors continued.

And then we had the call on Tuesday night. Company meeting scheduled for Wednesday morning. All very mysterious.

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

"Everyone," Gordon Dobler, with a large phony looking grin on his face, began. "It is my great pleasure to be associated with this fine company. I am from a different industry altogether. I will depend on your knowledge and experience to quickly help me get up to speed on our business here." He went on, spreading his arms in an encompassing gesture.

"When Tab and I began discussing this situation I immediately had some ideas to improve business." Dobler paced, with a serious expression knitting his brow. "I have known Tab for a number of years and he knows what I have accomplished in my career. What we discovered was that with some of the more modern sales strategies I will employ, the business at B&B will grow." He stated.

I clandestinely pushed a note in front of Marcia. 'Tab?' I wrote. This Dobler was referring to someone named 'Tab'.

Marcia casually looked at my note, paused, and wrote, 'Theodore, Arthur, Bellows'. TAB.

Tab? I thought. I'd never heard anyone call him that before. It sounded like some fraternity-born nickname.

I did not have a good feeling about any of this.

Dobler blathered on for another fifteen minutes. He constantly injected little egocentric comments of all he had accomplished. Towards the merciful end he started talking about a new software based sales reporting system. It was called salesplan.com.

We were all going to be trained on it soon. Dobler tried to paint a positive picture of salesplan, but it was clear to me what this was. This was micromanagement.

Over the next few weeks I tried to keep a positive attitude about things, but no doubt about it, things at B&B we're changing quickly. And then we had the salesplan training.

Essentially we had to write a small report after each sales call. We had to answer a set of questions for every call, some not even relevant to the particular customer. And then we had metrics. We needed a certain amount of 'sales successes' per week. A certain amount of 'prospect calls' per week, and a certain amount of 'conversions' per week. And on and on.

It was going to be time consuming busy-work. I dreaded these new changes.

When I talked to Crystal about it, she thought things were fine. In fact she spoke complementarity about Dobler. I tried to explain how much more useless work this salesplan program would be for me.

"Oh just give it time Roger." She said, "I'm sure it won't be that bad."

About four weeks later Dobler hired a new guy. Darin Barnes. Apparently he and Dobler had worked together at some previous company. A little younger than Dobler and 'Tab', but same frat boy look. Stylish clothes, sharp haircut and a brash confidence about himself. He was going to be the sales and marketing specialist. A new position Dobler came up with.

Dobler had Barnes travel with me for a few days. I tried to explain about our business and teach him about different building materials. He seemed a bit bored by the topics, and quite frankly, bored with me.

Once again Crystal had positive things to say about Barnes too.

Then there was a new company wide email sent from Gordon Dobler. The email described an exciting new structure within B&B. More updates to come within the next several weeks.

Where I was apprehensive, Crystal was excited. I was getting the feeling Dobler did not like me or value what I did for the company. On the other hand he seemed to like Crystal quite well. I'd need to keep my eye on that. Meanwhile My salesplan rating was less than average, even though my sales were up.