The Chauffeur (#55) The Real Estate Department
Introduction:
The weekend went by wonderfully.
By PABLO DIABLO
Copyright 2019
CHAPTER 1
The weekend went by wonderfully. Mom and Deloris (Tinaâs Mother) got together and went shopping. They spent more than $10,000 and when they came home to show their purchases off, I got caught rolling my eyes. I got a poke in the ribs by Dakota and a playful slap on the back of my head from Mom.
Jennifer came over to me and sat down clearly wanting to chat. She brought Diane with her and the three of us began a discussion about the Real Estate department. As we were having this discussion, Sharon meandered over to us and joined in the discussion.
Jennifer said that she was excited to have Margaret join our team on Monday morning. I thought about how poorly our HR departments have performed recently. Iâll have BJ spend a few hours getting me some information regarding the HR departments.
Thinking of projects, I know that I need to call Rob our IT guy tomorrow morning to check on his progress with the employee ID verification project. In my head at least, I felt he should be close to giving me an ending report.
Jennifer has two deals pending. One seemed to be quite the purchase. It was a 43-story office tower with a 500-slot parking garage attached in Portland. She also is looking at a 55-story tower in Pittsburgh however, that one has only a 200-slot parking garage, which may not be enough.
Going across the international line into Canada again, she found a 65-story tower in Vancouver. This tower comes with two parking garages, one attached and one not, however, the price on that one was substantially higher than any of the other towers. This tower was priced at $59 million. The one in Portland is priced at $34 million and the one in Pittsburg is priced at $49 million.
Jennifer gave me a listing of how many district offices were in each city. She felt that Portland would give us a large profit margin which made me smile. Diane said that she would be looking up the taxing authority in each of those cities to see how much money we would be saved by moving the district offices to the towers.
I asked the table if Carlton Fields was a tenant in any of the towers, Jennifer tells me that they are long term tenants in all three office towers with them holding the top floor in two of them. I made a mental note to call the Carlton Fields manager that has spoken with me before. He seems very interested in Jaxson, Inc taking control of these office towers.
In my conversation with the three ladies, I asked if we are going to have enough work for Margaret Fernandez. It doesnât bother me if we donât have a lot of work for her, but she seemed so enthusiastic about joining our company that I really didnât mind if I donât have full-time work for her, although I felt that we did have enough work.
I did notice at dinner when Jose and Don were summoned to join the tactical group, she drove herself home without saying a word. Agent McHenry kissed Sharon goodbye and drove Special Agent Fernandez to their office to suit up. Watching them leave made me remember about seeing if the FBI would be interested in leasing a floor of the Hawk.
It was nice to get Heidi Longmire to join Jaxson, Inc. I believe that she will make a good leader for our forensic accounting team. I do know that she was stunned by my offer of a large salary and a brand-new car. Depending on when we get the signed contracts from her, I will take her along with Kitty Creamers to get her new car.
As we were sitting and chatting, my mind drifted off to Michael. I donât really know what is up with him, maybe itâs just his way of reacting to his mother passing away, or maybe he has become such a spoiled ass that he and I will continue to lock horns. No matter what the issue is, I wonât be spoken to in my own home the way he spoke to me.
We were just sitting at the dining room table as Dakota decided to plop her cute little ass down on my lap. Of course, she didnât have any panties on as usual. However, this time she scared the hell out of me, when she got up off of me I had a lapful of blood on my shorts. I asked Jill to call Dr. Ronda and tell her that we will meet her at the ER. At first, Jill looked stunned as to why I was giving her these directions until she saw the amount of blood on my shorts. It wasnât just a small amount of spotting, which my first wife had a bit of when she was pregnant with Michael. This was a serious amount of blood and it was scaring the hell out of me.
I scooped Dakota up and made my way to the garage with Jill and Tina following right behind me. Jill opened her BMW and I put Dakota in the front seat. I got into the back and Tina joined us. Jill opened the garage and dialed up Dr. Ronda.
âHello Jill, whatâs going on? Itâs not like you to call me,â Ronda said to Jill.
I chimed in talking to Ronda via the Bluetooth phone system in the car.
âRonda, we are heading to the ER as Dakota is bleeding vaginally and it is scaring the hell out of me. Can you meet us at the ER in just a few minutes?â I ask her.
âOf course, David, Iâll probably beat you there,â she says as she ends the call.
Jill is accelerating through the traffic and is pushing every yellow light we come to. Ronda pulled into the hospital parking lot right in front of us. Dakota hasnât said a single word the entire trip. I am nervous and worried. Jill drove around the stupid semicircle they have set up to slow people down at the ER doors. I saw Ronda park her car in the physician parking lot. Jill pulled up to the ER doors and let Dakota, Tina, and me out of the car.
I scooped Dakota up and carried her honeymoon style. She fussed a little bit, but nothing like she would normally do. Tina was clearly worried as well, she stood right next to me as I carried Dakota into the ER. There was a nurse in their little triage area who wanted me to stop and fill out paperwork for Dakota. I went straight over to Dr. Ronda with Dakota in my arms. She checked with the triage nurse as to what exam room we should go to.
We walked down the hallway quickly. When we reached the exam room, which was room number 14, I carried her into the room and laid her carefully on the bed. Ronda immediately began taking vitals. She noted just how much blood was on the lap of my shorts. A nurse came into the room to assist Dr. Ronda. Tina put her arms around me and held on to me tightly. I reached out and began rubbing Dakotaâs shoulder.
I got fussed at by Dr. Ronda that Tina and I needed to sit down or go out to the waiting area. Now, Ronda knows that I wasnât just leaving my Dakota in there by herself, Tina, Jill, and I will be there. We just have to keep out of the medical staffâs way. The nurse began an IV so she could hang a bag of fluids. Ronda was taking a pulse, listening to Dakotaâs breathing, putting that little thing on the end of one of her fingers to check something called a pulse ox.
Dr. Ronda reclined the exam bed that Dakota was on so she could do a pelvic exam. I did ask if she would like me to step out of the exam room, but Dakota told me that she wanted me right there with her, so I stayed. Dr. Ronda made a comment that Dakota should probably start wearing panties so she could wear a small pad just in case of situations such as this.
While Dr. Ronda was performing the pelvic exam, Tina took my hand and held it tightly. I put my arm around her. I know that Dakota is as close to a sister that Tina ever had, and she was really worried about Dakota. I just kept holding on to Tina.
After the initial pelvic exam, Dr. Ronda explained to us that she needed to order up some tests such as an x-ray, a CT exam, and maybe even an MRI. She also asked the nurse to collect 5 vials of blood to runs several tests. She also ordered an ultrasound to make sure the baby has a viable heartbeat. She explained to us that this will take several hours and not to expect anything to go quickly. She suggested that the three of us go to the cafeteria when they take Dakota for the x-ray and CT exams.
I asked if I could go along, but Dr. Ronda told me that I would only get in the way. Jill pointed out that this hospital was the same hospital that she was in for a couple of days several weeks ago. That took me back to how numb I felt sitting with Dakota in the cafeteria holding a cup of the worldâs worst coffee.
When Dr. Ronda stepped into the hallway to chat with the nurse, Tina stepped forward and put her arms around Dakota.
Tina had a couple of stressful days. First there was the shooting at her college campus and now Dakota sitting in an exam room in the ER. I kept my arm around Tina and began rubbing Dakotaâs shoulder. I got a smile from Dakota who looked so helpless laying on the exam bed. The three of us stayed on one side of Dakota leaving the other side clear and available for the nurse to do her job.
Dr. Ronda left the exam room and went down the hallway to the nurseâs desk. I stood at the door to watch her for a couple of minutes. She was writing reports, calling on the phone, and talking to one of the nurses.
Jillâs phone buzzed. She was getting a text message. I looked over her shoulder at the text. It read: How is Dakota? Any word on her? The whole house is worried. Love Jennifer.
Jill texted back that Dakota was at the beginning stages of several tests. Dr. Ronda told Dakota that she now must wear panties. Will text when more information available. Love Jill.
We all waited for someone to come and take Dakota for any of these tests. We waited for more than an hour. Finally, someone from the x-ray department came with this x-ray that rolled through the hospital hallways. The three of us had to step out into the hallway while the x-ray pictures were being taken.
After the x-ray, a doctor with the last name that had about 16 consonants and maybe one vowel came to check on Dakota. I asked who he was and what specialty. He told me that he is the staff OB/GYN and not to worry as Dr. Ronda wrote orders for him to check on Dakota as well. Now I find that Iâm in a protective posture with Dakota. Tina kept hugging me more and more. I could tell that she was really worried about Dakota, however, at that point, there was very little that we could do we just had to wait it out.
After yet another hour, someone from the transportation department came to wheel Dakota to the room for her to get a CT exam. When they took Dakota, I wanted to go with them for a couple of reasons. One is that I didnât want her to be alone. The second reason was so that I felt better protecting Dakota, however, Dr. Ronda told us to just sit down in the room or go to the cafeteria. We chose to sit in the ER exam room until Dakota came back.
Again, it was more than an hour before she was being rolled back to exam room 14. As she was being rolled down the hallway, she looked so tiny in that bed. Her lithe little body was minuscule as she was being transported back to the ER exam room. Even Jill noted how tiny Dakota looked in that exam bed.
The transportation guy said that she was easy to move off the bed and onto the CT machine. As he was leaving the room, he told us that someone from ultrasound will show up with the machine to listen to her babyâs heartbeat.
Just like before, it took about an hour for someone to push the ultrasound machine down the hallway to Dakotaâs exam room. The technician set the machine up, squirted a huge glob of this clear jelly before she started using the ultrasound. Just as I was about to say something, there it was. A nice loud distinctive heartbeat of the baby. I was so happy. I stepped forward and put an arm around Dakota and kissed her on the forehead whispering in her ear that I was so happy and proud of her. She just smiled knowing that I meant every word that I said to her. It had been quite a long time since Iâve heard a babyâs heartbeat, but this one sounded loud. I asked the technician that this heartbeat sounded strong. She told us that sounds perfect. As she was telling us that, Dr. Ronda came into the exam room. She poked at me a bit verbally but just in a joking way. She also said that the baby sounded loud and proud, which nearly made me tear up.
Before the technician was thorough, Dr. Ronda suggested to Jill that she have an ultrasound just to hear her baby also. She told us to schedule an appointment with the outpatient department to have the ultrasound done. Jill promised that she would do that before the end of this coming week, which made me smile.
Dr. Ronda told us that she wanted to keep Dakota overnight just for observation. Sheâs not really concerned, but she hasnât had any bloodwork come back from the labs yet. She suggested that we go have some crappy coffee in the cafeteria and maybe even eat something and she will call either Jill or me when the move Dakota to a room so we can see her before we leave.
I give Dr. Ronda a hug and a kiss and whisper in her ear that we need to have another date night, which makes her smile. Before we leave the room, we all give Dakota a big hug and a kiss. I watched Tina give Dakota a big hug and it appeared almost as if Tina was going to cry, but she didnât. Jill gave her a big hug and I hugged and kissed her whispering into her ear how much I loved her. She told me that same thing that she loved me as well.
After the three of us hugged and kissed on Dakota, Dr. Ronda shooed us out of the exam room. We reluctantly decided to go to the cafeteria. However, Tina had a good idea, since it appeared that it would take about an hour to an hour and a half to move her to a room, why donât we jump into the BMW and head to either Taco Bell or McDonald’s. Since we could all get fresh French fries, the three of us chose McDonald’s.
CHAPTER 2
When we all reached Jillâs BMW, I took the back seat and let Tina sit upfront next to Jill. I am always surprised when Jill drives because I forget that she is such an aggressive driver, but then again, if she didnât work for Happy, Happee Limo her and I wouldnât be married today. But I could say the same thing about Tina, as Tina and I were dating at the beginning of my employment at the limo company.
Oddly enough, that night at IHOP sticks in my mind. Diane was at the restaurant with her âcrewâ which included John. I remember when someone asked me about owning the limo company but I explained that I didnât own the company I was just a chauffeur and John being the John that I love and trust with my life says from the back of the group, âNo Fucking Way,â Every time I think about that night, it makes me smile. John certainly has come a long way. He carries himself well, much more mature. He is married to Diane and they have a baby on the way as well plus he is licensed to carry a firearm, which he does and has used to keep me safe.
I would like John to spend a couple of times with the SS6 for more firearm training. Heâs an OK shot, but I think that they could give him some pointers on how to improve his shooting and now, being much more mature I think he would take it as a good thing to learn from well-trained Secret Service agents.
As Jill is driving us to McDonald’s, I text Jennifer to let her know that they have performed a CT exam, an x-ray, and an ultrasound as well as a pelvic exam and have drawn several vials of blood for lab work. I explain that they are just keeping her overnight for observation. I end the text Love David.
I suggest to Jill that when we get to McDonaldâs we get out and go inside rather than sitting in her car and getting it smelling like McDonaldâs food. She agrees and pulls into the parking lot at a good rate of speed and whips the car into a parking slot. I think that Tina had forgotten how aggressively Jill drives.
When we get out of Jillâs car, I kiss Tina, since I got out on the same side of the car as her. Then I walked around and kissed Jill. In my head, I was only thinking of one thingâŠ. hot fresh McDonaldâs French fries.
The three of us went inside only to find a bit of a line in front of us. We waited our turn and when we got to the counter, Jill decided on the Big Mac combo with large fries and a large Coke. Tina chose a Quarter pounder with cheese, large fries, and a large Coke. I ordered 4 original hamburgers and a large fry and a large coke. I paid for it all and we stood at the end of the counter.
Watching other customers using the ketchup pump made me think of Dakota. She loved to slather her fries in ketchup then take some and stuff them into my mouth giggling the whole time. Just thinking about it made me smile.
Tina asked me what I was thinking about that made me smile.
âWell, usually when Dakota and I would stop somewhere to get her some fries, she would cover them in ketchup. Then she would take some and try to stuff them into my mouth all slathered in ketchup and she would giggle the whole time. Just thinking about those little things make me smile. Both Jill and Tina smiled at the little story as well.
After what seemed like quite a while, an employee called out our number and then pushed the tray towards us. I just shook my head, once again there is no acknowledgment of the fact that I just spent more than $20 to get some food. Yet here is this employee that believes that he or she should be getting at least $15 per hour.
As someone who spent many, many years in the restaurant business, I have no issues with paying a reasonable wage, but those employees who are demanding $15 per hour who have no skills and donât do a good job serving the customers donât deserve that amount of compensation. Take for example a truck driver, the driver just canât decide what he/she wants $100 per hour for driving. Yes, there is training that they must learn, such as how to handle a tractor-trailer and work their 18-wheeler on the interstate or in city traffic. Dropping a basket of fries into hot grease and dispensing a soda is not a learned skill. Iâve always been a believer that if you want to make more money, then learn a trade and become good at it.
Being an employee at a fast-food restaurant is not a skill, furthermore, the minimum wage laws were not designed to carry a family. They were created so that some people donât get one wage and others get a different wage at the same company.
The three of us sat at our table, the one we had to clean ourselves in order to sit down and eat our meal. There were many kids just pushing the left-over trash from a previous customer on to the floor. Clearly, no one cared about working the dining room and cleaning tables or emptying the overflowing trash can. When I finally had enough of watching all of this I got up and walked to the counter and asked for a manager. What I got was a loud black woman who didnât even understand the concept of what I was talking about. I had to ask to speak to her boss, but then she got all uppity with me and wanted to know what I was going to say.
I just looked at her and once again asked to speak to her boss. I got a big huff and she walked away from the front counter yelling in the back kitchen area that some old white dude wants to see him and sheâs not going to handle him any longer so he better gets his ass out to the front counter.
Finally, after about 5 minutes, he came to the counter. However, by this time, there were 8-10 people waiting to place their food order. The loud black woman stayed in the back as if I couldnât see her. She just stood there being loud and complaining to the hard-working Mexican guy running the griddle making burgers. I finally heard him tell her to shut up and leave him alone as he has work to do.
The manager was confused as to whether he should take care of the customers or speak to me. I suggested that he get the black woman back up here to do her job and we will talk once the customers were being taken care of. He called the black woman to return to the front counter, but she yelled back that she was âon a breakâ. This poor manager was frustrated.
As a stroke of luck, one of the two girls running the drive-thru slid over to the front counter and started taking orders. The other drive-thru gal dropped two baskets of fries into the grease to cook, so people would be getting hot fresh fries.
When the customers were being taken care of, the manager, who was probably not older than 18 or 19 ask me what he could do for me. I introduced myself and handed him my business card. I gently suggested that since that loud black woman doesnât want to take care of customers, she could work the dining room cleaning it up and emptying the overflowing trash cans. He explained to me that he was short-handed and really didnât have any help to have someone work in the dining room. I asked how many people called out that caused him to be shorthanded. He tells me that no one called out, they just schedule it that way to make their new labor budgets.
I just shook my head and asked whom I could call to voice my displeasure seeing that you are working short-handed and clearly the customers are being abused. He gave me a name and phone number of a district manager. Just out of curiosity, I asked how often he sees this district manager. He tells me that he virtually never sees this guy, only the General Manager sees him and that usually only happens on a Tuesday or Wednesday about 2 in the afternoon.
I asked him if he liked working for this McDonaldâs franchisee. He shook his head no. I gave him my card and told him that when he wants a good job to call me, I have plenty of places to put him that will pay better and he wonât have to put up with short staffing, nor loud lazy black women. He laughed a bit at that.
He did offer to refund the cost of our meals, but I declined to say that he needs to not let them abuse him by short staffing his shifts and the General Manager is fully staffed. He agreed with me and thanked me for chatting with him.
I know from my days in the restaurant, if youâre not going to work, then clock out and go home. Weâre not paying you to stand around and run your mouth. Either work or leave was my philosophy. None of us sat around and watched everyone else work. The two drive-thru ladies that slid over and helped take care of the front counter, I handed them my business card as well and told them to give me a call and I would find a nice place in one of my companies for them. They both smiled and thanked me.
After my discussion with the manager and the two ladies running the drive-thru, I went back to our table where Tina and Jill had finished their meal, but of course, I had not. I began eating the last two hamburgers and I noticed that most of my fries were already gone, which I was sure that Jill ate them which made me laugh a bit.
I ate the two hamburgers, finished my Coke and cleaned off our table before we headed out to the car. None of us had received a text message nor a phone call from Dr. Ronda. When we got into the car, I pulled out that slip of paper that the manager gave me and dialed up the number.
I asked to speak to the district manager and gave the person who answered the phone the district managerâs name that I was given. The person on the other end of the phone tells me that the district manager has gone home for the day and will return my call in a couple of days. I looked at the clock on Jillâs car and it told me that is was just after 3 pm, which made me wonder did something change in the restaurant business of sending General Managers and District Managers home mid-afternoon instead of after the dinner rush.
I will say that this particular McDonaldâs is a franchisee, but in my opinion, someone needs to get ahold of this district office before the unit is going out of business because no customers are happy with the service.
I end the call to the district office by leaving my name and phone number with the understanding that I should be receiving a phone call no later than tomorrow, not in a couple of days. The person on the other end of the phone couldnât assure me that I would be getting the return phone call in the time that I requested.
As the three of us rode back to the hospital, we talked about how much restaurants have changed. One of the things that we discussed was how lazy restaurant employees have become and how many of the fast-food restaurants have instituted some sort of labor grid which only makes the employees run with less and less help.
CHAPTER 3
When we got back to the hospital, Jill parked the car out in the general parking lot. We walked into the front door of the hospital and asked the guard what room they have put Dakota into. He tells me that she was put into 212. We thanked him and began walking towards the room that Dakota was supposed to be in. First, we had to take the elevator up to the second floor then we had to look for room 212.
When we found room 212 our poor tiny Dakota was just sitting in her bed watching some daytime soap opera. I teased her saying that the daytime soaps will make her brain go numb, but she teased back telling me that working for me will do the same thing. Both Jill and Tina laughed loudly about that.
Thankfully, there was no patient in the second bed of the room. We all pulled up chairs and sat around her. I held one hand and Tina held the other. Jill pulled her chair up by Dakotaâs shoulder and began rubbing them to relieve the tension. We talked for about an hour and a half at which time food service showed up with her dinner tray. They asked us if we would like to order a tray as well. I looked at everyone who all shook their heads NO! I thanked the foodservice person and declined the offer for a tray.
I will say that Dakotaâs tray didnât look all that bad but having two personal chefs at the house makes you enjoy their cooking rather than what the hospitalâs foodservice sends out to the patients. I looked at what Dakota got for her meal. She got the meatloaf, baby carrots, a small salad with ranch dressing in a cup, a roll, and iced tea and some orange jello.
Dakota asked if she could have a cup of coffee, but before I could tell her no Tina had bounced out to the nurseâs station to get a cup of coffee. It only took a couple of minutes, but she returned with a small Styrofoam cup of coffee along with a creamer packet and a sugar packet and a stir stick. The coffee looked just a hiccup above black water. Dakota took a sip of it and crinkled her nose as it was what I thought, a really, really bad cup of coffee. Dakota opened the creamer packet and sugar packet and they were no help at all.
Dakota took a sip of her iced tea. Now, tea is not her favorite, but she endured it. I sat and watched as she ate the meatloaf. She took small bites. Iâm not sure if she did that because it tasted bad or another reason. One thing I can tell you that she did like the baby carrots. She gobbled them up first off, her tray. She also clearly enjoyed the roll. She didnât put any butter on it, but she ate it quite quickly as well.
It took her about a half-hour to eat all of her food. When she was done, she tried to feed me her Jell-O. I took a couple of bites to make her smile, but she ate the lions share of the dessert.
As Dakota was finishing up with her tray, this nice senior lady wearing a top that was the color of what the volunteers wore. She came around and offered our little Dakota two warm chocolate chip cookies. However, since we were not an actual patient, she only offered us one cookie each. I took one, Jill took one, and even Tina took one. I asked the lady if we could get some cold milk, but she only directed me to the cafeteria.
Jill told me that she wanted some milk as well and that she would go to the cafeteria to get us some so Tina even agreed to take some milk. Of course, we didnât even have to ask our little Dakota we just made that decision for her.
We stayed until about 8 pm when the hospital announced that visiting hours were over. We all hugged Dakota and kissed her. I whispered in her ear that we all love her, and I love her the most. I saw a single tear roll from her right eye down her cheek. I reached up and with one finger brushed that tear away.
As we walked back out to Jillâs BMW the weather was nice and there was a gentle breeze. It made the evening feel delightful. I was happy that Dakota was going to be released in the morning and I was going to be here to pick her up depending on what time the release would be. I dialed up Dr. Ronda and asked her, she tells me that Dakota should be out of the hospital by 10 am, which was fine by me. As we were driving back to the Chateau, it dawned on me that Fernandezâs wife would begin working for me tomorrow morning.
As we pulled up in front of the outer gate, Jill only poked on the button and the outer gate opened. She drove the car inside next to the courtyard gate. Once again, she poked only one button and the inner gate opened. I liked that someone took the time to make those buttons work to open and close the gates. Jill poked one more button and opened one of the garage doors which allowed her to put her BMW into the garage.
We came out of the garage into the house. As we walked down the hallway, it smelled delicious. Sammy and Bobby had cooked some sort of cheesy chicken casserole. I went straight to my bedroom. I shed my clothes and stepped into the shower. I stood there for several minutes before the shower door opened and someone joined me in the shower. I didnât even turn around to look.
I just felt the soft hands be placed over my eyes and little kisses in the back of my neck. I knew it clearly was not Dakota and it didnât feel like Tina. I didnât make a guess I just gently turned around. I was quite surprised; it was Dr. Ronda. We embraced underneath the shower and let the nice hot water cascade over our bodies.
Ronda pulled herself into me and began kissing me much like a high school teenager does on a Friday night date to the movies. We moved back underneath the hot water of the shower. The water felt nice and helped relax both of our bodies.
I took my time and made passionate love to Ronda. I know that she wants a child with me and Iâm happy to help create one. Our lovemaking started in the shower stall where we spent about an hour to 90 minutes being intimate in there. After we finished with each other in the shower, we moved to one of the play beds in my bedroom.
I gently picked her up and laid her on the bed. We made another round of passionate love. Just as we were finishing up, Jill came into the bedroom and asked Ronda if she was staying the night. Ronda had to decline as she had early morning hospital rounds to make and Dakotaâs discharge paperwork to write. As we were done with the lovemaking, Ronda kissed me and told me that she really enjoyed being with me. She kissed me and thanked Jill and left.
I was stunned that Jill got the thanks and I got a kiss. Well truth be told, I got more than a kiss from Ronda. Something inside of me didnât feel the same as it did with Dakota and Jill about creating a child. Oh, the lovemaking was delightful, it somehow just didnât seem the same so maybe we didnât create a baby. Only time will tell.
Ronda put on her clothes and headed out towards the front door. I was happy that we spent a couple of hours all entangled but I didnât have that feeling as I did with both Jill and Dakota about making a baby. I guess that Iâll just have to wait until Ronda tells me one way or another.
It wasnât long after Ronda left that Jennifer knocked on my door.
âCome in,â I say.
I see that it is Jennifer and she comes over to me and sits me on the play bed.
âWhatâs up, is something wrong?â I ask.
âNo, nothing is wrong, but we have that FBI agentâs wife starting tomorrow. Will you be at the office at some point tomorrow or will I be all alone in handling her?â Jennifer asks me.
âNo, not to worry. Iâll eventually end up at the office. However, Ronda tells me that she will be writing the orders in the morning for Dakota to get out of the hospital. Iâll take her back here to the Chateau and get her settled in and then come to the office. Will that is OK with you?â I ask Jennifer.
âThat will be fine. I was just worried that I would be handling her first-day paperwork alone. I hope she turns out to be a hard worker as we have pages of people that work for us who are making a transfer and need their house listed on the MLS.â She says to me.
I kiss her and head off to my sleep bed. I shed my shorts and tee-shirt and climb into bed. One of the things that I thought about not joining me in bed tonight will be Dakota.
Tomorrow morning will be busy. I will go to the hospital and wait for Dr. Ronda to write the orders for Dakota to leave. From there I will bring Dakota home and get her settled into her own room. I will head towards the office to take over Margaretâs first day at Jaxson, Inc.
In my head, I was doing a count of people who should be showing up to work at the Hawk tomorrow. Jill, BJ, Danni, Sharon, John, Diane, Tina, Jennifer, and the new girl Margaret. This number made me smile mostly, but with no Dakota, I felt a bit out of touch since she is my solid rock. She protects me, she assists me, and she points me in the proper direction.
I climb into bed and find myself there alone for now, but Iâm expecting Jill to join me at some point in the bed although I do miss Dakota. Having her small lithe body all snuggled into my body always seems wonderful.
It doesnât take long for me to finally drift off to sleep. When I wake the next morning, I get up and head into the bathroom to take another hot shower. With no one with me, the shower didnât take that long. Once I was finished taking the shower, I dried off and got dressed to start the day.
CHAPTER 4
Once I was finished, I got dressed for work. I headed out to the kitchen to get a glass of pineapple juice and a couple of slices of toast with butter and jelly. Sammy was nice enough to get the toast ready. He put it on a plate and set it in front of me to eat before I head to the hospital. Once it is done, I just have to toss the crust of the toast in the trash can along with the paper plate.
I get up and call for Jill and Tina. Jill tells me that she will be taking her car to the office and I should have Tina take Dakotaâs BMW to drive me to see Dakota. I ask Tina to drive Dakotaâs car to the hospital which she agrees to do. We head out to the garage and start-up Dakotaâs car. She backs it out of the garage. I poke the buttons to close the garage door. We roll around to the courtyard gate and poke another button to open it. We pass through and roll to the outer gate. Once again we poke a button and the outer gate opens allowing us to leave the property.
Tina heads towards the hospital weaving in and out of the traffic. One thing that Tina doesnât do is push the yellow lights because there is no need to push them. It takes about an hour to reach the hospital because we are driving during the morning drive to work traffic.
We pass several kids waiting at their designated location for their school bus to pick them up and take them to school. Finally, we get to the hospital. We park the car and head inside. We tell the security guard at the front desk that we are going to see Dakota in room 212. Walking through the hallways is much like traversing a maze. It takes several minutes before we reach room 212. When we get there, our lithe little Dakota is sitting up and eating her breakfast. The food service brought her scrambled eggs, two slices of buttered toast and two sausage links.
I notice that she was also given orange juice which she is slow to drink. Iâm happy to see her up and at least trying to eat the food that they brought her. Iâm sure she has a newfound love for Bobby and Sammy. That thought brought me to make a list so the two chefs have a listing of favorite foods that they can make you, such as an omelet or maybe you prefer a fried egg sandwich or the such.
Dr. Ronda comes in, gives me a kiss and begins checking Dakotaâs vital signs once again. She is using her stethoscope to listen to Dakotaâs heartbeat and breathing. Dr. Ronda does make comment about how uninteresting the food tray is compared to Bobby and Sammyâs work at the house.
Of course, I invite Dr. Ronda to come to the Chateau tonight to join us in a little celebration of having Dakota back home. She tells me that she will try, but she has some medical things she is supposed to handle that will take her until about 10 pm. I laugh a bit and tell her that as usual, she is welcome anytime. Dr. Ronda finishes up with Dakota, gives me a kiss and tell us that Dakota can get dressed because she will have the discharge papers ready in about 15 minutes.
Dakota is so happy that she pushes the table away from her and gets her little sweet body out of bed to put clothes back on. I didnât know it, but Jill brought a new set of clothes yesterday for Dakota. I smiled when I saw her put on panties. This will have to be a change in her routine.
Once Dakota is up, she heads into the bathroom to put on her clothes and to freshen up. Tina and I sit patiently waiting for Dakota to get dressed. After what seems like forever, Dakota comes out of the bathroom all dressed and ready to go home. Dakota was thankful that Tina brought her some deodorant and a hairbrush as she had bedhead going on.
Once Dakota was ready, we headed out to traverse the hallways to get to the elevator and down to the first floor to leave the hospital. Dakota held on to my arm the entire way which made me feel happy. I purposely took it slowly not wanting to overdo it with Dakota. She told me that she was happy that Tina and I came to get her, and she stopped me in the hallway to give me a kiss. After kissing me, she also kissed Tina.
I asked Tina to go get the car and bring it to the front door for Dakota. Tina went sprinting off to get outside to the car. I just kept walking with Dakota on my arm. By the time we made it to the front doors of the hospital, Tina was sitting there with the car. I opened the front door of the car and gently put Dakota in. I then opened the back door and put myself in the back seat. Once Dakota and I were all buckled in, Tina headed back to the Chateau. Since morning traffic was now over, we traveled quite quickly to the house. Once we got there, Tina poked the proper button to open the outer gate first then the inner gate so the car could be in the courtyard. She poked the proper third button to open one of the garage doors.
Tina parked the car and the three of us went inside the house. I could smell a great breakfast smell. Dakota kissed both chefs and asked if they would make her some scrambled eggs with bacon and a couple of slices of toast and a big glass of milk. Bobby and Sammy both smiled and told her that they would love to make her breakfast.
I settled Dakota down onto the couch in the TV room before I kissed her and headed off to the Hawk. It didnât take very long before Jill rolled around in her car to pick me up and take me to the office. We quickly made it to the office since morning go to work traffic was basically over. When we got there, Jill parked her car on the second floor of the parking garage.
We took the walkway over to the office tower to take the elevator up to the top floor. When we stepped off the elevator, Jill gave me a kiss and headed to her office. I went over to our Real Estate department to say hello to Margaret Fernandez. I asked her to follow me to my office so we could do some new employee paperwork.
Once we got to my office, I pulled out a file from my cabinet to have her start doing things such as I-9, W-2, direct deposit paperwork and the such. A while back I had about 50 packets made up and put in my file cabinet so all I would have to do is pull one packet out of the drawer.
It didnât take Margaret very long to finish the paperwork. Once she was complete, we sat and talked for a few minutes. I told her what I expected of her and offered to answer any questions that she might have. She did have a few questions, such as when is payday. Whom do you call if your feeling sick? Where will her desk be located? What time does she stop doing her work and take lunch?
I took the time to answer all the questions for her. I explained that Jennifer will be her immediate supervisor. I also explained that Diane is not her supervisor, but she does know what is going on in the Real Estate department.
I walked her around the office floor introducing her to everyone. I also let her know that Sharon is my go-to person if she has problems with the office. Margaret seemed to take to the office quite well and I asked her if she had any further questions, which she didnât.
I walked her back over by Jennifer and had her and Jennifer choose a desk for her. I asked Jen to make sure that her phone and computer worked and if either one didnât work to get Sharon involved to get everything fixed. Once we got Margaret all settled in, I walked away and went to my office.
As a treat to everyone in the office, I asked Sharon to order up some sandwiches from Jimmy Johns to be delivered about noon. Sharon took her note pad and went around the office floor getting a list of what everyone wanted from Jimmy Johns.
When I got to my office, I turned on my computer and let it boot up. When it was ready, I started with the email portal. Once again there were in excess of 300 emails. As usual, I deleted the duplicate emails. Then I scanned for distinctive emails for me to read and comment on.
The first one that got my attention was from Rob, our IT guy. He tells me that he is basically finished with the employee ID project. All total he found 386 people still on our records that have been terminated or just quit the company. He said that he froze them so no further payments would go into their account. He also had a legal draft a letter requesting funds to be returned. He told me in the email that he didnât think we would get any money back; it was worth a shot.
He also made mention that he had some push back from several of the HR people across the different brands. When he contacted them about the people still being on the company records he got some answers from HR people that it wasnât their job to take employees off the company payroll. I scratched my head wondering whose job it was then to remove terminated employees from our company payrolls records.
Rob had a nice detailed list of the names of the employees, the brand that they worked for when they were terminated, who is the HR person of record for their district and how much money they have been overpaid.
I thanked Rob for his diligence in taking on this project and told him that I will be sending him a bonus of some sort for his hard work and dedication.
After I finished with his email, I sent one out company-wide that I wanted ALL HR people to come here to LA for an HR convention within Jaxson, Inc. I felt that it was now time for all the HR people to be in one place at the same time so I can get the message across about what I now expect out of the HR people. I gave them a time for them to be here in LA and told them to watch their email for further instructions. I walked up front to see Sharon and gave her some direction about setting up a meeting of all of our HR people. I asked her to take over putting this meeting together. I instructed that it will be a one-day meeting, but that many of the HR people may need to come in the night before the conference and then fly out once the conference is over. I didnât want it to be held at the Hawk as that would interrupt with the work going on here. I suggested using the large meeting room of one of our hotels here in LA, complete with food and drink along with shuttle service to the airport after the meeting was over.
I know that this is a huge project, so I gave her BJ and Danni to assist her. She smiled once I gave her those two ladies to assist.
John kept an eye on me, making sure that I had everything that I needed. He offered to get me something to drink or get some food if I was hungry. I explained to him that I already have Sharon ordering everyone lunch from Jimmy Johns. He liked that idea.
I kept my eye on Margaret the entire day, checking in with her to ensure that she was feeling all settled with Jennifer and Diane. She seemed to get along quite well. Jennifer gave her a list of people from across all the brands that were being transferred and needed to have their house sold from where they were living to purchase a new house where they were going. When I came around just before handing out the sandwiches, I asked her if she felt overwhelmed. She told me that she didnât feel that way but if she gets to feeling like that should she say something to Jennifer or to me directly? I told her to speak to Jennifer first, then come to me. I want her to be successful here.
She did aske me if the rumor is true or not, that I hired Heidi Longmire and that I asked her out for a date. I laughed at her statement. I told her that part of what she said was true. I did recruit Heidi away from the FBI, but I was careful to point out that she will head up our forensic accounting team looking for misappropriated monies. As to the second part, I assured her that I have never asked Heidi Longmire out on a date. I made the joke that my wife is a sharing person, but not that sharing. I did correct her in that I told her that I set her up on a date with a good guy that I know, Patrick, the gentleman she met with Heidi at dinner the other night.
She apologized to me for asking a question based upon a misunderstanding. I laughed it off and told her that she can aske me anything, but she should be careful as she may get embarrassed with my answer.
I heard Sharon tell John that the Jimmy John subs had arrived and that she was making it his job to walk around the office and hand out the subs to the proper people. She pointed out that there was a name written on each sandwich to make it easier. She also handed John a list of what sandwiches were ordered for everyone. She did tell him that there were a few people who didnât give her an order so she just selected a sub sandwich that she thought they might enjoy. John was smiling as he worked his way around the office.
Not surprising, he hung out with Diane for a couple of extra minutes. He got up and went back to handing out sandwiches when he saw that I was watching him. He got some pushback from some people that they had ordered some chips, but he didnât have any chips. I went up to Sharon and asked about the chips. She apologized and handed me a large bag that had lots of little bags inside it for chips to go with the sub sandwiches.
It didnât take John all that long to get the sandwiches to everyone, I walked around handing out the chips. Margaret asked me if I do this all the time or was today just a special day for her. I laughed and told her that I have a long history in the restaurant industry and really enjoy taking care of my staff and they seem to be comfortable with me, which I enjoy.
It occurred to me that we didnât order any drinks, so I sent this Asian guy that works for us one floor down and to buy some drinks from the vending machines. Heâs done this before, so he has a good idea of what needs to be bought. He takes a rolling cart on the elevator to help carry the drinks back up to be distributed. Once he returns, I help handing out the drinks as well.
I pull up a chair next to Jennifer, Diane, and Margaret. John pulls up a chair to sit next to Diane. The five of us have a delightful time just chatting about things as we all eat our lunch.
Lately, I find myself enjoying life. Although I did get a scare out of Dakota, outside of that I have been enjoying life. Being a chauffeur did change my life for the better. Tina is now home, and her Mother is with us in the Chateau. I get the feeling that her Mother might want to sell her house in Phoenix and buy a small home here in LA which I can get Margaret to take care of for them.
IF YOU ENJOYED THIS CHAPTER, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO LEAVE ME A COMMENT. THANK YOU, PABLO DIABLO.
