The Chauffeur (#23) The City of Angels

The Chauffeur (#23) The City of Angels

By: PABLO DIABLO

Copyright 2019

CHAPTER 1

As we disembarked from the plane, the co-pilot carried our luggage down to the bottom of the stairs. Fred walked over and picked each piece up and put them neatly in the trunk.

The ladies were all in the limo when Fred asked if he could speak to me privately for a moment. I was worried for a moment until I saw him reach into the driver’s seat and pull out an 8×10 brown mailing envelope. I knew instantly what the discussion would be about.

“Mr. Greene, I think theirs been a mistake. I received this envelope, which I had to sign for and show my identification. When I pulled out the contents, I discovered this,” he said handing me the paper inside the envelope.

I glanced at it, ensuring that it did indeed say 2500 shares of Jaxson Inc. stock.

“What’s the problem, Fred?” I asked.

“Um, sir, I think you made a mistake, or someone did. I’m happy with the stock, please don’t misunderstand. However, is it supposed to be maybe 250 shares, not 2500?” He asks very hesitantly.

“No, it says right here 2500,” I tell him just having a little fun with him about it.

“Sir, I can read. I see that it says 2500. My point is that maybe it is supposed to be just 250 and NOT 2500,” he says clearly getting frustrated with my poor attempt at humor.

“Fred, listen to me and please listen well. I authorized it and Jill agreed. You deserve 2500 shares. You work hard, you come and go at our whim. You’ve sent me a couple of good guys in your nephews. You’ve even taken on helping Paula teach new chauffeurs how to do their job better. Paula says nothing but great things about you. Now, I hope you don’t run out and cash these in right away, let them grow….and I can assure you they will grow. Think of this as an investment in your retirement,” I say to him.

“Well, thank you, sir. I’m humbled. I looked up the stock price today. It’s at $271.50. That’s up $1.50 from close yesterday. You have just given me over $650,000 AND you just gave me a huge raise something like 30%. How can I be doing that well for you when all I do is chauffeur you around?” He asks quizzically.

“As I said, you do a whole lot for us. You don’t realize how nice it is to know that our chauffeur isn’t someone that we have to worry about running off with our secrets,” I explain to him.

I get in the limo and Fred begins the journey to take us back to the Commune. In my head, I do some quick math 271.50 minus the 265.25 equals $6.25 increase since I began handing out the stock certificates.

I ask Dakota for her cell phone. She hands it to me. I turn it to the calculator mode. I put in the number 271.50-265.25=6.25. She looks puzzled at what I’m doing. I hand the phone back to her. I say to put in the number of shares she has, which she does. I whisper in her ear, that’s how much your stock has gone up since we gave it to you.

It takes a moment for her to understand in just a very short time her stock has increased by $62,500. She smiles her big come fuck me smile, which I think I will take her up on later.

Jill asked what all the smiling was about. I explained that since the stock gift, the Jaxson Inc. stock has gone up $6.25/share. Jill smiles and Tina smiles.

I got a text from Amy. She said her car battery was dead and she needed to get to the grocery store. Before I replied, I asked Tina and Dakota if either one of them could take Amy grocery shopping. Tina volunteered immediately. I texted Amy back to let her know that Tina will take her when we get home.

The rest of the drive was uneventful. Traffic was busy but not all that bad.

When we finally got to the Commune, everyone seemed relieved. Of course, Fred had the trunk open and our luggage on the ground just a couple of minutes after he opened the rear door to let us exit the limo.

Tina quickly grabbed her stuff and headed inside to put it all in her room and to get Amy to take her grocery shopping.

Dakota, Jill, and I all got our stuff and headed for the front door. As usual, I pulled a couple of $100 bills out of my pocket and handed them to Fred. He, as usual, tried to politely decline. I said to him, “Just take the darn money,” as I put it directly in his hand. He, as usual, thanked me.

I told Fred that I didn’t believe that I needed him tomorrow, but if I did need him to go anywhere, I would just let Paula know.

He got into the limo and left.

When I got inside, I took my luggage to our bedroom. Jill was already unpacking, putting her dirty clothes in our laundry hamper.

Not remembering what day of the week, it was, I asked Jill. She let me know that it was Thursday. In my head, I didn’t see any reason we couldn’t have another play weekend. Jill thought that would be a wonderful idea.

As we finished unpacking, I was both hungry and tired. I chose to take a nap.

CHAPTER 2

Once again, it was several hours before I woke. My head was a bit fuzzy as to what day it was. I remembered laying down late Thursday afternoon. I looked at the clock, it read 3:05am. WOW, where had the time gone?

Jill was laying next to me, completely asleep, but looking as gorgeous as ever. The room was almost completely dark, except for the bit of moonlight coming through the wooden blinds that weren’t closed.

I got up and headed to the bathroom. Once finished in there, I put on a pair of basketball shorts and my usual white tee shirt.

Quietly leaving the bedroom, I went down the hallway towards the kitchen.

Surprisingly, I found Jennifer and Amy just sitting at the kitchen bar and having a drink. By the way, each was talking, I guessed that they were having adult drinks. Of course, the bottle of Rum and 2-liter of Coke sitting on the counter also gave me a clue.

Both smiled their beautiful smiles when they saw me.

“Good Morning, Ladies,” I said smiling.

“Morning? We haven’t even been to bed yet. Want to join us in bed?” Jennifer said to me.

Amy agreed.

While it didn’t seem as if they were trashed, I could tell that they were feeling little to no pain.

The two of them tried pulling on my arm to get me to head to a bedroom with them. Both sides of my brain were in a fight. One the decent guy side, my stupid brain says ‘don’t do it. You’ll have plenty of fun with them this weekend.’ However, the horndog side of my brain said, ‘why the hell not?’

For the moment, the gentleman side of my brain won out, but it could go the other way…. maybe.

“Ladies, I would love to take you to bed, but I’m pretty sure you two would be better if I didn’t play with you right now. I was thinking about having another play weekend, are either of you interested?” I ask already knowing the answer.

Amy speaks up first, “Damn, that means I need to do a whole lot more grocery shopping. I need to get the house cleaned and get laundry done. Hell, maybe I should start right now,” She says trying to get up.

I step over to her, putting my arms around her to steady her. Of course, she thinks that I’m putting my arms around her as an indication that I want to play, which I do, but that’s not why my arms are around her.

“See, I knew you wanted to play,” she says with a half-hearted smile and her eyes a bit droopy.

She put her arms around my neck trying to plant a sloppy wet kiss on me. I conceded the point allowing her to kiss me as passionately as she could. She stuck her tongue out licking my lips and the area underneath my nose. That told me she was indeed more inebriated than I suspected.

Jennifer, now feeling left out, stood up holding on to the countertop trying to put me into a David-sandwich.

She said into my ear much louder than needed, “David, how did we ever get so lucky that you include us in your playtime? You do realize that we both love you, don’t you?” She said in a manner that suggested that she too has had a bit too much to drink.

I looked back at the handle-size bottle of Rum and realized it was about 40% gone, something I didn’t notice when I first saw it sitting on the counter.

I scooped Amy up in my arms, with Jennifer taking hold of my arm with hers. I walked them down to a bedroom that I knew was unoccupied. I opened the door and laid Amy on the bed. Jennifer was already peeling clothes off.

I kissed Amy telling her goodnight. I turned around to see Jennifer virtually naked already. I kissed her and whispered in her ear, “Play with Amy, she wants you,” knowing that either or both would be asleep shortly.

Jennifer frowned but decided to follow what I had said and climbed into bed with Amy. They started kissing. I just stood there for a couple of minutes being the voyeur, but alas, as I suspected they both fell quickly asleep as they snuggled into one another.

I quietly left the bedroom and closed the door behind me.

Heading back to the kitchen, I put the bottle of rum away. Poured out the remainder of the already poured drinks. I put the glasses into the dishwasher which was empty. I put the cap on the bottle of Coke and put it in the fridge.

Once in the fridge, I realized that I was hungry. I pulled out the jelly and decided to have my personal favorite: a toasted double-decker PB&J sandwich with a glass of ice-cold milk.

As I waited for the toaster to pop with my first two slices of bread, I wiped off the counter both where they made their drink and where they were sitting drinking their drinks.

Smelling something burning, I looked at the toaster. We had a new one, that I didn’t realize until it burnt my first two slices. I readjusted the setting dial as it was all the way to the max at number 10. I turned it down to number 3 thinking that for a new toaster that should be dark enough without burning the toast.

I pulled the two burnt slices of toast out and tossed them in the trash. I put in three slices now since the new toaster was an 8-slice toaster with four levers to cook two slices at a time.

I began to look around, virtually every one of my items on the list that I gave Amy was in the kitchen.

I opened the cabinets and drawers to find silverware, actual plates, bowls, Tervis ware cups, coffee cups, drinking glasses, cooking utensils, potholders, new cookware including three roasting pans of different sizes. I was truly amazed. Amy had done well, very well. The kitchen was indeed ready. I also noticed that we had two blenders, two mixers, a food processor, and a second microwave. None of which I noticed when I entered the kitchen as my attention was to the two drunk beauties that occupied the room.

I did notice a list just lying on the bar counter. It had some other items that she felt we needed.

The list read: Dining room table, seating at least 12, china cabinet, Noritake china, true silverware, a box to hold the silver, paper towel holders, a desk for planning, a date book, several dry erase boards, multiple message pads… the list just stopped.

Amy had indeed done well so far, and her list only confirmed that she was the proper choice to entrust running the house.

I pulled my laptop out and plugged it in. I opened it and logged into work’s email. Again, shaking my head there were another 413 emails. I thought to myself that with only two days away from my laptop the emails grew exponentially.

I scanned through them looking for important ones first.

I noticed one from the district manager in Tampa demanding he knows why I ‘snuck’ into one of his restaurants without asking him permission.

At first, I thought about being cordial and explaining my position, but then my instincts took over. I replied that I didn’t need his permission since he reports to me, not the other way around. I continued to tell him that he should be careful as there are lots of high-quality people who could replace him, should he choose to leave our employ.

Just to be an ass, I signed the email “Respectfully, your boss…. David Greene, Director of Operations Jaxson Inc.” I smiled as I hit send with return receipt requested. This way he couldn’t say that he ‘just got’ the email.

I also blind copied the two HR people, one with Jaxson Inc. the other the regional HR for the restaurant group.

I said to myself, “Take that you piss-ant,” smiling the whole time.

Looking over the humongous list, I saw many emails that were just read-only ones that had copied me on various topics. For the first time, I saw one from one of the horse tracks that we now owned. I had forgotten about those money-makers. I opened the one that was titled “HELP”. I was worried at first thinking that this may be one of those spam emails, but it wasn’t.

As I read the email, it was from a Ted Willis, Director of Operations at Tampa Bay Downs. His email eluded to issues that they were having with the gaming commission in the State of Florida.

The email explained that one of their dealers had put together a small group of people who worked as a ring in their cardroom. They would work the tables moving their way to the final table. The dealer, who was a key part of the ring, was dirty-dealing ensuring that the others in the ring were getting all the good cards.

What tipped the gaming commission off was a professional poker player from Las Vegas and Atlantic City recognized the shady ways of the dealer.

He first complained to management, who basically did nothing. He contacted the senior management of the track, who also did nothing feeling that this was just the grumblings of someone who lost their money.

It continued telling that this guy then filed a grievance with the State of Florida’s gaming commission. That prompted them to take all the surveillance video for the past 6 months. Now, normally that wouldn’t be a problem, however, there were several court cases coming up in the next couple of weeks and without the surveillance, the cases would be dismissed, and they would be open to civil lawsuits.

What he was asking for amounted to legal help since we now owned that track and several others. He gave me his contact information at the bottom of the email.

I read the email a second time just to make sure I understood all the salient details. I put the information down on my notepad, along with Mr. Willis contact information.

He did invite me if we were ever in Tampa Bay to visit him and the track as it is one of the oldest in Florida and a quite beautiful park, while not Churchill Downs nor a few of the other storied parks, it was a high-quality park with a storied history none the less.

I made some notes about calling the legal team in Florida as well as call the State of Florida gaming commission. My first instinct was to request that the video be duplicated, and the originals be returned, however, I wasn’t sure if that was even possible. Of course, my second thought was about if they even had a warrant to take the video and why wasn’t legal already involved? I sent Mr. Willis a reply email telling him that I would be contacting him later today.

I began reading many of the ‘read-only’ emails to be able to discard them. I glanced at the clock on the microwave. It read 5:55am. I figure that I would contact Mr. Willis about 9am our time, which would be about noon Tampa time.

I did respond to a few of the emails saying ‘thank you’ for the information, just to let them know that I had read the email that they had sent

I saw another email from one of the trucking managers. He said that most of the tires that were ordered from BF Goodrich was delivered and they were a big hit as several trucks across the US were making the switch. He also asked if we could afford it to order another group exactly as the first set and have them delivered to the same locations before they started getting low.

I sent a return email asking him if we were taking the removed tires to one of the Dallas retreading locations, and if not, could we get that underway.

I responded that I would take care of it. I sent the guy from BF Goodrich requesting another order, but this time I doubled the order asking that they once again deliver the tires to the same locations.

I did check the financials and found Jill had already paid their invoice. I scanned through the invoices and didn’t see anything out of line.

Going through more of the emails, I saw one from Roger. He recommended three people to handle the firearm training. One East coast, one in the Midwest, and one Westcoast.

He suggested Tom Smith, East coast, Mathew Miller, Midwest, and Diego Sanchez for the Westcoast.