Copyright 2008 by madengineer3, All rights are reserved! This story is not to be copied or circulated except by madengineer3 or by means of the Literotica website, and under Literotica's rules.
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I am known as Mr. Frankson by the people I work with, or more accurately who work for me. To friends I'm Jack. I've been out of college for fifteen years now. I have my Ph.D. in engineering physics and a very good job with a large automobile manufacturing company. I am involved with the safety of a vehicle during a crash. My job pays extremely well since there are few people with my particular skill set. Financially I don't have to work. My grandfather was a very successful attorney with some very rich clients. Over his lifetime he "dabbled" in the stock and bond markets. I say "dabbled" because he eventually was holding paper worth in excess of fifty million dollars. He had gotten in "on the ground floor" when Texas Instruments, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and AMD were starting up. He originally invested about twenty thousand dollars in each company. If you know what happened to those stocks over the first few years you can see where the money came from. That was the first "technology bubble". He left his assets to my father, who in turn gave me half of the stocks when I finished my Ph.D.. My dad is really a special sort of person. My net worth, at this time is about fifteen million dollars. Five million of that is due to my investments in several software companies and a silicon foundry that produces extremely high quality electronic devices for the Department of Defense and NASA. Most of these parts are ones that the original company had discontinued but that are still needed for the military and the space industry.
There are a few "down sides" to my job as well. The main one being that the safety of the car takes back seat to the looks of the car. There are some car body designs that are extremely difficult, if not almost impossible, to make truly safe. Secondly, I like people and I try to be loyal to my "crew"; unfortunately at my level in the corporation the corporation expects that my first loyalty will be to the corporate "higher ups". . The last thing is that I am in a real bind in terms of my love life.
I tend to be a very private person. Only very good friends would be allowed to get to really know me, which is how it has to be. Unfortunately, I have no really good friends. As my father used to say, if you need both hands to count the number of friends that you have; you are blessed with many friends. He said that having more than two real friends in you lifetime made you very fortunate. Now, I'm sure that many of you will argue that you have many friends. I would call most of them acquaintances. A friend is someone you could trust with your life, without any second thoughts. A friend is like a brother who has vowed to keep your secrets unless they involve murder or treason.
One of the people who work for me is a lady named Susan. She, also, is a very private person. I know some details of her life, but not as much detail as I would like. She is very cute! I know that she has no living immediate family. I know that she enjoys music from the Classical and Romantic periods. And, I know that she is a highly intelligent and creative person with a strong work ethic. I would love to get to know Susan on a personal level, but there are two problems with that. One; she works for me and it is never good policy to have an emotional attachment between a manager and a member of the manager's staff. The other is a deeply personal problem I'd rather not discuss.
This general situation remained this way until the second week in November of last year. Susan was driving to work when an oncoming car hit a patch of "black ice" and spun out of control and directly into Susan's car. If she hadn't been driving an older, heavy, car she wouldn't have survived. As it is, she sustained multiple fractures and a concussion. The hospital patched her up and kept her for a few weeks. Her pelvis had been broken to two places along with both legs and both arms. The concussion had required surgery to reduce the pressure of a subdural hematoma and as such they wanted to keep an eye on her. The hospital told her that she need to arrange to live with a member of her family or consider a four month stay at a skilled nursing home.
I had thrown caution to the wind since I knew that she had no family who could visit and that she didn't have a lot of personal friends either. During this period of time I went to see Susan in the hospital every day. We had begun to converse more like two friends than a boss and a worker. I had begun to really like this wonderful person. She had depth and was a good and kind person.
Susan was about to choose which nursing home to go to when I was given a horrible task by the director of our division. I had to lay off five people, and to make matters worse the company had picked the five people who had to go. Susan headed the list! Her work was good, but her medical expenses were likely to be very costly. As is the usual case with top level management, the bottom line is much more important than the loyal workers well being.
I arrived at the hospital with great foreboding. When I got to her room she smiled at me and said:
"I've decided that I'll go to Lakeside nursing home for a few months. Our company insurance pays to cover it and I can't live on my own with these casts. Oh.....is something wrong? You look like your best friend just died. Can I help?"
At that point I have to admit that tears had formed in my eyes. I couldn't speak for several moments. When I finally got hold of myself I had to tell her.
"Susan, I've got some terrible news. I spoke to your doctor before coming in to make sure that you could handle it. I have to tell you that I had no input to the companies decision. They have told me to lay off five people from our group. They picked the five who had to go. They also told me that today was to be the last day for those people. Your name was on the list. Your hospitalization will be covered by the company insurance, but a nursing home won't be. I'm terribly sorry. You truly can have no idea how sorry I am. I was mad enough at their choices that I quit, on the spot. This may not be overly professional, but I won't voluntarily work for a company that treats loyal employees like this."
She had the proverbial "deer caught in the headlights" look on her face. She didn't have tears in her eyes but you could see that something sort of died inside.
"I don't know what I'm going to do. I can't live on my own yet, but at the same time I can't afford to go to a nursing home. What am I going to do?"
"I have a suggestion, but I'm afraid that you will think poorly of me if I make it. I promise you that I have no ulterior motives. I have a large house. It has three spare bedrooms. I would consider it an honor if you would let me provide you with a room and the services of a registered nurse. Before you tell me it is too expensive, I should tell you that money is not a problem for me."
The look from Susan was a strange mixture of relief, uneasiness, and shock.
"Jack, are you sure about this? Can you so easily spend that kind of money?"
"Yes, I can. In fact it was that fact that made it easy to tell the company that I wouldn't work for them I don't need the salary and I don't want to work for a place that has no feelings of loyalty to its workers. What do you say? Shall I have a good hospital bed put in a spare room and have a temp agency supply us with some nursing help?"
"I'm in a real bind, I almost have to take you up on the offer; but I feel that I am imposing on you. How will you handle the cooking and cleaning with me as an invalid?"
"Well, I already have a maid who comes in five times a week, and a cook who shops for me and prepares dinners on week nights so it won't be a problem. In fact, since Christmas was just a few weeks ago, I'll bet that they could use the extra money."
"Thank you, Jack. I'll accept your offer. I just hope you won't think poorly of me as you get to know more about me."
"Enough of that talk! I will have things set up so that you can be moved tomorrow. I should find out what types of food you like. My cook is really very good and can make you anything that you would like. Let me pick tomorrow night's meal; but I'll make sure that my cook checks with you tomorrow to get your preferences. And, by the way, it would take something monumental to make me think poorly of you."
I grew a bit more bold and kissed her on the forehead, saying "get a good night's sleep, tomorrow is going to be a busy day."