Chapter 32: A week in Florida meeting Jeff and Rachel
As a pinnacle member, Grace had a free choice when to get off the cruise ship in Miami: to beat the --probably- long lines through immigration and customs, we chose to leave rather early and we were right. As we were among the first to leave, there were just a few foreigners, like ourselves, waiting in line at the immigration counters. The immigration officer we got to was very friendly, asking all the traditional questions. Even though he was an avid cruiser himself, he was curious why we had chosen a transatlantic crossing by ship rather than by plane. He had never tried it himself and wanted to know if it wasn't too boring to be 5 days at sea without visiting any port at all. After our explanation, I think we got him convinced to try it. Next was the car rental counter. Judging by the line there and several disgruntled customers walking out, I was happy I had booked in advance. Due to the lack of small and medium cars, they gave us a free upgrade to a full size with all the options you can imagine, including GPS, which would come in very handy, so about one and a half-hours after disembarking, we were on our way to Orlando.
"Mickey and Donald here we come," I shouted leaving the rental car parking.
Some 3 hours later we arrived at the rental office for our villa in Kissimmee, where we were supposed to meet Jeff and Rachel, Grace's realtor friends.
"How do you know these people?" I asked Grace.
"I met them at the vacation fair in Brussels when the USA was guest country of the year. They were there to promote their rental villas business in Kissimmee and trying to find a partner to handle the European side of affairs. With the European Union headquarters in Brussels, they had lots of customers wanting to come to Florida and its parks to vacation, but it's extremely difficult for them to handle everything directly from the States, so I hope to convince them to put their business in the hands of my agency. For them, it would be far less worry, especially with all the languages, the money transfers, and to be sure people show up at the agreed date and time. It would be a tremendous business opportunity for me - well more for Nancy I hope, as I would like her to take on this business and specialize in it, now that we've started working together. This way we each have our own specialty and we can split it up into two separate companies protecting ourselves financially and maybe even save some on taxes."
"I always knew you were an astute businesswoman, good on you Grace, just let me know how I can best support you, that's the least I can do for you saving me from boring birthday parties and wishes."
"Don't worry I'll make you earn your keep, and I'll expect your efforts between the sheets too!"
"Promises, promises!" I said with a chuckle.
"I may yet surprise you, I did learn a thing or two during my fun afternoon with Lori. I still think back to the challenge with Mel. I knew you would turn it so you couldn't lose: I guess when you told them later about the challenges Alicia had put you through when you were young, they understood they'd been set up."
"Anyway, Mel accepted his defeat gracefully and we had a fantastic dinner together to celebrate our meeting on the cruise."
"Yes, we did. They're great friends, and I truly hope they'll come back to Europe next year; I can't wait to see them at work in Amsterdam."
"I guess we're supposed to go over to reception for check-in and to meet with Jeff and Rachel? You've met them before, what are they like?"
"Yes," Grace replied, you'd better prepare yourself, Rachel's a stunner, I'll have to keep you on a short leash as I don't think you'll have any problem talking her out of her clothes and photographing her. Jeff is very good-looking too, I wouldn't say no if he asked me."
"What could he possibly ask from you, Grace?"
"Take a wild guess, they're swingers..."
"My god woman, you'll be the death of me yet, more sex?"
"You knew that upfront when you signed up for this trip."
"Did I? I can't remember seeing anything stipulated in the general or special conditions. I thought more of it as a benefit...well, for you at least, for me it's just hard work."
"You poor baby, I feel for you, is it the 60 that's doing this to you?"
"Not yet, in 2 days, I'm still 59 now, so you've got 2 more days left to wear me out."
"Thank god for small favors." We both burst out laughing, it was so loud some people in the parking area were looking at us curiously. When we walked into reception, I saw what Grace meant by 'stunner'. As soon as Rachel saw Grace she came running, a big smile on her face, arms wide open and gave her a big hug.
"You made it. Jeff and I began to worry you wouldn't show up, that something had happened, but you're really here."
"We took our time, especially with all the speed limits in the States, we always stayed on the safe side. It's so frustrating to drive so slowly on these empty highways, give me Germany any day, there at least you get big chunks of road where there's no speed limit at all."
"Yes I remember, when we were over there, at first it was a bit frightening to drive over 200 kph (124 mph), but once we got used to it, it was great fun. I'll never forget the first time you took us there and drove at 200, I almost shit my pants, I was so afraid, and when you laughingly took it up to 250 (155 miles), I closed my eyes, sure I would die in the next minutes."
"That's one of the things we love to do when Americans come over for the first time, take them to Germany and drive there as the Germans do, you were OK though, I had people in my car screaming. Anyway, we made it and it's great to see you again. Allow me to introduce my chauffeur, friend, and travel companion, Lew."
"Nice to meet you, Lew, I've heard a lot about you," and before I could respond, she put her arms around me in a bear hug, pressing her impressive boobs into my chest. This woman looked and smelled like pure sex; when she finally let go I jokingly asked if Grace had been badmouthing me again?"
"No it was all good; you're also her photographer I understand?"
"Amongst other things."
"Ooh I'd like to hear more about those other things, but first let me introduce you to my husband Jeff."
"Nice to meet you, Jeff."
"Likewise Lew, welcome to our estate."
"I must say, it looks impressive, enclosed and everything."
"You can't run a top-of-the-range estate anymore if you don't enclose it and put a guard at the gate."
"I see, well we look forward to visiting the area and seeing what you have to offer."
"First time in the States Lew?"
"No, I've been over numerous times, both for pleasure and business. I worked for an American company for 42 years and the US has always been my favorite vacation destination, so I've visited a lot of States, both East and West."
"You must tell us all about it in the coming week, but first let me guide you to your villa, so you can unpack and relax. Tonight we will take you to dinner."
Grace was talking to Rachel while I had my chat with Jeff, but I couldn't keep my eyes from wandering in her direction, the woman was a goddess. I estimated her close to 6 feet, without the heels, a beautiful classic face, but with lips you would just love to feel wrapped around your dick. She was blonde of course, real or fake was difficult to judge - I would have to check her pussy! She wore an off-shoulder, bright-colored crop top, leaving my favorite part of a woman's body bare, her sexy navel almost calling out to me. The part of her body that was covered by the top, probably favorite for most men, was impressive, my guestimate was at least a C. Difficult to see if she was wearing a bra: if she was it must have been one of them flimsy things allowing her nipples to almost poke holes in her top. Below all these goodies, she wore cut-off jean shorts drawing attention to her killer legs which seemed to go on forever, she had her hip cocked provocatively to the side, her feet encased in 4-inch stiletto heels. Jeff wasn't too bad looking either: I now understood Grace's remark better. He was about the same size as me, just over 6 feet, but far more muscular, not bodybuilding fitness center muscular but normal healthy muscular like a guy that does a lot of manual labor - I could easily see him carrying a couple of bags of cement.
Once outside we got back in our car and they both joined us, Jeff in the passenger seat, Rachel in the back with Grace, still chatting away like lifetime friends who hadn't seen each other for a long time. Following Jeff's directions, we soon ended up in front of a very beautiful villa.
"Your entry code is 9, 7, 5, 1, he told me."
"No keys anymore?"
"Nope, it's so much easier, we have a very structured way to change the codes after every visit making it easy for the cleaning teams. We have fixed cleaning teams, all members vetted by our private security, which consists mainly of retired police officers or firefighters. That has the added advantage that when something serious happens, they have direct contact with former colleagues - so far we never had a major incident."
"How is it possible that you have so many ex-cops on your team then?"
"That's thanks to my dad, he was a cop, and he was the one who put our team together when we started 5 years ago."
"Sorry to be curious, but why did it take you so long to explore the European market for your villas, I always used to rent one when I came to Florida on vacation."
"The market has changed tremendously over the past two years, the economy is down and we don't get so many Americans anymore, so we needed to expand, that's why we participated in the vacation fair in Brussels in the Spring, where we met Grace. When she got this offer from Royal Caribbean, she immediately contacted us, to find out if we were still interested in working together, and we are. We're very excited that she is here now so we can sort out a workable contract."
"So this is going to be a workweek then?"
"Don't worry there'll be plenty of time for fun as well: we got you a 3-day Park Hopper pass for Disney World. We thought you'd want to go there."
"Absolutely, that's MY main reason for coming here. It was extremely thoughtful of you to arrange that for us."
"We'll have some more, hopefully nice, surprises for you, more focused on adults than Mickey and Donald."
"Don't knock M & D. I become a child again every time I go there."
"Yeah we do too, believe me."
When we walked into the villa I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the furniture and the way the kitchen and bathroom were equipped, this was a few notches higher than what I was used to when I previously rented a vacation villa in that area.
"We'll leave you now to unpack and relax, the pool is heated and so is the Jacuzzi. We'll pick you up for dinner at seven, if that's OK for you?"
