*** Authors Note: Part 6 obviously picks up where Part 5 left off. While I make the suggestion to read from the beginning, a couple of refresher notes:
Characters previously introduced:
Phil - Main protagonist. Wealthy 40-something white male who reshaped his entire life following a workplace accident. Has had a lifelong tendency to act rather impulsively, sometimes with mixed results.
Stacy - Originally, Phil's physical therapist and friend
Karen - Originally, Stacy's roommate
Katie - Karen's daughter.
Paul - Phil's live-in personal assistant who disappeared mysteriously, most likely robbing Phil of all his possessions in the process. A minor character at most.
Katie has now moved in with Phil, Stacy and Karen and, after a day at the beach together, Phil has hired her as his assistant as they move forward in the building redevelopment project. Karen also insinuated that she would not have a problem with it if Phil and Katie had sex.
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With Katie starting her work with me immediately, the first thing we had to do was get her an appropriate pair of shoes. I expected her to be upset that she was not going to be able to walk the jobsite in sandals but instead found her more appreciative that I thought of something like that. Thankfully, jobsite footwear has come a long way, especially for women, and she was able to pick something out reasonably tolerable from a fashion standpoint.
From there we went and began to stage shipments that had started to come in. I decided that instead of trying to finish all the floors at once, we were going to do floors three through six first, utilizing floor two as a warehouse. Then we would do floor seven, still using two as a warehouse but after we had tenants into the rentable space and income coming in. After moving ourselves up into seven we would then use one as a warehouse for two before finally figuring out what we would even do with one. I was not positive if I was going to make it rentable living space or mixed use commercial/retail. The thought of possibly being able to get a restaurant into the building was intriguing but also came with its own set of headaches. As far as the shipments were concerned though, I taught Katie my personal processes for inspecting shipments upon arrival as well as having all the raw materials lined up in an organized format that, from experience, had lent itself well to reducing damage and maintaining productivity.
Katie seemed to pick up on everything pretty quickly. She also took notes. Tons of notes. She had some sort of speech-to-text app on her phone that allowed her to put everything into an outline format and then print it out later. Not only did she print, but I would often find her at night reviewing her own notes and rewriting as necessary. I have to admit that I was impressed with how organized she seemed to be.
Because of the asbestos and the lack of space we basically had two offices. The main jobsite office was in the second floor "warehouse" and was not much more than a walled off section with a couple of desks, some folding tables and plan tables that could be utilized by any of the contractors for jobsite meetings or review. The "administrative" office found itself located somewhat inconveniently in our apartment. Granted, it wasn't that bad as far as proximity, being in the same building and all. I had just made it clear to Katie that contractors would not be allowed into the apartment and, if there were issues, she would have to go find them instead of them coming to us. But, in the office we had a couple of computers, a scanner and filing cabinets; the simple, basic necessities.
In my previous life I had been using software, quite poorly I may add, that was designed to help me keep track of any project. The reality was that I rarely entered anything into the system and therefore it was practically useless and the lack of organization was one of the things that always kept my morning schedule early and my evening schedule late. I tasked Katie with finding a new software package for us. Something that could be tracked on both of our phones, the computer and include contractor communication in it as well. I also tasked her with either bringing in or attending some sort of training as I was expecting her to be an expert and train me as well.
I admit I was putting a lot on her plate and, of course, this all didn't happen on the first day. But, I decided that there was no point in going slow. I knew within the first 10 days that, if Katie ended up wanting to stay, she was going to be an excellent assistant and, possibly someday, business partner. She was smart and quick to pick up on things and, most importantly, extremely efficient when dealing with contractors and suppliers. Quite honestly, I would have thought she had been doing it for years. She was nice when she needed to be, firm when called for, and did not back down in demanding a worker be let go from a project when he started harassing her and her "fuckin' hot 'puta' ass," informing the contractor that it would not be tolerated and, if the worker was not let go, they were losing their contract. I hoped that by including her in so much and getting her a taste of how exciting things could be, she would have no choice when college enrollment time came along other than to stay with me.
The third, fourth and fifth floors were all essentially the same. There were three apartments on each: an open concept studio, a single bedroom traditional and a three bedroom traditional. Each of them had a loft-y feel that was popular and I expected them to be rented immediately upon completion. I was not one of the owners that did any sort of pre-rental on units as I found that put unrealistic expectations on a schedule and I preferred to have something done instead of a prospective tenant breathing down my neck.
As far as our personal lives, it was similar to before Katie and I spent the day at the beach and made our initial arrangement. Our schedules were crazy. We were basically on the clock from 7am to 7pm five days a week. While the 12 hours does not necessarily seem like that much, we found that by the time we got down into the apartment we were absolutely exhausted. The good news is that we still got to see Karen and Stacy. We ate lunch with Stacy most days. This was also beneficial as it meant that instead of crappy subs, pizza or other fast food, she was making sure that we were still eating pretty well. We always had a late dinner with Karen, she was always so excited to hear from Katie about her working and her day that she usually had dinner waiting for us. Stacy was able to join us probably 2 or 3 nights a week as well so it wasn't as if we didn't get to see one another as a large group.
There was not, however, any sort of sex. At least not for me with any of the girls (or anyone else for that matter). As to whether or not they were having any sort of luck on the romance front with anyone else was beyond my scope of knowledge but I honestly doubted it.
In the beginning it wasn't that big of a deal. As I was in my 40's I no longer had the libido of a 17-year-old so it wasn't like I was being woken up with wet dreams or had been experiencing unavoidable erections. That wasn't to say that I was completely impotent either. I still had desires. I still had biological wants. I still had enough incentive around the apartment and in my life to drive most other guys nuts.
First, it was probably 3-4 days per week that Karen, Katie and I all happened to be showering at the same time in the morning. Of course it wasn't a B-movie scene with splash wars and giggling, but it did still involve my being in the presence of two very attractive nude women. Even with an eye on the subjectivity of these types of assessments, Karen was a 10... or even an 11. Katie was an 8. In the circumstances where she joined, us, Stacy is also probably a 7 or 8. These are very attractive women. After a little while of no release, even things that weren't supposed to be sexy now seemed it. If Katie was shaving her armpits it would cause her breasts to jiggle ever so slightly. When Karen soaped up her skin would glisten like a fitness model. It got to the point where my showers were getting cooler and cooler each morning and I kept my back to them just to keep my composure. During the lunch hour Stacy would normally be wearing form fitting clothing and always had a healthy glow about her skin. The interaction between her and Katie, once again not at all sexual in nature, was so often sweet and feminine I couldn't help but be taken in by it.
Another concern was when I did finally get off work even my exhaustion didn't stop me from being bombarded with imagery that did not allow me to truly relax. If I went into the hot tub to decompress, one of the girls often joined me. Of course, we were always nude. This didn't pose much of an issue when we were both in the water. It posed a significant issue when the girls inevitably got too hot and sat on the edge, invariably giving me a direct line of sight into their well manicured womanhood.
Speaking of well-manicured womanhood, it appeared that Karen and Katie were also testing out new pubic fashions. I felt that each one of them lasted no more than a week before letting it grow out for a few days and start all over again.
And finally, even in the few circumstances where I did get home and was able to avoid flat out nudity there was still the fact that we lived in Florida and even an evening on the couch watching some movies meant loose pajamas and lots of skin.
This is not to say that I am complaining. When we were actually together, things were as good as ever with Karen and Stacy and, true to her wish, Katie really was becoming one of the gang. Though I had not (and had no intention of ever) having sex with her, the reality was that personality wise she fit right into our little strange group and was turning into just a slightly younger, fourth musketeer.
All I am saying, a long story short, was that I was starting to get a little itchy for a bit of relief. Now, for those of you that are saying it is perfectly easy for me to relieve myself, I would normally agree with you and it is certainly not like I am opposed to it. For whatever reason though, the new apartment, all the activity in it, how busy I had been at work... I just never had the chance.
