Chapter 11-Training Continues
Dear readers. This is a long chapter, and slow starting with lots of set up and characterization. Some of you may find it too long or too detailed early on, but those of you that know my style and how I feel about telling the full story will understand. As always, your comments and critiques are more than welcome, and if fact, are greatly appreciated. Thanks for staying with me.
The morning after Beth's visit, I awoke early, slipping on a robe to get some coffee. As I watched the coffee brewing, It reminded me of the situation that was brewing in my life. The trouble was, I wanted everything without giving up anything. I wanted commitment without giving up the group. I wanted some rest without denying myself of the opportunities for pleasure that were so plentiful. And there was the fact that I knew in my heart that I didn't really want to be exclusive to any of my lovers. Not Beth, or Justine, or Dawn, or any of the others. Each offered me a different type of sexual excitement, and I hadn't had the opportunity to be with Heather or some of the others yet either.
I sighed in resignation, accepting the fact that I had become too addicted to my lifestyle to make any significant changes. At the same time, I had to find a way to become more organized, closely evaluating each opportunity and realizing that there were going to be times when I simply had to tell myself, "no, not this time."
One decision that I finally made was not going to be popular, but I had to limit my chapter meetings to every other month. I just couldn't spread myself that thin any more. Beth's comments about what I was doing to my body hit home. I hadn't realized it until I stood in front of the mirror before coming downstairs. I was losing too much weight. It was time to re-focus.
I also decided to talk to Laurie and Beth about the training sessions. Every week was too much and it limited what I could do in the way of recruiting and wasn't that supposed to be my focus now? I feared that sex was going to cease being the pleasure I craved and become too much of a job or a responsibility. I'd rather have less and better than more and more.
With a cup of coffee in hand, I went into the living room to go over my upcoming events and try to prioritize them in such a way that I didn't miss any of the important ones, or take on more than I could handle.
Recruiting had to return to my number one priority, the only other option being to contact Laurie or Beth and ask to be dropped from the program. I knew that if I made that choice, I'd face a lot of pressure from everyone in the organization and besides, I wasn't sure I wanted out, at least not yet. I needed to give myself more time before I made that decision. Danni's orientation would be posted soon and I had to leave myself some wiggle room in my schedule since I promised I'd be there for her. The next candidate that I'd studied enough to go after was Brandi, the one I had rehearsed for with Beth and Jillian.
In the meantime, I had a training session on Tuesday so the soonest I could meet with anyone else would be Thursday or Friday. I opened a new older and began organizing my information on Brandi, spending a great deal of time on the photos of her attempted orientation, carefully studying her facial expressions and the body language. I tried to literally become her in each photo. I made myself a note to discuss the possibility of multi-camera videos of the orientations just so I could read their body language better.
It was obvious that right from the very beginning, she had displayed at the very least, a reluctance, if not an absolute fear of being there. The orientation should never have been held without more preparation.
Note to self: pre-orientation screenings could avoid a lot of refusals in advance.
When I called, her phone rang several times and I was just ready to hang up when her voice mail picked up. "Brandi? Hi, this is Samantha with Totally Woman. When you have some time, would you give me a call? We obviously did something terribly wrong and my job is to find out what we did right and what we did wrong. I'm not going to pressure you or anything, I just need to ask you some questions and offer our apologies." I left my number and some times when she could reach me and just as I was ready to hang up, I heard the phone connect and a very sweet, very sensual woman's voice.
"I'd just like to forget it ever happened, Samantha," she stated, and I felt that she was ready to hang up.
"Brandi, give me just a minute or two would you?"
"What do you want from me?" she asked. "I made a mistake, that's all. I guess I...I don't know, I guess I wasn't expecting anything like that."
"I understand, Brandi, I really do. I wasn't involved with your recruitment or orientation but I know you went through some very emotionally trying situations and I'm sorry. It never should have gone the way it did."
"That's all right," she replied. "let's just say I wasn't really ready for that and let it go."
"If you wish," I replied. "but I'd appreciate your help, Brandi. I just started this job and it's a job that was created just to make Totally Woman more responsive to members and candidates. In short, we are trying to improve the entire program. Only by correcting our mistakes will we be able to do that. All I want to do is to get your feelings about some things, maybe discuss a couple of my ideas with you, things like that."
"Just to talk?" she asked.
"Just to talk," I agreed, keeping my fingers crossed as I spoke.
"Where?"
"How about Ignacio's out on Stevens Road? It's quiet, with widely spaced tables and booths and the food is terrific. I'll buy you dinner as an apology. That's why I have an expense account."
We agreed to meet Thursday night at seven. When I put the phone down, I took a deep breath, held it and exhaled. This was not going to be as easy as Danni was. I immediately called Beth to ask her for the contact name at Ignacio's, one of "our" establishments, and she graciously offered to get everything set up for me. An hour later, she called with my contact names, the details for the restaurant, and wished me good luck, then reminded me of the training session with Heather on Tuesday. I almost backed out but didn't want to cause any problems since I'd only been on the job for such a short time. Besides, I wanted to get Heather naked.
I was pleased with the progress I'd made with Brandi and the training session would be a good chance to see what Beth and Heather had to say about it.