(Many thanks to Greowulf for his wonderful editing)
"Cheers!"
"Way to go!"
The four men held up their glasses in celebration.
"To Orbit Mall ... and beyond," said Dave.
The other three nodded in agreement. They knew what he meant.
There was silence for some moments as the group sipped their drinks, the memories of the last few hours no doubt running fresh in their minds.
Dave Harding looked at his team members over his glass. Alistair McCain was on his right. He was their construction supervisor and a key person on their team. Tall and lanky, he always had a smile on his face, always cheering up others. He was Scotty to all those who knew him well. True to his nature, he was enthralling others with some new titbit he had just learned.
To Dave's left was Ron Ferguson, the team's commercial man in charge of all purchases. Unlike Scotty, he was more the reserved type. When it came to meeting tight deadlines, though, he was second to none. Right now he was silently listening to Scotty with an amused twinkle in his eyes.
Well, if one has the likes of Scotty as a team member, it helps to have a couple like Ron to appreciate his sense of humour, reasoned Dave.
He looked across to his third member, Fred Smith. He was the finance man. It was his responsibility to ensure that funds essential to the smooth functioning of the project was disbursed on time by their corporate head office. It was also his responsibility to track and return details of the expenses incurred to the head office, along with an analysis of the budget and projected fund requirements for the week ahead.
Dave Harding, himself, was their Team Leader. A civil engineer by profession, he had been with the company for almost five years.
The Orbit Mall was his first independent assignment as a Team Leader. The management at SeaTech Builders had noted his dedication and sincerity as he executed all assignments handed over to him with alacrity, always within the timeline allotted. The construction of the Orbit Mall was his first solo assignment, completely entrusted to him and his team.
Orbit Mall was a City Council project. There had been other competitors in the fray for the project. It had been a closely fought affair, not that the winner stood to gain anything substantial in terms of hard money. The profits would be nominal. But then, everybody knew that if the winners completed the mall to the satisfaction of the City Council, they stood a very good chance of being awarded the Wilbur Smith Housing Project. Now that was big bucks. Part of the ramshackle downtown area was being converted into a swanky new residential township complete with a swimming pool, Children Park and a recreational club.
In other words, the Orbit Mall project was a dry run of sorts for short listing the contenders for the Wilbur Smith Housing Project.
And his company had selected him to be the Team Leader for completing the assignment.
"Definitely a feather in my cap," thought Dave with a smile.
The meeting at City Hall had gone swimmingly. They had submitted their completion report for Phase 2 of the work, the representatives had listened raptly to him during the Power Point presentation, and even stayed awake while Ron explained the financial outlay incurred to date along with the projections. They of course had their queries and even expressed some reservations, but Dave had been able to satisfy them.
Yet he was worried. He didn't blame them for the reservations expressed; there had been some mishaps, injuries to workers, but luckily nothing fatal. He had been able to convince them that, for a project of the mall's size, such occurrences were almost negligible.
He would have to beef up the safety and security measures, though. Phase 3 was the most critical one. The escalators would be installed as well as all the electrical wiring. The architects would also be visiting to review the work and evaluate necessary design changes. In short he would be co coordinating with different teams of professionals all at one go.
Dave picked up his mobile and punched his wife's number. No celebration could be complete without Sherry.
Dave closed his eyes while he waited for Sherry to answer her mobile. He sighed contently as her face flashed across his mind. He envisioned her heart shaped face with that ever-endearing smile, looking at her cell's flashing screen through those mesmerising blue eyes. In his mind, his eyes slowly travelled down from her generous lips to her 36C, still-firm breasts with those proud, ruby-red nipples, and then on to her flat tummy, then further down to those wide, flaring hips, fleshy creamy thighs and lovely long legs that are smooth as silk. At 5'8'' Sherry, with her shoulder-length brown hair and blue eyes complemented well with her husband's 6'', 200 pound strong muscular frame. He liked to keep in shape, though the current project had forced him to skip his daily routines. He could feel a little flab building along his sides ... nothing that he couldn't burn away once he was finished with Phase 3. He smiled. With his dark hair and eyes supplemented by a luxuriant moustache, broad shoulders and an easy going but confident demeanour he never failed to get that deep look and a sigh from the fairer sex at his office, single or otherwise.
But he was thoroughly domesticated and the father of a five year old boy, aptly named Dave Jr or DJ, and he loved every moment of it.
His reverie was broken by the sweet, melodious voice of his wife.
"Hi honey, how did it go?" asked Sherry with a tinge of worry in her voice.
"Great! Just great. The presentation went off smoothly. The City Council people were impressed with our timeline achievements."
"Fantastic," replied Sherry, relief evident in her tone. "But you must take care of those frequently occurring mishaps at the site. If it were to reach the press then it could cause a lot of embarrassment. After all, it's a City Council project and you know how touchy the politicians are about their goody-goody image."
"Yeah, I know. I'll have to work on that," replied Dave. She would know, he thought, After all she is a sub-editor with the local daily paper.
"So when do we celebrate?" asked Sherry with a giggle.
"Will be touching home by midday and then ...," replied Dave in a low, conspiratorial tone.
"I'll have the bath tub filled up and ready and umm ... would you like a landing strip or go for a smooth landing?" replied back his wife in a husky voice. He could tell she was getting turned on. "Nothing but the very best for my man," she continued.
Dave could feel the tent forming in his trousers.
Before he could reply his wife continued, "DJ wants to congratulate his father."
The next few moments were filled with the sound of his baby's squeals of delight as he joyfully clapped his hands and ran behind his battery operated toy plane.
His heart missed a beat on hearing his son's voice. He missed his family, his home.
* * * * * *
He called for a refill. There were some couples dancing on the floor. The music was soft and soothing. It made him relax. Scotty and Ron had moved over to the bar where Scotty had managed to gather some of the more curious onlookers to hear his fables. He could see Fred moving across the dance floor with a pretty blonde. He was good on the floor.
Sherry loved dancing. He wished she was here with him. He missed her.
The Harding and O'Brien families had been next door neighbours in Bellevue. Both their fathers were engineers while their mums were in the education line. Given the common background, both the families had always been close to each other. He, his elder sister Julie, and Sherry and her brother Mike had grown up together.
Sherry had always called her own mother as "Mother" while his mother had always been addressed as "Ma," as addressed by Dave and Julie. Likewise Dave had always addressed Sherry's mother as "Mother."
She was younger to him by two years but definitely his best friend.
And as childhood gave way to youth, the two had also discovered together all about the birds and bees. Sherry had a friendly, talkative nature right from childhood, although the Irish blood running in her veins could also make her stubborn at times. She would always make a determined effort to get what she wanted ... like losing her cherry on her own bed.
Dave smiled at the childhood memory. He had had to jump out of her bedroom window as Mother O'Brien had returned home early that day. He looked down at his right elbow. The scars were faintly visible.
Sherry had been adamant. It had to be on the first day of her safe days. It was only later that he realised that what she really looked forward was a romp on all the five safe days ... yeah, according to the girlie grapevine it could be only five days—the rest of the days he would have to be content with some terrific oral ministrations, and nothing more. Yup, that was his Sherry O'Brien.
Luckily the law of the land never caught up with us, thought Dave with a chuckle.
It had always been the two of them. They had done it in just about every possible position and read all that there was in the Kama Sutra together. Surprisingly she had never gone out with another boy and neither had he thought of chasing another girl.
He had heard from one of his friends that she had gone ballistic when one of her friends had expressed her interest in him. He had never asked her, her Irish blood making him hesitate on that count, and she had never confided in him either.
Mother O'Brien and Ma Harding had looked on encouragingly on the blossoming love. Nothing had escaped their notice. The two families had always been close and they hoped it could go on to something beyond. Nothing could be more perfect than a family alliance.
After High School, he had moved on to Seattle to do his graduate studies in Civil Engineering. His sister was already there completing her graduate degree in Paediatric Dentistry.
The O'Brien and Harding families were mildly surprised but nevertheless pleased to note that the young Sherry was now becoming serious about her own career, as she would often travel back to Seattle with Julie to get a feel of the courses being offered.
Those days would turn out to be his most hectic ones as he would have to juggle his time between a demanding Sherry and his almost as demanding coursework, not to mention the part time job. The "safe days" now no longer mattered as he made it a point to keep a stock of Trojans ready for use. And yes, he did give her the information she wanted on the variety of courses being offered. He did the leg work as Sherry very rarely left Julie's pad. Thank God for Julie ... she never spilled the beans on them, though in hindsight and with the maturity that comes in growing up to be a responsible husband and father, he wondered if Mother O'Brien and Ma Harding had really been that oblivious.
A year later she joined him in Seattle. She had enrolled in the course for journalism.
Anyway that was his Sherry Harding née O'Brien.
"Mr Dave Harding?"
Dave snapped out of reverie and looked up to see a smartly dressed woman standing next to his table. Her dress showed just the right amount of cleavage without being vulgar and stopped a few inches above her knees.
"Yeah, that's me," he replied casually as he perfunctorily checked out the tall, blue-eyed blond.
"I'm Susan Gilmour," she replied brightly and extended her hand.
Oh heck, where are my manners, thought Dave. The drinks were depleting his capacity to think clearly. He got up hurriedly and offered her a chair.
Susan sat down with a grateful look on her face.
"I don't think we have met before ..." continued Dave as he tried his very best to recollect having met her before.
"It's really nice to meet you. Let me tell you, you guys are doing a swell job at the Orbit Mall. Oh, I'm sorry, I work in a real estate firm and we have been hearing a lot about how the project is coming up. Everyone seems to be naming you as the reason for the success."
"Team work, it's all about team work," replied Dave, pleased with the compliments coming his way.
"Oh, you are being too modest," she gushed, leaning forward just that little bit as she said so.
