"Don, I want you to meet Rachel Connors." Mr. Fox started to introduce me to the beautiful raven haired woman standing beside one of the two armchairs in front of his desk.
"Actually, I'm back to being Rachel Wells and Don and I know each other. How have you been, Don?" The woman said after my boss had introduced us.
"Things could be better, but nobody wants to hear about my problems. How have you been Rachel? Crushed any men's self-esteem lately?" I asked the woman who had crushed mine and what little self-confidence I had before I met her during our first semester of college. She had not only put me in my place when I had taken a chance and asked her out, she had done it in such a way that I had been publicly humiliated and had not had the courage afterwards to ask any girl out for the rest of the year.
"Only my ex-husband's and his divorce lawyer's. I know it's been a long time since our freshman year, but I'm sorry for what I did to you back then, Don. I was a stuck up, little rich bitch who thought she was better than most of her classmates. I promise you I'm not like that now." Rachel said to me and I could see that she was sincere.
"Mr. Fox, what's going on?" I asked my boss as I tried to ignore one of the most beautiful women I had ever met and had lusted after for a short period of time.
At 6', Rachel was four inches taller than me and even though it looked like she had gained a little weight since we were both eighteen year old college freshmen; it was in all the right places. Her black hair was still long and had a healthy luster to it with a beauty parlor style that drew attention to her face. Sparkling brown eyes above a smaller than I remembered nose which made me wonder if she had a nose job, high cheekbones, pouty lips that seemed larger than I remembered, and brilliantly white teeth gave Rachel a face that should have been gracing magazine pages or movie screens instead of the middle of my boss' cluttered office.
"Have a seat, Don, and Ms. Wells and I will explain to you what we need." Mr. Fox told me with the biggest grin I had ever seen on a grown man. The last time I had seen a grin like that was when I was eleven years old and my best friend Tommy Jaynes had snitched two candy bars from the 7-11 for us and gotten away with it.
"Don, you know that Ms. Wells' company is one of our biggest and most loyal customers so when her father called me and asked if I knew anyone who could help them with a problem with their new line of presses, I thought of you. You've solved almost all of our problems since you've started working here and have proven that most of your solutions were the correct ones when the older engineers said that they wouldn't work. I want you to work with Ms. Wells on a consultancy basis to help her come up with a solution to their problems.
"You'll still be employed by Fox Manufacturing and will keep all the benefits you already receive. If your solutions fix their problems, there will a bonus from Wells Industries and you'll get 60 % and Fox Manufacturing gets the other 40%."
"Why doesn't Wells Industries' own engineers figure out how to fix the problem with their presses?" I asked Rachel, ignoring my boss.
"Almost all of our engineers are older and are either too afraid or too rigid to try anything but their old ways of solving problems. The ones who are younger and maybe able to think outside the box are not taken seriously by my father who trusts the engineers that have been with the company almost as long as he has."
"Then, why do you think he'll take any solutions I have for fixing your problems?" I asked her as I tried to ignore how her beauty had caused me to harden in arousal.
"Because he promised me he'd not only listen, but implement any solutions we prove will fix the problem. You will be working directly with me and one of the younger engineers on fixing our problem. If you accept our offer, you'll be given your own office and supplied with everything you say you need to fix the problem. Will you help me, Don? My future and that of Wells Industries depends on us finding out what the problem is with our new presses and fixing it as quickly and cheaply as possible." Rachel pleaded with me and I could see the anxiety on her face.
"Yes, I'll help you, Rachel. I need a few hours to get some of my material together so I think you need to buy me lunch today and I'll share it with you then. I need to speak with Mr. Fox when you leave so I'll go wait outside until you leave. It's been a pleasure seeing you again and I look forward to working with you."
"Mr. Fox and I are done. Where do you want to have lunch?" Rachel said as she stood to leave.
I had managed to reduce my hard-on to a nearly flaccid state while listening to Rachel and I stood as she did which prompted Mr. Fox to stand.
"Either one of the "Roadhouses" you'd like to eat at Rachel would be fine with me." I answered her before sticking out my right hand. Rachel shook my hand and I was surprised by the firmness of it. She definitely did not have the average woman's limp hand shake.
"I like "Texas" over "Logan's". Meet you there around twelve?"
"I'll meet you there, Rachel."
After she'd left, I renegotiated the percentages Fox Manufacturing and I each got if a bonus was earned with an 85/15 split in my favor being our final numbers. I went back to my office and began gathering the data I had already put together from my earlier tests related to the presses Rachel had asked for help on.
I had a unique situation at Fox Manufacturing in that I was basically a one person research and development department. I had not only solved problems in the past that saved Fox time and money, but developed some different techniques and other innovations that did the same things so that I could do nearly anything I wanted without anyone questioning me or pressuring me for results.
Being a self-motivator and a curious bastard at the same time, I worked as hard as if not harder than any of my co-workers at Fox. I had earned a company car, the previously mentioned cell phone, and the independence to come and go as I pleased.
All of those had allowed me to run tests on not only our electric motor that we had presented to Wells for use in their presses, but the three motors from our competitors as well. For the first time in my memory, Wells had chosen the cheapest of the four motors and now it was coming back to bite them in the butt with durability and warranty issues. I was not about to tell either Rachel or Mr. Fox I already had a solution to the problem Wells was having. I was going to exploit my opportunity to get to work with Rachel and maybe if I was lucky; get the chance to impress Rachel enough that she would take an interest in me.
I was enjoying the sexual relationship I was having with Mindy, but I knew it was not going to go any farther than that even though I sensed that Mindy was expecting it to. Mindy was fun to be with and the sex was great, but we were too different for a long term relationship to work.
I liked almost all kinds of music but rap was not one of them and that seemed like the only music Mindy wanted to listen to.
I exercised; Mindy did not and would not even consider it. I liked trying different foods; Mindy did not and was adamant about not trying anything she was not used to eating. I liked to read or watch sports to relax, Mindy wanted to veg out on the couch and watch whatever was on the boob tube, no matter how stupid and banal it was.
Mindy had also started complaining about us not going out even though I tried to make some of the times we got together at her apartment like dates instead of the sexual romps they ended up being. I had brought DVD's over of older movies she swore she had never seen that I thought she would like and we cuddled on her couch until the sexual tension was too great and one of us, usually her, interrupted the movie with a sexual interlude.
I had brought CD's over and we had danced in her dining room which would lead to me bending her over the dining room table and pounding her until we both came. I even "accidently" ran into her and a couple of her girlfriends at a local club one Friday night and danced with all three of them for most of the night. I did not spend more time with Mindy than I did her friends and left by myself, waiting till the next day to go to Mindy's for our regular Saturday fuckfest.
I kept telling her that even after my divorce, it might be a long while before I was ready for another serious relationship. I could see the end of my relationship with Mindy approaching, but with Rachel now in my sights, that did not cause me any concerns like it might have before.
My lunch with Rachel went better than I could have hoped for. We spent two hours together and only the first twenty minutes after we'd eaten were spent on talking about the reason we had met. The rest of the time we caught each other up on what had happened in each of our lives since college. I was elated to find out she was not seeing anyone seriously and she was sorry for my martial problems. It was clear to both of us that there was an attraction for each other and that gave me even more hope that I could get her to date me when our business was concluded.
I started at Wells Industries on Tuesday and for the next two days went through the motions of trying to figure out their problem, but began feeling guilty about what I was doing. I asked Rachel to have dinner with me that Wednesday after work and, surprisingly, she accepted.
"Rachel, I need to tell you something and I hope it doesn't change the way you think of me. I already had a solution to your problem when you came to Mr. Fox's office on Monday. I didn't tell you right away because I wanted the chance to work with you and maybe get you to see me as I am now and not that scared freshman I was the first time we met. I was hoping to get to know you better so I'd have a chance at getting you to go out with me.
"My honesty won't let me continue to mislead you and that's why I wanted you to have dinner with me. Rachel, you're still the most beautiful women I've ever met and I know a slub like me isn't close to being in your league, but if you ever need a friend, I'll be there for you. I'll leave the data I've accumulated with Michael tomorrow and be out of your hair after that. Thank you for your time and I'm sorry that I tried to keep my findings from you just so I could spend more time with you." I told her after we'd eaten.
"I'll be going now. You don't have to come to the office you provided me with in the morning and I assure you nothing that doesn't belong to me will leave that office when I leave."
What Rachel said to me next was the first of two big surprises I would hear that evening.
"Don, I want to thank you for your honesty. Most men would have continued to stall and drag their feet as to prolong the time they could be near me. You're wrong about one thing though; you're the one who is out of my league.
"You had to work hard for what you've achieved while almost everything I have was given to me. I think Daddy gave me this project so I would fail and then he'd have a reason to get me to resign from the company. I don't want to continue to fail and I want your help to keep from doing that.
