Jerrod was and is an enigma. He was a gifted metalworker, a talented cabinet maker and finish carpenter. Additionally he had gone to college and become a brilliant engineer. His future could have been one of moneyed leisure had he applied himself. Instead now he lived almost in poverty. While in high school and just after he had taken almost every welding course he could find and had become certified to weld everything from basic steel to aluminum to stainless steel. He worked part time for many fabrication plants to make money to pay his college tuition. During the summer and many school holidays he also helped his father in his wood working shop. Jerrod took a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Missouri. Jerrod worked in the mechanical engineering field for three years after obtaining his degree. Shortly after the end of his third year in his engineering job his life changed dramatically and according to his mother for the worst. This is his story. You decide if his life is a good one. You decide if he is just getting by.
Jerrod walked into his luxury condo late on the evening his life changed. His mood was one many people would describe as almost violently angry. He had been having trouble with his supervisor for almost a year. At one time he and his supervisor had been tight. Patricia was a beautiful woman and she knew it. She and Jerrod had started at the firm three weeks apart. For the first year their cubicles had been next to each other separated only by a narrow aisle. He remembered how they had felt about each other first when they were just coworkers then later when they became lovers.
When one or the other of them had a question they would talk back and forth, helping each other with a job. Several times they were assigned the same project. They worked well together but Jerrod did most of the actual work. He had that something extra, that spark that made the projects easy to him. Patricia was marginally competent at best but he loved her and wanted her to succeed. Looking back and being honest with himself Jerrod admitted she had not worked very hard at her job. She had what Jerrod called Beautiful Woman Syndrome. Patricia flirted and teased to get her work done. She enticed others to do things for her just to get her approval and thanks, just to get a smile or touch from her. Jerrod had fallen for her antics just as did almost every other man she ran across.
Patricia was a flirt. When she and Jerrod interacted she did as many beautiful women will. She smiled, touched him gently, "accidently" rubber her breasts on him. In short, she teased. Jerrod had seen her do this with many of the males at the office and it bothered him at first. After they became a couple he had complained about it and Patricia did tone it down somewhat but flirting was in her system. She was as unable to stop flirting entirely as the Mississippi river was unable to run north.
Like many office romances their relationship began with work related conversation in their cubicles. Shortly after they became friendly they began taking business lunches with each other at first to discuss a project, then later because it was a habit they enjoyed. Rapidly they moved to an occasional trip to the local bar after work.
After almost five months Jerrod took the next step and asked Patricia for a date. She happily accepted. Within three months of the first official date they were a couple, exclusive. Jerrod began helping her more and more on her assigned projects. Many times he worked late into the night off the clock designing some of her assigned work. Of course Patricia was properly appreciative in the bedroom. Jerrod was in love.
Almost five months after Jerrod and Patricia became exclusive Patricia turned in a particularly difficult project not only well in advance of the due date but with two really innovative design features. Her Manager was very pleased and wrote a glowing commendation for her. He also authorized a $1500 cash bonus. Jerrod was slightly upset at this for three reasons. One, he had been the one who did most of the work on the project, off the clock as usual. Secondly the two innovative design features were his alone and Patricia had promised to so state when the project was turned in but she failed to do so. The third reason Jerrod was upset was perhaps the most hurtful one. After the project had been turned in Patricia began to spend more and more time with their Manager. She even began taking lunches with him and turning down Jerrod. She went to bars after work with the Manager too. If Jerrod went with them he was made to feel like an outsider. Patricia began to have excuses not to go out on dates with Jerrod. Sometimes when he went to her apartment she would be unexplainably absent or he would think he heard noise inside but she would not answer the door.
Then came the day their Supervisor retired. There were only three people under consideration for the position—Jerrod, Patricia and one outside applicant. For three weeks all three were put through the mill. They were given numerous interviews and even a couple of tests to determine the best person for the job. On the tests Jerrod came out at the top of the queue.
Finally the announcement came down from on high. To Jerrod's surprise Patricia was promoted and became the Supervisor for the design section they worked in. Within a week Patricia completely stopped going out to lunch or after work with Jerrod. When he asked her what time he should pick her up for their regular date she informed him she couldn't date him any longer. She told him it wouldn't be right for her to date a subordinate. Over the next several months there were three occasions when Patricia took credit for design work Jerrod had done. Their immediate supervising Manager had not supported Jerrod the two times he had complained to him. Recently his Manager also began to antagonize him even more. Jerrod had seen Patricia and their married male manager out on the town several times late at night. He saw them dance together, sit closely and walk with their arms around each other. Jerrod finally admitted to himself they were together for reasons other than business.
It was only about two months after Patricia dumped Jerrod when he met his next and current girlfriend Winona. He and his friends from work had been out bar hopping on a Friday night. They were in a bar way upscale from their usual haunts when he literally bumped into Winona. Jerrod was as handsome as Winona was beautiful. To top it off he had been in a business meeting all day and was dressed in his best suit. At first when they collided she had glared at him with anger. She made disparaging comments about clumsy assholes not watching where they were going. Jerrod's immediate reaction to that comment was a surge of anger. Neither of them had been watching where they had been going. He had seen her walking across the floor with her head turned toward one of her friends talking and waving her hands at the same time. Jerrod had been on the way to the rest room when someone he knew had called to him. He turned rapidly to see who it was and his course veered into Winona's where they collided. To Jerrod's immense relief his heartfelt apology and the purchase of a drink to replace the one he had caused her to spill morphed into them spending the rest of the evening together. They exchanged phone numbers before they went to their respective homes.
The next Monday Jerrod called Winona and talked her into a date. The first date led to another, then another. Jerrod was so smitten he took her to the expensive and upscale places that she normally frequented rather than the ones he preferred. As it turned out this gave her a false impression of who Jerrod really was. Based on this false impression they quickly became exclusive.
Winona began spending more and more nights at Jerrod's home. Almost all her belongings quickly followed her there. She still maintained an apartment for proprieties sake she said but for all intents and purposes they were living together. Winona only spent a couple of nights a week at her apartment without Jerrod. For some reason he never noticed those nights always included a Friday. After all, many Fridays Winona and her high society girlfriends spent the evening at the country club or some social function or another. Jerrod hated those types of functions so was always willing to miss out on them and let her attend with her parents or friends while he stayed home alone.
Jerrod had received a token promotion shortly after Patricia was made Supervisor. He was made Lead Man for one of the two groups in his section. He was in charge of designing equipment and laying it out for one of the largest manufacturers in St. Louis. He had come up with a really innovative idea and incorporated it into his plans. When the customer accepted the plans and complimented his company on the work Patricia and their Manager had not given him the credit. They had, instead, once again stolen the idea as their own. Upper management had been told that the Manager came up with the idea and Patricia had drawn the tentative plans out for Jerrod to complete.
That afternoon Jerrod had discovered his employer had been paid a bonus for completing the last project early. They had received a bonus because of the changes Jerrod had drawn into the plans also. Upper management decided the bonus for the innovative changes should be shared by those responsible for generating it. Patricia and the Manager were to split the bonus instead of give it or a portion of it to him. When Jerrod had confronted the two they had told him upper management had decided they were the proper persons to receive the bonus because they had been instrumental in the design and getting the customer to accept the changes.
Jerrod's meeting with the two thieves had been in the building parking lot. After a short discussion Patricia had gotten a disgusted look on her face and said, "Look Jerrod we know you drew the majority of the plans but it was OUR idea you used. Now just let it drop. We wouldn't want anything adverse to come of this would we?" After she had glared at Jerrod for a moment she and the Manager had just walked away got into their cars and left. Jerrod had almost stormed back into the building to confront his Manager's boss right then but thought better of it. He decided to wait until the next day when he was calmer, more in control before he complained to someone higher in the company. Besides, he had a date with Winona that evening and he couldn't afford to be late for it. She had turned into a stone cold bitch lately and he was trying to placate her and go to more of her functions with her.
Shortly after he walked into his home Jerrod had another hit to his happiness and well being. He was trying to relax and unwind from his day with a triple shot of his favorite single malt—The Glenlivet—when his cell phone rang. He would have ignored it except it was his mother's ringtone. His parent's rarely phoned him although his mother called more than his father. She tried to keep in touch and usually gave him a hard time if he didn't answer the phone when she called. His parents were of the older generation and to them phones were not the social tool many younger people thought them to be. If his parents used the phone it was because it was extremely important more often than not.
"Hello Mom," Jerrod answered. "How are you this evening?"
