Ch. 04
Jenny logged into her computer at work and opened her emails. Life was finally returning to normal after her father in laws passing. Her mother in law had stayed with them through the summer and early fall. She and Mark had gone through a long grieving process. But Helen and Mark had both come to terms with his passing and things were improving. Helen moved back into her house in mid October.
Her father in laws Will was read a month after his passing and as expected, most of his assets went to his wife. But he did surprisingly, leave Mark a large amount of stocks he owned. $400,000 to be exact. Mark decided to keep the stocks, mostly in tech companies instead of selling them. Maybe they would sell some later for a vacation sometime later. At the very least the kids college education would be fully paid for.
Jenny thought frequently about the events leading to her father in law's death. She didn't know if she had any part in his death, but she it did make her happy that she had made him happy right before his second stoke. She smiled at the memory. She had become accustomed to her sexless life. Mark made no effort to have a sex with her. Grieving or not it was very frustrating for Jenny. She was 36, and felt she was in her sexual prime. She had many a self induced orgasms lately. Often with her thinking of her encounters with Ed or her father in law. And yes even the homeless man Tom.
She went through her emails. Responding to a few, and deleting others. She saw one from admin that was titled
Thanksgiving food bank volunteers needed!
She opened the email and read it.
Colleagues, your management team is organizing a Thanksgiving week volunteer event. We are going to St Francis's Food Bank to serve a Thanksgiving meal to those less fortunate. We invite all staff to join us in giving back to our community. Please consider joining us and help spread holiday cheer!
Date: Wednesday November 23
Time: 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Please RSVP to your manager.
Sincerely, Your management team.
Jenny read the email again and sighed. She didn't really want to volunteer. Thanksgiving was always a very busy week and she did most of the work for dinner. But she knew she really had no choice. The VP promotion had been postponed but was still coming up and she really wanted that job. Volunteering for this would help show her commitment to the company and her desire to be a part of the management team. She sent a reply to her boss Emily, saying she would love to help serve Thanksgiving dinner for the less fortunate, and that maybe they should make shirts to wear. It would help build Holiday spirit.
A couple minutes later she got a reply for her boss.
Awesome Jenny! I knew we could count on you! And I love the shirt idea. Great way to show our company pride and Holiday spirit! Could you take the lead on the shirts? I'll get you a count and sizes needed asap.
Thanks for stepping up!
Emily.
"Crap well now I've done it. Not only do I
have to volunteer, but now I get to do the shirts too." Jenny shook her head and thought about the shirts. She googled custom shirts near her and found a couple of options. The closest one was only about a mile away. But it was in a pretty seedy area of town. Hmm. The other shirt store was in a much nicer area but was about a half hour away. She picked up the phone and dialed the nicer store. She explained to the woman on the phone what she was looking for and gave an approximate count. The woman on the phone told Jenny that unfortunately they couldn't help her. They were swamped with orders for the annual turkey trot fundraiser and couldn't get her order done on time. She referred Jenny to the other store.
Jenny thanked her and hung up. Sighing, she dialed the store closer to her. CREATIVE TEE'S. A friendly man named Terry
answered the phone. Jenny again explained what she was looking for. Terry asked a few questions and told Jenny that they could do the order no problem. He just needed sizes and a design. Jenny told him that she would have a count soon but wasn't sure of the design yet. Terry understood and offered to help Jenny make a design for the shirts.
"That would be great! I have no idea what to do or where to begin! Can you send me ideas?"
"I can do that but it would be way better if you came here and we worked on it together. Makes the process go faster. And the sooner I get the design the faster the shirts get made."
"Ok, I'll see if I can get there today. I'll call you back and let you know." Terry said ok and Jenny hung up. She got up from her desk and went to talk with Emily.
"Hey Em, got a moment? I need to talk about the shirts."
"Sure Jenn, what's up?" She asked.
"Well I called around and if we really want to do the shirts we got to get busy on them. I got a guy who says they can get it done, but he needs a design for the shirts asap. He asked if I could go there and help him come up with a design. What do you think?"
"I say go for it. You got my blessing. The shirts will be a great addition to our team for the event and I trust your judgment on a design."
"Ok great. I'll head over there after lunch and hopefully get one done." Jenny went back to her office and called Terry. She told him that she would be there after lunch to work on the shirt design.
Jenny sketched out a couple basic designs for the shirts. She had no idea if they were any good but she wanted to bring something with her that would give Terry an idea of what she wanted. She settled on two ideas. Hopefully it wouldn't take to long to get a final design.
Jenny ate a quick lunch then gathered her things up. She hopped into her Land Cruiser and headed towards CREATIVE TEES. She found it was in an older area with many commercial businesses. It was a run down part of town. There were smoke shops, check cashing stores, liquor stores and many vacant buildings Jenny parked her car and made sure the doors were locked. She definitely didn't want her car stolen or broken into. She wished she had an alarm. As she was walking towards the store she noticed the business next to it.
Golds Adult Boutique
"Well isn't that great." Jenny thought. "All kinds of weirdo's in there I bet." She hurriedly entered the shirt store. Jenny was pleasantly surprised by the store. It was clean and neat and it had lots of products for sale that could be personalized. Mugs, hats, pens, just to name a few. A very effeminate man came to the front desk. "Hi, how can I help you?"
"Hi I'm Jenny, I talked to Terry earlier about a shirt order."
"Oh yes! I'm Terry, nice to meet you! Come on back and let's get to work!" Jenny smiled and went to the back of the building with Terry. He sat at a computer and opened up a program. "Ok, so what were you thinking for the shirt design?"
Jenny pulled out her sketches and handed them to Terry. "I made these this morning. Pretty basic but it's kinda what I was thinking." Terry looked at them then said "Ok, I see what your thinking." He stated to type into the computer and move the mouse around. Jenny just stood there watching. Trying to make conversation. She asked him about the adult bookstore next door. " You ever get any trouble from your neighbor?"
"Oh no. The guys and gals that go in there want the least amount of attention on themselves. They make no trouble."