Copyright 2010 by Wren Phoenix

Lisa interrupted him with a message from the accounting office. As he read the audit reports, he could see that there were some transactions that seemed a bit shady, but nothing definite enough to be actionable. Michael decided to be proactive, and made it a policy to have quarterly audits.

Something wasn’t right at Tallon, Inc., and he felt it was important.

He decided to keep his suspicions to himself for now.

“Have you got everything ready for tonight’s expedition?”

“Yeah, I’m really looking forward to tonight. Jenny sounds so sweet!”

“That’s her, all right. Were you able to reach her surgeon’s office yet?”

“They’re checking their figures, and should call me back this morning. It has an A-1 priority, so the two of you should be able to talk about scheduling tonight. I’ll have a page with current available openings printed up for you. Hey, by the way, your eye is looking pretty good!”

“Thanks! I’ll look for that paper, I’m sure she’ll appreciate it.”

Settling into his desk chair, Michael checked his e-mail, and caught up on paperwork. He felt he was actually accomplishing something as he reviewed documents, made notes and in some cases, signed the documents. The morning slipped away without interruption. The pile actually seemed to be shrinking, and Michael was thinking to himself that his hard work should be rewarded with a good lunch, when Lisa opened the door and came into his office. She had a manila envelope with her.

“I think you should see this.”

“What’s up?” he asked, while he took it from her.

“Your cousin is calling for a full board meeting.” Lisa seemed angry, and while Michael read the letter, he began to get angry as well.

“Really. He claims that my parent’s deaths have not been adequately determined, so he believes that I don’t have a majority share. It’s his contention that I am unfit to be CEO, and he wants to put it before the board--what a crock of shit!”

“I’ve already called Mr. Roberts, and he should be here around 1:00.”

“All right, thank you.”

The letter was enough to ruin his day. Randy was his only family anywhere near his age, and Michael felt torn as to how best to deal with this problem. He felt betrayed by his cousin, and unsure of what he should do next.

After lunch, Lisa paged him to let him know that David Roberts, the head of their corporate attorneys, was waiting to speak to him. He went out and shook his friend’s hand. The older gentleman smiled. He was not a large man, and his age was beginning to show, but he was still a very healthy man. As always, he wore a dark gray suit. David had been his father’s friend and attorney, and he had helped Michael in the days after his father’s death.

Michael gave David the letter, and explained what Randy had done.

“But Michael, why would Randy do this? He’s never said anything previously.”

“Well, it seems he objects rather strenuously to the young lady I’m dating.”

“But that seems to be a rather personal matter, Michael. Is she some kind of dangerous terrorist?
A dangerous felon? Perhaps a rogue Avon lady?”

Michael chuckled. “No, David. Jenny used to be a man. Actually, I guess she technically still is -- at least so far.”

“And why does that matter to your cousin?”

Michael smiled at that. “I believe he feels that I have somehow offended God, which he seems to find very personally objectionable.”

“I see. He feels that the board will have some objection to this for some reason. I’m afraid your cousin is in for a bit of a surprise.”

“I thought that I had a majority share, David. Was I wrong?”

“Well, I suppose that legal theory could be debated. Of course you and your parent’s stock had the normal cross proxy, so you can vote their shares without them being declared legally dead. He can still raise a fuss, but we will ultimately prevail--unless he pushes it to court with a jury trial--then all bets are off.”

“Lovely. I suppose that you will need to be prepared to counter his arguments, then. What will you need me to do?”

“I assume that you plan to continue to see the lady in question?”

“Oh, yes, of course. There’s no question of that.”

“It could make things much easier…“

“David, I will never allow my cousin or anyone else to manipulate me. My father would never back down from this sort of threat, and I intend to follow his example.”

“Very well, Michael. There is some risk involved, but I shall respect your wishes.’

“Thank you, David. Would you please keep me in the loop?”

“Of, course I will, Michael.”

Michael clasped his friend’s hand. “Thanks, David. I also have some papers I’d like to have you look into. Something is odd about this, and I just can’t figure it out.”

He gave the envelope to David, who looked quickly at its contents.

“This is the result of an audit. I’ll go over it with a fine tooth comb, but is there anything you noticed in particular?”

“Nothing that stood out, but I’m hoping another set of eyes will see what it is that is making me uneasy.”

“I’ll look it over and get back to you, okay?”

‘Thanks, David, I appreciate it.”

The day seemed to crawl after that, and Lisa repeatedly came in with distractions. Even the delivery of Jenny’s surgical scheduling options failed to completely remove his gloom. Michael could tell that she was trying to cheer him up. At first, he resisted her, but as the day went on, he realized he had to dump the grumpy mood if he was going to have a good time that night.

“Let’s close it up. I want to get ready for tonight, and I really need to get out of here.”

“That’s fine. I think you need to get away from here, and there is nothing that has to be done this afternoon. I wouldn’t mind a little extra time to get pretty, as well.”

“Yeah, like you need it, Lees.”

“Oh, aren’t you just the charmer! Keep it up; she’ll be putty in your hands, Boss.”

“Ewww, why would anybody want that? So hard to clean, you know.”

“You’re a goof-” She laughed “I’ll see you at Roast, then?”

“All right, we’ll start there.”

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Michael drove past the restaurant, looking for a good place to park, and then headed home to change and check the weather forecast. He showered, shaved and did his usual routine before dressing. He didn’t want to be too casual or too formal, so plain brown slacks and a green sweater over a white dress shirt would suffice. He went light on the cologne, some of dad’s stuff he had liked, and he was done. He threw on his leather jacket and went out the door.

It looked like a pleasant evening, so he decided to use his bright red Porsche 911 Targa. He headed north to Royal Oak. The directions to Jenny’s home were fairly simple, and soon he was knocking on her door. A very pretty blonde girl answered it.

“Hi, you must be Michael. Won’t you come in?”

He stepped into the comfortable living room.

“I’m Diane, Jenny’s little sister. She’ll be down in a minute. Would you like something to drink?”

“No, thank you though. Jenny told me that you helped compose the ad that introduced us.”

“I wanted to get her out of her shell, she can be so shy!”

“Well, thank you. I’m very glad you convinced her.”

“Michael?”

Jenny looked very nice. She wore nothing fancy, just a dark blue skirt and a bright blue blouse, dark tights and low heeled pumps. Her hair was down, and she smelled rather spicy. Michael was very pleased.

“Hello, Jenny, you look very nice.”

She blushed and smiled, shyly. “Thank you, you look very nice, yourself.”

He bowed deeply. “Well, thank ya, Ma’am, Ah duns muh best.”

The ladies both laughed.

“Well, Tex, Ah guess we best hit the trail,” Jenny said in her best Texas drawl. Michael helped her to put a coat on, and they went out to his car. She looked suitably impressed.

“I see you brought out the pretty pony for me?”

“I thought it would be appropriate for the evening, and it keeps the drunks out, this time.”

“I take it the last time you ended up the designated driver?”

“Oh yeah, and it cost me quite a few dollars to clean up the mess.”

She giggled at the thought, and then waited as he held open the door for her. She appreciated the heated seat, and waved to her sister as they pulled away.

“She’s going to be so jealous,” Jenny said. “Diane is the family gear head.”

“What does she drive?”

“She has a Fiat X19 in the garage, but for the winter she bought an old Escort for a couple hundred dollars. The Fiat takes a lot of work, and she says it is prone to rust. She won’t even drive it in the rain!”

“My dad called it a “Fix It Again, Tony”. He has a 1977 124 Spyder in the collection that Mom used to drive. I wanted him to buy a Ferrari, but no, not my dad. A 1978 Pinto “Cruising Wagon” was much more his style. He drove that frequently. It’s got a tricked out four cylinder that is much more powerful than normal, but it looks like it did when it left the lot. You should see his Pacer!”

Jenny giggled. “I cannot imagine a multi-millionaire driving a Pacer!”

“Well, that was my dad. Don’t underestimate it, though. A dealer in Arizona sold a kit that let Dad install a 401 AMC V-8 engine into it. He upgraded everything, but it looks almost completely stock. It even uses the original hubcaps, with very rare Goodyear Wingfoot tires, basically street legal Formula 1 rain tires. It is a real beast on the road. The collection has several cars like that. They don’t look like much, but they are awesome to drive.”

“This is nothing like the Bob Tallon I’ve read about over the years. I’ve always had this picture of a happy couple, donating their time and money to good causes around Detroit, or running a huge business with a benevolent hand. People should know he was secretly a hot rodder with a passion for crazy fast cars.”

“It really wasn’t a secret, Jenny. He spent a lot of time in the old days, cruising and racing on Woodward Avenue. There was a guy who helped build his Pacer with him, we called him Uncle Pete. Pete built a Pacer of his own; a big green beast with a supercharger on top of the same kind of V-8 engine and blue tinted windows, with fat tires in the back and brightly polished mag wheels. It was ugly as sin, but it was the terror of Woodward Avenue. Dad thought it was very cool, but he wanted his car to be built his way, very subtle and secretly crazy. Unfortunately, Uncle Pete was killed in his car during a street race.”

“I imagine that there are a lot of stories like that in Detroit. Street racing is a dangerous sport.”

They pulled into the parking lot, and Michael recognized Greg and Lisa’s Corvette. Fortunately, they had left a corner spot open, so he eased the Porsche into it, leaving plenty of room to open the doors. He stepped out and opened Jenny’s door and gave her a gentlemanly hand to help her stand.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Oh, you’re quite welcome, milady!”

“Oh, Michael, you spoil me!”

“I plan to at every opportunity, my dear.”

She smiled, but he felt something wrong.

“Jenny, is there something wrong? “

“It’s probably nothing, honestly.”

“Too much, too fast?”

“I don’t know, really. I guess it’s just too good to be true.”

They walked to the restaurant, her arm in his, and he felt the need to reassure her.

“It’s all right. I’m trying not to let myself go overboard, but I really do like you very much. Honestly, this is just my way. I like to have fun, something my parents taught me. I’d love to say it’s all a pose, trying to make a good impression, but…”

“You’re really a very happy person, and I should just go with the flow?”

“Exactly.” He put his finger under his nose in his best-but-still-awful Groucho Marx impression. “Whatcha see is whatcha get!”

She giggled, then looked concerned. “You do have a serious side, don’t you?”

“Jenny, all too often lately, my serious side seems to be my only side. Tonight, I’ll spend a
few hours with my friends, showing off the beautiful lady on my arm. I’ll save the truly
serious side for later, if you will. I’m very happy tonight, and I hope you are, too.”

“You’re right. I know you’ve had a very stressful day, and I want to help relieve that stress, if I can.”

He turned and looked into her eyes. “You make me feel wonderful. I think I’m falling in love with you, no matter how hard I try to control myself. I apologize if this makes you uncomfortable, but I promised to be honest with you.”

She looked back, into his eyes. “I do love you. It’s ridiculous, I know, but I also promised to be straight forward and honest. As much as I want to take this slow, I don’t see it happening. I truly believe we are meant to be together.”

“I think we’re in trouble.”

“No, I agree with that old saying. ‘Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead’!”

They kissed, passionately.

It was the start.

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