I had built my realty business up from a single office to well over three hundred offices, now I needed to sell the business or find some investors badly before I had to declare bankruptcy.

I was setting in the front lobby of my wife’s beauty salon. The Turnabout Gurl Salon recently changed hands, now a prestigious salon that oozes femininity. A typical late Friday afternoon occurrence with me, now something I look forward to since they have changed hands.

The décor has changed, the uniform the stylists wear have been upgraded, and their level of business has doubled. So much to see now, the stylists new dress a work of art. Brief, lacy, form fitting and along with some towering high heels a real sight to take in.

I was out shopping at my local mall, just finishing with the anchor store near where I parked. I wanted something to nibble on and was on my way to the food court. I noticed a large crowd up ahead, more than is usually congregated around the food court.

As I approached, it seemed to be one of those survey groups, a lot of young people carrying clipboards actively engaged with customers of the mall as they tried to shop.

What caught my attention, the most was one of the group who appeared to be a male, was sporting bright pink lipstick.

It was a tennis match I was supposed to win easily, against an up and coming female tennis player from a rival high school. Since she is a junior and I am a sophomore we had never played each other before.

Due to a lack of tennis players in the state, there was no separate male and female teams. Just one team open to either a male or a female. This also applied to several other sports, golf also being one of the sports. In the sport of tennis, some of the best players were female, their agility overcoming any male advantage due to their strength.

I am a recent addition to a work group, its sole function to court and sell a new customer our products. Our company manufactures different female products, from cosmetics to lingerie, and this retailer had withstood our best efforts to get them on board.

So our company put together a select group of people with different skills to approach and try to land the customer. All were female except me, my field of expertise not often inhabited by females. I am the numbers person, supplying all matter of statistics to impress and influence sales of our products, yeah right.

It was time for our companies New Years costume party. Kind of a tradition, since this year will be the thirteenth edition of the affair. Over the years the party has changed quite a bit from scary monsters and witches to famous movie stars.

This year Monica, the CEO wanted a more lighthearted theme since with the virus, the depressed economy and so many people unemployed anything to help people forget for a while would be welcome.

I was back home for the first time in two years, excluding some brief visits several times a year. This time I was here to stay, my schooling concluded. The last two years of college consuming that time, with my degree in business economics finally obtained. I finished junior college in my home town, but wanted my degree to have a little more clout than just a state university.

It was sheer bedlam in the casino, a group had booked the whole casino and hotel for seven days straight, we are talking major money here. No info on the group was shared down at our level yet, but it was rumored they were major high rollers. The problem was quite a few employees were on vacation, something the casino allowed, in fact encouraged, right after the Christmas holiday. So the powers to be were down interviewing everybody to see who could work extra shifts to fill in the gaps.