CHAPTER FOUR
The weather was glorious. May had brought out all of the beauty of spring. The air was warm on Jocelyn’s face as she drove and listened to the light jazz playing on her car radio. When she entered the building, she saw large muddy tracks on the hall-way she usually cleaned every morning. She looked closer at the mud tracks. They were giant muddy footprints. It looked like “Big Foot” had made them and they led straight to Lilly’s desk.
Jocelyn wondered who had worn the giant muddy boots into the office. She looked out the front window and searched for puddles of mud near the building. The ground was dry so she wondered where the person had been to pick up so much mud.
Once she got to Lilly’s desk, Lilly greeted her with a sugary, “Good morning.” That’s when Jocelyn noticed the offending plastic yellow high topped boots caked with wet mud beside Lilly’s desk.
Jocelyn’s eyebrows rose. Where had the woman been, in a swamp? There were large black rugs at each entrance so Jocelyn was sure that Lilly had the opportunity to wipe the soles of her boots if she had wanted to. Jocelyn turned back to check the entry rugs. There was no evidence of mud anywhere. Then she turned back to glare at Lilly. Her teeth started to hurt from forcing her mouth to remain closed.
Lilly gave Jocelyn an evil smirk. She said sweetly, “I’m so sorry for the mud. I decided to do a little gardening this morning and forgot to change my back into my shoes before I left for work. Thank goodness I keep an extra pair of shoes under my desk.”
Jocelyn wondered if Lilly had driven with the muddy boots on. She doubted it. She said to herself, so this is how it’s going to be. After she leaves, I’m sure I’ll have to mop up all that mud a second time.
Before Lilly could say anything else, Jocelyn reached around and grabbed the offending boots. “Lilly let me clean those for you.” She made a bee-line straight for the sink in the utility closet. Before Jocelyn could reach the utility closet, Lilly rushed from behind her desk to snatch the boots from Jocelyn’s hands. She grabbed the boots with such force that one went flying across the floor. Jocelyn watched the boot as it sailed across the floor and landed at someone’s feet.
The mud from the boot splattered upward to land on a pair of expensive looking black trousers. Her eyes followed the pants legs upward until she was looking in Ramon Holliday’s now scowling face.
He asked, “Ladies, what’s going on here?”
Jocelyn wasn’t going to be a snitch. “Nothing, I was just trying to help Lilly clean her boots.” Then as if he needed proof, she held up the one muddy boot she still held for his inspection.
He looked icily at the boot and then at Lilly. He turned on his heel and went back into his office. Jocelyn almost sighed with relief. Before she could release a breath, he called out, “Jocelyn, please see me before you begin work.”
“Certainly Mr. Holliday,” she replied as she stood in the hall still clutching the muddy boot.
Lilly grinned at her like a bad little school girl who had caused her sworn enemy to get into trouble.
Jocelyn dropped the boot and followed Mr. Holliday into his office. Without being asked, Jocelyn sat in the chair in front of his desk thinking, Oh hell! I’m causing a scene in the front office. Lilly must be trying to get me fired? Well if Mr. Holliday doesn’t want me to work here any longer, I certainly won’t miss this place. Lilly was getting on her last nerve.
Ramon stood behind his desk, cleared his throat, “What really happened in the hallway? I noticed the muddy footprints. There was no reason for them to be there. It hasn’t rained today. There haven’t been any deliveries made this morning. I’m sure of that, because I was here to open the building.”
Jocelyn started to twist her hands together and her left eye started to twitch. She realized she was acting nervous so she deliberately stopped twisting her hands and folded them together as if in prayer in her lap. She wasn’t about to add fuel to the fire, so she remained silent.
Ramon waited for an answer. Jocelyn looked down at her fingernails and muttered, “Nothing is going on.” Then she looked into his eyes and said with as much dignity as she could possibly muster, “I’m really sorry the mud splashed on your pants. I’ll pay to have them cleaned.”
He waved the suggestion aside. “If you have problems here at the company, come to me. I’ll straighten them out.”
Jocelyn found it admirable he actually cared enough to notice she was having trouble with another employee. She nodded and said, “Thank you, if it’s okay? I’ll start work now.”
Ramon watched Jocelyn slowly rise from the chair. Today her sweat-shirt proudly proclaimed YOU CAN CATCH CRABS IN BALTIMORE. Despite wearing her ridiculous sweatshirt, which looked like it had come straight from a thrift shop, she was still one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. He had barely managed to keep a straight face after he had realized the double-entendre meaning on her sweatshirt.
He was even more determined now to get a date with her. He desperately needed some fun in his life. He found Jocelyn funny and pleasant, besides every time he watched the sway of her hips, she excited him.
Each day when she entered his office, she delighted him when she showed an interest in how his day was going. He hoped she didn’t realize when she bent over to empty his trash cans; he covertly stared at her ass.
He used the opportunity Lilly had unintentionally handed him to ask her out. Before Jocelyn could reach the door, he asked “What are you doing tonight for dinner?”
She turned and looked at him. “She repeated the word, “Dinner?”
Damn! I have to stop repeating what the man says or he’ll think I’m an idiot.
“Yes, dinner.”
“Why?”
“I have something I want to discuss with you. I’d prefer to do it over dinner.”
“She hesitated and asked, “Why can’t we discuss it here?”
“I have an idea that I’d prefer to discuss with you privately this evening. We both have to eat tonight. I’d like to go someplace that serves good food and is quiet. I’m asking you to join me. Besides, you owe me.” As he looked down at his muddy trousers, Jocelyn inwardly groaned. He had seen the incident with Lilly!
While she was reluctant to dine with him, she did feel guilty muddying his pants. Now he would have to walk around all day with mud on his pants unless he stashed an extra pair in his office. She doubted it. She had never seen extra clothes in his office when she cleaned it.
He asked, “How about Evelyn’s in White Marsh? I’ll pick you up at 7 P.M. okay?”
“I’ve always wanted to try the food there. I’ll meet you at the restaurant.”
“I don’t have a problem picking you up.”
She reiterated, “I’d prefer to meet you there.” She didn’t want to give him the impression she considered his invitation a date. She wanted it to be clear they were meeting to discuss business. Letting him pick her up sounded too much like a date. She wondered what kind of business he could possibly want to discuss with a cleaning lady.
Ramon didn’t want Jocelyn or any employee mistreated while working at his company. He’d never found a reason to fire Lilly, but he tried to keep an eye on her. He knew she often rubbed people the wrong way. But she was very good at her job and she was always pleasant to him. Why she appeared to dislike Jocelyn was a mystery to him.
He definitely wanted Jocelyn to stick around. She kept his days interesting. She made him laugh with her jokes. She kept him entertained with stories of her siblings’ antics while growing up as she cleaned his office if he wasn’t too busy to listen.
Now that Ramon had gotten her to go out to a restaurant again, Ramon realized he had to do was come up with something to discuss with her. He really didn’t have anything he needed to talk to her about outside of the office. He just wanted to get to know her better.
He hadn’t been interested in a woman in a long time. He had been so busy building his company. In the past, when he wanted female companionship or physical intimacy, he us
ually called one of his female acquaintances.
Ramon looked forward to seeing Jocelyn outside of the office. He thought that she was the prettiest and the most remarkable woman he had met in a long time. He couldn’t wait to see her in something fancier than the outfits she wore to work.
He knew his looks and the fact that he owned his own company made lots of women gravitate toward him. He was always a gentleman with the women he dated and was only intimate with them if they wanted their date to end in his bed. However to his dismay, Jocelyn didn’t seem to be interested in dating him at all. He’d had to resort to making her feel guilty before she’d even, consented to having dinner with him.
As Ramon sat in his chair, he wondered why she had balked at letting him pick her up. He wasn’t interested in how much or how little money she had. He only wanted to spend time with her. He had never had such a hard time making a good impression on a woman before in his life.
Ramon started to notice girls when he was fourteen. Suddenly he grew six more inches and developed muscles when he started to lift weights. At sixteen, he started to grow hair on his face. The girls in his high school classes went wild for him. Without warning, girls who hadn’t noticed him started to smile and speak to him. Suddenly he realized girls liked the way he looked.
The last time he had been serious about attracting a woman had been in college. Somehow he’d managed to get himself engaged to Juliette. She was the most beautiful and polished girl he had ever seen. He was surprised when she had chosen to date him instead of one of the other guys.
His looks and his drive for success attracted Juliette to him. Upon graduation, she wanted him to take his degree and work for an already established company. When he told her he planned to buy a little struggling paint company and the expensive honeymoon and purchase of a dream home would have to wait a while, to his devastation, she’d broken off their engagement. He tried to convince her those things would eventually happen. It would just take longer than they had anticipated.
But months after they broke up, he received an invitation in the mail inviting him to her wedding. She hadn’t wasted any time finding a man who could buy her the things she wanted. She was marrying a widowed older gentleman with a daughter her age. He was well established and owned his own profitable company. He gave her the home, the expensive jewelry and the other things she wanted.
After receiving the invitation to the wedding in the mail, Ramon’s love for his former fiancée faded. He no longer loved her, but he wished her well.
He decided after the break-up with his fiancée, the next woman he became emotionally involved with wouldn’t make money and physical things their priority. She would support his dreams and care about his physical and emotion well being as well. He hoped Jocelyn was that woman.