Chapter 1: One Thursday Evening
By Anonymous
Thursday evening on his way home after working late Don decided
to stop in at the Blue Boar for a pint. He turned into the
parking lot and began searching for an open space in the small
crowded lot; he found one at the far end of the aisle. As he
walked into the pub he saw why the parking lot was so full;
there were no empty tables in the main room and there were no
empty sits at the bar. Don walked to the bar and caught Rita's
eye; as she came over to take his order a couple came out of the
back room. Don glanced in and saw that the small table in the
back corner was unoccupied.
"I'll have a pint of Double Diamond Rita," he said, "can you
bring it to the back table?"
"Sure, Don, it'll be just a few minutes," she replied.
Don sat at the two person table and gazed out at the packed
bar. As Rita served him his ale Don noticed the most beautiful
head of coppery red hair he'd ever seen. He stared at the back
of the woman's head until she turned around. She was very
pretty in her late twenties or early thirties Don guessed. She
noticed him or perhaps the empty seat and came over to his
table; she stood about 5' 8" tall and weighed around 130 pounds,
very nicely built. She was wearing a U necked top that revealed
just the right amount of cleavage, her skirt ended just above
the knee and her legs were slim and attractive.
"Is this seat taken," she asked?
"No, please sit, I'm Don Crawford," he answered.
"Thank you, Colleen Kennedy," she replied, as she sat down.
"Is that Double Diamond," she inquired?
"Yes it is, I don't think I've seen you in here before, do you
come in often?"
"No, this is only the second time. I'm in town on business
and thanks to a bitch of a secretary I'm stuck here until
Sunday. My colleagues left this afternoon for Vancouver and all
the flights are booked until Sunday."
Colleen caught Rita's attention as the waitress served another
table. "Two pints of Double Diamond please," Colleen requested
of the barmaid, "you don't mind if I buy you a drink do you?"
"No, I appreciate the offer, so what happened if you don't mind
my asking," Don inquired, "I can't believe that all the flights
to Vancouver are booked there must be at least four or five
flights a day."
"Well, I work for a Canadian firm and we have to fly Air
Canada if possible; furthermore, I've got to go through Montreal
to pick up my briefcase and sign a complaint. I should have
known it would be a bad trip when my briefcase was stolen while
we laid over in Montreal, and in the Air Canada VIP lounge no
less. There's only one flight a day; unless I want to spend all
day in Montreal."
"The police recovered your briefcase?"
"Yes, I had a call waiting for me when we arrived, they insist
I return and identify it and the creep who stole it before I can
get it back; at least I didn't have any necessary papers in it.
Tom had duplicates of everything, you can't trust the airlines,
not even Air Canada. You see, there were supposed to be four us
on the specification team, Tom, Dave, Connie and me. On the way
to the airport Connie somehow managed to sprain her ankle
sufficiently bad to go to the hospital and our secretary cancel
our reservations. Connie's and my reservations were together
since we were supposed to share a room. When we got to the
Holiday Inn near Motorola they only had a room for Tom and Dave;
no room for me at all. The hotel was hosting a convention and
all the rooms were booked. They put me up at a Holiday Inn on
the beach; a lot of good that does me with my complexion and of
course with only one car I had to pick up my co-workers each
morning."
"Sorry you've so many problems I hope things have gotten
better."
"The meetings went fine; we signed the contract with Motorola
this morning, but that leaves nothing for me to do until Sunday.
I suppose I should be grateful that police located my
briefcase. My boss was livid when he found out that I couldn't
get back until Monday. He threatened to take my extra expenses
out of that stupid secretary's salary. Can you imagine, she
canceled the reservation without consulting anyone?"
"Well at least you have a car you could go sight seeing, maybe
you could drive up to Orlando and see Disney World or another
attraction up there. It's only about a three hour drive one way
if you left early in the morning you'd have plenty of time."
"Hm, I'll have to consider that; in the mean time dinner is on
me, or really on my company, and I hope it comes out of that
bitches salary."
What would you like to do next?
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