Thankfully we were busy so Mary never a got the opportunity to question me. At lunchtime, I went out to my car to call Todd Martin. I had a lot of questions and I needed to see if he was okay with the money I had spent over the weekend. I found his card in my wallet and dialed. He answered on the first ring.
“Jack Schaeffer! How are you, man? Get back to Chicago okay?”
“Yeah, I did. How are you?”
“Good, can’t complain. What can I do for you?”
“Well, I think I did a not too smart thing. I went down to the Boeing headquarters here in Chicago and toured a mockup of the new 747 plane. I know you said I shouldn’t, but I couldn’t resist. It was so beautiful, and I hate flying first class with all the rabble, so I put a down payment on one. It was only 117 million, and you have two years to come up with the remaining 250 million. You were right. They take a Centurion card everywhere. Is that okay?” I was nearly choking trying not to laugh at my joke.
“Ha ha. Very funny, you little shit. Now tell me you didn’t.”
“Naw, man. I’m not that stupid. Besides, what could one person do with a plane that big? But hey, I did spend some money. I helped a couple at the airport on Friday get seats together on my plane. And I went on a little shopping trip for myself and got some clothes and an iPad. I hope that’s okay.”
“No problem. Unless you spend above a certain threshold in a calendar day, I don’t even get a heads up from the system. The bills are just paid, no questions asked.” Really?
“So what is the threshold?” I asked.
“No way. I’m not telling you. That’s all I need, you spending a shitload of money just to trip the system so I catch it. I can already see you’re gonna be a pain in my ass, aren’t you?” I heard the smile in his voice. I liked Todd a lot. He and I were going to get along great. Too bad he was straight.
“I’m just asking. It’s not like I have anything I really need to buy right now.”
“Fine. Let’s just say it’s in the high six figures and leave it at that.” Holy crap! Did he just say I could spend close to a million dollars in a day and he wouldn’t even be warned about it? I thought I was beyond shock anymore with the money thing, but I was wrong.
“Yikes! Okay, well, no worries. Not gonna happen. But that does answer one of my questions.”
“Oh, what?” he asked.
“I want to take a trip to Hawaii, and the place I want to stay is kind of pricey.”
“How pricey is pricey?”
“Like $2,500 a night.” I braced for his scream.
“Jack, that’s not pricey. Sure, for the average guy, or even the average upper class guy, it might be a little steep. But trust me, you can handle it. Go and have a blast. Enjoy yourself. How long are you planning to stay?”
“I’m not sure. I was thinking a week. I wanna get out of Chicago, get some sun and just veg out. Think about life, ya know?”
“I get it. Sounds great. Go for it. You need any help making plans on where to stay and how to get there? I’m good with all the little detailed shit. I’m here to help if you want it.”
“I’m good for now. I’ll let you know once I’ve made up my mind on what I’m doing. But there is the other matter we discussed when I was out there. My student loan?”
“Oh, yeah, right. You got the numbers for me? I’m ready when you are.” I gave him my current remaining balance—$16,374.22—and the account numbers and contact information. He assured me he would have it handled before the week was over. That was easy.
“So, Jack, when are you coming back out to Denver? We should talk about some options for you, if you’re up for it. Plus my wife Margie would love to meet you.” Why? I was nobody.
“Well, actually that was the other thing I need to talk to you about. I’ve decided to quit my job and move to Denver in a little while, probably right after my trip. I really liked it out there, and I think I would like to get a little more involved in the day to day activities with the trust. That is, if I wouldn’t be a bother.”
“Not at all, Jack. Are you kidding? It would be great to have you out here and I wouldn’t mind walking you through everything we’re working on for you—make sure you’re on board with it all. Nothing too deep, just skimming the surface so you get an idea.” I knew I liked this guy. He knows not to overwhelm me with too much information at one time. Smart man.
“I like the sound of that. Let’s do it. Soon as I get back from my vacation.”
“Have you given any thought to where you are gonna stay if you move to Denver? You know you have a house out here, right?”
“Yeah, I remember seeing it on one of Larry’s lists. But I never found out much about it. Is it nice?” I had no idea about real estate or owning a house. Way above my previous pay grade.
“Uh, yeah, I would think so. I’ve never seen it, but it’s out in Littleton, about twenty minutes from downtown Denver. Sits on seven hundred acres on a mountain side. Sounds pretty nice to me.”
Crap! Crap! Crap! I was going from a one bedroom apartment to seven hundred acres? Geez, how was I supposed to manage all that? I hated cleaning my little apartment, and it only took an hour. I could feel a major anxiety attack coming on.
“Jack, you there? Jack, where’d you go?” He sounded frantic.
“I’m here. Just give me a minute, okay?” I tried to calm my breathing. This emotional freak-out response of mine was getting old. “Alright. I can breathe again. Sorry. It’s just…I hear numbers like that and it gets overwhelming really fast for me. I’m trying to get over it.”
“Numbers like what?” he asked.
“Seven hundred acres, high six figures, crap like that. I mean, I live in a tiny one bedroom apartment. Now you’re talking a house on seven hundred acres. How am I supposed to take care of it? It’s way more than I can handle. I was thinking it was a small townhouse or a simple single-family home in a subdivision somewhere.”
“Nope, none of those. But you know, it has caretakers—Charles and Maggie Smyth. He does all the landscaping, maintenance, and general labor, and she does all the cooking, cleaning, and household management things. So really, there’s nothing for you to do. You’d have live-in help. If you want them, that is. According to Larry, they asked to stay on and keep the place going until the estate was resolved. They’ve been doing it for close to twenty years, I think. Phillip Franklin hired them from a hotel he stayed at a lot. You’d have to ask Larry for more details.”
“What if I don’t like it? Or I’m not comfortable with live-in help? What if they don’t like me or don’t want to stay on? Then what?” I asked.
“I’m sure they’ll like you, Jack. But, hey, if they don’t, then we put the house and land on the market, and we sell it. And we get you a great condo in the city. Or whatever you want. You can live wherever and however you want to, you know that right?” He was being gentle with me, which I appreciated. I would get over being a ninny about the money eventually, right?
“Well, I guess it couldn’t hurt to at least visit it and see what it’s like. I mean Phillip and Amanda loved it, I understand. So maybe it’s great. I’ll check it out when I get to Denver later.”
“Sounds good. Hey, why don’t you give me the name of the place in Hawaii you were interested in renting, and let me see what I can find out for you? Once you know when you’re going, and if it’s available, we can talk about flights and rental cars and other things you might need.” His assistance would actually be a relief as I had struggled to figure out availability online when I was surfing yesterday. Maybe Todd could call them directly or something. I gave him the info.
“Alright, Jack. I’ll get on this right away and let you know what I find out. By the way, check out your bank balance today. I transferred some money to you this morning. Gotta run. Bye.” He hung up, leaving me staring at my phone. What had he done?
My empty stomach preempted any further money business. I buzzed over to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch and ordered wings with my favorite flavors—chipotle dry rub and spicy barbeque, six of each. I washed them down with a large Diet Coke and then used the wet napkin things they have on the table to try to get the sticky sauce off my fingers.
I made it back to the office within my allotted one hour lunch break. Mary was still out on her lunch, so I secretly logged onto my bank account and almost fell out of my chair when I saw the balance. It should have been less than $1,500. Instead, the screen showed I had a little over $200,000 in my checking account. Holy crap! Todd was totally messing with my head again. I was still staring open-mouthed at the screen when Mary walked in from her lunch. I snapped out of it and shut down the web browser on the accounting computer before she could see the screen.
Thankfully, we both had busy afternoons and she never got a chance to ask me much about my trip. She did say she liked my haircut. Just before quitting time, Marcus called me into his office and asked me to shut the door.
“Jack, have a seat. This won’t take long. I’m sure you want to get out of here.” He didn’t know the half of it. I could feel Mary readying herself for a serious inquisition.
“I’ve been thinking about your leaving, and I have an idea I want to run by you. I’m thinking of splitting your position into two. As you know, I have been wanting a certified accountant on staff for a long time. Our numbers are looking up and we have a lot more transactions to manage, plus my time is being taken up with more strategic planning and the financial management is getting short changed. So here’s my idea. I’ll hire an accountant to do all the bookkeeping part of your job, which I’m estimating is like seventy-five percent of what you do for us, correct?” I nodded. That sounded about right to me.
“The rest I’ll merge into what Mary is already doing. The combined position will be titled Office Manager, and I’m thinking of offering it to Mary. She’s proven she can handle the workload, and I can probably swing a raise for her with the new responsibilities. Bottom line—you won’t have to interview or train your replacement. What do you think?”
I grinned from ear to ear. “I think it’s brilliant. Mary will be super happy. It’s perfect. I know she could use the money. And if you can keep her busier, she won’t have as much time to be a busybody.” I smiled. I really liked his idea. Everybody wins. I was feeling much better about my decision to leave.
“Great. My thoughts exactly. Now, have you given any thought to how long you want to stay on?”
“Actually, no. I still have a lot to do to make the move happen. I have to figure out my apartment, and I’m thinking of selling my car and getting something else out there. Not sure I have much to move. Most of it isn’t worth a lot. I really don’t know how long it will take to get everything done, Marcus.”
“Alright. Well, for now, we’ll proceed with this plan, and you keep me posted with your progress on things. And if you need to take time during the day to handle some arrangements, feel free. Just keep payroll going, please. That’s all I ask.” He smiled in mock horror at the thought of payroll not being done by Friday.
“You got it, Boss,” I said.
“Good. Now, get out of here. Have a great evening. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Night,” I said, then made my exit. Thankfully Mary had already left for the day.
The next couple of days passed quickly. Marcus told Mary his plan to have her assume the full Office Manager role, and she was ecstatic. She insisted on doing as much of it now as she possibly could so the transition would happen faster. I think she just wanted her raise to kick in sooner, but I didn’t blame her. Plus it meant she had little time to pepper me with questions about my trip and decision to leave.
She caught on quickly to things. In just two days, she had mastered every non-accounting related thing about my job, which was helpful because I had a lot of accounting work to do. Marcus was right, our sales had picked up and we were creating many more accounting transactions: purchase orders, vendor invoices, sales orders, sales invoices, etc. It all added to my work load. I didn’t mind really. Being busy made the time move faster.
On Thursday morning, Todd called to say he had some information about my Hawaii trip. I said I’d call him back at lunchtime—I didn’t need Mary snooping and hearing about a big expensive vacation. When I got to him, he was full of news.
“Okay, I called the place you wanted to stay near Kailua Beach. The family who owns it is willing to rent it to you, but they only have a three week window open starting a week from this Saturday and you have to rent it for the full three weeks. You can’t break it up. But if you take it, I negotiated a much better nightly rate of $1,500.”
“Wow, Todd. That’s huge. How did you do it?”
“I just pointed out that requiring a three-week rental when you only wanted one was a difficult burden, so they needed to meet me halfway. I knew they wanted to rent it. They don’t have anybody waiting on such short notice to snap it up, so it’s yours if you want it.”
“Yes, I want it! Can I really stay for three weeks?”
“Sure, if that’s what you want to do. You can even make it a kind of home base and then, if you get bored, you could branch out and see other islands on day trips or even some overnights. You can see a lot of the islands if you give yourself three weeks.”
“Okay, I’ll do it. I think I can get away from here by then. But how will I get there? Did you work on that too?” I knew the answer as soon as the question came out of my mouth.
“Of course, it’s what I do. I have a reservation for a non-stop flight leaving a week from Saturday that gets you into Honolulu a little after two in the afternoon. I’ll have a rental car ready for you along with directions to the property management agent who will accompany you to the house. They’ll help you figure out where everything is and how it all works. If you want me to set up some kind of butler service at the house for cooking and cleaning, I can do that too.”
“No, no. You’ve done plenty. Wow, Todd. Do you always think of everything?”
“Yes, I do. I enjoy it, what can I say?”
“Well all I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you for doing all this for me. I can hardly wait to go.”
“You’ll have a great time, Jack. It sounds like an awesome place to hide out for a vacation. Oh, by the way, I got confirmation back from the lender. Your student loan has officially been discharged, paid in full. You should receive a letter stating so on official letterhead in a couple of weeks.”
“Awesome, Todd! Thank you again. But that reminds me, if I’m leaving here in a week, what do I do about my mail? I mean, I won’t be here to get it anymore.”
“Go down to the post office and complete a forwarding address form. You can use the address we set up for your trust. We create one for every private trust so any correspondence has an official address to come to. Got a pen?” Todd gave me the address, which I wrote down. I would stop on the way home tonight and fill out the card at the Post Office. He made everything so easy. I hoped he was getting paid handsomely. He certainly deserved it.
That evening, I left work a little early and detoured to the nearest Post Office. I found the yellow cards to have my mail permanently forwarded and I filled one out. As I was walking up to the counter to give it to the clerk, I saw a sign advertising Passport applications. I wanted one.
When it was my turn, I handed over the yellow mail-forwarding card and then asked for a passport application. She pointed me to a side door off the lobby and told me to knock on it and someone would help me. I followed her instructions, and fifteen minutes later I had a passport photo taken, my application filled out, and the fee paid. I used the Denver address. I also paid for express processing—I wasn’t sure just how soon I might need it.