that’s so cool. Where is she now?”
“She died. When I was in my early twenties. She had overdosed while on the road in Europe somewhere.”
“I heard that, but I was hoping it was all made up. I mean she always promoted herself as anti drugs. I believed her. I was hoping maybe she just wanted to escape the lime light. I’d really like to meet her someday. Call it a fantasy.”
“She didn’t use drugs. We thought it was suicide, not an accidental over dose,” I said.
“Well, I’m still going to dream. You never know.”
Oh, I knew.
We pulled up in front of my house. He turned the car off and looked at me. He looked worried.
“Do you need me to come in with you? I could hang out, maybe make dinner for you?” he said.
“You cook?”
“Ok, I can microwave. Or call out for something.”
“Thank you, but I don’t think we know each other well enough yet. Before we spend time alone in my home, lets at least go on a couple of dates. I’d like to get to know you better before I decide if I want to give in to temptation.”
“Oh, I tempt you?” he smiled.
He did, but I really didn’t want to tell him that. A woman has to keep her man guessing at least a little.
“Not yet. Bye, Marlowe,” I said.
I got out of the car and went in to my house. My sanctuary. It was time to prepare my battle plan against Al Learner.
After a couple of hours of reading e-mails and watching videos on my computer I was interrupted by a knock on my door. It was Frankie, I was grateful for the interruption. My eyes were getting so tired.
“Mom,” he said, “have you been working on this stuff all this time?”
“Yes, and I could really use a break.”
“Good, cause I’m hungry. Let’s go up to Festival De La Manatee and see Minerva. I think William is working tonight too. We could say hi.”
William was the father-in-law of our head engineer Jerome. He was also the preacher at a store front church that he founded. And he was fast becoming a friend of ours. He was a great man. Unfortunately when he was young he got in to trouble and went to jail for a time. Even though I know and trust him, the park has a policy of not hiring anyone with a criminal record. No, exceptions. Not that I would make one for him or anyone else. That just wouldn’t be right.
“I didn’t know he was working there,” I said.
“Not at the restaurant. He’s working for your hotel. You need to pay better attention to who you hire.”
“Honey, I spend almost every waking hour at the park. I let the hotel’s HR handle the hiring for it. I really don’t even know most of the people at the hotel.”
“By the way, before you protest, I already called Minerva and told her we were coming. She’s making something special for us. So let’s go.”
I wasn’t going to argue with him anyway. I was hungry and I’d been sitting in my living room way too long. But again, I thought that he needed a girlfriend and to stop hanging out with his mommy so much.
When I arrived home earlier I had changed out of my business casual clothes and into a pair of shorts and an Adventure Universe t-shirt. I could not go to Festival De La Manatee dressed like that. So, I made Frankie wait while I changed in to something decent again. Minerva’s restaurant didn’t have a dress code, the idea was that people could feel comfortable going straight there after spending the day at Adventure Universe. But, I felt that as the park’s CEO I should be presentable anytime I was in public. Especially if I was on park property. Technically the hotel wasn’t on park property, but it was close enough.
Frankie approved of my choice of clothing and we walked up to the main house/hotel that contained Minerva’s restaurant.
Chapter 3: Meal From Hell
When Frankie and I arrived at the hotel I had to stop outside and look at it for a moment. It was once the home of the previous owners of Adventure Universe. It was huge. There were four or five bedrooms on each