Chapter 21

Monday-Tuesday, May 28-29

I tried to think of a safe place to stash Morgan’s panties. I really could have used my golf bag right then.

I eventually took the chance of burying them in my sock drawer, praying I would remember to get them out before Mom had a chance to snoop.

The events of the day finally caught up to me and I struggled to hit the lights before my head hit the pillow.

Mom was up and ready to go early the next morning. There was still cleanup work to do at the club and she’d kindly volunteered my services yet again. At least this time I had a chance of getting more than lunch out of the deal.

I texted Jed to let him know I’d have to skip running today unless he wanted to put it off to this evening. I asked if he wanted to help at the club again since there was the possibility of getting a real job out of it. He texted back that he’d meet me at the club at 9 a.m.

Mom pulled into the club parking lot about 8:30 and quickly farmed me out to Mr. Ferguson, who put me to work breaking down the buffet tables from the picnic and loading them back on the truck. I told him that Jed would arrive shortly and asked if he could join in on our meeting if that wouldn’t be too much trouble.

Mr. Ferguson was facing a busy week, trying to get all his loose ends tied up before he left for his new job. The cabana business had just popped up unexpectedly and was something he really didn’t have to take on, but providing his customers with good service was just too ingrained in the guy. He told me to come by his office when we were done in the pool area.

I had about half the tables broken down when Jed arrived.

“Dad told me about your hole-in-one,” Jed said. “Sounded like the luckiest shot in the world. You’ll have to show me the video.

“I can’t believe you got a car out of the deal. Dad said he basically had to threaten to drive the insurance guys out of business and tell them exactly how he could do it before they caved.”

“I think having the dealership putting pressure on them helped,” I said. “The general manager is a member here and he didn’t want to lose a sale or piss off potential customers.”

“You are going to have to take me for a ride in it,” he said. “We’ll figure out some way to make me fit without doing too much damage to me or the car.”

Melinda Hernandez swung by to say hello before opening up the snack bar. I noticed her tip jar already had several singles in it when she sat it in the window.

We quickly finished breaking down the rest of the tables and began hauling them out to the truck before the pool opened for business. Jed once again toted two at a time. I thought he flexed a little more than necessary as we passed the snack bar.

We got the last table loaded just as the day’s crowd began trickling in. I didn’t see Arlene Jenson.

I knocked on the door at the main office about 10:15 and was told Mr. Ferguson would see us momentarily. He came strolling in a few minutes later with Mom right behind.

“Come on in, guys,” he said as he headed back to his office.

I noticed the walls were already bare and a stack of boxes took up one corner. He really was on his way out the door.

“Pull up a chair,” Mr. Ferguson said after Mom was seated.

Once we were all situated, Mr. Ferguson began.

“The way I see this position is kind of a cross between wait staff and concierge,” he said. “I know you said you mostly ran orders back and forth to the snack bar, Gary, but there were some other tasks, as well, right?”

“Yes, sir,” I said, explaining about how I’d also served drinks, adjusted awnings and the like.

“We’ve got to decide just which area you’ll be placed under,” Mr. Ferguson said. “Will it be the Activity Center or food service? They’ve both got their budgets already set, but we can pay the wages out of the discretionary fund.”

“I would think they would fall under the Activity Center,” Mom said, “but we pay them the same rate as the food service staff since tips are involved.”

“We also need to figure out how many people will be needed,” Mr. Ferguson said. “Weekends will obviously be busier, and Fourth of July will be a special case.”

“I think you should have at least three during the weekdays,” Mom said. “That would give them each eight cabanas to cover, and there are several days when not all the cabanas are in use. If it gets busier in the afternoons, we could have more. I’ll have to keep track of things to see what numbers work best, but I can see using six or eight on weekends, more for the holidays.”

“I can get as many of my teammates as you’d take,” Jed put in. “I know a lot are looking and the coaches would like it that we’d all be in the same place. Easier for them to check up on us. We could even use the facilities to work out after work.”

“What about shifts?” I asked. “The pool is open 56 hours a week, but I don’t think most people would look at this as a 40-hour-per-week job. We could split it up four hours per day, maybe overlap six and six on weekends.”

“That would help with our guys,” Jed said. “Most of them may not be available for eight hours at a time, but there’d be enough of them to cover all of the hours.”

“We could also have our regular wait staff fill in the odd shift if they were looking to pick up some extra hours,” Mr. Ferguson said.

“When do we want to start this?” Mom asked. “We’ll have to get all this staffing figured out first.”

“Do you think these two could handle a couple of weekdays by themselves?” Mr. Ferguson said. “We could get them started in the morning and let them handle Wednesday and Thursday. That should give us time to hire enough staff for the weekend.”

“How do we inform the patrons?” I asked. “We should probably let them know why some guy they’ve never seen is hanging around their cabana.”

“I’ll whip up a little flyer and have it distributed,” he said. “I’ll make sure you get a copy just in case I list any services you hadn’t thought of.”

“Just to avoid discrimination claims, would we be hiring female attendants?” Mom asked.

“I don’t know why not,” Mr. Ferguson said. “We have male and female lifeguards.”

“I think the issue there is whether girls want to do this kind of job,” I said. “It’s going to be out in the heat. It’s not heavy labor, but I got pretty sweaty Saturday. And you know I wasn’t overdressed.”

“OK, let’s discuss uniforms,” Mom said. “We are not having male or female employees running around dressed like that.”

“Thank God,” Jed said.

“I was thinking shorts, club polos and athletic shoes,” Mr. Ferguson said. “You’d need more substantial footwear than those flip-flops you had on Saturday if you’re going to be on your feet all day. Serge probably has everything we’d need at the tennis shop and I know he’s overstocked on some items. It might take a little financial juggling, but I bet we could work something out between the Activity Center and tennis center accounts.”

“What color shirts?” Jed asked.

“Something light for the heat, I would think,” Mom said. “Maybe a Carolina blue, perhaps?”

“You’re the one with the fashion sense,” I said. “As long as it’s not all pink, though I guess that would work for any girls that might get hired.”