Maria looked quite pleased with herself, "Thank you Mistress. It's still a little chilly out there, so I suspect we'll all start in shorts and t-shirts."
The ordeal was over, so it was safe to take the last bite and drink my milk from the bowl, or should I say Maria's milk.
"Sam, Chuck and Christine are going to be here today with paperwork. Would you give me a hand getting the three barrels and a door out by the pool?"
"Can I get dressed first Master?" Sam asked like the wise ass she was.
"I would prefer not, but since it's a bit chilly and I wouldn't want any of my lovely ladies getting sick. So I guess I'll have to allow it for a little while at least." That got napkins thrown at me from all of them. We all ran up and got dressed and began hauling the materials out. I called Martin and had him call Mary to see if we could borrow one of the low platforms for the weekend.
We got the barrels hauled out, and were hauling the door around when the first of the crowd began showing up. A few of the ladies began to drag loungers toward the concrete. They did not appreciate it that they would have to stay in the grass for another few days or over behind the main house away from everybody else. Since we didn't have any plywood or something similar, we wound up hauling another door around to put chairs for Chuck and Christine to sit on. On one end of the door Maria set a big cooler filled with ice for those that needed it, and several big stacks of plastic cups of all sorts of different colors and styles. It looked like they raided the thrift stores for several counties around us.
There was the steady trickle for a while. Chuck and Christine showed up around eight thirty, Martin and Mary shortly after with a three by eight platform that had seen its better days - a long, long time ago. Mary's only comment was 'pitch it when you're done with it.' Dean and Jean showed up, Dean in a bright red Cincinnati hat and Jean in her red collar and nipple strings beaming like a new bride. A few of what I would call regulars, along with Gladys with her giant. I say that because you have to picture this little midget lady with her almost six foot husband George. I only knew he was her husband because she introduced us. I'd never met or known about him until now.
And then the clock struck nine thirty. I know because I had to look at my watch. "Who opened the flood gates?" It looked like somebody was directing every car on the road down my driveway.
Jean just smiled. "They are here for your ten o'clock grand opening speech Master Danny."
"MY WHAT!!" My girls were giggling... I'm going to have to learn about the gigglers!
"Well it is your grand opening, and it is your house, so that makes it YOUR grand opening speech." She stuck her tongue out and turned away with Dean in tow.
You remember when I said I wouldn't have any more of those 'fun' projects today. WELL THAT WENT OUT THE WINDOW ON A ROCKET!! I don't mind talking a little in front of a few friends, and a little spontaneous announcement isn't too bad. BUT A SPEECH! The girls giggled and smiled and did the little wiggly finger wave at me as they turned to abandon me to mingle! I managed to walk over to the makeshift desk and plop down on a chair near Christine.
"You look like hell Danny."
"I was just informed I'm making a speech in..." I looked at my watch. "Twenty four minutes."
She laughed, "Just do what I do and imagine them naked. Oh wait, they already are!"
"Funny Christine, veeerrry funny. Give me one of those contracts and maybe I'll be inspired by some legalese." She stuck out her tongue and handed me a copy before she went back to getting signatures and dollar bills. The contract was actually pretty straight forward and simple for four pages. Anything not covered or disputed was at the sole discretion of me or my agent. I did manage to track Brittany down and had her keep the necklace handy for the ten o'clock speech, and tell her to wear as much of her jewelry as she could without looking too obvious or gaudy.
I had about ten minutes to go and I wasn't sure we could fit any more people in here, but then I did see a lot more men than usual. I'm guessing there were more spouses than usual. I ran into Beth and James, and then Jake and some beautiful Asian woman, and then it was speech time. I knew that because Jean had raided the kitchen for a cast iron frying pan and a wooden spoon and was beating it to death. LIKE I NEEDED A REMINDER...
"Ladies and Gentlemen." Jean hollered out. The crowed died down some, but not enough to her liking. "OK, Ladies and Gentlemen and those of you that don't qualify as either." That got them laughing but quiet.
"Thank you. I'm glad you all could make it today. We wanted to do this before things got too cold out. I know it will soon be too cold for all but the polar bear group, but we know where we can come on warm days. For those of you that brought your own beverages in glass containers there are plastic cups by the cooler for today. Please remember no glass by the pool in the future. So now that I have your attention, I will turn things over to the Master of the house, Danny." She grinned at that double meaning.
She came down and I headed up giving her a bit of a swat on the ass. That's when I caught the sight of Gladys, or more concisely the sight of Gladys up on her husband's shoulders like a lone nymph in the middle of the crowd. That made me smile and I knew it would work out. "Well I hope you don't expect some fancy speech, since SOMEBODY," and I glared at Jean, "didn't bother to inform me I had to make one until a few minutes ago." That got a good laugh and set the tone.
"First off, what do you think of the wonderful pools Martin has built for us?" That got a BIG round of applause. "I would say keep the applause up, but I haven't seen the bill yet and I don't need any more inflation." That got a nice little laugh. "Sorry about the no loungers this weekend, but the concrete is still a little green and we didn't want to chance any problems. We should be in full operational mode by mid-week. Speaking of which, the spa's and kiddie pool are up to temp. The main pool is for polar bears and those wanting a heart attack." They liked that one, maybe I was going to make it through this after all!
"The other amenities and cameras will be installed in the next few weeks. A minor change in the gate signal from what we discussed the last time I made this speech, for logistical reasons we will be using lights instead of flags. And a red light bikini here is NOT something you would parade around in down on the strip. It's something you would wear over to your neighbors unless you neighbor is Gladys." That got me chuckles, a raspberry from Gladys and a big grin from her husband.
"Since we will be open to you seven days a week, I would like to introduce you to the ladies you will be seeing around here. Would you ladies please join me?" Nicole and Brittany came right up, Maria and Sam were a little slower, and Maria was nursing Cassie's little boy instead of Maya. "A lot of our progress this last week or so has been on the interior of the other house. You may check it out later if you wish. We have laid the carpet and most of the linoleum on the second and third floors, and I would sincerely like to thank James for that. I might have made it to the second room by now if I was doing it, so please thank him for me." That got him a nice little round of applause once Beth stood back and pointed to him with both hands.
"That leads me to the first of my ladies I want to introduce. This is Sam, the young lady responsible for the nice painting job over there, and help with many other little projects. She hails from somewhere in Iowa where the local church ladies didn't appreciate her crew's work uniforms, or lack there-of." That got LOTS of hoots and hollers making her blush. "A word of warning gentlemen, if you value your life do not call her by her given name unless you are suicidal or out of swinging range." That got more laughs and a hands on hips glare to which I smiled back at.
"Next is Maria, although from the looks of the lingerie I see many of the ladies almost wearing I don't need to introduce her to you. She is quite the seamstress and cook. But if I were you ladies I'd mark my things before I brought them over. Seems she lost her daughter and stole someone else's son." She started to get a bit huffy until I kissed the tip of my finger and put it to her lips. Then she blushed as much as a Mexican woman could.
