But I had a great crew, a great staff that was there to keep me and my friends, and my paying patrons safe. The ranch was open to anyone who wanted to practice. I referred to it as a ranch, even though I did not raise livestock for market. I easily could have, but I loved the animals too much. This was really just a place where me and others like me could live out our passions for the sport of rodeo.
I watched Nathan get bucked off the bull, land on his feet, and run towards the fence escaping just over the top of it as Blackie came charging. He stood up laughing his ass off as he dusted his pants.
I went inside and quickly changed into my long shirt and jeans. I got my gloves on and then I exited the room.
“Hey, Nathan,” I said as I stepped out of the changing room. I was ready to do some riding. I’d been able to knock off work a bit early today since a few meetings had been cancelled and I decided to work through the disappointment this way. It had always been very therapeutic for me.
It was still early enough that I would be home for Bobby about dinner time.
“Hey, buddy. How’s it going?” Nathan asked as he jogged over to me.
“Good,” I replied. “Blackie is really laying it on the line today, isn’t he?”
“Yep. That bull is the most crazed bastard I’ve ever seen. I swear every single day he gets a bit crazier.”
“I guess you needed to blow off some steam today as well?”
“Yeah, a little bit. That damn new guy. I finally fired his ass. He screwed up some things on that new deal and I had to do all kinds of ass kissing to get it back on track. The damn prick. He almost cost me a ton of money.”
Nathan owned a large tech company in town. He was doing fairly well for himself. We’d been friends since college. Both of us had started our businesses out of our dorm rooms and basically didn’t sleep for a few years. It was worth it, but sometimes I wonder if we would have been happier working less and having more fun. It was time to make up for lost time now, I guess.
“Sometimes you have to cut that dead weight,” I said. “I’ve had to do that more than occasionally.”
“Yeah, and the guy tries to give me some sob story. Well, if he’d been paying attention and doing his job right then he would still have a job. This is the real world out here. It’s not some fucking classroom. I swear these kids who come straight out of college nowadays think the real world is going to coddle them the way their college professors did. It’s unreal.”
“I hear that. Did I tell you my nanny quit? Right out of the blue.”
“Ah, shit,” he said. “She’s been with you for a while. What are you going to do?”
“Well, as luck would have it, I already have the position filled again. My secretary knew someone who needed a job, an experienced nanny.”
“Great. What is she like?” he asked.
“She’s great,” I said. “And I hate to say it, but she is damn attractive.”
He got a big smile on his face. “Ah, that’s interesting.”
“Yeah. Today is her first day. I think part of the reason I came here instead of just going home after work was so I
didn’t have to spend as much time there with her. I wouldn’t want to cut her first day short or anything. And if I walk in and she’s making dinner for the kid then it’s going to take a while and I don’t want to really want to be around her too much. The interview was hard enough.”
“Wow, she must be super hot.”
“She is. And smart. She’s sweet and great with Bobby.”
“I’ve never known you to get all gushy over a woman you just met. Hell, I didn’t even know you were still in the game,” he said.
I sighed. “I’m not. I’ve been out so long that the game looks like an entirely different sport now. All the rules have changed. The dating world evolves in an instant it seems. It used to be easy. You’d meet someone and if you had chemistry that was enough, but now it seems that you have to go through this laundry list of things that you have to check off first to make sure that it is considered ok to pursue this.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s very unethical for me to ask this woman out. She is my employee now. And she might get highly offended, she might quit, then I’d have to search exhaustively for someone else that’s even half as good, and then Bobby would be hurt by it and my world gets twisted around for a while, and there are feelings of shame associated with it. Who needs that.”
“Ok, then don’t ask her out,” Nathan replied. “There. That was actually pretty simple.”
I shook my head. “You are such a horse’s ass. No, it’s not that simple. I can’t stop thinking about her. I don’t mean that I was just attracted to her, but I mean I feel like I have some insane crush on her. I’m like addicted to this woman now.”
“Really? Already? Wow, I’m going to have to meet this girl now. Does she have a sister or maybe a really hot friend?”