He allows me to fetch a loan app for Mr. Jefferson.

“Thanks, Buddy,” he says. “I’ll bring it back at noon, Friday.” He starts to leave, then turns and hands me his business card, and says, “In the event you’re no longer working here, take this to First City and tell Burt Jennings you’ve got my account. And Buddy?”

“Yes sir?”

“When you tell him your income requirements, give yourself a raise.”

When Jefferson leaves, Oglethorpe tells me to stay at my desk until he is able to verify Thomas Jefferson’s creditworthiness.

An hour later, a very sheepish Edward Oglethorpe calls me into his office and offers to reinstate me with full benefits and a modest raise.

I tell him I’ll need to take a couple days off to consider his offer. I’ll give him my decision by noon on Friday.

Then I blow him an air kiss and walk out the front door before his head explodes.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 11

 

It’s Friday morning, and all is right with the world. Lissie and I are in the kitchen again, having coffee.

“You think he’ll show?”

“I do.”

“Have you learned anything more about him?”

“Nothing more than I’ve told you.”

After leaving the bank on Tuesday, I’d spent two hours researching Thomas Jefferson, of Simcoe, Jefferson Development. It had taken only minutes on the internet to learn that Mr. Jefferson had recently announced his intentions to build a hotel and casino on the Ohio River to compete with the Horseshoe Southern Indiana gaming complex.

“Any idea how he got your name?”

“Best guess, Mrs. Blankenship recommended me.”

“Did you ask her about it?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I figured if she wanted me to know, she’d have told me.”

“And she recommended you over every other loan officer in Louisville because?”

“You just want me to say it.”

“I do.”

“She likes the cut of my jib.”

“Uh huh.” Lissie takes a sip of coffee. I like what I see in her eyes these days when she looks at me. There had always been love, but now there’s something else. Respect. Or maybe I respect myself more, and she’s reflecting that.

“Tell me again about her hat.”

I do, and she laughs.

“I still don’t believe you about the hat,” she says.

Wednesday and Thursday I attacked Lissie’s “honey do” list of minor repairs I’d been putting off for the past year. I also got my car to the shop for the oil change and replacement tire I needed. With the raise I’d been promised, I bought a cable subscription and bonded with the all-sports channel I’d coveted for years.

Lissie looks at her watch and says, “What time are you going in today?”

“Eleven should be late enough to make Oglethorpe sweat.”

“Don’t push him too far. He’s been known to steal your clients before.”

“I’ve got it covered.”

“What time will you be home today?”

“No later than six. Why?”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Oh yeah. The concert.”

“We need to leave by seven-thirty at the latest.”

“No problem.”

 

 

 

 

Chapter 12

 

It’s twelve-thirty and I’m with Mr. Jefferson. In a limousine, not my office.

A half hour ago he entered the bank, handed Oglethorpe his loan application, and said, “Mr. Oglethorpe, if you have no objection, I plan to team up with Mr. Pancake for a round of golf against my partner, Ben Simcoe, and our CFO, Tony Blair.”

“Tony Blair,” he said. “Like the Prime Minister.”

Jefferson nodded. “How long will it take to process my loan request?”

“Dealing as you are with Buddy, ten full days. Or we could bypass him and put you in play this very afternoon.”

“Tempting,” Jefferson said. “But I can wait.”

Thomas Jefferson caught a ride with me to Louis Challa’s Italian Restaurant, where we picked up panini sandwiches to go. Then the limo pulled up, so we left my car at the restaurant, and here we are.

Jefferson and I are the only passengers in the limo. There’s a mini bar and TV on the right wall, and an outrageously long seat on the left that curves into a bench opposite us. For easy access, there’s a third cabin door where that seat ends. From my vantage point I can see the back and side of the embroidered cap our driver is wearing.

A hundred “pin pricks” of fiber optic lighting in the ceiling switches from purple to blue, as does the plastic tube bordering the windows.