The Bikini Car Wash

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Book: The Bikini Car Wash Read Online Free PDF
Author: Pamela Morsi
Tags: Unread, lit, fictionwise
books and magazines section to add more dietary supplements. The distributor was supposed to be doing constant research about what people wanted to buy. But Pete wasn’t sure if, in this tough economy, his customers were truly more interested in organic gingko than they were in John Grisham.
    He heard his father before he saw him. The booming voice that stood out in any crowd poured down the hallway. His father was talking with Miss Kepper, jovial to the edge of flirty, without ever quite pushing past what was acceptable between employer and employee.
    “I wish I had you with me at City Hall, Doris,” he heard his dad tell her. “Every two weeks they deliver a mountain of paper for me to go through and it’s really cutting into my golf time.”
    His father laughed as if he were joking, but Pete knew there was more truth to his words than he wanted to admit.
    Upon retirement, Hank Guthrie had run for, and been elected to, the Plainview city council. It was not that he had any great interest in politics or municipal governance. The day-to-day operations were run by a team of bureaucratic professionals. The five aldermen were elected ostensibly to oversee their work. The positions were compensated at the rate of one dollar per year. That meant, for the most part, the position of alderman was held by the affluent or the retired. Hank Guthrie qualified on both counts.
    Naturally gregarious, and a glutton for attention, sitting on the council gave Pete’s father an important position in thecommunity, without any of the risk and headache of operating a business.
    “If my boy gives you one moment of grief,” Hank said to Miss Kepper. “Hand in your notice and come help me out. You know, I just don’t feel like myself without you as my right-hand man.”
    Alone in his office, Pete rolled his eyes. Why did he have to do that? he wondered about his father, not for the first time. Why couldn’t he just be kind to her without holding out this carrot that the two of them could be together? Pete sincerely hoped Miss Kepper didn’t take the bait. He would hate to lose her but, worse than that, he would hate for his dad to once more put her into a position that drew public attention. He could imagine a tabloid headline: Lovelorn Old Maid Persists As Grocery Owner Groupie Well Into Retirement.
    Pete could no longer concentrate on his work. He leaned back in his chair and waited. A sense of hunger swept through him and he glanced toward the refrigerator. He resisted the temptation. It was better not to be caught eating when his father came in. So he just sat there, tensely listening to the one-sided conversation between two people who’d known each other for more than forty years.
    Finally his father made his way down to the corner office that had once been his own. Hank was almost as tall as his son, still in robust health, tanned and good-looking and always impeccably and expensively dressed.
    “Hi, Dad,” Pete said, rising to his feet to offer a handshake across the desk. “Thanks for coming down.”
    Hank ignored his son’s outstretched hand. “What the hell is going on downstairs?” he asked gruffly and withoutpreamble. “Why don’t you turn on some lights? The place is too dark. Do you think you’re running a stinking nightclub or something?”
    His father’s vehemence came as no surprise to Pete. Hank had never been the type to offer an attaboy to his only child.
    “There’s plenty of light, Dad,” Pete replied evenly. “It’s directed light, focused on the products and the aisles. There is no reason to light up the ceilings.”
    “Except that without it the whole store looks like a damn cave!”
    “It saves energy and it saves money,” Pete answered. “Our customers appreciate that saving being reflected in the price of their groceries.”
    “I don’t like it,” Hank said adamantly. “Guthrie’s is not some bistro grocery, we’re a family food market. I want it changed. And I want it changed
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