The Architect: An Affair of Sex, Money, Power and Love

By R.D. Sterling

In the glorious city of New York, where sex, money, power and beauty rule, we take a ride with through the twists and turns of the life of two stunningly beautiful heroins, who finally end up in Lexington enjoying a life of love, beauty and passion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 16, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543900347

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Nine

- ONE -

Whatever Good Things We Build, End Up Building Us.

CHRISTOPHER WREN

David Morgan sat at the boardroom table across from two gorgeous and wealthy women, Roxanne Park and Sarah Taylor in the polished and very profitable real estate development firm of Park|Madison, high above Madison Avenue, in downtown Manhattan. Dressed in his now trademarked look, consisting of a hand tailored, $22,000.00 black Italian mens suit, from Zegna, one of the finest mens fashion houses in the world. A classic-fit high collar, French cuffed crisp white shirt from Tom Ford, a jet black wide tonal Italian silk classic Zegna tie, and House of Testoni highly polished black calf leather shoes, which cost more than a brand new Volkswagen. Despite his dashing good looks, extremely fit body, and his extremely successful development firm, David Morgan remained very personable, often relating the time when he lived in his old Ford pickup truck, and eating at MacDonald’s everyday to investors and clients alike. He was proud of how he made it big in New York, and lived life to the full, often rewarding himself with beautiful women, and always took great efforts to look and play the part of a highly successful, self made man.

After graduating high school, his lower middle class parents couldn’t afford to put him through university, so his plan was to work hard for one year, save as much money as he could, and then enroll in NYU, and at least get his Commerce Degree, but fate didn’t allow that to happen exactly as he planned. David ended up working as a dishwasher in Queens, barely making enough money to live on, and certainly not enough to save for a college education, despite working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. After working as a dishwasher for 4 months at minimum wage, he was promoted to bus boy, working hard, and doing an excellent job and always had an excellent attitude The pay was slightly better, but the job satisfaction that he received more than compensated him for his low wages in his mind. When a table became free, he mastered turning it from a stained, cluttered with soiled plates, glasses and silverware, to a beautifully set table complete with a pristine white cotton table cloth, plates, side plates, glassware full of ice cold water, silverware, fresh, meticulously folded hand towels, and all the chairs now positioned to receive the next guests in record time, each and every time.

It was exhilarating, taking a messy, dirty table, and turning it into a work of art. David so enjoyed transforming each and every table, numerous times per night, he would have done it for free if he had other means of income. However, it was at the end of the night that excited him the very most, after all the guests were gone, taking what was an extremely busy restaurant, and prepping it for the following day. From the lobby, the bar, the tables, to vacuuming and cleaning everything until it sparkled again, and then standing back and admiring his work, before turning off the lights, and exiting through the employees entrance, late in the night. Monty, the owner of Chopsticks Restaurant absolutely adored David, and appreciated everything that he did, and he had no idea that when David left for the evening, he never went home, he would drive around in his old pickup until it started to get light, and safer to sleep in his truck until it was time to go back to work. David became a master at living out of his truck, he always wore clean pressed clothes, doing his own laundry at various Laundromats around down, using their customer washrooms to shave, brush his teeth, and sponge himself down, in record time, not drawing any attention to the owners wondering why he is in the washroom for so long. When he wasn’t doing laundry, he would use various Starbucks washrooms to quickly shave , then various Macdonald’s to brush his teeth and go to washroom, always moving, and when he got to work each afternoon, he arrived extremely clean, shaved, very well dressed, and enthusiastic about working. However, despite his extremely frugal living, he was saving about $500.00 a month, not near enough to begin paying for his tuition, books, and living expenses at NYU. However, despite his current economic position, he always knew that it was just a way to prepare him for a much more prosperous future.

On Monday’s, his only day off, he would drive out of the city to New Jersey, and look around, and try to get as much sleep as he could, away from both the NYPD, and the other homeless people who would try steal and harass him as he tried to sleep in his truck during the week. While sitting in Macdonald’s enjoying a coffee one Monday evening, a casually conversation began with what appeared to an older construction worker. They said hello to one another, while sitting in the window seats, and eventually David and the older gentleman began talking about work, and he asked David what he did. David proudly him that he worked at Chopsticks as a bus boy, and how much he enjoyed it, and why. Impressed by Davids response, the older gentleman asked if he planned to become a chef eventually in the restaurant business. David casually mentioned that he didn’t, what he was planning to do was to go to NYU, and get his Commerce Degree and go from there. The older gentleman, then introduced himself as Scott Harrison, and David reciprocated by shaking his hand and introducing himself. Scott mentioned that he had gone to NYU years ago, and highly recommended the school, and then mentioned to David, at his current rate of income, it may be several years before David would be in a financial position to go to NYU, and if he would like, he would be more than willing to hire David as a Laborer, mentioning would be pay almost twice as much as he was currently making, but the job would be twice as hard as well.

After about another ten minutes or so of Scott outlining what would be involved, David accepted Scott’s job offer as a construction laborer and agreed to begin work two weeks from today. Scott handed David his business card, they shook hands, as David thanked him for the job opportunity and mentioned how excited he was to begin. David went back earlier than usual to Chopsticks Tuesday afternoon, and met with Monty telling Monty all about his new job opportunity at Harrison Construction, and if could, would it possible to continue to work at Chopsticks part time, Friday through Sunday. Monty was thrilled for David, and more than happy to have David continue to work Friday through Sunday.

As much as David enjoyed working at Chopsticks and the job satisfaction he received there, he was elated with his new job at Harrison Construction. It was hard work for sure, everything from stripping concrete forms, to site cleanup, but seeing an actually building go up, and being part of the process was exhilarating in David’s eyes. As the weeks went by he continued learning more and more about construction, and being given more and more responsibilities. And even though he wasn’t a carpenter, or trades person of any kind, he was working along side them, doing what they were doing, and doing it extremely well and getting small raises along the way, until one day, after about six months on the job, Scott Harrison pulled him aside, and talked to David mentioning to him how happy he was with his job performance, and inquired if David wanted to become an apprentice carpenter. Scott was very good about informing him of what that entailed, but also encouraged David not to forget about his original plan of saving enough money to attend NYU. But at least he had another option to explore and that there was no rush at all, he could continue as Laborer for as long as he wanted to, or needed to.

After much thought and deliberation, David Morgan met with Scott Harrison and laid everything out on the table, even showing him his bank account. After seeing David’s bank deposits, Scott asked David how he was able to bank his entire paycheck, to which David replied, that he lived on the money he made working at Chopsticks on the weekends, and banked the money he made at Harrison Construction. Scott was so impressed by David’s resolve to attend NYU, working two jobs, and saving so much money, and he then casually asked him, if he paid his parents any money for room and board, and if not, that he should start, as he was looking at David’s bank book. Not ever intending to ever do so, it slipped out that he wasn’t living at home, he was living in his truck, Scott was shocked, then said, You’re telling me that you have two jobs, and you’re living in your truck, where do you shower?… Where do you eat?… It’s not safe, and it’s highly illegal. David went on to explain how he did it, and by the end of their conversation, Scott handed him a set of keys to their shop and yard and said, It’s not the Ritz as you know, but at least you can park your truck in the gated yard and be safe, and what I want you to do is buy yourself a cot, and sleep inside the shop. The washrooms aren’t fancy, but at least it has a shower. David thanked him profusely and asked Scott, How much is the rent? Scott almost irritated by David’s question replied, It’s free, and I giving you a two dollar an hour raise as of right now, so don’t try to cheap out and sleep on the floor. Then he walked away just shaking his head.

After one month of living at the shop, David had transformed it from a run down, dirty, and very messy building, into what looked like a showroom. During his now free evenings from trying to find safe places to sleep, he used his time cleaning the offices, washing the windows, and floors, sweeping out the shop, organizing it, to the point it just gleamed. On the weekends he did the landscaping, power washed the trucks and the parking lot, then parked the now gleaming trucks neatly in row. By the end of the second month he had repainted the exterior of the building, and the offices, and sandblasted the interior of the shop. The entire building, surrounding parking lot and landscaping looked fabulous now. David derived so much pleasure maintaining the site, and was still saving so much money not having to pay rent, he decided to resign as a bus boy at Chopsticks, and devote his free time to maintaining the shop. The Harrison Construction shop went from being a utilitarian eyesore, to a highly polished head office complex, and Scott was thrilled by his companies property transformation, one day telling David after thanking him, You know, you’ve doubled my properties value by what you’ve done here. Look around, our building went from the roughest to the nicest site in the whole industrial complex. I should be paying you to live here.

After one year on the job, and two years out of high school, and not yet 21, David Morgan had just over $50,000.00 in the bank to now pay for his education at NYU. David’s plan now was to enroll at NYU in the fall, and continue living in the shop, and working part time for Harrison Construction. On a glorious late spring Saturday morning, while David was cutting the lawn, and wedding the gardens at the Harrison Construction site, a real estate agent stopped in front of the building directly across the street, and placed a For Sale sign on the property, which had been an auto body repair shop, that had gone bankrupt. David went across the street, and introduced himself to the well dressed mature woman, and began speaking to her about the building, and casually mentioned that he hoped the new owners would take better care of the building, because it had great potential. Debbie Maclean, agreed with him saying, If the current owners would just clean it up, they could make an extra $50,000.00 to $70,000.00. Then she pointed across the street, to the Harrison Construction building and continued, Like they’ve done across the street, but the current owner just wants to get rid of it as quickly as possible, and get his money out of it. David inquired how much was the building listed for, and Debbie informed him that they are asking $349,000.00 for it as it stands today." After a bit more small talk about the market, the weather, and her beautiful new car, she departed in her red BMW and David went back to work across the street. He couldn’t help thinking about the building across the street now, picturing in his mind what he would do with it if he ever owned it. Sunday evening, he walked around the rough building across the street for a final time, and begin to think if could buy the building, using his $50,000.00 in the bank as a down payment and financing the rest, clean it up and resell it, he could possibly make $50,000.00, and he then would have a $100,000.00 for his education, and have a whole lot of fun it fixing it up.

Monday morning, Scott arrived at the shop at his usual time of 6:00 AM, and as became their morning ritual, brought David an Egg McMuffin and large coffee with two creams, and they would then sit down, enjoy breakfast together, and discuss the days plans. This morning, David discussed the building across the street with Scott, and what he would like to do with. Scott listened intently to what David was saying, and afterwards, they walked over to the building, walked around the structure, looked in the windows, and Scott’s assessment was the building was that it was in rough shape, but structurally sound. Scott pulled out is smart phone, and run the placed the $349,000.00 and divided it by the square footage in his calculator app and said, The price for the building is a fair price, not great, but certainly not over priced for what it is, I think though if you could get it for $329,000.00 you could make some money on this, after you clean it up and fix a few things. But I wouldn’t offer them more than 329, but 325 would be much better though.

Monday after work, Scott and David met with Debbie Maclean, and wrote up an offer to purchase the building for $325,000.00 subject to financing and a final building inspection. First thing Tuesday morning, Scott and