Chapter 26

Shane brought in the box of movies for Rita and Norman. After they went through them, Hazel took a couple movies when she came by to tell them about her latest date. Halfway through the morning a kayak and a Darth Vader were brought in that both had lost part of their shipping labels. Shane and Norman couldn't resist getting some pictures with Darth Vader kayaking. Oliver watched them with resignation while he was setting up a meeting with the financial planner for Tuesday afternoon. He could already see where it was going. Rita and Shane were working through yet another box of mail this time from Oklahoma. Norman and Oliver had been trying to keep up with their regular workload. Darth helped Norman in the lab the rest of the morning with the indecipherable mail. When Oliver returned from a department meeting, he found Darth putting money in the swear jar. Norman walked by, "He dropped some mail. Rita told him he had to follow the same rules as everyone else."

Somehow Darth moved on to going through the unattached item bin when Oliver was working on the mangled packages. After lunch he found Darth taking a nap on the sofa with the kangaroo and a blanket. When Shane saw Oliver run a hand over his face, she said, "Norman wore him out in the lab this morning."

The next morning when Oliver arrived at the DLO, Darth was sorting international misdirects. There was a note from Otis with a picture. "Oliver, thanks for letting Darth help in international shipping during the night shift. Please talk to your employees about not riding on conveyor belts." There was a picture of Darth riding down a conveyor belt in between packages. Shane and Norman burst into gales of laughter.

"Has anyone actually been looking into where Darth was headed before he became such an integral DLO employee," Oliver asked?

Shane and Norman were still laughing too hard to answer. Rita shook her head, "I can start looking into it today."

After Rita and Shane went to get lunch, Darth was found playing frisbee with the kangaroo. The frisbee was hanging halfway between them from the ceiling. Shane tried not to giggle as soon as she saw them since Oliver looked exasperated by this point. "They are pretty cute together," Rita said.

Shane and Oliver left to meet with the financial planner. After the meeting, Shane was completely overwhelmed. She knew Oliver had a lot of financial responsibilities but having only been active in the Foundation she wasn't aware of the extent of everything in which he was involved. When they returned to the DLO, Darth was at Shane's desk on the computer with a Star Wars Lego website pulled up. Oliver started laughing. Norman was still in his lab. Rita and Shane watched as Oliver moved Darth to his desk. He placed his hat on him and propped him up reading a book of Shakespeare.

After finishing some projects, Shane and Oliver were packing up to leave when Norman came out of his lab. He paused for a moment grinning when he saw Darth reading Shakespeare.

Shane and Oliver left for the day going back to her house for dinner. While they were eating dinner, Shane was quiet. "Is everything ok," Oliver asked?

"I'm just wondering how you do it all?"

"Do what?"

"You've got a full-time job with management responsibilities; you've started a Foundation that's growing every year and you own a company. You spend most of your free time with me and still make time for your dad. How do you find time for everything?"

"Well I don't do all that on my own. We're more like colleagues at the office. Everyone on the Board with the Foundation helps in their own way. I have a finance and operations manager for the company. I've set things up to delegate as I need. I also have a financial and legal team that keeps an eye on things for me."

Shane looked at him. "The meeting with the financial planner was intimidating and a bit overwhelming. I know I was there when your father died so I got the general idea of what you were dealing with but until today I didn't fully realize what all was involved."

"It was a lot to take in and it was an adjustment at first. My dad helps with things from time to time. You get used to it eventually. At some point in the future we might need to hire part time help for the Foundation. I meet with advisors quarterly and talk on the phone with them in between. Otherwise I just take things one day at a time." Oliver took her hand. "Your idea about putting together a budget on the computer and keeping track of things that way will help."

Shane choked as she had taken a drink. "Excuse me, who are you and what have you done with Oliver O'Toole?"

"I was thinking it would free up some time if I didn't have to go through all the bills every month and things automatically got paid. Nothing too crazy," Oliver said smiling slightly.

"I can look through some different programs and I can talk to the financial planner to see if there's one she recommends as well. I've been meaning to talk to you about your home office," Shane said as she started cleaning up the kitchen.

"What about the office?"

"Well your idea of a working office and my idea of a working office are very different Oliver."

"There's a desk, filing cabinet and bookshelves. What else do you need," Oliver asked puzzled?

Shane smiled patiently. "For starters high speed internet, space for a secure router and server, as well as equipment for networking computers. I don't want to take over your home office, but we haven't talked about where in the house I could have some workspace."

"Computers as in more than one. How many do you have?"

"Oh, it's like shoes Oliver. You need different ones for different activities." Shane started the dishwasher hoping he'd let it go.

"Would one of the spare bedrooms work for a start?"

"That would be great. Did we make it through all the homework for Jeff?" Shane tried to change the subject as they moved into the living room.

"Other than schooling for our hypothetical children, I think we covered everything but potentially aging parents moving in with us and whether or not we were going to have to support them?"

"Wow that list really didn't pull any punches," Shane commented.

"My dad got a decent retirement package from Fedex. We've never really discussed what he'd want to do if he gets to the point he can no longer live on his own."

"I'm not sure what my mom's financial situation is after everything that happened with Alex. I don't think she's planning on retiring anytime soon but she is a littler younger than your dad. We've never discussed her long-term living arrangements either."

Oliver changed the subject, "We never finished talking about the CBI contracting. Have you thought anymore about it?"

"I have and I talked to Dale more. I told her we both had concerns about over-extending. She said they have increased their part time computer analysts. Since they've had more staff turnover, the department has been working more with part time contractors they can tap at different times and for different specialties. She said they'd work with limiting the hours when I need to back off. I told her I wanted to talk to you. I don't want to do it if it's going to cause issues between us."

"I meant what I said about wanting you to be happy and feel like your fulfilled. Why don't you try it for a while and see how it works out? If you don't like it or it's too much you can always change your mind."

"Speaking of side gigs, what department do you think Darth is helping in tonight," Shane asked grinning?

Oliver started laughing. They spent the rest of the evening talking and playing scrabble.