The year was 1977, and this new job just rocked my world.  Not only was my world changing, but everyone’s world was changing.  There were gay people proudly waiting on every table.  There was a new drug on the street called cocaine, and the Rolling Stones (my favorite band) had just sold out to this new kind of dance music called disco with their new album release Some Girls.  Everything around me was different, except my home.  It was the greatest summer of my life. 

Every day, all six apprentices would take our break at exactly 4:30 PM, marching out of the kitchen in a single file line.  We walked right past security to go sit in a van that was parked right in front of the Mormon temple.  We would smoke out, listening to the Grateful Dead.  I loved my new friends, they were all in their mid-twenties and they treated as if I was as old as they were.  I tried as hard as I could to act the part, thinking about every word before it came out of my mouth.  This, in turn, led me to say very few words at all. 

I was so glad when school started because I could finally take driver’s ed. and get my license.  Riding the bus to and from work every day was a pain in the ass, and I already had a lot of cash stashed to by a bike that was street legal.  In March, on the day I turned sixteen, I got my license and bought a brand new Yamaha RD 400.  It was a six speed, two stroke, street bike for racing.

Once, I went to a company party on a Saturday afternoon and Candy Alexander, one of the accountants in the executive office, asked me to take her for a ride.  She was beautiful, but she was married to one of the room service waiters and was at least thirty.  I took her for a ride around Memory Grove.  She rubbed my chest the whole way as she held on.  It was very cool.  I took her back to the party and left a short time later. 

A couple of weeks later, I was totally broke so I went down to the offices to see if I could get my check a day early.  A lady told me that I had to ask the payroll accountant, Candy.  I thought, “Nice, she will give it to me for sure.”  When I asked Candy, she told me to come back at 7:30 and that she would have it ready for me.  I was working then, so I split from the restaurant to go to the offices to get my check.  When I got to the offices, all of the lights were out. 

“Great.  She blew me off.”  I mumbled.  The door was still open, so I went in anyway and yelled for Candy.  “Candy, are you here?”

“Back here,” she yelled.  She was in a cubical that was way in the back with only a desk lamp on for light.

“Hey,” I told her as I arrived to her desk.  She didn’t say a word; she just stood up, wrapped her arms around me, and gave me the most awesome tongue lashing I had ever had.  When we finally came up for air, she still didn’t say a word.  She just pulled down her pants and panties, and then she pulled down mine, right there in the office.  The only word that she spoke was hurry.  I never, in all of my life, thought I was going to lose my virginity in the executive offices of the Hotel Utah with my shoes still on.  I was done in less than a minute, but I kept going until she took the death grip off of my ass.  She got dressed so fast.

“Hurry.  You have to go before the cleaning crew comes.”

I did exactly as she said.  I rode the elevator up thirteen floors back to the restaurant, thinking that I just experienced the greatest thing that has ever happened in my life, and I can’t tell anyone about it.  No one will ever, ever believe me.  Plus, she was married to a guy that worked in room service.  As soon as I stepped foot in the kitchen, the restaurant chef, Jimmy, screamed for me.

“Todd!”  I was so startled. Then, he looked right at me and said, “Where in the hell of you been? You look really guilty.”

“I just went to get my check early.”

“Someone’s waiting for you on the phone.”  I picked up the phone and it was Candy

“You forgot you’re check.”  She was right, I had forgotten all about it.  I wonder why?  “What time do you get off?”

“Eleven.”

“Meet out front then, and I will give you your check.”

When I got off work she told me to hop in her car.  She drove me up to the state capital and we did it a few more times.  What a night!  The next couple of weeks at work were weird.  I never told a sole about Candy, but when I went into the cafeteria, all of the girls from the front office would wink and giggle at me.  I thought, “What the hell! She told everybody.”  She had told everybody, but it turned out that she was in an “open” marriage, so her husband didn’t care.  In the kitchen, Roget still called me “The Boy” but in the hallways, I felt like a man.  I was on top of the world and full of confidence.  The first year of my apprenticeship, Candy taught me all about sex.