THE CURE

The Cure's Prayer Tour 1989 (Lovesong)

However far away / I will always love you
However long I stay / I will always love you
Whatever words I say / I will always love you


When Bill Davidson broke ground on The Palace of Auburn Hills, my boss DW, of DW Properties, brokered a deal among several business owners to lease a suite. The way it worked: DW Properties would manage and distribute the tickets for basketball games, concerts, and miscellaneous events in exchange for one share at a considerably reduced cost. Talk about the art of the deal.

As soon as The Palace opened its doors, DW—with his old school charm and history of hiring young, inexperienced secretaries for a little extracurricular activity (he made Warren Beatty look like an amateur)—convinced the concierge to come work for him. If this were any indication of past hiring practices, the suite holders would be storming the fort demanding changes.

Here is a perfect example of my experience with a DW Properties’ secretary: “Excuse me, sir,” a Barbie-doll-like secretary said, directing me toward the Fax machine, “It must be broke or something.” I checked it out. Everything appeared to be in working order. “But the document’s still here,” she stated, somewhat puzzled.

When the concierge left her Palace job and set-up camp in the offices of DW Properties, I gave her my standard nobody’s special around here greeting, “Who the hell are you?”

Instead of eliciting a warm bubbly smile, this one lashed back. “And just who the hell are YOU?”

Even though we were the same age, we definitely did not hit it off. Not that it mattered. I soon discovered that this secretary was different from the others. She actually had a head on her shoulders. She kept The Palace suite holders happy—distributing tickets, handling complaints, and billing each in a timely fashion. As for our working relationship, I would plunk box after box of old invoices on her desk week after week, and she would input the information into her computer and shred the documents. After saving that last box of invoices to her computer, I complemented her on a job well done. Then I made an unusual request, “I want you to delete all the invoice files on your computer.” She looked at me incredulously. “If you won’t, I will.”

She soon learned that DW had enemies everywhere, even in his own camp. Not long after that, I asked her if she would be interested in having lunch with me.

Six months later, DW noticed his secretary wearing a concert t-shirt. “You should’ve told me you were interested in the Cure, I could’ve gotten you in for free,” he said.

Little did he know, not only did he pay for her concert ticket and t-shirt, he paid for mine as well, plus food and drinks. We started going to all sorts of events, compliments of DW Properties.

Next week that secretary and I will be celebrating our 14th Wedding Anniversary.