OKC Convention, last part, and a quick-quick on the remainder of March 2008.
This last part is just quick summary. Yes, Travis and CL did manage to evade the ’s clutches at long last, for a short while. On the final night of convention (still most of the next day of convention to follow), Travis and CL met up in an elevator to GET SILLY (think pushing buttons and going up and down, up and down kind of silly) and TO TALK, nothing more. They had fun. Back in her room, CL thanked him and told him she’d had a good time. The next day, after convention ended, he texted with her on and off to make sure she made it home safely.
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On the final day in OKC, Travis heard back from Mimi about his invitation to get together after FHE the Monday after he returned. Mimi told him she couldn’t. Travis told her it wasn’t a problem, no worries, then immediately sent multiple texts to friends telling them how upset and sad he was and asking advice about what he should do next.
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The next most significant thing that happened before convention’s end, though, had nothing to do with the or Mimi or CL, but rather, with PPL politics, and for Travis, it was potentially very bad news.
Travis had been struggling financially since at least January 2008, when he had to borrow money from friends to even pay his mortgage that month. He ultimately refinanced his house, but that was a temporary fix for a larger problem. The Hughes have said that Travis, at the top of the world financially when he first met the in late 2006, began losing ground in PPL (and thus in his personal finances) throughout 2007, which they attribute in no small part to the ’s demands on TA’s time, focus, and pocket book.
By March 2008, Travis seemed to be trying exceptionally hard to re-focus on PPL, but the challenges, both internal and external, were mounting.
Travis’s ability to generate additional income and to progress within PPL (to keep it simple) was in part contingent upon the support of his regional PPL boss, Tony. Travis had hoped, and on into April, even anticipated, that he would be promoted to the position of Regional Manager (RM) for Arizona.
Unfortunately for Travis, not only was Tony retiring/leaving, but the rumors he picked up at Convention indicated Tony and his immediate team would be replaced by PPL’ers Travis thought not just unworthy, but a direct threat to Travis’s ability to even hold onto his existing territory and influence, much less his hopes for advancement.
After hearing the rumors, Travis warned Chris and his boss Tony that if the rumors were accurate, he would move away from Mesa rather than allow the business he’d build up there to collapse.
Of all the encroaching PPL’ers Travis thought unworthy and a threat, one riled Travis up and drew out his contempt: Larry Smith.
Travis didn’t like Larry Smith. And, for whatever reason, imagined or real, Travis also was positive Smith didn’t like him.
Note: remember that the READ THESE TEXTS, and her (um) interesting relationship with Gus Searcy, who would soon enough show himself to be a supporter and promoter of Larry Smith. Spoiler alert: Larry Smith, not Travis, was named regional manager.
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From the end of convention up to the end of March, 2008: the stole his diamond ring, never returned his journal, blew up his BMW, messed with his PPL accounts in some way at the end of March that he almost didn’t make the quota he had to meet to earn his Cancun trip.
Travis threw parties around the time she left, and didn’t invite the to any of them, yet they did have sex of whatever kind, at least once, and other than asking her (almost meekly, IMO) about the ring and blowing up on March 30 about her trying to keep him from meeting quota, up until the very bitter end (double entendre intended
) , Travis didn’t seem to confront her directly about her games or aggression or thieving or acts of destruction or intrusions -including writing in HIS journal (!!!)
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NEXT (at last): APRIL.
