A Well-Lived Life 2 - Book 2 - Stephie
Chapter 4: Early Summer

Copyright © 2015-2023 Penguintopia Productions

Coming of Age Sex Story: Chapter 4: Early Summer - This is the continuation of the story told in "A Well-Lived Life 2", Book 1. If you haven't read the entire 10 book "A Well-Lived Life" and the first book of "A Well-Lived Life 2" you'll have some difficulty following the story. This is a dialog driven story. Awards: 'Stephie' took 2nd place for Epic Erotic Story of the year, and 3rd place for Best Romantic Story of the Year in 2016.

Caution: This Coming of Age Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa   Ma/ft   Fa/Fa   Mult   Tear Jerker   Workplace   Polygamy/Polyamory   First   Pregnancy   Slow  

July 10, 1987, Lombard, Illinois

"Hello, Mr. Puccini," I said, shaking his hand.

"It's Dante! Everyone calls me Dante! I believe I said that last time."

"You did," I said. "Sorry about that, Dante."

"So what do you three have for me?" he said.

"We have a proposed statement of work and a proposed contract," Julia said.

"Let's go into the conference room and discuss them."

We followed him into the same conference room that we'd been in the previous time we'd been to his office. It was quite well-appointed, with a beautiful hardwood table and comfortable leather chairs. We sat down, and Julia handed out copies of the statement of work and the contract.

"Is everything I asked for here?" he asked.

"There are some exceptions called out at the bottom. There were a few things that we don't believe are possible, and a few others that might be possible, but we're unable to give a price for. Those would be time and materials if you wanted us to attempt them."

"I thought you guys said you knew Macs really well! Why are all the Mac issues listed in the exceptions?"

We'd anticipated that question. My proposed response of 'Because we know Macs really well' had been shot down by Dave, I gave the answer we'd agreed on instead.

"Because as of right now, there aren't many good options for networking Macs and PCs. There are no Novell cards for the Mac and there is no Novell client. There is an AppleTalk stack for the PC, but it can't coexist with Novell. There just isn't enough memory to load all the software that would be required. We don't think an AppleTalk solution is right for you, because it would seriously limit your network."

"What about the electronic mail system?"

"It runs into the same problem, though we should be able to solve it by having the Mac cc:Mail file server call the PC cc:Mail file server by modem to deliver mail. But we've never done that, and it's only a theory that we have. It should work, but we don't know for sure. Another possibility would be a Unix server running Sendmail, but you would need to connect to the Unix server from each PC or Mac with a terminal emulator and then use something like Elm. A third possibility is some kind of BBS system.

"There's also the issue of remote access. For anyone in the field to access your electronic mail, they would need a computer. There are portable computers, so to speak, like the Compaq, but that thing weighs more than twenty-five pounds and personally, I wouldn't call it 'portable'. The press has called it a 'luggable', which is about right, and the screen is pretty small as well. There are other options that we could look into for you."

"What about the software? I see you called out an exception there as well."

"Only from the standpoint that we'll have to customize some of our software to do what you want. The customizations are called out on page 2 as an addendum to the statement of work. Those costs are in addition to what you see in the line items for the base software set forth in the contract."

"I'll want my attorney to review the contract before I sign. Now, I'd like to bring in a couple of my people to go over the details with you, especially the project timeline."

"That's fine. I have a detailed project plan with me that we can review, in addition to the specifics for each line item."

Dante left and returned with three people — the Vice President of Technology, Jack; an accountant, who was his younger sister Daniela; and a manager, his younger brother Dario. He'd mentioned previously that it was a family business, and that certainly seemed to be true. We spent the next two hours going over every detail, line-by-line. We made copious notes and tried to make sure that all six of us were on the same page.

When we finished, Jack walked us to the lobby. I asked politely where Dante was, and Dario said that he was taking delivery on a new Ferrari. We shook hands with Dario and walked out. We passed a couple of employees on the sidewalk, staring at Dante and his new car. I heard them mutter 'no raises, but he buys that fucking car?' and 'What an asshole!' as we walked by.

"So, what did you think?" Julia asked when we got into the car.

"He seems like a really great guy," Dave said. "And he has some seriously visionary ideas. I think this is going to be a great deal, and we should make quite a bit of money. The only problem is scheduling."

I thought he had a potentially serious morale problem, but that really wasn't our concern. But it was something I needed to make sure never happened at NIKA.

"I think that we need to give him a revised statement of work based on the conversation we just had," I said.

"I agree," Julia said. "I'll give him a call when we get back. He looked like he was completely engrossed in his new car."

"You would be, too, if you paid six figures for a car!" I chuckled.

That evening, I had my weekly call with Stephie, and wished her 'Happy birthday'. She seemed a bit out of it, which she chalked up to the opiate-based narcotics she was taking to knock down the pain. It wasn't that she wasn't lucid, it was just that her responses were slower and more muted than they had been. I knew that it was only going to get worse, and at some point, she wouldn't even be able to have these calls. The amazing thing was that she was still staying positive and doing her best to make ME feel better. She told me that Martha and Bill had come to visit and had dinner with them. Jason was doing OK, working at the garage, and Stephie's mom, Emily, LeAnn, and a few other girls were staying with Stephie while he was at work.

July 11, 1987, Chicago, Illinois

"How long is this shift?" I asked.

"It's ONLY twenty-four hours," Jessica laughed.

"How did you luck out with that?"

"Luck? I have to be back at 5:00am on Monday for a thirty-six-hour shift. On the plus side, there are fewer people on, so I get to do more. The downside is, I get to do more."

"You lost me," I said.

"Tonight I'll be on with the Attending and a PGY3 Resident. That means they'll both try to sleep and make me do everything until I get in over my head. Oh, and I'll be supervising some Third and Fourth Year medical students doing their clinical rotations."

"Supervising? Remind me not to get sick or be in an accident tonight!" I chuckled.

"I am a doctor, Mr. Adams!"

"A scary thought!" I said.

"Watch it, Tiger, or you might find yourself missing a valuable asset!" she teased.

"Jess, I'd be very, very sad," Kara said. "And so would you."

"It was an empty threat, wasn't it?" she said with a laugh.

"What's your plan for tomorrow?" Kara asked.

"Sleep!" Jessica said. "For the morning, anyway. I can't sleep too late because I need to get some sleep tomorrow night before my long shift that starts Monday morning. Can we spend time together tomorrow?"

"Of course," I replied lovingly. "Whatever you want."

"Good. Kiss me, please! I need to get inside."

Kara and I kissed and hugged Jessica and watched her walk into the ER.

"She's seriously supervising medical students?" Kara asked as we walked home hand-in-hand.

"So it would seem," I said. "She is a doctor, after all."

"It just seems strange."

"The entire system for training doctors seems strange to me," I said. "But then I look at Doctor Barton, Doctor Robertson, and some other doctors that I've met through work, and they seem very good. We're outsiders to their little club."

"Do you really think she's going to make a mistake that causes someone to die?" Kara asked.

"Doctor Barton said it's pretty much a certainty. She will make a mistake and someone will die. It happened to him. I know he's been talking to her about it, but you heard her."

"I could never be a doctor," Kara said.

"Me, neither," I agreed.

When we arrived home, we made some tea and went to sit in the Indian room until it was time for me to leave for breakfast with the guys. I kissed Kara goodbye and headed for Bucktown. Dave waved me over when I arrived, and I went to sit at a large table that had been set for us.

"Hi! I'm Alex Saunders," a gregarious, slightly balding man with a bit of paunch said. "This is my place. Welcome!"

"Steve Adams," I said, extending a hand.

"Well, Steve Adams, I hope you're ready for the best breakfast ever!"

"That's a pretty big promise, Mr. Saunders," I said.

"Call me 'Mr. Saunders' again and you'll find arsenic in your tea or coffee! The name is Alex!"

I noticed a touch of a Canadian accent from the sound of some of his vowels.

"Dave tells me that you just started serving breakfast."

"That's right. I want to build a regular clientele. Get to know people. My lunch and dinner trade is pretty good, but that's upscale. Breakfast, I want down home, if you know what I mean."

"If you put grits on my plate, I think my friends in Georgia might call foul!" I chuckled.

"Grits? No chance! I'm from Foleyet, Ontario. That's about as far from Georgia as you can imagine. It's a tiny town that nobody ever heard of. I moved to Chicago with my folks at age thirteen, and I've been here ever since. We play hockey where I'm from. Atlanta couldn't support their team and it moved to Calgary!"

"Hockey in the South makes about as much sense as an outdoor swimming pool in Murmansk!" I said with a grin.

The rest of our friends arrived, and Alex introduced himself to each person, and to my amazement, kept all the names straight, despite hearing them only once. When everyone had arrived, a waitress, Pam, came to take our orders under Alex's watchful eye. When she'd finished, he stayed to chat until the food came, then disappeared into the kitchen.

"He seems like a great guy," Nick said.

There were nods and agreement around the table.

"Wait until you meet his wife, Sam," Pete said. "She's about half his age!"

"It keeps me young!" Alex said, walking back towards the table from the kitchen. "Her mom was a Senior at the High School when I was a Freshman."

"No way!" Jamie laughed.

"I have the Yearbook to prove it. Including a dedication from her mom!"

"Steve, buddy, I think you may have met your match!" Karl laughed.

"My match?" I chuckled. "He only has ONE wife. I have two!"

"An ex-wife at your age is nothing to brag about," Alex said.

"Who said anything about an EX-wife? I have two current wives."

"They lock you up for stuff like that!" Alex retorted.

"Only if you get two marriage certificates or try to claim them on your taxes," Jamie said.

"You're serious? Two wives? I thought marrying a girl eighteen years younger than I am was a feat. How the heck do you manage TWO wives?"

"It's a long story," I chuckled. "But I also have kids by two other women. Intentionally."

Alex gave me an odd look.

"He's not kidding," Nick said. "And with the exception of Karl and Chris, he dated all of our wives or girlfriends at one point or another."

"So the kid's a regular Don Juan and Jack Kennedy mixed together?"

"Minus Marilyn Monroe, yeah, I guess so!" Dave said. "Though his second wife is the best-looking girl any of us knows."

"And if you repeat THAT to our wives, we'll have to kill you!" Kurt said with a grin.

"What are you talking about, Kurt?" Nick said with a smirk. "You know Steve prefers your wife to all the rest of them put together, including Kara!"

I just chuckled, shaking my head, wondering what impression I was causing on our new friend!

"I am missing something here," Alex said. "Steve sounds like something right out of a Penthouse Letter! You know, one of those unbelievable letters about crazy exploits?"

"How did you get into the restaurant business?" I asked, hoping to change the subject.

"I just sort of fell into it," he said. "I was a Senior in college, working on a history degree. An uncle of mine who I barely knew died and left me a little bit of money. I was sitting at a table here studying when I overheard the owner saying that the restaurant was failing, and he was probably going to close it. I got to talking to him, and the next thing you know, I bought his equipment and took over the lease.

"I was a decent cook, so I hired a waitress and a busboy who doubled as a dishwasher, and started serving lunch. I worked between morning and afternoon classes. My goal was just to break even until I got out of school, and then figure out what to do. It was a hit right away. I found a good mix of upscale, trendy, and traditional that people seemed to like, at a price that they felt was fair, and that made me profitable.

"I got my degree and opened for dinner a week later with one more waitress and an assistant in the kitchen. I hosted, cooked, did whatever to make it work. Twenty years later, it's going gangbusters. Then, a couple of months ago, I got the idea of doing a traditional, family-style breakfast restaurant. So three weeks ago, I put away the starched white tablecloths and all the other upscale kitsch, got these blue-and-white checkered cloths, and the deep blue plates. You saw the menu, and other than a couple of specialty omelets, it's all very traditional, home-cooked stuff. Now you know my story, what do you guys do for a living?"

"Navy JAG lawyer," Karl said.

"Me, too," Nick said.

"Logistics officer in the Navy," Howard said.

"Corporate and tax attorney," Jamie said.

"NIS agent, but you know that," Pete said.

"Research biochemist," Kurt said.

"I have my own computer software and consulting company," I said.

"Director of Software Development for Steve's company," Dave said.

"Architect," Chris said.

"One of our usuals who's not here is a newly minted Electrical Engineer," Pete said. "And speaking of Jorge, when is he coming back, Steve?"

"At the end of the month, according to my sister," I said.

"Well, I'll let you eat," Alex said. "I'll come back when you're having coffee."

We finished eating, and true to his word, Alex was back when Pam refilled our coffee cups. We talked for about fifteen minutes, but then I had to get going because I had to meet the girls for karate class. When I picked up the bill to do the quick math to split it evenly, I saw that the original amount had been crossed out and a new amount, about 10% lower, had been written in by hand.

"Thanks, Alex," I said.

"I want you guys to come back. You're good people, and exactly the kind of customers I want! Having a large table full of happy people is the best possible marketing I could do!"

We thanked him, and after paying the check and leaving a generous tip for Pam, we left the restaurant. I didn't have time to hang around, so I walked right to my car, got in, and headed home. I arrived just in time to get my red gi, and then walk to the dojo with Kara, Sofia, and my sister. Once we were back from Russia, Jessica would be joining us when her schedule allowed, which probably would be no more than once or twice a week. But it would be a start.

After karate, I did some things around the house. After Bethany had moved out, I'd put off the idea of changing the old 'study' room into an actual study, because we didn't need the room off the kitchen as a bedroom. I had purchased some nice bookshelves for the study room and had rearranged it more as a library than a study room by removing some desks and adding some chairs. I'd also moved the table with the chess board from the great room into what we were now referring to as the 'library'.

Late in the afternoon, Elyse, Kara, and I took Jesse and Matthew for a walk in Washington Park. Jesse had finally come around to having Matthew around, so long as we didn't refer to Jesse as a baby. He was, in his own mind, a boy now, and that seemed to be sufficient to solve his problem.

"Dada?" Jesse called.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Kara have baby?"

"When Jesse is two," I said to him, then turned to Kara, "Where did THAT come from?"

"I was trying to explain that both Jess and I were going to have babies, and that Matthew would probably have a brother or sister. Looks like Jesse was paying attention."

"Jesse is one. When is Jesse two?" he asked.

"Next year, in February," I said, realizing that the concept was a bit too abstract for him.

He looked confused but then asked a question that had Elyse, Kara, and me laughing so hard that we cried.

"Francesca have baby?" he asked, with a silly grin on his face.

"Uh, no, she's too little," I said a few minutes later when I managed to compose myself.

"If he asks Carol that question, her head is going to explode!" Elyse said, also finally composing herself.

"And if there was any doubt that he's your son, Steve, that pretty much ends it!" Kara said, still giggling.

We strolled around the park for nearly an hour, with Jesse riding sometimes and walking sometimes. Matthew fussed a bit, and after checking his diaper, Elyse decided that he was hungry. We sat in the shade of a large elm, and she covered herself with a blanket to nurse him.

"Stupid laws," she groused, once she had Matthew latched on.

"What?" I asked.

"By ordinance, it's indecent to breastfeed in a public park. Well, that's not how the law reads, but how it's enforced. It's 'indecent exposure'"

"Bullshit," I said.

"I kid you not. Something that women have been doing since, well, there were women, is illegal in public. I can give the kid a bottle, or even change his diaper. But breastfeed with a visible breast? Nope! A ticket, at least, and arrest if I refuse to cover up."

"The world needs to seriously lighten up and get a grip! How about we just leave people alone unless they actually harm someone or threaten to do so?"

"That would be nice, wouldn't it?" Elyse said. "Tell all the busybodies to mind their own business? That plays right into your smaller government ideas."

"And lower taxes to prevent it from getting bigger again," I said. "There's also too much inertia that keeps dumb laws in place. There ought to be an automatic sunset provision on every law. If you can't pass it in the future, it probably shouldn't have been passed in the first place!"

Elyse finished nursing Matthew, and we put him back in the stroller and headed home.

July 12, 1987, Lombard, Illinois

"Morning, Babe," I said. "How was your shift?"

"Insane. I got yelled at by the Attending for waking up the PGY3 Resident with a question about a patient with low 'crit."

"You'll have to translate," I said.

"Low hematocrit. It's a measure of red blood cells. Anyway, I wasn't sure if I should order a transfusion or drugs. The correct answer was oxygen by mask and test again in thirty minutes. The Resident complained to the Attending that I woke him up to ask how to put on an oxygen mask."

"What?!" Kara said.

"It's just hazing, really. I had a legitimate question as a PGY1 Resident. But the point the PGY3 is trying to make is that I should know the answer. So they harass me."

"An interesting training method," I observed.

"Let's go home and get some breakfast, and then I want to get some sleep," Jessica said.

That's what we did, with Kara and me heading to the Indian room to drink tea while Jessica slept for a few hours. She wandered in about 10:00am after about four hours of sleep.

"All rested?" I asked.

"Enough to make it through the day. How about a picnic in Washington Park? We can ask everyone to join us."

"That sounds good to me," I said. "Kara?"

"Sure! Let me go ask Jennifer and Josie. Is it OK to call Carol and ask her to join us so Jesse can see Francesca?"

"Sure, so long as Jesse doesn't talk about Francesca having a baby!" I chuckled.

Everyone wanted to go, so Stephanie, Sofia, and I packed a picnic lunch, and then we all headed to Washington Park. We found a spot under a couple of elm trees and spread out the blankets. Carol arrived a few minutes later with her kids in tow and spread out her own blanket. Sofia and my sister set out the food and everyone filled their plates and began to eat.

"Is there anything special we need to do before we leave for Moscow?" Jessica asked.

"Not that I know of," I said. "We have our passports with our visas in them, along with a letter from the embassy here, and a letter from Vanya inviting us. In theory, that should make things very easy when we land in Moscow. Vanya will have an official car waiting for us at Sheremetyevo Airport."

"Will your KGB friend be there?"

"No. She's in New York on assignment and can't go, and neither can her husband. Lyudmila will be there, though."

"What about her boyfriend?" Kara asked.

"Yes. She invited him, and he wanted to go. It'll be nice to meet him."

"You're going to Russia?" Carol asked.

"Yes. For my friend Tanya's wedding. She's the daughter of a Russian diplomat. I met her in Austria when I was skiing there in 1980."

"Wow. I've never been outside of the US. That sounds really exciting, but are you safe there?"

"Given who my friends are? I can't imagine anyplace safer. Jesse is going with us."

"Your baby?" she asked.

Oh crap, I thought with a smirk.

"Not baby!" my son protested loudly. "Jesse boy! Matthew baby!"

"Now you've done it!" I chuckled. "You just put yourself on Jesse's shit list!"

"I'm sorry, Jesse," Carol said. "You're a big boy, not a baby."

"Matthew baby!" he insisted.

"And yes, Matthew is the baby."

Everyone laughed at the exchange.

Jesse got up, took Francesca's hand, and they toddled off together.

"They make a really cute couple," Sofia said.

"Yes, they do," I agreed.

We finished our picnic just after 3:00pm and went back to the house. We all agreed that we'd eaten enough that we'd just have a very light dinner. I spent the afternoon relaxing with my wives, Elyse, and Matthew, in the sunroom, talking, listening to music, and reading. We made ourselves a light meal about 7:00pm, and then everyone went to the sauna. When we finished there, my wives and I went up to our room.

"We haven't made love all week," Jessica sighed as we got into bed after our showers.

"You were gone most nights," I said. "And too tired on the other ones."

"I'm not too tired now!" she said, her voice dripping with desire.

"Then I think we should make love! What do you think, Kara?"

"Absolutely!" she said with a huge smile.

Two hours later, three thoroughly satisfied lovers fell asleep cuddled together.

July 13, 1987, Chicago, Illinois

After our staff meeting, Julia, Cindi, Dave, Elyse, and I met to discuss the work for DP Engineering.

"Before we start," Julia said, "I want to talk about the changes to the employee handbook. I discussed the changes with Jamie on Friday, and then we had a conference call with Steve's dad and Joyce. Afterwards I called Beth, Doctor Lambert, and Doctor Dalton. Basically, we can't simply ban relationships between staff members without approval, which is what I first suggested to Jamie. What we can do is have a policy that would ban relationships between management and staff that report to them."

"That doesn't exactly solve my problem," I said.

"Actually, it does, because you are the majority shareholder. Just because you've delegated authority to me doesn't change the fact that, in the end, everyone reports to you. You could fire any one of us. And the Board doesn't matter, because you could simply remove them and appoint a new board if they didn't go along with what you wanted."

"How does that affect you and Dave and me and Elyse?"

"None of us are staff, according to Jamie. We're all senior management. What we'll do is sign employment contracts which spell out our duties, as well as the existing relationships, and have the Board approve them. According to Jamie, that will resolve everything as best we can. Nothing can completely prevent problems, but this will go a long way to making things clear. Jamie said he'd have the language drafted by Friday for our review. Once we accept it, we'll announce it to the staff."

"Thanks, Julia," I said. "I'm glad we could work this out."

"You're welcome. Before we go on to Dante Puccini, do we want to talk about Kaitlin?"

"Sure," Cindi said. "I think she's doing a good job with the software for contractors, and she made a sale of the trucking and logistics software as well. I think she's ready to do this full time."

Julia started to speak, but I interrupted.

"I want to wait the full three months," I said. "Especially after what happened on Friday."

"Don't you think she might see that as retaliation?" Dave asked.

"For what? We told her three months, and we'll make it three months. Unless Cindi's said something else to her."

"No," Cindi said. "Just that she's doing well. That's all."

"OK, then on to our new project," Julia said.

"It's a ton of work," Dave said. "Both for my team and Cindi's team. The only way I see us being able to do all the work, including the research, the network setup, the software modifications, and the support, is to hire someone. We can't really pull Zeke from clients, so I suggest that we use Charlie and Terry and hire a new programmer. Charlie knows Novell well enough that she can do that install, assuming that's the solution we come up with. If not, she can learn anything else we decide to use."

"I was worried you were going to try to take Zeke," Cindi said. "I need to send him out to California to visit all three clients out there, which means Mario has to cover any support visits here while he's gone."

"You'd rather use Terry than Alonzo?" I asked.

"I've thought about it, and yes. Do you have a problem with it?"

"Well, honestly, I think Alonzo is a stronger programmer, despite being a recent graduate."

"I agree. But we've put other stuff on hold too often. I know this is an important contract, but we can't keep delaying releases of the medical or legal software."

I nodded, "That makes perfect sense. Elyse, how do the numbers work?"

"Well," she said. "If he agrees to the hourly rate and the standard purchase price for the base software, then we can easily afford a full-time programmer. And given the hours you estimated to do all the modifications and customizations he wants, as well as the new modules we'd need to develop, it's sustainable at least until the end of the year. At that point, the salary would have to be covered either by general revenues or other consulting work. We've been down this road before. We have good reserves and good cash flow."

"I'm still a bit concerned about being overextended," Dave said. "But I like Dante, and I think the work will be interesting and challenging. And as Elyse said, it does pay for itself."

"With profit, Dave," Elyse said. "But, as always, when we finish, we'll need to make sure we have enough new revenue to keep a new programmer employed."

"Well, if Kaitlin continues the way she's going, we should be OK," Cindi said. "But that means we need to really put in the effort to update all four major packages on a regular basis."

"Oh sure, nothing like pressure on the development team!" Dave chuckled.

"At least this is happening now, when Penny and Tasha are full time for the Summer," Julia said.

"Yeah, and Steve is going to Russia for ten days, two weeks from now. That delays hiring someone unless you can pull a programmer out of your back pocket!"

"I have a dozen or so unsolicited résumés," Julia said. "Kaitlin has them filed. We can look at them right now."

"Sounds good," Dave said.

"Cindi and Elyse don't need to stay if they don't want to," Julia said.

"Good!" Cindi smiled. "I have real work to do!"

"Me, too!" Elyse said.

They left and Julia went to get the résumés from Kaitlin. She was back a minute later with a small stack of papers. She divided them between the three of us and we each scanned them, then passed them around. In the end, we agreed on four of them, and Julia collected those and went to her office to make the calls. I went to my office, and Dave went to talk to Charlie and Terry.

"What was that all about?" Penny asked.

"A new customer. Julia and Dave have been working on this deal for nearly a month. It's going to be a huge challenge, and we're going to need to hire someone. Julia's making some calls now."

"You're leaving in a couple of weeks, right? For ten days?"

"Yes. I'm going to work extra hours before then. Jessica is working a lot, and I talked to Kara about it and she's OK with it."

"Do you think we can finish the main modules for version 2.5 before you go?"

"It's going to be tough, but we'll have to try."

"Then I guess we better get to work!" she said.

I nodded and started typing. A short time later, I felt Penny's knee against mine, which was normal for when we were working together.

July 14, 1987, Chicago, Illinois

"I have a revised statement of work for DP," Julia said. "I reviewed it with Elyse, but I want to talk to you and Dave about it."

"Sure," I said, getting up.

As usual, Penny quickly stood up and kissed my cheek just before I left my desk. I smiled and Julia rolled her eyes.

"That could be a problem when we implement the new policy, especially with Kaitlin."

"I'm getting very tired of hearing about Kaitlin," I said. "She's starting to be more trouble than she's worth. There is nothing going on between me and Penny."

"I know that. But it's how it looks."

"You know what? One more word about my relationships and I'm going to take some drastic action to fix the problem. And that does NOT mean me changing what I'm doing. Got it?"

"Relax, Steve," Julia said. "I'm just looking out for you."

"Maybe so, but all of this bullshit started with Kaitlin coming on to me. She may have started it, but I'm going to end it. Nothing changes with Penny. If Kaitlin says one word, she's done, and I don't give a damn what Alderman Larry Bloom says about it! Got it?"

"Loud and clear," Julia said. "Let me get Dave."

She was back shortly with Dave. We sat down and went through the revised statement of work line by line, and when we were happy with it, Julia faxed it, and some contract revisions to Jamie for his review. I went back to my office to work, still perturbed by Kaitlin. Penny noticed.

"What's bothering you?" she asked quietly.

I got up, shut the door, and then sat back down. We closed it often enough that it wouldn't raise any suspicion.

"Kaitlin is a royal pain in the ass," I said.

"You didn't screw her, did you?" she said accusingly.

"Hell no! Besides the special exception for Elyse, I can't fool around with anyone who works here. And if I could, she's not even my first choice!"

"Me?" Penny smirked.

"Duh!" I chuckled. "But Kaitlin came on to me a couple of times and I've told her 'no', but she's not taking 'no' for an answer. She's concluded that because I have kids with Jennifer and Elyse, and two wives, that I can fool around with her, and that I must be pretty good."

"You ARE good!" she said.

"Shush, you!" I chuckled. "Anyway, now we have to put a policy in place about dating between managers and staff, and that bugs me just on principle. But, just before, Julia pointed out that you kissing me on the cheek could be a problem if Kaitlin decides to make a stink about it."

"You mean I have to stop doing that? No!" she protested.

"I agree with you. If Kaitlin doesn't get with the program, I'm going to fire her. Period."

"Good," Penny said.

Chapter 5 »

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