Chapter 16

Another Day.

Actually, it was not just another day. Today I was going to go in partners with three ladies and buy a multi-million dollar home for a million bucks. Three ladies? Damn. I just thought of it. Everyone had calculated the five hundred thousand to be split five ways, not four. Damn. I was going to be short ten grand as all I had was a hundred and fifteen.

All this was running through my head as I pissed, shaved, and showered. I walked out of the bathroom as Mary was heading toward it. I started to ask her about the miscalculation but she just waved me off and plopped on the throne. I quickly dressed for the day and went downstairs to the kitchen.

My laptop was still on the island plugged in charging. I turned on the laptop then made coffee while waiting for the pc to boot. I checked in on my stock account. There was one group of stocks that had just increased radically, "Google." With a phone call to the brokerage, I asked how long would it take to liquidate about twenty grand worth of the stock. The broker laughed and said, "may be thirty seconds."

"Okay then, get me a quick twenty grand out of that stock and put the return in the money market account."

"Done." Said the broker.

"When do you think the cash will be available?" I asked.

"About thirty seconds ago." The broker said.

"What?"

"When the stock opened this morning, anyone with a few bucks put in an order for "Google." I could sell a couple hundred thousand shares in the next fifteen minutes. Want to sell the rest of it?"

"Ah, no. That's okay. I'll hang on to what little I have left."

"Little?" He asked.

"Yeah, may be five or six thousand worth."

"No, No, No." The broker said. "Yesterday the value of the stock went up three hundred and fifty percent. When a stock increases rapidly, your account is automatically updated, purchasing as much as possible by leveraging what you already have. Let's see, you originally invested a hundred grand through our watch-dog program. The hundred turned into two hundred almost overnight. We leveraged the two hundred and bought an additional four hundred. The six hundred increased by three hundred and fifty percent. As of right now you own about two point one million less the twenty thousand you just took out and the four hundred thousand margin plus interest. So you have about a million six hundred and eighty thousand less some interest and a whole bunch of taxes."

"Holy shit!"

"Nice huh?" The broker chuckled. "Wanna make me a happy guy? Initiate a nice trade over the phone and I'll get all the credit. How can I help you?"

"Tell you what lets do." I said thoughtfully. "Sell all of the "Google" except five hundred thousand and dump the proceeds into the general speculation fund. You, and I mean "you" buy me some of your special deals that are making good returns and that will give me a whole new lease on life in the market."

"Okay, I'll liquidate a large chunk of "Google" then spread your liquidated assets throughout the speculation market. Thank you. You are making my day. I promise to get you some fat returns on this. Call me this afternoon or in the morning so I can brag, Okay?" The guy sounded breathless.

"All right, will do, and thanks for the help. Man, that "Google" is a hot one. Talk to you later."

I instantly accessed the money market account and verified the cash was there. I transferred the twenty grand to the checking and logged off. I was sitting back feeling pretty smug when the gorgeous Mary creature appeared.

"You look pretty happy with yourself." Said Mary coming to me for a hug and morning kiss.

"Actually, I'm becoming a better catch by the second. Best look after me as a really good investment." I bragged.

"Oh! And what brings this on?" Mary asked with a grin.

"While we were wondering around naked, buying magnificent property, yours truly became a millionaire."

"Millionaire?"

"Yep." I beamed. "My brokerage invested a big chunk in the "Google " IPO." Seems that stock has gone berserk. A measly two hundred grand grew to over two million. Anyway, that's not what's important. We figured wrong. Five hundred grand divided by four is not a hundred grand. I had to come up with some more and that's how I found out about my new fortune."

"Google?" Mary looked at me quizzically.

"Yeah "Google," why?"

"I just bought a shit load of the "Google" IPO trying to balance out my account thinking that would help with the capitol gains stuff."

"How much did you buy?" I queried.

"I put a five hundred of mine and five hundred of Terry's ah Sherry's in it. She lets me handle her stuff as she has never been able to add two numbers together."

"Ah, Um, Ah, may be you should call you broker and find out what's going on and what you should do with what you have." I asked.

"I will ask her later. She'll have a idea as to what's happening."

"Don't you want to know what your stock potentially did?"

"Yeah, but I'll find out in just a little while, okay? We need to have some coffee and book. Time is getting away from us."

I poured Mary some coffee and a little more for myself. I couldn't believe she didn't want to know about a potential windfall. But then women are a strange bunch.

Mary called Julie and asked if she wanted us to pick her up? Julie said to go get Maria first then come by and pick her up. We rinsed our cups and went to Maria's.

Maria's home was a nice place in a middle class subdivision. The home was three bedrooms, two baths, and two-car garage with a nice lawn. Maria welcomed us into her home and offered us coffee. We declined as we said we needed to get going. Mary and I gave the kids a hug and kiss then Maria gave a lady that looked like her, only older, a couple of instructions in Spanish then turned to leave.

In Spanish, I asked Maria to introduce us to her Mother.

Maria turned red in the face then turned and formally introduced me to her Mother in English.

"It is ever my pleasure Signora. Please let me have the pleasure of meeting you again." I said in my best Spanish.

In perfect English and with a beaming smile, Maria's Mom said, "Please call me Angel. And yes, we will have to meet again."

We left packing into the front seat. All the way to Julie's Maria was telling me it wasn't nice to eves drop on two Hispanics speaking in Spanish. Please figure that out so I have an answer will ya?

We barely stopped at Julie's condo when Julie immediately came out to the car. Maria and Julie got into the back while Mary was beginning to give me directions. We were on an interstate heading into the city when Mary turned around to talk to the girls.

"Hey Julie, how come you didn't tell me about this "Google" thing?" Mary asked.

"I'm still working it Mary. So far we're all up a bunch. Hell even Maria's small account is up about five hundred percent." Julie said.

I instantly asked, "Five Hundred percent?"

"Well it hasn't gone up that much so I margined our entire account in order to leverage out as much as possible. The market has bumped enough that we made over a four hundred percent profit." Julie said as if nothing to it.

"Wow. Who is your broker? I may want to get involved with him." I asked.

Mary said, "Her, not him."

"Okay then who is her then?"

"You don't know?" Mary asked punching me in the shoulder. "It's Julie!"

"Julie?" I asked stunned. "Julie, you're a stock broker?"

"What do you think I went to college for, an MRS degree?" Asked Julie.

"I didn't know that Julie. So have you made Mary and yourself a millionaire these last couple of days? I asked.

"Already did that." Julie stated. "We passed that mark about five years ago. Maria is the one who's still catching up. Her old man made her withdraw her money so he could squander it. It's probably what he used to go to South America. I kept back a hundred grand he didn't know about and have not let Maria touch it. And yes, Maria has more than enough to pay her way in this deal today. The difference is that we have put the money into a trust so it couldn't be had by an outside source. When the time comes, we'll just pay Maria a wage so she can reap the benefits of the stock deals."

"Jesus, what have I gotten myself into. You girls could buy and sell me in an instant. No wonder you were unconcerned at coming up with a half a million dollars. You guys could have probably come up with three or four times that."

The girls all giggled and Julie added. "Well now you know why we stick together. One of us by ourselves is not a force, but together we can make a lot of shit happen. Together we are lucky. Nancy is part of our venture but her husband doesn't have a clue. Nancy is going to surprise him one of these days and make him retire and just take care of her. She hasn't touched a dime except for some regular payments I make her. We pretended that I borrowed a big chunk of money from her to buy my condo. I took that money and invested it. Every month I make them a payment as we agreed. Meanwhile, Nancy's money is growing and growing. Her growth has far exceeded her payments. You see. Together we are a force."

"Man oh man, I guess you guys are a force."

Mary pointed to a parking lot and told me to park there. We paid the fee and started for a near building. As we entered the marble lobby of the office building, Lee came bustling in.

"Oh, good morning." Lee spoke up smiling. "My, my, you guys look good in clothes. Steve my boy, you look yummy."

"Down girl." Said Julie. "Steve is ours. Talk nice to us and we might share."

This entire conversation was held in front of the doorman who was blushing more that I was. We went to the elevator and let Lee push the button for the floor. As soon as we entered the lobby of Lee's lawyers office it seemed there was a sudden explosion of people wanting to take us to the conference room, to get us drinks or are we hungry and the partners would be with us in just a minute. On and on. Lee sure did command some respect.

We were escorted into a very luxurious conference room and seated at a large table. Almost instantly cups of coffee were set in front of us as well as some Danish rolls. Another couple of ladies brought in pads of paper and pencils for each of us. Lee was beaming with pride at how we were being pampered to.

"Isn't it nice." Lee said with waving gesture. "They really took to heart that I asked them to treat you all as visiting royalty. They don't know who you are and I like the idea that they are trying so hard to please."

Julie, who was sitting next to me, leaned over and whispered in my ear. "It is nice to see this place during the day. A couple of the partners are steady clients. Hope one doesn't show up. He'll probably have a coronary."

Julie leaned the other way and apparently told Mary the same thing.

On the other side of me Maria was fidgeting around acting nervous and strange.

"What's up Maria?" I asked.

"These are the attorneys that used to represent my husband. I think these guys are probably okay but it seemed that Ed just lost all his money as soon as he received it when he won an injury lawsuit. I'm just nervous being here, that's all."

"Relax, babe, remember you guys are a group. A force. With Julie's and Mary's minds working on this, I'd say we are in good hands."

"Well that's good and all but I'm supposed to be the legal brain here. I'm the one who went through law school then never took the bar because I was pregnant."

"Law school?"

"Yeah, law school." Mary jumped in. "Maria was valedictorian of her class. She graduated two months pregnant. Just before she was going to take her bar exam, Ed got hurt at work. Then just about time to take it again, she was pregnant again with Sonny. Since then she's been too busy and not interested enough to take the bar. She studies just enough to know the law for our taxes and investments. Maria is the legal council, Julie the investor, and I'm the accountant. Nancy helps Julie with research. Together we are a team."

"You guys are a team, that's for sure." Said Lee after hearing all of that. "You guys are going to have a great time at the preserve. That house is perfect for you. And remember, I'll be just down the road, not that far away."

A bunch of suits came bursting into the conference room followed by several ladies who appeared to be secretaries, complete with pads and pens. Two of the girls had laptops and set them on the table.

A distinguished looking gentleman scanned the table with his gaze stopping at Julie. A smile turned his lips up and then he proceeded to look closely at each of us.

Lee spoke first.

"Adam, these are my dear friends, Mary, Julie, Steve and Maria. You have all of their formal names from our conversation this morning. You also have the particulars that we discussed. Let's go over the draft to make sure it is what we want."

"Lee?" the distinguished looking guy asked. "Clarence has called and again, sends his regrets that he is unable to attend the meeting. As you know Lee, he asked me to take over this for him and has given me all of the information. Now, there are a couple of items that are unusual so I would like to address them first."

"Adam," Lee said firmly. "Let's just take it a paragraph at a time and let us agree on it and when we come to an area you wish to discuss, we will."

"Okay Lee let's begin."

Copies of a document were handed to each person then Adam began reading the document one paragraph at a time. After each paragraph, he would ask if we all agreed then went on to the next. When he came to the total amount for the house he stopped.

"Lee, did I make a mistake on the amount? Shouldn't this be ten million?"

"No Adam," Lee said. "The amount is correct. Let's proceed."

"Are you sure?" Adam continued anyway. "Your insurance is for fifteen million and the most recent appraisal for your husbands accounts were just over twelve million. Would it be prudent for you to just dump an asset of that value for ten cents on the dollar?"

"Adam. The price I gave you is the price the house is going to sell for. I have my reasons. Can we proceed? Please."

Adam looked perplexed but nodded and said, "Yes Lee."

"Well the next part about the financing of the balance has an ridiculously low interest rate of two percent." Adam stated.

"According to Walter, my accountant, that is the minimum amount I needed to charge in order to make this transaction not look like a gift." Lee looked at Adam and said. "So far, this is what I asked for. Go on."

Adam just shook his head then looked back to the paper.

"Now we come to the unusual contingencies. The continuous employment and living quarters of two people to be named by you as well as your use of both people as you would need them to assist you where you live in the future. This is very unusual. Do you know who these two people are? Or, are you going to hire them in the future."

"That isn't important Adam. I will name the people to the buyers. They will take care of the then employment and living quarters. My use of their services will be minimal but occasionally necessary. Now Adam, I don't see a clause that would allow me to use the house to entertain some visiting people from time to time. I specifically wrote that down and included it in the fax to you."

"Oh yes." Said Adam. "That can be covered easily."

Maria asked, "We should write in that the house would be available for an activity to the previous owner for a fee of one dollar per occurrence. The same fee should apply for occasional sub-contracting of our employees."

"Good idea Maria." Said Lee. "Also, put a limit of house usage to twice a year."

"That won't be necessary Lee." Julie said.

"Yes it will. That way I'll have an excuse to not have big parties except twice a year." Lee was smiling.

Adam leaned over to the secretary next to him with a laptop and was telling her what to type. Then when she was done he swiveled the laptop around and read the new construction of the agreement to everyone. Mary, Julie, and I looked at Maria and she nodded in agreement.

Adam then said. "Let's take a break while the new agreement is printed. Would anyone want more coffee?"

Maria asked a secretary if she could go with her to her desk to type out a note for us.

Lee was smiling, happily that her wishes were being conformed too. She fixed her gaze at me and when I recognized her stare, she winked. I smiled back and continued to be in wonder that this was all happening.

Most of the suits got up and moved around, not talking, just standing next to their chairs looking rather robotic. Julie and Mary were having a muted conversation that I couldn't hear but Julie kept her hand on my arm as if making sure I didn't escape.

Maria came bustling back into the room waving a stack of papers. She came to the three of us and said, "Now we need to do this before these other papers get here. This is a partnership agreement. It is pretty standard with a buyout agreement if one of us wishes to depart. The buyout amount would be figured on an appraised value less the future upkeep of our employees. This way we can put the whole thing in some kind of trust and all of us pay rent or something. The genius accountant here will have to help me figure this out. Let's get these signed and we can have Lee and one of the secretaries" witness it and have it notarized while we are here."