Chapter 28: Games with Pam

I left the apartment at five-fifteen in the morning, and was on the seven o’clock flight to Newark. I made it to TCI headquarters at eight-forty-five – a record. I stuck my head in Jane’s office after checking with Marge, her secretary; to be sure it was all right. Jane gave me a megawatt smile and invited me in for a few minutes before her next meeting. While we could have talked about the personal side of things, we kept our conversation entirely on business and our plans for the week on the various projects my company supported. Jane did confirm she’d be free about six that evening and that we’d do dinner and ‘whatever else might come up.’ She gave me a wink, and then I left to connect with one of my teams that had a major deliverable due by the end of the week.

The day passed quickly, and was not without its humor. In mid-morning, Fran sexted me a picture of her messy cunt captioned, ’Pussy waking up all gooey and feeling in need of your services again.’ I texted her a picture of eight people sitting around the conference room table trying to put the specifications together for a multi-million-dollar system that would be called EAGLE – the ‘Enterprise Audit and General Ledger Expense’ system. None of us had a hand in naming the system, thank heaven. Fran texted back, ’Too bad. All business, but cute guys. Show them my pussy.;-) Love. F.’

Several of the guys were watching me text with my iPhone. I turned to them after we’d finished and said, “My girlfriend thinks you’re all cute – that’s high praise in her book.” I did not show them Fran’s pussy.

A couple of them laughed. Gordie Peters boldly said, “Which girlfriend? Word has it that you’ve got a whole harem stashed away at home.”

“Now, where’d you hear that?” I chuckled to defuse my own worry about the reputation that might be spreading around. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that word was out about my living arrangements.

Gordie shrugged. “How many women do you live with between here and there?”

“Errr, I live with three women up north.”

Gordie said, “And with Jane Ellis down here ... so it’s starting to add up to a small harem at least.” He laughed. He added, “I suspect that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

I said in a serious tone, “I’d like not to have any of those relationships gossiped around the place.”

“I don’t think any of it was told in a malicious manner, just as a few interesting facts. I think this group is the only one that knows about your relationship with Jane, and that was purely by chance. None of us talk to anybody else either.”

“How’s that?”

Gordie laughed again, “Well, it is circumstantial evidence. We know you live with three sisters in Boston. But here, you never file hotel expenses. You spend as much time with Jane as you can. You’ve been seen dining out with her several times, even at late hours, and in casual clothes that suggest you both went someplace and changed. Lastly, before I rest my case, at some of those dinners you two have been all lovey-dovey – holding hands, smooching with each other, and acting like lovers.”

I shook my head in a laugh; “I guess there’s no such thing as a secret anymore.”

Gordie said, “So, you confirm that our conclusions are accurate, or does this trial have to go to the jury?”

“No, you’re correct, but do keep a lid on it. I don’t want her reputation hurt by our romantic inclinations.”

“No problem, boss. It’s really just nice to know that the two of you are human and not the workaholic robots we initially thought.”

I asked, “By the way, how’d you know I never filed hotel receipts?”

Gordie chuckled, “Marie Goddard in accounting up north is my girlfriend. She handles all the travel reports for you guys and all of us. She always checks for air tickets, rental car, hotel, and meals, to be sure we road warriors don’t forget anything, but in your case there was only a hotel the first week you were here. She asked me if I knew what was going on, and if you were just forgetting to put in the expense claim. I put two and two together based on our other sightings and guessed where you were hanging your hat at night.”

“Well, let’s apply that same level of logic and deductive prowess to this project.” I steered the guys back into our work for the day. With a few laughs and grumbles we all got back to work.

I did send one more text before I too went to work. I sent to Jane, “Our relationship and my staying at your home are known, at least among the team I’m with. They haven’t gossiped, but our relationship might be more widely known by others. More later. Just FYI. Love, Me.”

Two minutes later, Jane sent me a smiley face.

About five-thirty, Jane strolled into the conference room where our team was still madly working away defining data elements on a huge scroll list tacked to the wall with Post-Its all over it.