Climbing the Ladder 5 - Reaching New Heights
Copyright© 2026 by Michael Loucks
Chapter 5: Have You Considered an Alternate Theory?
Fiction Sex Story: Chapter 5: Have You Considered an Alternate Theory? - Jonathan's business life is booming, but he's also suffering from yet another loss. While he's done his best to pick up the pieces of that sundered relationship, he can't help but feel responsible. However, where two close relationships have withered, another blooms. Violet has transitioned from a badly damaged girl to a vibrant woman. Will he continue to climb this ladder, or will there be another ladder to climb in his future? No matter what, the only direction he plans to go is up.
Caution: This Fiction Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa Workplace
June 2, 1984, Chicago, Illinois
I considered giving my usual spiel about commitment, but I had already had a philosophical conversation with Nikki about sleeping together, and she had not only agreed to a third date knowing my thinking, but had offered to spend the night. One thing that did give me pause was her reaction to Octopus and Ama, but it was the case that I hadn't prepared her for it and had been deliberately obtuse in discussing it. I felt I should cut her some slack on that, but I did have one question to ask.
"You're more than welcome to stay. Will that cause any problems at home?"
"Not really. I'm nineteen, and my parents are protective but not overprotective. So long as I respect them and their rules for the house, they won't say anything. If I were fifteen, that would be a different story!"
"If you were fifteen, you wouldn't be here!" I declared.
"Not interested in jailbait?" Nikki asked with a smirk.
"Singularly not. No matter what the law says, I wouldn't date anyone who hasn't graduated High School. It's about maturity and life experience. What anyone else chooses to do, they're free to do. As for me, I'm positive there are exceptions in maturity levels, and I'm also positive I don't care."
As evidenced by Tracy Vaughn's offer to have sex in her waterbed. If her older sister had offered, I might have taken her up on it, but she seemed more conventional than her parents and her little sister. She was also sexier, not that Tracy was bad-looking by any stretch of the imagination.
"That's pretty strong."
"I have strong opinions," I replied. "But they are informed and apply only to my choices and actions. I don't subscribe to any external moral code of any kind."
"I may regret asking this, but how do you tell right from wrong?"
"Does what I'm doing hurt someone else? If so, it's nearly always wrong. Does what I'm doing hurt me? If so, it's nearly always stupid. But nothing I do is sinful or immoral because I don't believe in those concepts. I do believe in ethics and basically treat others the way I want to be treated and do my best not to hurt anyone."
"How does that work with your job? I mean, if you make money, doesn't someone lose money, at least some of the time?"
We were approaching the restaurant, so I needed to defer my answer.
"First, it's possible for everyone to make money. I'll explain once we're seated."
We went into Lou Malnati's and were seated almost right away, as it was only 4:50pm. It was a bit early for dinner, but both of us had eaten a light lunch because we had to eat early to make a 6:40pm showing of the nearly four-hour movie. We checked the menus and agreed on the toppings for a pizza, and when the waiter returned, we ordered pizza and Cokes.
"You were going to explain how everyone could make money."
"If someone buys 100 shares in XYZ company at $10 a share and sells them to me for $20 a share, and I sell those shares at some point in the future for $30 a share, each of us has made $1000. Nobody has lost anything. It's also the case that in every transaction, both parties act voluntarily. So even if that person paid $20 a share and sold them to me for $10 a share, I've done nothing morally or ethically wrong, as he chose to sell them at that price."
"OK, that first example makes sense, but the second one, why would someone do that willingly?"
"I suppose it depends on how you define 'willingly' or 'voluntarily'. I define those terms only in relation to my own reasons and actions. Their reasons are irrelevant: only the fact that they are offering the shares for sale. Let me give you an example — do you know what a 'loss leader' is?"
"Sure. A gas station convenience store will offer milk for 10¢ a gallon less than everyone else to get traffic into their store, even if that means losing a few cents on the sale of the milk because candy, beer, and cigarettes are high-profit items for them."
"Exactly. Is it unethical or immoral to pay the price the store is asking?"
"Obviously not."
"That's how stock trading works — I set a price to sell my shares, which can be a fixed price or whatever the market price happens to be. The same is true for buying, where I can offer to buy at a set price or at the market price. In both of those instances, someone chooses to buy what I offer or sell me what I want to buy, but I usually do not know with whom I'm trading.
"Nobody really has a problem with those transactions, but there are things that some people do consider unethical or immoral, but which are perfectly legal. The most common one is a short sale. That's a situation where I sell shares I don't own, betting the price will go down. And I can see in your face that you want to know how I can sell something I don't own. What I do is borrow the shares from someone, pay them a fee, and promise to return an identical number of shares in the future."
"But how is that fair?"
"What's unfair about me offering something for sale that I can legally deliver and someone willingly buying it?"
"I don't know, but it feels wrong because you're selling something you don't own."
"With the permission of the owner, to whom I pay a fee and to whom I return the shares. You can achieve similar things with futures contracts, which are promises to buy or sell a thing; or options, which give you the right to buy or sell a thing, but you aren't required to do so. Let me give you another example. If Sears has something for sale and nobody is buying it, what do they do?"
"Reduce the price."
"And if they sell so many that they can't keep them on the shelves?"
"Raise the price."
"That's how stocks, commodities, gold, silver, and every other thing in the financial markets work, including currency. And yes, money is simply another commodity; it's just also happens to be a convenient medium of exchange."
"Wait! What?!"
"Gold is a commodity, right? I can buy or sell it, and the price fluctuates, right?"
"Sure."
"Gold is also a medium of exchange, and at one time, nearly everything was priced in gold, silver, or copper, including the US Dollar, which, at various times in the past, could be exchanged for gold or silver at a fixed rate. Currencies fluctuate in value, such that the dollar in your purse is worth slightly more or slightly less each minute.
"You don't notice unless prices for goods change or you actively compare the US Dollar to the British Pound Sterling or to gold or silver. On Friday, it took fewer dollars to buy an ounce of gold than it did a week ago. That means gold is cheaper relative to the dollar, and the dollar is more expensive relative to gold.
"The value of money usually fluctuates based on interest rates and monetary inflation, that is, printing money. A change in prices is not inflation, even though the press reports it as if it were. Think about the questions I asked about Sears earlier. Now, assume the dollar is a commodity, and you're buying dollars with gold or silver. If there are suddenly many more dollars in circulation, are you going to pay more or less gold or silver for those dollars?"
"Less, I guess."
"OK, now, look at it another way. If the government prints more and more dollars and puts them into circulation, but the quantity of available goods remains the same, what's going to happen to the prices of those goods?"
"I'm going to guess they go up."
"Exactly. So, the true source of inflation is too many dollars chasing too few goods. What did the Federal Reserve do to fight inflation?"
"Raised interest rates through the roof! My dad constantly complains about that."
"Now, think carefully about everything I've said, and tell me why."
Nikki was quiet for about two minutes.
"I don't know," she said.
"That's OK. It's not a concept taught in most schools. By raising interest rates, the amount of money being lent is reduced. Every loan increases the amount of money in circulation due to something usually called 'fractional reserve banking'. With fewer loans, the amount of new money in circulation decreases as existing loans are repaid, or at least doesn't increase. What happens then?"
"There's less money to buy things."
"Bingo. Economics 101, except most people never learn that."
"How did you learn all of that?"
"Training manuals at work," I replied. "I also took some college classes at Circle, but for the most part, they don't understand basic monetary theory and, as such, don't understand the financial markets. This is not meant to insult you, but you had no clue before I explained it, right?"
"Right."
"One last point — scarcity and surplus can affect prices, but that's not monetary inflation and is usually transient. What happened in '73 with oil was a perfect example of price increases due to monetary inflation — the US went off the gold standard, thereby decreasing the value of the dollar, similar to what happened when FDR confiscated all privately held gold, with the express purpose of increasing the money supply. But now that I've bored you out of your skull, you select a topic!"
Nikki laughed, "It was interesting as far as it goes, but I would much rather talk about something else! Are you going on vacation this year? You know where I'm going."
"I'm spending a week in December in Saint Martin at a house owned by Mr. Spurgeon."
"That's in the Caribbean, right?"
"Yes. It's half Dutch and half French; I'll be on the French side of the island."
"That sounds fun! Are you going alone?"
"I'll take someone, but I haven't decided yet."
"And this is where you expect me to ask to come along?"
"Think about the conversation we had last time and answer the question for yourself."
Nikki glowered for a moment, then said, "Never mind."
"I didn't mean to upset you," I said. "I don't expect anything. For all I know, you're going to sleep in another room tonight."
"OH, COME ON!" Nikki protested. "That HAS to be a line!"
"Why? Did I hope you would sleep in my bed? Sure. But you said 'stay the night'. You absolutely didn't say 'spend the night with you' or 'sleep with you'."
"Get off it!" Nikki protested. "You parse sentences and use words that carefully?"
"Always. It's part of my job. The specific words I use directly influence the activity of every licensed professional at Spurgeon. It's the same with my research — I have learned to read the nuances in the choice of words used by politicians and diplomats or in quarterly reports from corporations or members of the Federal Reserve.
"Literally billions of dollars can depend on the turn of a phrase or the choice of a word. So can the entire future of the world. Remember last year when Reagan called the Soviet Union an 'Evil Empire'? Well, he chose those words intentionally to convey a very specific message, and he hasn't backed down from it.
"Our fundamental goal at work is clear, concise communication, just as Reagan was clearly and concisely conveying his opinion of the East Bloc. Growing up, I was always careful about what I said and careful about what I read into what other people said. That, and an analytical mind, is what makes me money and, more importantly, makes Spurgeon Capital money. So, I don't need to 'come off it'."
"I just seriously messed up, didn't I?" Nikki asked.
"Only if you don't learn the lesson that I am careful about what I assume and what I expect. Bad assumptions and incorrect expectations could bankrupt Spurgeon Capital in short order. May I share a relevant anecdote?"
"Yes."
"A young woman I was seeing, but with whom I wasn't currently intimate, asked me to go on an overnight trip. I accepted, and we agreed on two rooms at a bed-and-breakfast. When we arrived, there was only one room with one bed. The young woman knew that to be the case and assumed I'd be OK with it and sleep with her. Guess what happened?"
"I can deduce the correct answer — nothing."
"Exactly. I insisted we come home, and we did. Her expectations made a complete mess of things."
"May I say something without causing a reaction?"
"You may say something, but I can't promise I won't react because I don't know what you're going to say. Well, I can guess, but I'm not a hundred percent certain."
"I'm curious..."
"You're likely going to say something along the lines of no guy would turn down sex if the girl was willing. But guess what? That's simply not true."
"Obviously," she said, sounding sad.
"And now I suspect you're wondering how that jibes with what I said about the destination of a relationship being obvious, even if you never got there."
"Yes."
"Because she and I had talked about it, and I made it clear I wasn't interested in more than friendship."
"But you have sex just for fun!" Nikki protested.
"So do you!" I declared. "Or at least that's the case if a) you intend to sleep with me tonight; b) you paid any attention to what I said last time. I'll also wager you any amount you care to wager that you won't have sex for fun with just any guy who might ask."
"I give up," Nikki replied, sounding defeated.
Our pizza arrived before I could answer, and the waiter put a slice on each of our plates, then put the pan on a small rack in the center of the table. We ate in silence for a couple of minutes, then I decided to say something.
"What do you feel is the problem?" I asked.
Nikki was quiet for about thirty seconds before she answered.
"It's, like, everything I say is twisted or misinterpreted."
"May I offer a counter-argument?"
"Sure," she said flatly.
"It's not what you're saying or what you mean; it's your assumptions and expectations. You have assumptions about how I think and expectations about how I'll react, and when I don't conform to those or challenge them, you become flustered. The simple solution is to listen to what I say, observe what I do, and make decisions based on those things rather than making assumptions or expecting me to conform to some mental picture you have of me."
"It's just ... you're so difficult to deal with."
"I'm actually easy to deal with. Say what you mean, mean what you say, and act consistently with what you say and mean. Nothing could be simpler. It's when you make assumptions or have expectations that you end up twisted in knots. I've done my best to be forthright, to share whatever I feel is relevant, and to answer any questions you ask. I'm not sure what more I can do because what I can't do is conform to assumptions and expectations, most likely based on your past experiences.
"That's not unreasonable, at least until you actually begin to get to know someone. It's at that point you need to rethink your approach. Remember what I said about the secret list? It's basically a trap because you have expectations, and I was supposed to conform to them without knowing what they were. If I failed, you'd tell me you didn't want to see me again, and I'd have had no clue why and wouldn't have been given a fair shake. The notion that I could conform to some secret list is nonsensical. I'm not a mind reader, though I can make deductions from what you say and do."
"Was that print a test?" Nikki asked.
"In a way, but probably not the way you think."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm reasonably certain you believe you failed the test, right?"
"Yes."
"I can't grade a test before it's over."
"You've lost me. Again."
"Your initial reaction to the print I showed you is a common one, and it's also the one that was most likely given what I know about your background. In the end, though, that's irrelevant. What truly matters is how you ultimately feel after you've had time to think it over and reach a conclusion. Calling it 'porn' didn't cause you to fail the test."
"So, how do I pass?"
"You have to have an open mind. That doesn't mean you have to like it, but it does mean you have to appreciate it."
"You mean, like, art for the sake of art?"
"Yes. Exactly what MGM has in their logo — ars gratia artis. I don't particularly like cubist art, but I can appreciate it."
"But you do like the print you showed me?"
"Yes. May I tell you the minimum you have to do to win? Assuming you want to, that is."
"I think you have to, given what you said about score-keeping."
"Discard the entire concept of sin, both with regard to yourself and to others. If you can't do that, it's unlikely there is a future of any kind for us."
"So, become an atheist?" Nikki asked.
"I can't tell you what to believe or not believe. I'm just saying that Christianity is not compatible with my worldview, even in fairly mild forms. From my perspective, Abraham's god is FAR too interested in what people are doing in their bedrooms and has a lot to answer for, given there are far more important things which need attention."
"Your friend had a church funeral, right?"
"Yes."
"And you've been to church weddings, I'm sure."
"I have," I confirmed.
"Why?" Nikki asked.
"To honor my friends," I replied. "Here's the key — I respect other people's faith, so long as they don't try to force me to follow some ancient moral code that literally makes no sense to me, or if they try to convert me. Not long ago, I said to someone that going to church on occasion, or even allowing my kids to be baptized, isn't out of the question, but, and this is important, my point of view gets equal time."
"You mean to teach them to be atheists?"
"People are born atheists. They have to be taught about whichever god their parents follow. If it were so self-evident, nobody would need to proselytize because everyone would just 'get it'. The fact that I can point to dozens of groups within ten miles of where we're sitting, all of which teach at least some contradictory or mutually exclusive things, is sufficient to negate all of them."
"Why didn't you tell me that before?"
"This is our third date," I replied. "And I did tell you before you came back to my place to stay the night."
"I'm afraid if I say what I'm thinking, it'll completely wreck things, assuming they're salvageable now."
"It's better to say it and get it out in the open than hide it and regret it later."
"Are you trying to get me to say I don't want to stay and not ask for another date so you don't have to end it?"
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