Climbing the Ladder 5 - Reaching New Heights
Copyright© 2026 by Michael Loucks
Chapter 6: An Intriguing Investment Opportunity
Fiction Sex Story: Chapter 6: An Intriguing Investment Opportunity - 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 3, 1984, Chicago, Illinois
"From my interactions with her grandfather," I replied, "I think he does want that, but also wants her to end up with someone who would be a good partner, at least from his perspective, and that she'd 'see god' on her honeymoon night. The problem with his thinking, if that's it, is that Kayleigh wants to have a typically large Catholic family, stay home, care for the five kids, go to church, and otherwise live a traditional life."
"You're concerned she might run to him and complain you popped her cherry and won't marry her?"
"Maybe, but it's also the case that hurting her emotionally would put a big client at risk. I mean, she's smoking hot with a great body, and as enticing as that is, I had four hot girls in bed with me last night. And I have Deanna, CeCi, Natasha, Taya, Teri, and YOU! I don't need Kayleigh or Nikki, and if they want more than I can provide, then it's better that I not sleep with them.
"It's not as if I'm lacking opportunities — Krissy will be back in August, and it was pretty clear she's interested. Britney keeps offering, though I doubt I'll accept. Two different girls directly propositioned me when I was in Ohio, and a third suggested she was interested. The Art School Girls will be back in the Fall, and Alexa is an on-and-off thing."
"What happened in Ohio?"
I chuckled, "My mom's friend's daughter invited me to come home with her and fuck on her waterbed. I turned her down because she just finished her Junior year of High School. When I was sitting in the hayloft of the barn reminiscing, the farmer's eighteen-year-old granddaughter showed up, and after talking for a bit, she asked for a kiss. That led to her asking to have sex, but we were interrupted by her mom. She was so interested, she left a note under my windshield wiper the following day with her number and a note saying she wanted to finish what we started."
Bianca laughed, "Sounds true to Jonathan form! Your red line is pretty bright if you turned down an offer to fuck on a waterbed!"
"I have zero, and I mean zero, interest in High School girls."
"Who was the third?"
"Bev's friend Tammy from St. Louis. She confessed she had been interested when I was a Sophomore, and she and Bev were Freshmen, but she knew Bev and I were a couple, so she didn't ask me to the Sadie Hawkins' Day dance. She asked about going out, but I had planned to drive home. After the car was stolen, even though I was staying another night, I decided to spend the extra time with my mom. I didn't know where Tammy and her mom were staying, so it probably would have been moot, anyway. She did ask me to get in touch if I was in St. Louis."
"Are you interested?"
"I wonder how much was the fact that she liked me five years ago, and how much was the emotion of Bev's funeral and our connection through Bev. In any event, she's at Washington University in St. Louis, and I don't have any clients in St. Louis, so I won't see her anytime soon, if ever. It's also the case that I never had any particular interest in her. I mean, sure, I noticed she was cute, but I was working or with Bev and never even considered going out with anyone else."
"Did you know the daughter of your mom's friend?"
"I hadn't seen her or her sister in about eight years. They're the daughters of the friend who took my mom in when my grandfather kicked my mom out of the house. The friend has an open marriage and apparently is on the prowl and is OK with her daughters inviting random guys to have sex in their beds. The older daughter, Debbie, is a stone-cold fox, is in nursing school, and doesn't seem to be following in the family tradition."
"Family tradition?"
"Mom said her friend was known to 'run around' with guys in High School in the late 50s and early 60s. Mom went to Goshen, but this group of friends went to Milford. Mom met them through her friend Jennie, who went to Milford and whose dad worked with my grandfather at P&G. It was that friend's wedding I attended. By the way, I didn't tell you that the saleswoman at the car dealer hit on me, too."
Bianca laughed, "Of course she did! Young, tall, good-looking, successful, and paying cash for a car? Sounds like the sweet spot! How old?"
"Twenty-eight. Tall, blonde, Polish, and nice-looking. We flirted, but I doubt I'll ask her out. I will, on the other hand, refer people interested in buying a car to her."
"Another contact."
"Yes. I have to say, I never expected to have this many options!"
"And yet, you were looking for Keiko despite all those options."
"And had she lived, I'd never have been with anyone else and wouldn't have regretted that decision for a split second."
"Want to go for a walk?" Bianca asked.
"Sure. What about Sofía?"
"I'll recline the stroller so she can stay asleep. If she wakes up, we can stop in the park so she can lie in the grass for a bit."
"Sounds like a plan," I agreed.
We got ready, and Bianca put Sofía into the stroller, and we left the condo. Five minutes later, we were on Delaware Street, walking east towards the lake. Sofía did wake up about ten minutes later, so we went to the small park where I had occasionally eaten lunch in the past and put Sofía on the grass between Bianca and me.
Sofía wasn't ready to crawl, so after a few minutes, I picked her up and held her until we were ready to continue our walk. I put my daughter in her stroller, and the three of us continued our walk, returning to the condo about ninety minutes after we'd left. Bianca nursed Sofía while I made lunch, and I held Sofía while we ate.
I put her down just before 1:00pm, and about five minutes later, the doorbell rang, and I went to let Natasha and her friend, Erin, into the condo. Erin was about five-eight and had shoulder-length black hair. She was, as Natasha had promised, nice-looking but neither pretty nor cute.
Whereas Natasha was dressed stylishly, Erin was almost frumpy in baggy, faded jeans and a loose-fitting blue blouse.
"Wow!" Erin gasped, repeating the usual initial reaction to the view of the city.
"Jonathan, Erin Laning; Erin, Jonathan Kane."
"Nice to meet you," I said.
"Same," Erin said, looking down.
"Natasha, feel free to show Erin the condo," I offered. "Please be very quiet in the nursery, as I just put Sofía down."
She and Natasha took off their shoes at Natasha's prompting, then followed me into the large, open living area and introduced Bianca and Erin.
"Can I get you something to drink?" I asked. "I have Chardonnay chilling in the fridge."
"Thanks!" Natasha said. "For both of us, please."
"Bianca?" I inquired.
"Yes."
I went to the kitchen, poured four glasses of wine, put them on a small tray, and carried them back to where the girls were standing. I handed each of them a glass, then handed Bianca hers and put the tray down on the table.
"Natasha tells me you're in graphic design, but using computers?"
"Yes," Erin replied quietly.
"What are you doing with them?" Bianca asked.
That seemed to get Erin to open up, and she and Bianca had an increasingly technical discussion of computer graphics that I mostly followed, though it was a topic that only interested me insofar as it might help analyze which computer companies might be successful.
The key takeaway from the conversation was that the Macintosh was the best option, short of computers costing tens of thousands of dollars. A second takeaway was that computers from a new company, Silicon Graphics, were the best for creating 3-D images, and I made a mental note to ask Tony about them. The third takeaway was that seeing Erin have a fairly animated conversation with Bianca led me to conclude I could fulfill Natasha's request for a favor.
I touched Natasha's arm, and when she looked at me, I gave a slight nod. She smiled and nodded back, and when the conversation between Bianca and Erin appeared to have petered out, Natasha suggested to Erin that they take a tour. Before they did, I refilled their wine glasses, then went to sit with Bianca.
"I need you to talk to Tony about Silicon Graphics," I said.
"They're already on our watch list, but they're private and not looking for funding. There's no word on an IPO, either."
"I should have known you guys were on top of it."
"And in less than an hour, I believe you're going to be on top of Erin!"
"Assuming she's actually interested."
"Name one girl who hasn't been!" Bianca challenged with a smirk.
"You might have a point," I chuckled.
"And you don't even have to watch out for gold diggers, given you aren't looking for a wife."
"The saleswoman at the dealer offered to be my mistress!"
Bianca laughed softly, "You'll have more offers like that, I'm sure. Didn't Beth say something like that?"
"That was about wearing my suit and putting my Amex card on the bar being a guaranteed way to pick up girls."
"Putting 'Big Jon' on display seems to be very effective with Art School Girls!" Bianca teased. "And boys!"
"True, but if I did that in a bar, I'd be arrested!"
"We should have a Bacchanalia next March!" Bianca suggested.
"In Roman fashion?" I asked with an arched eyebrow.
"Togas optional! Invite all the Art School Girls and guys, open a bunch of bottles of wine, and 'let it all hang out', as they said in the 60s!"
"That might be a bit much," I chuckled. "I could see it with togas, wine, and dancing. I'm not sure a nude party is a wise idea."
"So, no Roman orgy?"
"No orgy, but the party would be fun."
"March 17, 1985, then," Bianca suggested. "That's the traditional day."
"Sounds good. Controlled, Ms. Pérez!"
"Spoilsport!"
"Right," I chuckled, "because you'd have sex with any random guy who asked."
"No, of course not."
"So, Roman party; no orgy."
"Agreed," Bianca said.
"You're going to start taking classes in the Fall, right?"
"Yes, and I've already spoken to Jessica about being able to stay two extra nights a week because we don't know your schedule."
"School should be OK because I'll only have one class in the Fall, and in the Spring, I start independent study. I enjoy my time with Sofía."
"It's an option to keep in mind, though, especially if you're going to visit clients and possibly pitch others. We can obviously afford it between the two of us."
"I agree with keeping our options open," I replied. "Let's see where we are in two months."
"I haven't heard anything about the rental properties."
"There's nothing to hear. I receive a check each month from Kasia, along with a report of any complaints or police activity. Nothing so far. Nobody has been late with their rent, and no repairs have been necessary. Right now, it's pretty much a wash, which will be true until the first balloon payment is due. At that point, I'll pay down the principal and refinance a much smaller amount.
"What I really need is mortgage interest rates to return to historic norms, but we're years away from that, possibly even a decade. That would help with my commercial real estate mortgage and also mean more money in the stock market, which would lead to higher valuations. The Nikkei is rising because there's so much free cash in Japan to invest that it has to go somewhere, and you know the basic rule of supply and demand, which applies to currencies and shares."
"That is probably the most important thing I learned from you," Bianca said, "because suddenly everything makes so much sense. I never understood why raising interest rates would stop inflation, but now I do."
"If you chart the five-year average CPI and increases in the broad money supply, you'll see they track pretty closely, except during World War II, which makes sense given how much it cost to arm the country to fight the Axis. That said, we're seeing a significant expansion of the money supply even with record-high interest rates — from $1.5 trillion in January 1980 to about $2.1 trillion last month. That's about a 40% increase. Guess what the average annual rate of inflation has been over the past four years."
"I'm betting it works out to about the same."
"It does. These are rough numbers, but 11% in '80, 14% in '81, 6% in '82, and around 3% last year. When you compound the inflation rates, you get close to 40%."
"Wow."
"Yeah. I do need to point out that the current situation is a bit of an aberration because historically, the CPI graph tracks the money supply graph, but the rate of expansion of the money supply is usually faster than increases in the CPI, to the tune of around 10%."
"So what happens to the excess? Why doesn't it cause price increases?"
"Productivity gains, efficiency, and rising population, as well as suppliers not passing on all cost increases to consumers, and, of course, cooking the books, which the government does by excluding certain 'volatile' items from the numbers. That's total BS because consumers feel those higher prices despite not being counted officially. It's similar to how unemployment numbers are cooked by excluding certain segments of unemployed workers. A better number to look at is workforce participation, but even those numbers are likely cooked."
"But you use them."
"Yes, because if everyone tells each other the same lies, everyone behaves the same way. It's exactly what's happening in Japan with the Nikkei due to the overvaluation of property in Tokyo and other major cities. So long as everyone lies to each other the same way, everything is fine. When someone says the Emperor has no clothes, all hell breaks loose. My job is to ride the Nikkei until about a second before someone kicks over the apple cart."
"But if everyone knows it's all fake, then how does it work?"
"Because nobody wants to plunge their economy into a tailspin that leads to a depression. You know I have Pete watching S&Ls, right? We all know there are underperforming loans, and so long as more money flows into the S&Ls, they'll be fine. But you know what happened to Continental Illinois."
"So why doesn't the government stop it?"
"Politics. Honestly, my job would be a lot harder if politicians understood economics AND acted in a fiscally responsible way. Well, banks would have to stop pretending to have money to lend, too, but that would cause a recession and deflation, which freaks out the Fed."
"Why?"
"Because the entire scheme depends on permanent growth. Without it, the entire house of cards collapses. The Fed has the twin goals of controlling inflation, as measured by the CPI, and promoting growth. Think about THAT for a moment."
"I don't think I want to because of the implications."
"It's called 'structural inflation', which means the Fed tries to limit the inflationary pressure of expanding the money supply, but it also leads to the doubling of prices every generation if they hit their targets. Fun times."
"What would you do?"
"Keep my job and use that knowledge to make millions! Why be a crooked politician or banker when I can make money legally because our leaders are economically illiterate?"
"That's cynical."
"It also happens to be true! But what I do serves an important purpose. Governments hate currency traders like Matheson because he calls BS on their magical thinking. That's what happened with the Bolivar, the Zaïre, and the Aussie dollar. It's also what happened in '73. OPEC called BS on the US going off the gold standard and, for a time, demanded payment in gold. Well, technically, they priced oil in terms of a fixed amount of gold. That was all before the embargo, which caused the crisis. Want to guess why Nixon closed the Gold Window?"
"To be able to increase the money supply?"
"Actually, almost the opposite. Because the money supply was increasing, and the price of gold was fixed, Arab countries, among others, were redeeming inflated dollars for fixed-price gold. There was a massive outflow of gold, putting severe pressure on the US government's available gold supply. It also created arbitrage opportunities to buy 'cheap' gold from the US government and sell it on the open market.
"Untethering the dollar from gold resulted in gold increasing in value relative to the dollar by about 1800%. That far exceeds the legerdemain by FDR when he confiscated the gold with a price fixed around $20, and once he had it all, he re-fixed the price at $35. The Treasury realized a nominal gain of 75% on that, and it ensured the government could massively expand the money supply in an attempt to fight the depression."
"Jonathan," Natasha called out. "Could you come upstairs?"
"On my way in a sec," I called back, then turned to Bianca, "We can continue this later. Duty calls."
"Poor baby," Bianca teased.
"That wasn't a complaint! Natasha will owe me a favor."
"That's the true currency, isn't it?"
"It is, in the end, how contacts are developed, and many deals are made. I'm absolutely sure my uncle owed Noel Spurgeon a favor for hiring me, though I don't know what it was."
I got up and headed upstairs to find Natasha and Erin sitting on the loveseat in the computer loft — the sitting-room space where the computers were. Natasha got up, gave me a quick hug, then disappeared downstairs.
"Mind if I sit?" I asked Erin.
"No."
I sat down next to her, but left some space between us.
"Where are you from?" I asked.
"Glen Ellyn."
"How did you meet Natasha?"
"At school."
Those two short answers, said in monotone, betrayed the extreme introversion and social awkwardness that Natasha had described. It was VERY different from the animated conversation she'd had with Bianca about computers and confirmed Natasha's 'nerd' description as well. If she had presented herself this way in High School, I could see exactly why she had not attracted interest from guys.
"When did you get into computers?" I asked.
She instantly perked up, "1977, when the Apple II was released. My dad bought one, and I was instantly hooked. Did you ever see the Hi-Res demo?"
"Yes, when I bought my Apple II."
"I had an Apple IIe, and now I have a Macintosh like the one you have there. What do you do with your computers?"
"Mostly spreadsheets, but also word processing and accessing information services via modem. I assume you do more graphics?"
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.