Chapter 30: Company Gala

The Saturday party was at Jake and Anna’s. There were a few absences and we were back outside for a change as some cooler autumn temperatures arrived. Several people were ‘up north’ for the summer, for a vacation, or for a visit with relatives.

Over dinner, Ally got everyone’s attention and then gestured at the television set that Jake had installed in the sheltered part of his patio. She thumbed the remote and a video started – a fraternity party. OMG, the toga party from a few months earlier! Instead of chopping up the soundtrack, she’d picked one of the songs we heard all evening at the party and used that. There was no dialogue as far as I could tell.

The vid was a lark. She couldn’t sell it because there were too many people in it that she didn’t have model releases for. I hadn’t realized that Ally had prowled around the frat house that much, taking videos just about everywhere, and often of a couple in the throes of passion – even people we didn’t know. It was porn and well done given the subject matter.

Colt added to Ally’s remarks. “She gave me all the videos she took at the party and that was my practice playground when I first went to work for her. I learned how to edit and splice video clips together. I’ve learned so much about video editing and the underlying technology and software. Hopefully, I’m earning my keep now.”

We watched and commented on the video as we ate dinner, especially the ten of us that had been at the toga party. There was an emphasis in the movie on Erin and her antics as she fucked her way through the party. I asked her, “Has anybody at the university recognized you as Sara Sweet?”

“Not yet, but I’m sure someone will figure it out. Then I’ll become even more popular on campus and around town.” She laughed.

If we were trying to get Erin noticed on campus as a porn star, we couldn’t have done a better job. Several of the men had done videos with her over the summer. Those got edited and in late summer submitted to API – Ally’s marketing and distributor in Vegas. They took their time adding their own spin to the movie, such as title pages, watermarks, caveats, and previews of other vids at the start and end.

The videos got posted to the Internet two weeks before Thanksgiving and shortly after Erin’s attack episode. There were four weeks of classes before the end of the term, and Erin reported all was quiet. She told us, “I have my antenna up for any signals that someone has figured out that the little blonde freshman walking around campus or studying in the library is a porn star.” She laughed.

More seriously, she said, ‘A lot of people know about my attack, too. I get pointed at as the girl that saved herself from rape and hurt with her martial arts’ skills. I don’t know how so many people know about me that way, but they do.”

Molly, Amber, and Nicky had agreed to keep her porn career secret, and so did Brad, Martyn, Mark, and Colt. There wouldn’t be any leaks from those already in the know about her side gig.

Ellie, Amber – her intern that lived with us, and Darren worked at Occasions International, and right after Thanksgiving those three got exceptionally busy with all the special holiday parties that they were conducting on behalf of their clients.

Since the start of the summer, Amber had been nearly glued to Ellie’s side learning the business at OI – at least when not in classes. She’d picked up a lot and became a great contributor and planner. Ellie had started to involve her in some client meetings and took her on a trip to Dallas to start planning for a major bash at one rapidly growing company celebrating the holiday season. The company was going public in the stock market just a few days before the gala. AIGenZ was the company: AI for artificial intelligence, and GenZ to signify the generation of many ideas for the technology. The company was expanding with lightning speed.

The AIGenZ party was to be the second Saturday in December – three days after their IPO on the NASDAQ. Ellie and I talked about the company and the stock, and despite industry jitters about AI firms, we decided to invest in pre-IPO stock, since it was offered to ‘friends’ of the company without restrictions they’d have to comply with after they went public. As a supplier, members of OI qualified, so we weren’t doing anything illegal. I believed in AI, so we invested $25,000 in the company and agreed we’d hold onto it for at least a year after the IPO and then reevaluate.

OI was short-handed for the event that Ellie was managing. I had nothing really cooking that time of year with my fitness centers and they were running smoothly with good managers, so I volunteered to fly to Texas with her to help with the holiday party for about 1,500 people – mostly employees, spouses or partners, and business friends. The event would be held at the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine – about 20 miles from downtown, and only a few miles from the office sprawl area that AIGenZ was taking over for their campus.

Ellie and Amber flew up the week before on a Tuesday to start to coordinate things for the massive and important event. I flew in Friday afternoon but had been getting reports and my work assignments for the event from each of them. The party would start at three p.m. on Saturday and go until somebody stopped it.

When I arrived, Ellie was in a frantic state and Amber was trying to cope with far more than she should have on her plate as an intern. They each had iPads with to-do lists they were complete as the party start time drew near. I was not the savior, but I helped relieve enough stress that gradually things got closer to normal for an important occasion.

I learned that my surprise assignment was going to be playing bodyguard for the CEO of AIGenZ. Apparently, the stock had risen by a factor of 20 from its opening strike price three days earlier. Jerry Mordous, the CEO, and a couple of other techies and company leaders had become billionaires overnight. I sighed and felt glad that I’d put some money into the start-up. My investment had increased to half-a-million practically overnight.