Chapter 5

Heading over to where Robert said he would be playing slots, I noticed how the waitresses were making their rounds. They never asked him if he needed anything until he stopped one as she went past.

Well he sure has the incognito thing down doesn't he? If those shallow waitresses had any clue he was a multimillionaire they would be hovering hoping to get a tip.

I moved a few machines over from him where we could talk, but not look like we were having any form of deep conversation. Without knowing what he wanted to talk to me about, I did not want anyone linking us together. Since the video slots seem fickle about how they pay out, I normally wandered around every few drinks. I plugged in my customer loyalty card, popped in five hundred bucks and hit the max bet.

This machine was running ten pay lines and max of five dollars per line. After ten plays I was down to $77.50. Right then the waitress came by to ask me what I wanted to drink. Since we were still going to eat dinner, I hit the max bet button and turned to ask her to get me a soda. With my back turned I was not watching the screen. I heard the soundtrack of a bonus game.

Shit these are getting weirder all the time. What the fuck do I do here?

I clicked around on the screen until something caused the game to go into some sort of cut screen where I won ten bucks. I must have gotten a bunch of the triggers for the bonus game because I still had six picks left. I clicked randomly and ended up getting just over seven hundred bucks.

This is different. I don't have to throw in more cash to keep playing.

It was making a host of noises as it added the win from the bonus screen as the waitress brought my soda. I just reached back to hit the max bet button as I fished a couple dollars out to tip the waitress. I damn near shit myself when the machine started cranking out some computer voice and loud assed music. You would have thought I hit the max jackpot, cleared out the bonus game and got some sort of magic hidden achievement with all that noise. I only won two grand. The jackpot on this machine was fifty grand. Since it was five of the bonus game tokens in a row, it meant a bonus game with ten picks without any bad picks. Knowing how slots normally went really cold after a decent payout, I cashed out and moved over to a different machine on the other side of Robert.

Damn now this is being cold. How the hell did I drop five hundred and not win shit?

I was going to move when it gave back my five hundred.

"You sure seem to have the touch. I am barely staying alive here," Robert said sounding like anyone else around me when I played slots. "You appear quite adept at squeezing blood out of turnips I hear. I have never seen this groups of slots get so loose on a week night. The ancient retirees come pick up the big payoffs on Mondays after they were played hard over the weekend. A grand should at least pay back eight hundred. I am down two grand already."

"I should be close to that already given my normal runs on the dollar machines," I told him back. "Most of the time I am lucky to just win back my bet."

We went back and forth with slot talk as I chewed through the two grand I had left. Seeing nothing happening on this machine I wandered around to find a reel machine. I was about even when Robert took one five down from me. As we played we had a casual conversation about nothing in particular. I noticed the waitress would come to me but ignore him. Finally I stopped her long enough to ask if he wanted something too. She did not look thrilled to get him a drink, but I gave her a five dollar tip when she came back.

Both our machines seemed to warm up finally. He hit just under the jackpot three times in under ten minutes. I was getting smaller wins, but they were adding up fast. Robert was just down two hundred and I was up fifteen hundred when he asked if I would join him for dinner. Might as well have someone to talk to away from all the slot machine noise and I seemed to be good company.

Once we paid for our buffet and were shown to our seats, we made small talk as we took turns loading up our plates. When we finally slowed down Robert started talking quietly.

"Joe I cannot speak to your disappointments in other areas of your life. What I do know is that not only did you sell ice to the Eskimos, you made them beg to pay you more than your proposal on the table. We both know if you were pressed those items would be added in at your lower proposed price," Robert explained. "My expectations were that Paul would throw anything you asked for a chance to obtain some one of your magic projectors. Imagine my utter surprise when my battle axe of a sister opened her iron fisted hold on the corporate checkbook to offer a higher final deal price. My father started her pinching pennies when she was still in grade school. By the time she was sixteen she was the comptroller. When my great uncle died, she was moved to CFO. Her voice was one of the loudest in support of replacing me with Paul. Her sole control over capital purchases and operating budgets is all that has kept Paul from bankrupting the company."

Wiping the remnants of a very sloppy piece of crab meat I had sucked out of the shell, I told him, "I was quite shocked when she did not blink at the original proposed number. I was prepared for heavy negotiating only to find that I was doing all the work with little push back from anyone. You are right on with the room to cut the pricing even more. My boss is going to have some serious discussions with legal regarding the contract with the Sale's department. With this deal I am out selling their team of twenty by five to one. You have my apologies for how your family's business is not doing all they can to get the best deals possible. It seems their vision has become clouded."

He just nodded as he headed off to get another plateful. I waited on him to return, so they would not assume we had left, before going to load up again myself. While I had the typical IT bulge, I did not normally eat so much at a dinner unless I was in Vegas or Atlantic City. Normally Sushi with the techs still had me quite sated. The rest of our meal was silent other than comments on what we were eating. I was surprised when I came back from getting a big slab of prime rib to find that Robert was gone. It did not seem like him to be one to bail without so much as a word. As I was using my fork to cut into the super tender meat, I found out why he split so quickly.

Paul, his CTO, and CIO magically appeared near my table.

"See I told you he had excellent taste," Paul said to his buddies. "We are not intruding on something are we?"

Paul waved his hand toward Robert's discarded dishes, with a five dollar tip under his glass, waiting for pickup.

When I had finished chewing the bite in my mouth I stood up, I shook their hands and said, "No not at all. I come out here when I am close to get what I want instead of what a chef thinks I want. I met one guy that looked like one of the regulars. He was not having much luck at the slots as he waited for the buffet to open. We hit it off at the machines so decided to share each other's company while we ate. Seems he is done now. What brings you out here tonight?"

Doing some quick math in my head I knew he was having someone keep an eye on me on some level. There had just been barely enough time for whoever he paid to tell him I was out here, get his cronies and have someone drive them all the way here. The likelihood he just happened upon me at the buffet at Harrah's, from all of the casinos in Atlantic City, is statistically impossible by just random chance. I just played along like I had no clue.

"It seems our wives were talking and we did something requiring us to bring them to Elizabeth Arden's Red Door Spa here in the hotel as a way to beg for their forgiveness. I doubt they will ever tell us what grievous error we made. Be glad you are not married Joe. If the wife doesn't get you, the kids will," he said with a laugh.

I was already getting pretty full, but suffered their macho, asshole, aging "has been" jock bullshit for half an hour before I had enough. I asked if they had any questions on the deal and then said I wanted to hit some slots before I grabbed the train back to my hotel. I expected that they were going to tell me that I could just ride back with them in their limo, even though there was just no way to get here that fast driving.

"Sorry Joe," Paul said with a smile I knew I could not trust. "Part of my penance was that my daughters would join my wife in the spa. I would not subject my worst enemy to being trapped in a limo with my daughters. We have done our best to ensure they are not around boys or men who would corrupt their virtue."

His CTO interrupted saying, "What is he trying to say, is that if you rode with us his girls would do all they could to get you turned on so you will notice them. It is what teenage girls do to boys. We don't let them get around any boys and only a few men, so they don't have anyone to practice their charms on. No way is my girl going to find that she could have that effect on any man or I would be in a world of shit with my wife."

I laughed with all three of them, but not for the same reason.

Man you three have no damn clue I fucked all of your daughters and I will be the father of their first born kids. Hell I bet I will father their second ones too. I wonder if I will hear them fall off their thrones when they find out.

"Thanks! Looks like I dodged the bullet there," I said with a small laugh. "I thing I am going to hit a few more slots before I head off to the train. See you in the morning."

Heading out I made my way over to some quarter machines to check my luck there. I was not looking to get any real wins here anyway, just have a few "free" drinks while I killed some time. I had nothing else to do for a few hours anyway. No point in being stone sober when having to suffer a two hour train ride. After I had moved machines a few times, I surprisingly hit a jackpot on one of the old style reel machines. It was only three hundred bucks, but still more than I had ever won here.

As I went to take my place in line to cash it out, a waitress brought me the drink I ordered right before I hit the jackpot. She had a note under the napkin with the drink. I kept it there until I got to the window and had to pull out my wallet to show my ID before I pocketed the note. Once I had my cash I headed over to the customer loyalty card office to see what crap they were going to offer me for the points I had on my card. Acting like I was looking at the "catalog" I read the note.

"Take the next train to Philly. Exit at Egg Harbor City. Go puke."

I pulled out my train schedule and saw that I had to hurry if I was going to make the 8:10 train.

Not that I wanted anything here anyway. I got diamond the same day they started counting points spent in their restaurants. Could not even get a fucking room at their hotel.

I had a train to catch. Maybe someone was going to rob me for the winnings, but I did not think so. With all the cameras around here they would not risk slipping a waitress a note and having her track me down with my drink to give it to me. If nothing else, they had no idea which cashier I would use to cash out. In fact I did consider those things and always went to one farthest away from where I was playing, then if the line was too long, I would head off randomly to another one. Only a stupid criminal would try to stalk me from the slots, to cashier to cashier. The security software monitoring the cameras would pick that up in a heartbeat. If not, the police would spot it after I reported being robbed after winning here.

The board showed the train was late, surprise. I grabbed a seat, got out my phone and started digging through emails.

Looks like the Sales team has their moles working overtime! This email is too fucking funny!

In all caps and marked at high priority was an email from the very shithead that was solely responsible for the contract between the sales team and my company. The very one that had screwed me out of millions in commissions over the years. His email did not spell it out specifically, but I can read between the lines. Someone had already tipped off Sales that I had landed this deal. They won't know the final price until tomorrow and already he was sweating.

"Joe,

I was reviewing the quarterly commission reports today since Bert is out on medical leave. I know things have not ever been really friendly between you and my coworkers. I always chocked it up to you not wanting to join our team as a salesman. Looking at the huge disparity between our sales numbers and yours to find I have not been paying enough attention to improving my sales skills to keep up with your numbers. What do you say you we meet with the boss to see if he will let me shadow you on your sales calls so I can learn to land sweet deals like you?"

Fuck you asshole, ran through my head instantly. You think I have any desire to have you there fucking up the deals onsite with me right there to watch it happen. Hell fucking no!

I had to put my phone down and walk around a bit before I replied to him.

"Sure thing Gordo! We can talk to the boss when I get back. I would love to have you along! I can't be the only one going out making these huge deals. You know I will even see if we can get everyone in Sales rotating through on my trips. I never thought of it before, thanks for thinking of what we can all do to make the company more profitable."

I wanted to say more, but if he was going to go fishing I was going to bite.

Bite him in the ass.

Making sure I blind copied my boss, a trusted woman in legal and another in HR, I set the email on its' way.

I had knocked out about half the real work related emails when I got a reply.

"Joe,

Way to step up to show how the master does it. How about we keep this between us until I have a chance to digest your techniques before we see if I think the others will be able to understand how you do it. Would not want to change the way they have been doing it and cause them to lose any more clients each month than they are doing now."

Self-serving dick, as always.

I must have had the smile of a serial killer on my face when I looked up from my phone. No one wanted to make it look like they were doing it, but everyone around me was slowing moving back out of my reach.

Adding in the same BCC list as before I replied,

"You know everyone on your team a lot better than I ever will. I would be glad to help give you a leg up on landing big number sales. I am sure the boss will have no problems at all with your suggestion. I will shoot him an email right now to let him know I am right on board."

As soon as I sent the reply I shot the boss an email just like I said. I told him that I was more than happy to take Gordo "under my wing" to train him on how I land large deals in just a few days. I made sure to say I was confident Gordo would find it a very good learning experience. Then I put a note in that if Gordo wanted to start on this immediately, and the boss approved, to get him on a red-eye tomorrow. He could even add Gordo onto this deal and have him bring up the paperwork for the client to sign if their customer's board agreed to the proposal.

I made sure that HR and Legal were in the BCC and Gordo in the CC block.