Chapter 59: Business and Pleasure

July-August, 1985, Chicago, Illinois

My drive back to Chicago on Tuesday morning was long, but otherwise uneventful. I'd said 'goodbye' to Stephie, and after a good breakfast, left her house at 5:00am. I made up an hour due to the time change, so I was back in Chicago just after 4:30pm. I walked into the house, tossed my bag in my room, and then went to the NIKA office.

"Steve!" Penny exclaimed, hopping up to kiss my cheek. "How was Georgia?"

"Great. My guy didn't win, but he was fourth and is leading for the championship. How are things?"

"Good. I'm trying to solve a problem. Do you have some time to sit with me?"

I nodded, and we sat down next to each other. We worked until dinner, fixing the problem she was having with the inventory program, and then joined our friends at the table.

"How did it go with Dany?" I asked. "Any problems working with her these past couple of days?"

"So far, so good," Dave replied. "We're getting her up to speed."

"Cool," I said. "Julia, any good candidates from the ad?"

"A couple. You can look at the résumés tomorrow."

I nodded, and the conversation shifted to how Stephie was doing and I explained about her medical issue. Cindi, who had stayed for dinner instead of going home to Chris, said that a friend of hers had the same issue. It could be painful, but it wasn't anything dangerous. After dinner, Cindi and Penny went home, and most of the rest of us went to the sauna.

"Did you entertain Red's little sister?" Kara smirked.

"I do not kiss and tell!" I grinned, because Dave was with us.

I was sure that the girls would assume I had and would ask me privately. They had other ideas.

"That's a yes!" Elyse chuckled. "It's good to see you aren't turning into a stick in the mud just because Jennifer is pregnant with your baby!"

"Hey!" Jennifer exclaimed. "Don't put that on me! If he turns conservative, it's his own doing!"

"Dialing it back a bit is not turning conservative," Bethany interjected. "I think, except for Elyse, we all agree he should be a bit more circumspect in the quantity of new lovers he takes on. Especially if he's decided to marry!"

"He decided to marry ten years ago!" Stephanie smirked. "It's always been a matter of 'who' not 'if'!"

"True," Jennifer said. "First it was Birgit. Then it was me. Then it was Kara. Now? I suppose it's Bethany and Kara."

I smiled, "So it would seem. How's my little guy doing?"

"OK, I think," Jennifer replied. "Nothing to report at this point. Not even a bump. Soon, though. I already gained two pounds, despite not changing my diet or exercise routines."

"It's going to be strange making love to a woman with a huge baby belly!" Josie said with a laugh.

"Been there, done that!" I chuckled. "It was fun!"

"Really?" Josie asked.

"A friend in need back home. She was more or less ostracized for getting pregnant at fifteen and I'd been with her before," I paused briefly, remembering that moment; it had been as much my being comforted by her as her own need. "It was really special. I haven't seen her or her baby in years now."

"I'm almost afraid to ask," Dave said. "But is there anything you haven't done?"

Stephanie spoke before I could, "He doesn't do stuff with guys!"

Dave laughed, "I assumed THAT!"

"I'd say 'no'," Kara smirked.

"Well, he's not into any strange kinks or fetishes, except maybe his penchant for fifteen-year-old girls!" Bethany declared with a smirk and a shake of her head.

"They come to him!" Julia replied. "It's not like he goes chasing them around!"

"Well, at this point, though, he has to be careful," Bethany said. "He's twenty-two. It's one thing to do that at eighteen, but at his age, he could get in serious trouble."

I nodded, "She's right. Despite my penchant, as she called it, I more or less need to rein that in."

"I know one time you won't exercise that self-control!" Elyse smirked. "You told Kurt and Kathy you'd deflower their daughter if she asked you to!"

"They don't even have a kid yet!" I protested. "And that was a theoretical question. And as I said, I'm going to have to exercise self-control in that area for exactly the reason Bethany said."

That launched a discussion about age of consent that was similar to the one we'd had years ago in the apartment, and this one concluded pretty much the same thing that the previous one had, though Bethany was careful to point out that the law differed with all of our opinions.

When we got out of the sauna, I showered, and then I got my pipe and some bourbon and went to the back yard. Kara and Bethany joined me and we talked while I smoked and drank. I wasn't surprised when they both joined me in bed that evening, nor was I surprised that all that happened was cuddling.

Before we went to sleep, Bethany asked if I'd heard about Rock Hudson's AIDS diagnosis. I said that I'd heard something on the radio but hadn't paid much attention. She pointed out that it was another piece of evidence that I should use condoms when I was with someone who hadn't been tested. I didn't say anything, but that did make me think about LeAnn. She was a virgin, and I had the blood proof, but that didn't mean she hadn't had a blood transfusion or something like that.

On Wednesday, the last day of July, I sat down with Julia to review the résumés that we'd received. She'd received a total of thirty-two, of which she felt three were worthy of review. Two of the three were recent graduates who had gone to school outside of Illinois and were looking for jobs in Chicago. The other one was a current student majoring in electrical engineering who needed to pay for his education by working full time during the day.

"All three of these look good to me," I said, "I'm curious about the one you selected who doesn't have a degree."

"If you read his cover letter, he's done a lot of the same stuff we have, and is going to night school. In a sense, it's not really different from Penny, who's still in High School."

"Uh, yeah," I smiled. "I guess if I can insist on Penny, I can't really object to someone who's currently in college! What does Cindi think?"

"She agrees on these three," Julia said. "If you're OK, we'll bring all three in for interviews like we did the others."

"Set it up," I said.

That afternoon Julia gave us a list of interview times. Mario Gage, the current student, would come on Thursday, and the other two, Paul Fredericks and Stu Black, would come on Friday.

That evening, while I was relaxing in the Indian room with Bethany, I heard my phone ring and went to answer it. Stephie was calling with the results of her ultrasound.

"They didn't find anything," she said. "That's not uncommon, according to the doctor. The cysts can come and go. I'll have another ultrasound in a month to check things again."

"OK, Peaches. You know I'm concerned. You call me as soon as you hear anything!"

"I will. Thanks for coming to see us. LeAnn is still talking about you! You did a real number on that girl, just like you did on Emily!"

"She's sweet. I'll call her in a couple of days just to say 'hello'."

"Just be careful you don't make her think you're interested in something long-term."

"I won't. But I also don't want her to think I just used her."

"She doesn't think that!" Stephie giggled. "Don't worry."

"I love you, Peaches. I'll talk to you soon."

'I love you too, Yankee! I'll call you."

We hung up, and I went back to the Indian room to hang out with Bethany until bedtime.

On Thursday, we interviewed Mario Gage. All of us really liked him, and I was impressed by how motivated he was. After we interviewed the other two candidates on Friday, we decided to offer the position to Mario. When Julia called him, he accepted immediately, and she and Elyse began putting together all the paperwork.

Just before we ended work on Friday, Cindi received two calls. The first one was from the law firm accepting our bid to install their network and provide their case management software. The second was from another law firm inquiring about effectively the same setup.

"Elyse, do we have new income projections based on all the new business that Cindi has generated?" I asked.

"I'm working on it," Elyse said. "I have to prepare several reports. And Cindi needs to start producing a pipeline report for new business. Basically, it's a list of all inquiries and business development activities, and a timeframe plus a confidence factor. That will let us plan both money and time. We'll have a finance meeting next week once she and I get all this stuff put together. The short version is, we can afford the new staff without risking our run-rate. Basically, the new revenue is covering the new expenses."

"We should have a business development meeting every Friday afternoon," Julia said. "That would be me, Cindi, and Steve. Elyse can attend if she wants, but she really just needs the report that comes out of that meeting. That's in addition to our normal all-staff meeting on Monday mornings."

"Does 'all staff' mean me?" Dany asked.

"That is the general meaning of the word 'all'," I chuckled. "We're small enough that I'd prefer to have everyone there rather than have separate meetings or have to remember who was told what. If we need to do something private, we'll do that as needed."

"Thanks!" she replied.

I offered everyone a glass of wine to celebrate the new business and everyone accepted, though Penny huffed when I handed her a Coke instead. When we finished our wine, everyone who wasn't living in the house headed home. Dave and Julia went out to dinner, but Josie, Jennifer, and Stephanie joined us in the main house to eat.

We were relaxing in the great room after dinner when a special report came on TV telling us that a Delta Air flight crashed near Dallas, Texas. The reports indicated it wasn't survivable and there were 137 crew and passengers. It was too early to determine the cause for the crash, but experts were suggesting that it was weather-related.

"Hijackings, bombings, and crashes; maybe I want to stay off of airplanes," Jennifer said.

"There have been a few these last five years," I said. "That one in 1979 was right before I left for Sweden; it was flight 191 just like this Delta flight."

"Now that's freaky," Josie said.

"I never told Steve this, but I was worried after that crash because he was going to Sweden a couple of weeks later," Stephanie said.

"I've never had anything more than a tiny bit of turbulence on a flight," I said. "Hell, most of my flights have been on time! That's like the opposite of bad! Besides, I jump out of perfectly good airplanes on purpose these days!"

"Are you going on Sunday?" Stephanie asked.

"I was thinking about tomorrow, actually," I said. "Want to jump with me?"

"Hell no! I was just curious if you were going."

"Does anyone here want to jump with me?" I asked theatrically.

"You can jump me!" Elyse giggled amidst a chorus of 'no' from the other girls.

"Go on," Bethany laughed.

"Yes!" Elyse said, pumping her fist.

"What am I?" I asked. "A prize in some contest?"

"There are a couple of girls who might think that," my sister said. "And quite a few in your past."

"Forget the past, Stephanie," Bethany advised. "What matters is the present."

"And the present is me getting jumped!" Elyse said.

"Oh, take her upstairs," Bethany giggled, "or we'll hear nothing else all night!"

I got up and took Elyse's hand and led her up to my room where I jumped her, and then jumped her again. When we finished the second round, she suggested a bubble bath, something we hadn't done in a very, very long time. In fact, I couldn't recall doing it since we'd moved from the apartment. As it turned out, neither could Elyse.

"The last time we did this was in the apartment," she said, echoing my thoughts. "I miss those days."

"I know you do," I said, wrapping my arms around her. "What can I do for you?"

"Are you sure that you want to hear it?" she asked, snuggling back against me.

"Of course!" I said, kissing her neck.

"The same thing I offered nearly four years ago. Marry me."

"Seriously?" I asked.

"Yes and no," she sighed. "It's strange. I don't want to marry in general, but I keep coming back to the idea that being married to you would be perfect. It makes no sense, but it's true. And no, I'm not giving up on the idea of us having kids, or anything like that. Getting married would be, I don't know, simple, I guess."

"That is what you want from your life, but would being married to me be simple? It's already a circus and I can't imagine that it'll get a whole lot better if you think about it. With Jennifer, Kara, you, Bethany, and a bunch of kids? That's hardly simple!"

Elyse laughed softly, "True. As I said, it's a strange feeling. But then again, I suppose a lot about me is strange. I was the first one to use the strap-on and I bet I'm the only one who forced you to suck on a dildo while I rode you and had a vibrator in your butt!"

"All true. And now what you want is simple, slow, gentle, missionary position sex."

"The same as you, in case you hadn't noticed!"

"I had," I replied. "You got past whatever it was that Sean did that messed up your mind."

"You did that, Steve. It started that night in the hotel at Aunt Jennie's wedding. I just needed to work all that kinkiness out of my system. If you want to do that stuff, we can. I'm just not going to initiate it. I still have all the toys!"

"I know. I have mine as well. I haven't pulled them out in some time."

"I'd have told you to fuck Cindi until she was cross-eyed, you know that, right?"

"I suspect you would have, but you know my rule about that. It's become firmer as we've become older. I always look at Pete and Melanie or Kathy and Kurt and realize just what a disaster I could cause without that rule in place. No thanks!"

"Now that we're in private, did you have fun with LeAnn?"

"How do you know her name? Oh, wait, Kara, right?"

"She talked to me before she gave you her advice. I hope you took it, especially if you think you might marry Jessica."

"I did. And right now, I'm focused on Bethany. I told her a couple of weeks ago I was ready. I guess I'm in a holding pattern, but overall, I think it looks pretty good."

"Me too," Elyse agreed. "And she'll be very good for you. And Kara? Well, all that crazy adventurous stuff you did with me? She'll do all that and more with you! Shockingly, she's the most sexually liberated girl in this house! She might be the most sexually liberated girl, you know."

I chuckled, "No, I think THAT award would go to Tracey Jones, a friend from Milford. Kara would never, ever get triple-teamed! Heck, if I understand her correctly, she'll never, ever allow another guy to even touch her, even if I were to do something completely off-the-wall and marry one of the girls who demands monogamy. I'm the only guy Kara's ever kissed and the only one she ever wants to kiss. Or anything else."

"She's hinted at threesomes several times."

"She's done more than hint! But we should go back to talking about you and me. I want to do my best to meet your needs."