Chapter 60: Dave and Julia

August, 1985, Chicago, Illinois

On Monday, Mario Gage arrived for his first day of work and sat in on our staff meeting. Julia reminded everyone that she and Dave would be gone for their wedding and honeymoon from the 8th until the 22nd, and that in the interim, I would be running things. I got some good natured ribbing about not letting the company go down the tubes, but we had our laughs and carried on. When that meeting ended, Dave pulled Dany, Penny, and me into a short development meeting to go over the things that he felt needed to be done while he was gone, while Cindi took Mario on a visit to a prospective customer.

"Have we heard back from Gerald Brown on the estimation software?" I asked Dave.

"I'm meeting with him today to go over some minor concerns and some changes. Cindi already has some flyers ready to mail out to other construction firms. Did Julia discuss the commission structure she wants to use for Mr. Brown with you?"

"She did," I replied. "I agreed that it was fine. Elyse made some changes, which I'm sure won't surprise you, and then she ran it by the accountant. Jamie is drawing up an agreement between NIKA and Brown Construction as well."

Dave smiled, "Julia told me that over the weekend."

"It helps to sleep with your boss!" Penny teased.

"Behave, Penny!" I admonished, but with a smile.

"Am I missing something?" Dany asked.

"No. Just an inside joke," I said before Penny could say anything else. "We've all been friends for a couple of years."

"You and Penny seem to be attached at the hip," Dany said.

I fought off a smirk and saw Penny doing the same thing.

"We've been programming together since she was fourteen. She saw me over the fence one day, found out I was into computers, and asked me to teach her."

"And you're in High School?" she asked Penny.

"I'm a Sophomore. School starts in a month and then I can't work again until next Summer."

"I just thought you looked really young!" Dany said. "I figured you were either going to be a Freshman or Sophomore in college."

Penny beamed, "Cool!"

"I think everything is under control, Dave," I said reassuringly. "Just have a good time in Hawaiߴi!"

I took an extended lunch so that I could meet Sofia's flight at O'Hare. She was flying her usual Landvetter to Heathrow to O'Hare route, and would arrive at the temporary Terminal 4. While I was waiting, I looked at the plans for Terminal 5, the new international terminal, and saw the estimated completion date was 1992! I sat down to wait for Sofia to clear customs and immigration. I'd timed it reasonably well and only had to wait about twenty minutes before I saw her smiling face.

"«Hej»!" I said, pulling her into a hug.

"«Hej»!" she replied, giving me a nice, soft kiss.

She handed me a small bag, and I opened it to find two bags of Bilar candy and two bottles of Grappo.

"I love you!" I chuckled, and then asked her, "How was your Summer?"

"Good! We had a very relaxing time at the cottage in Dalarna, and then I spent time with my old classmates and some other friends in Hovås. Suzana Jonsson said to say 'hello' and so did Petra. How were things here?"

"Busy. Between getting Jennifer here and getting the business going, it's been pretty much non-stop."

I grabbed Sofia's bags, and we walked to my car for the drive back to Hyde Park.

"I'm sharing with Elyse now, right?" she asked.

"Yes. Dave and Julia have one bedroom, Kara and Bethany another, George and Charlie have another, and you and Elyse the last one. Well, and I have mine."

"Dad told me I should hit you over the head and knock some sense into you," she said with a small laugh. "He offered to come do it himself."

I chuckled, "I bet he did! What exactly did you tell him?"

"That you and Bethany were probably getting married, and that Kara was going to be your mistress. I figured he didn't need to know about Jennifer and Elyse."

"Probably not," I agreed.

"Of course, his first reaction was funnier. He wondered how you were lucky enough to get a deal like that! After my mom gave him a dirty look, then he made the comment about bashing you over the head."

"Your dad was always a cool guy," I said.

"Are you engaged?"

"No, not yet."

"Do you think anyone would object to me spending tonight with you?"

"I thought we were done with that," I said.

"We were. But if you're open to fooling around with me, I'd like to."

"What changed?" I asked.

"Just revising my thinking," she said.

"Uh, how far does this revision go?" I asked.

"I don't know yet. Let's start with making love and see."

That was an interesting development, and one I hadn't expected. I'd have to talk to Bethany, because she'd become more or less a fixture in my bed except for Sunday nights, or, as had happened on Friday, when Elyse had asked for a night with me. It was especially interesting, given she'd told her dad that she thought Bethany and I were getting married.

"But you think Bethany and I will be getting married," I objected.

"One step at a time," she smiled.

At home, I went back to work, and Sofia hung out with Elyse, Stephanie, and Kara because Bethany was at class and everyone else was working. When Bethany came home, I pulled her aside and let her know about Sofia's request.

"Interesting," Bethany said. "Sure, I'm OK with her having you tonight. I'm not worried about her stealing you away. Her 'revised thinking', as she calls it, isn't likely to accept everything you would need her to."

"I'm still waiting for your answer, you know that, right?"

She pulled me into a tight hug, "No pressure, remember?"

"I do," I replied. "Is something brewing between you and Andrew that I should worry about?"

"No. Other than simple good-night kisses, it's just dinner, a movie, and talking. Nothing to worry about."

"OK," I said, kissing her and heading back to work.

I put in a few extra hours of work after karate and then took Sofia up to my room. We made love, and she snuggled close to sleep, cuddled with me.

The rest of the week was busy with work and karate, and the nights were spent with Bethany. Julia moved our Friday business development meeting to first thing Thursday morning so that she could attend before she and Dave headed to Cincinnati. Cindi's report was promising, and she had sent letters to pretty much every law firm she could locate in the Yellow Pages. She'd received two calls already, and it looked like we'd hit on a winning idea.

"When can we have a version of the estimation software to demo?" Cindi asked Dave.

"Dany has a number of bugs to fix, and Penny is working on a change that Mr. Brown requested. I'd say you can demo any time next week. Steve will have to do all the testing on Friday or Monday, but you could demo it as is, if need be."

"Great," Cindi said. "I have one company that wants to see it as soon as possible. Also, I received a call from a guy who wants us to develop some software for bidding on construction jobs."

"You mean like the estimation software?" Dave asked.

"No, sorry, he's looking at running a service that would aggregate lists of construction jobs that are open for bids, and contractors could dial-in via modem to search for jobs. Then they could use our estimation software to actually make the bid, but this is a fairly simple database with search criteria."

"I'm not available for the next two weeks," Julia said. "Take Steve with you, and work up the specs, and then Steve can work with Elyse to come up with the numbers."

Things were going to be insane and business development was going even faster than my business plan had called for. With Dave and Julia gone, it was going to be tough to keep up.

"Elyse, is it OK to have Penny work some extra hours if Alice is cool with it? I'll ask Dany, but that won't cost anything because she's salaried."

"Yes, that's fine," Elyse said.

"Cindi," Julia said. "If Steve needs to borrow Mario, please let him. And let's make sure Jorge has time to write more documentation for us."

"Everyone will pitch in," Cindi said. "You two go screw yourselves silly in Hawaiߴi! But make sure you get out of the hotel room occasionally!"

"I'll take that under advisement!" Julia smirked.

"Go on, get out of here, you two," I said. "As President of NIKA Consulting, I'm telling you to go! We'll see you on Saturday at Holy Trinity."

Dave and Julia got up, and I shook hands with Dave. Julia hugged me tight, gave me a quick kiss, and the two of them headed out.

"Does EVERYONE kiss you?" Dany asked, having seen the goodbye kiss.

Penny laughed, "Yeah, pretty much all the girls. He's dated all of them at one time or another. He's still dating Elyse."

I noticed that she said 'them' not 'us' and was happy that she had decided to keep our relationship quiet from Dany, though I knew Dany had seen Penny kiss me on the cheek at the end of every work day.

"Dated all of them? Seriously?"

"Well, not Cindi, really," I said. "But otherwise, yes, I have."

"Interesting," she said.

Everyone went back to work, and I called Alice to see if Penny could work extra hours over the next two weeks. She gave her permission, and I also let her know that I was going to be away on Friday afternoon, and that Penny would be with Dany, the new programmer. Alice was a bit concerned until I remembered to tell her that Dany was female, which allayed her fears. I let Penny know that her mom had agreed that she could work an extra hour each evening, and she was happy.

"Dany, what's your class schedule look like?"

"I have class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons. I was planning to work those mornings, plus all day on Tuesday and Thursday, and then on Saturday. That's about 30 hours per week. I can stay later on Tuesdays and Thursdays if you want. I need Sundays and the other nights to study."

"How many hours did you, Dave, and Elyse agree on?" I asked.

"Thirty," Dany replied.

"Let's stick to that. School starts after Dave and Julia come back, so it'll be OK. You'll be my coding partner while Penny is in school."

"But I get him back next Summer!" Penny said firmly.

"Relax, Pretty Penny," I soothed. "Nobody is taking your spot. But you do have seven more years of school."

"But once I'm in college, you'll let me work more?"

"If you keep your grades up, yes. Now, get back to working on the assignment Dave gave you!"

"Yes, Boss!" she giggled.

At the end of the day, Penny kissed me on the cheek as usual, and then scampered out the front door. Dany picked up her bag, walked over to me and kissed me on the cheek as well.

"If I'm taking Penny's place, I guess I need to do that, too!" she laughed.

I smiled and shook my head and watched her walk out of the office.

"What was THAT about?" Elyse asked.

I chuckled, "She saw Julia kiss me this morning, which led to a conversation about me dating you and others, and then we talked about Dany taking Penny's place while Penny was in school. Dany joked that if she was taking Penny's place, she needed to do that!"

"She is your type, but she's also your employee," Elyse warned.

"Chill out! It was just a kiss on the cheek."

"Right. Like Penny's kisses on the cheek, which are still an invitation to fuck her senseless."

"No chance. Let's go make some dinner."

It was Jorge, Stephanie, Bethany, Kara, Sofia, Elyse and me for dinner. Jennifer and Josie were spending a quiet night in and had their dinner at their house.

"Jorge, did Dave or Julia get a chance to talk to you about writing more documentation for us?" I asked as we sat down to eat.

"Julia did. I'll get started over the weekend while you guys are all in Ohio."

He sounded a bit depressed to me, and Stephanie noticed as well.

"Jorge, want to take me to a movie tonight?" she asked.

He got a big smile on his face, "If you want, then very much so!"

Stephanie and I communicated silently, and I thanked her for giving Jorge some much-needed attention. I could tell he was still feeling a bit like an outsider, but I wasn't sure what I could do about that. He and Stephie had formed a bond, and then he and Cindi had dated. Maybe when George came back, he'd feel more included with her living here. Or, maybe, Squirt would curl his toes, and everything else, for him.

When Stephanie and Jorge left for the movies, Bethany said she was headed to the library, so Kara, Elyse, and Sofia went with me to the sauna, where we relaxed in the thick steam that was generated when I ladled water onto the rocks.

"What's up with Bethany?" Sofia asked.

"She's taking her Summer class and is doing research at the library," I said.

"At night?"

"Sometimes, yeah. The Summer class only lasts about eight weeks, so she goes every day. She's almost done, so I suspect she's working on her final paper or project."

"For human sexuality!" Kara giggled. "Shouldn't she be with you?"

We all had a good laugh, and when we finished in the sauna, I went to my office to write in my journal and answer another letter from Aimee. She was getting ready to start classes now that the indoctrination phase was nearly over. She reminded me that she wanted to see me at Thanksgiving if I was available. I didn't think that was likely, so I wrote a carefully worded response that kept the possibility open without making a promise.

I also owed Tina Hoff a letter, so I wrote that as well. She was having a good Summer and was looking forward to going back to school at the end of August. While I was writing to her, I realized that I hadn't heard from Katt and Mikael for quite some time, and made a note to call them in the morning before breakfast. I heard Bethany come in, so I saved everything and then went upstairs with her.

"Do you mind if we just sleep tonight?" Bethany asked. "I'm kind of beat and not feeling well."

"I don't mind. How's therapy going?"

"I'm almost done. But between therapy, class, and working on my paper, I still get tired pretty easily. It's not as bad, but I don't want to be a total zombie at the wedding."

I pulled her close to me and we fell asleep.

As I had planned, I called Katt and Mikael as soon as I woke up. I was fortunate to find them both home, and we had a good talk. I told them about Jennifer, and Katt was excited by the news.

"Congratulations!" Katt exclaimed. "When is she due?"

"Towards the end of February."

"Ah, so you guys just found out! Cool! Got any names picked out?"

"Jesse Stephen, if it's a boy, which Jennifer is sure of. Otherwise, Janelle Rose."

"Awesome names!" Katt gushed. "We're going to name our first kid Stephen if it's a boy!"

"I'm honored!" I said. "How are your students?"

"Really good. I'm making enough that Mikael can go to school full time and we'll be comfortable. He's going to study engineering."

"Excellent. I'm hoping to visit next Summer, if that's OK with you guys."

"Of course! You can sleep with us, of course."

I chuckled, "Slip of the tongue, Katt, or your wildest fantasy?"

"Stop translating in your head!" she laughed. "Sleep with us means sleep over in English!"

She was right. «Sova hos oss» meant sleep at their house, not 'sleep with us' as it would be translated literally into English.

"I spent the Summer not speaking Swedish for the most part and I guess I'm slipping a bit. Sofia's back, so that should fix the problem!"