Chapter 74: The Calm Before the Storm

October, 1985, Chicago, Illinois

That evening, we heard the news that a hostage had been killed by the Palestinians who had hijacked the Achille Lauro. A wheelchair-bound man, Leon Klinghoffer, had been shot and thrown over the side of the ship, along with his wheelchair. That was, in my opinion, about as low as you could get, and I hoped that Reagan sent in the Special Forces to end the hijacking.

The next afternoon, I received a call from Mr. Blane. The jury had deliberated for about an hour and had found against Callie and in favor of the University. He didn't expect an appeal as he felt the judge had gone out of his way to ensure that most rulings had gone Callie's way, including the one about my sex life. I asked about Kara's theory about wanting a new hearing and then withdrawing, and he thought that had been the likely strategy as well, and that it might have worked. He thought the revelation about being valedictorian had really hurt Callie's case, as had the engagement ring.

"Why did he ask those questions?" I asked.

"He backed into them," Mr. Blane said. "He was trying to imply that you had been offered something, anything, but when you told them about withdrawing your name, that really hurt him. And he had indeed set up a plausible scenario where you had somehow bribed Miss Blanchard, but the revelation about the engagement ring pretty much ended that. Honestly, it was touch and go. I think that he had the jury wondering what the university was covering up, but not enough to give her what she wanted."

"I'm just glad it's over," I said.

"Everyone is," Mr. Blane confirmed.

When I hung up, I went back to work for a bit, until our Board members arrived for our meeting. We spent about two hours going over everything and received formal approval to hire someone because we'd been awarded the contract with Purina Mills. It was good to see my dad, even if only for a short time, before he and Joyce had to fly back to Ohio.

The rest of October was very busy. We ended up hiring Tom Dodds, and Dave put him to work immediately on the Purina Mills system, with Dany assigned to him. Dave and I, with help from Penny on the weekends and occasional help from Julia, handled everything else — the case and client management software, the estimation software, and some basic work on the medical office software.

The pace of new clients had slowed a bit, and Cindi and Mario were struggling to close deals. We did get the client in Milwaukee, but it looked like we had grabbed the low-hanging fruit, and now we were going to have to work a lot harder to earn new business. Julia and Cindi worked out an advertising campaign with Elyse, and started running ads in local papers, including law journals.

I did take some time out on the 16th to go to a Penguins/Black Hawks game, which ended better than the previous games — in a 5-5 tie. The Penguins were playing better, but they still needed some players to back up Mario Lemieux. I felt that in two or three more seasons and they'd be competing in the playoffs for a long time to come. It was a weekday game, and Elyse had used the extra ticket that I'd purchased on the off chance Jessica could have joined Kara, Dave, Julia, and me.

Despite the difficulties in landing new clients, NIKA was turning an actual profit by the end of the October thanks to the Purina Mills deal and the monthly support fees that were flowing in. Both my dad and Don Joseph deferred taking their percentages, saying that they wanted to make sure that we were truly financially sound before they withdrew any profits. Elyse recorded what we owed them as liabilities on our books, with help from our accountant. We'd have to pay those deferred profits at some point.

On the last day of October, Stephie called me and said that based on the CT scan, her doctor had ordered a biopsy. Unfortunately, it couldn't be done with a needle, and she'd need minor surgery for the biopsy.

"Stephie, I'll fly down if you want," I said.

"No, Yankee, Red's here and honestly, accordin' to my doctor and the surgeon, in nearly every case of someone my age, it's exactly what I said."

"You're sure, Peaches?" I asked.

"I'm sure. I promise I'll let you know as soon as I find out. I'll be at your wedding, Yankee. There ain't nothin' that can stop that!"

November, 1985, Chicago, Illinois

Kara, Jessica, and I had seen each other every weekend, and we had all of our plans for the wedding and honeymoon set. Kara had the official notebook that contained everything, and Jessica had copies of everything that we made on our fax machine, which could double as a cheap copier. The only thing left to do was to finalize the guest list and send out the invitations, something we worked on that after karate.

"Is there anyone missing from our proposed list?" Kara asked. "Or anyone we want to remove?"

"My mom!" I chuckled. "But I have to invite her. It's kind of impossible to invite my dad without inviting her."

"I believe our total is 127 people," Kara said. "That includes some people who probably won't come, like Karin Andersson and her parents and Steve's friends Torbjörn and Elizabeth. I don't think Aimee is going to have leave early enough to come, either. I think, roughly, we're going to have 113, so I arranged for 115 places and 115 meals. That includes our 'wedding party' which really is just Jess' friend from California, my friend Susie, and Kurt. I also included Dave and Julia, because they'll be our witnesses. That's the head table. And I put Mark Agnini there as well."

"Who's doing the calligraphy for the invitations?" I asked.

"The company that is printing the invitations," Kara said. "I have a list of the names and addresses in Lotus 1-2-3 that I'll give them on diskette. We aren't doing the whole 'Mr. and Mrs. So-and-So invite you to the wedding bit, so Jess and I will sign all the invitations."

"What text did you two finally agree on?" I asked.

"We put 'Miss Jessica Lee Wilton of Plano, Texas, and Miss Kara Anne Blanchard of Milford, Ohio, invite you to their joint wedding to Mr. Stephen Mark Adams of Chicago, Illinois'."

"Jessie Lee?" I grinned.

"It's Texas!" she laughed. "What did you expect? I guess I never told you my middle name."

"No, you didn't!" I chuckled.

"I didn't know yours until Kara told me," Jessica said.

"Who's going to host this fiasco?" I grinned.

"Dave and Kurt. Dave's going to emcee everything up until dinner, and then Kurt will take over."

"Sounds like we have it all mapped out!" I said. "I don't see any obvious omissions from the guest list. If you two are happy, I'm happy."

"When are you ordering the king-size bed?" Jessica asked.

"Good question," I said. "I suppose I'll have it delivered the week of December 9th. I'll sleep in a guest room for the week. I don't want to sleep in our new bed without the two of you! Oh, before I forget, did you get your passport, Kara?"

"Yes. It came last week. Sorry, I meant to tell you that. It's just been crazy with school, your work schedule, wedding planning, and spending time with Jess."

"OK. Invitations are agreed. What else?" I asked.

"Playlists for the string quartet and DJ," Kara said.

"For the DJ, anything in the top 100 for the last five years is cool with me," I said. "As for the quartet, I'm no expert, but I like Haydn, Mozart, and Shostakovich. I think we let the quartet members pick, don't you?"

"I agree," Jessica said, "though I'd add Bartók and Milhaud to your choices of music to draw from."

"OK," Kara said. "I've written those down and will talk with the quartet. The DJ company pretty much proposed what Steve said. I gave them a couple of songs to play for sure, including our dance. I added the new song No More Lonely Nights by Paul McCartney, because it fits perfectly! Did Jorge give you anything yet?"

"He's perfecting it with help from Cindi and Stephanie," I said. "He'll teach us starting in two weeks. According to my sister, it's awesome!"

"Then I think all that's left is for us to do homework until it's time to get ready for the Halloween Party," Jessica said.

I left the girls in the Indian room and went to my office to work with Penny for the afternoon. I asked her what her costume was going to be, but she wouldn't tell me. She did say that she wasn't going to try to bring Pete this time, given how excitable he was. We worked until dinner time when Penny went home and I went to eat with my housemates and friends. After dinner, the girls and I went up to my room to dress.

"This isn't going to be as good as the last two," I said. "But it will do!"

"Oh stop! You can't win every year!" Kara laughed.

"Hey, Han and Leia won last year!" I said.

I put on my scrubs and short white lab coat. Jessica handed me a stethoscope to drape around my neck, and then she and Kara went into the bathroom to dress in the skimpiest, sexiest nurse costumes that Kara could find. They both had on push-up bras, though they didn't help a lot with Jess' self-reported A-cups. Kara's self-reported C's, on the other hand, were a thing to behold! While they didn't rival Cindi's in size, they were way more impressive in my book.

"That's just NOT fair!" Jessica mock-whined.

"You know, comparing breast sizes is silly!" I said.

"Oh, and guys don't measure their penises against each other for bragging rights?" Jessica laughed.

"Not me. I've never done anything like that."

"You're that secure in your manhood?" Jessica teased.

"He's above average, according to Melanie," Kara laughed. "And she would know!"

"Slightly above was what Melanie said!" I grinned.

"You were fifteen," Kara said. "I think it's probably a bit bigger now."

"Whatever!" I chuckled. "Nobody has ever complained. And if Jess has a complaint, it'll be too damned late for her to do anything about it!"

Both girls laughed, and we went to the elevator to head to the attic room.

"I'm still not used to the idea of an elevator in my house!" Jessica said as the elevator stopped and I opened the door.

"If that's the weirdest thing you encounter with Steve, you aren't even trying!" Kara teased.

We stepped out into the attic room amongst our friends. The costumes were great, but mostly they weren't over-the-top as they had been the previous two years. I knew right away who would win, though — Jamie and Jackie, who were dressed as Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood.

"You have a serious Harrison Ford fetish, my friend," I said, shaking Jamie's hand.

"He gets the hot chicks! Leia, Marion, Willie Scott, the hot replicants from Blade Runner!"

"Did you just give away your next costume?" I teased.

"We'll see. Of course, your girls in those 'naughty nurse' outfits are outrageous!"

"We thought of having Jessica be the doctor, but I couldn't get into the nurse's uniform!" I laughed.

"Now THAT would have won!" Jackie tittered.

A few minutes later, Penny arrived. She was dressed as Little Red Riding hood and was as cute as could be. She had her basket again, but no dog.

"My, what a big," she smiled broadly, paused to imply what she meant and bumped her hip against me, and then finished, "you have!"

I leaned forward and whispered in her ear, "The better to fuck you with, my dear!"

She laughed, "I wish!"

"What did your mom say about dancing?" I asked.

"You and your friends only. I guess that means Dave, Jamie, Kurt, and Pete. She told me to stay away from the college guys."

"Then make sure you do that, Pretty Penny. I don't want your mom upset at us."

"I want a GOOD dance from you!" she grinned.

The party was a smashing success, and as I'd predicted, Jamie and Jackie won best couple and, jointly, best overall. Elyse had changed the rules slightly to allow that. Kara did win sexiest girl, beating out Cindi who had gone over-the-top again in a sexy witch outfit that left almost nothing to the imagination. I was a bit disappointed that Stavros and Sofia didn't win something, as they'd come as Zeus and Aphrodite.

"Hmph! That push-up bra is cheating!" Cindi groused, but in a good-natured way.

"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles..." Kara said primly.

"What the fuck?" Cindi exclaimed. "Now you have HER quoting Sun Tzu?"

I just smiled. Both Kara and Jessica had been reading my eastern wisdom literature, and not just the Kama Sutra.

"Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times," Jessica said.

"Oh Jesus Christ!" Cindi groused. "Machiavelli?"

"You should know by now that I like smart, well-educated women," I said with a big grin. "You've come to a battle of the wits unarmed, my dear Cindi!"

"Those bazookas aren't going to help you win this one, Tits!" Elyse said.

Chris just rolled his eyes and walked over to get a drink. I joined him, leaving the girls to chat amongst themselves.

"How's it going?" I asked.

"Just fine. She really does get offended when her boobs don't win!"

"Yeah, but when she dresses for business, she does her best to keep them off display," I said. "I think she learned that from the sleaze-bag professors that tried to look down her blouse."

"You have to admit, they are impressive!" he grinned.

"That they are, but I honestly prefer girls like Jessica, Kathy, and Bethany. I'm that strange guy who likes small breasts."

"And Kara?" Chris asked.

"They come with the package! Or she's the exception that proves the rule. How's business?"

"Good. I'm doing the interiors for a new building we're working on for the near-west side. How's your business?"

"Crazy. We had some rapid growth that's cooled off a bit, but we're slowly moving forward."

Penny came up and grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the dance floor. I shrugged my shoulders at Jamie, and Chris laughed. The song that was playing was If Ever You're In My Arms Again by Peabo Bryson. Penny put her arms around me and melted into me, and I put my arms around her and held her tight. She felt as good as she always had, and the song that was playing was apropos. Of course, she was in my arms again, but that part of our life was done. She'd been to a couple of school mixers, and hopefully she'd find a guy to date soon.

When the song finished, Penny squeezed me even tighter and kissed me on the cheek. There was no doubt in my mind of the invitation, but it wasn't going to happen. That said, I felt Penny deserved a last kiss, but not one that got out of hand. I put my hand under her chin and gave her a very soft kiss on the lips, though I didn't let it linger more than a few seconds.

"Thanks," she whispered.

"You're welcome!" I said.

She went off to hang out with some of the girls while I went back to where Jessica, Kara, and Elyse were standing.

"She still wants you, badly," Elyse said.

"True. And nothing I can do will stop that. She knows what she can and can't have. Though when I was buying the rings, she did say that she wanted one," I added with a grin.