Chapter 10: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

August 13, 1987, Chicago, Illinois

"Hi, Aimee!" I exclaimed as she and her dad climbed from the cockpit of their Piper Archer on Thursday afternoon.

"Hi, Steve!" she said, hugging me. I couldn't help but notice the firmness of her body, obviously the result of a good training regimen.

I greeted her dad and shook hands with him. Once they had the plane tied down and locked up, Patrick went inside to arrange for fuel, and then we all got into my car to head to Hyde Park.

"How did your talk with your KGB friend go?" Patrick Shaughnessy asked.

"I tried, but she's not interested in defecting," I said. "Maybe if there were a way she could retire and emigrate, it might work, but I can't see that happening."

"We'll keep working on her," he said. "Between you and her daughter, she'll see the advantage of being a rich American rather than a poor Russian."

"Her daughter is certainly on your side!" I replied. "Aimee, how is the Academy?"

"Don't you read my letters?" she laughed.

"Of course I do. But I'm sure that there's more to say!"

"Not really. Class, drill, studying. Repeat every day. Liberty for a short time on weekends. You, on the other hand, have been very busy! Two wives! Two kids! A business!"

"This 'two wives' thing is intriguing," Mr. Shaughnessy said with a laugh.

"Forget it!" Aimee laughed. "Mara would NEVER let you get away with that!"

"I take it that's your girlfriend, Mr. Shaughnessy," I said.

"Yes, and my daughter is correct. She'd never let me do anything even remotely like that! I still find it hard to believe that your two boys are by different women, neither of whom is your wife, and that your wives are OK with it!"

"You met all of them except Jennifer and Jesse when you flew us to Ohio for the wedding! You didn't see any catfights, did you?"

"No, I guess I didn't. You didn't tell me the story of how this came about, though."

"Jennifer is in a relationship with another woman. They obviously needed help to have a baby. I've known Jennifer since eighth grade, well, I knew who she was before that. We dated a lot, but you can see how that turned out."

"And Elyse?" he asked.

"I've known her since tenth grade. She wanted kids but doesn't want a husband. She and I have lived together for the past six years. Wait, that didn't come out right!" I said with a small laugh."She and I shared a two-bedroom apartment when we first came to Chicago, and she lives in my house now."

"And the background of the women you call your wives?"

"Jessica is a doctor in her first year of Residency. I met her just after Christmas of '84. We were married, legally, in December of '85. Kara is finishing her last year of college. I've known her since my Senior year of High School. She's a year younger, but took two years off between High School and college when her dad died. She'll start a Master's in about a year. She wants to teach college-level Chemistry."

"What do Jennifer and Elyse do for a living?" he asked.

"Jennifer is an electrical engineer and works for a small company out in the suburbs. Her wife is a civil engineer for the city of Evanston. Elyse just finished her Master's in Finance, and is CFO of my company."

"They're all professionals. Interesting. That's not the usual case for a harem!"

"Dad!" Aimee protested.

"It's OK, Aimee," I said. "I'm used to comments like that. It was worse before I was married when all of my housemates were female. Well, Dave moved in for a bit when he and Julia first married. And my friend Jorge is staying with us temporarily."

"Still! I made him promise not to get on your case about your relationships."

"I'm sorry, Princess," he said.

I laughed, "Princess? A midshipman in the US Navy?"

"He's my dad. He'll never, ever change," she laughed. "I could make admiral, and he'd call me 'Princess'."

"Yes, Ma'am, Admiral Princess, Ma'am!" I teased, making a sloppy salute in the rear-view mirror.

Aimee just laughed and playfully swatted me. When we got to the house, we got the Shaughnessys settled, and I went to the kitchen to work on dinner while they sat and talked with Kara, Elyse, and Sofia. Aimee wandered into the kitchen about fifteen minutes later.

"Can I greet you properly, now?" she smirked.

"That depends on what you had in mind!" I chuckled.

She walked over and we exchanged a nice hug and a soft kiss.

"Dad would have flipped if I'd kissed you like that in front of him. After your flight to Ohio for Bethany's wedding, he grilled me about how involved I'd been with you."

"He's just looking out for you," I said. "I'm not exactly what a father would look for in a son-in-law."

"No, I suppose not!" she said with a smirk. "And if this was your plan all along, I guess I'm not surprised that you didn't wait for me to graduate from the Academy."

"By that point, it was a sure thing that I was going to end up with at least three women in my life in different capacities. I'm not sure you were ready for the three-ring circus that is my life!"

"Despite your abilities in bed — and those were amazing — I don't think I'm cut out for sharing. Playing the field? Sure. You know I've done that. But I think marriage should be a commitment between two people for life. Not to mention the fact that the UCMJ would frown heavily on your lifestyle."

"So I've heard. But that's their problem, not mine. Meet any interesting guys in Annapolis?"

"Little boys who think that they're God's gift to women. Honestly, if you can't last five minutes AND you suck at eating pussy, you aren't a gift to anyone for anything!"

I chuckled, "Did I spoil you?"

"Actually, yes!" she smirked. "But you're so far off limits now there's nothing I can do about it! Even if you wanted to cheat on your wives, adultery is an honors violation. And despite it being the best sex that I've ever had, no sex could ever good enough, even with you, to risk being kicked out of the Academy on an honors violation!"

"A wise attitude," I said with a grin. "How was Japan?"

"Wild. I was the first woman ever to serve on the cruiser I was on. I did get to see a bit of Japan, too. But damn, that flight was long!"

"So, things are going well?"

"They are. I'm halfway done, and the Mickey Mouse bullshit will be at a minimum now that I'll be a midshipman second-class — what you civilians call a 'Junior'," she smirked. "In my final year, I get to dish it out!"

"When do you find out your assignment?" I asked.

"Not until close to the end of my last year. Hey, did you see your friend got to play in the NFL?"

"For one season," I said. "He played for the LA Raiders, but he was assigned to the Guided Missile Cruiser California, which is in the Indian Ocean, so he won't be playing this year."

"I don't know why the Navy just didn't leave him assigned where he was," Aimee said. "It sucks. He had a decent year rushing with Marcus Allen."

"I suspect he's going to resign his commission as soon as he's able," I said. "I think he wants to play."

"Could be. Anyway, if you remember, Dad has a meeting in the Loop tomorrow morning. Do you have to work tomorrow morning?"

"No. I planned to spend it with you. I'll work after I drop you guys at the airport. Jessica doesn't get off shift until tomorrow evening."

"I won't see her?" she asked.

"She's going to try to come home for dinner. That's why I'm trying to get this ready for precisely 6:15pm."

"Need any help?"

"No. I'm pretty much ready. Everything is in the oven or on the stove and is timed for her arrival. She'll call if she can't make it. Or she'll have one of the desk clerks call if she's up to her elbows in some patient."

Jessica did make it home for dinner, which made me very happy. She and Aimee hit it off quite well, and carried on a conversation throughout dinner while I talked to Aimee's dad about his business. He had quite the range of important clients, from athletes or politicians, to CEO's of large companies, or just wealthy people in general seeking his services.

"How are you getting to your meeting in the Loop?" I asked Mr. Shaughnessy.

"A cab," he said.

"You can take my car if you want."

"I charge all my expenses to my client, so it's easier if I take a cab."

"Who's the client?" I asked.

"I can't give you a name because of my confidentiality agreements, but he's a young Bulls player."

I nodded, "I understand."

When we finished dinner, Stephanie, Sofia, and Leila offered to clean up so that Kara and I could walk Jessica back to the hospital.

"This is the end of your make-up shifts, right?" I asked.

"Yes. I have Saturday and Sunday off, then I go back to my regular schedule of two thirty-six-hour and one twenty-four-hour shift. I'll be so happy when this year is over!"

"You aren't the only one!" I said.

"We'll get through this together," Kara said.

"The only thing I want to do tomorrow when I get off is sleep," Jessica said. "Until Monday morning!"

"Whatever you need, Babe!" I agreed.

August 14, 1987, Chicago, Illinois

Kimmy came to my door late in the afternoon, just after I had returned from taking the Shaughnessys to Meigs.

"Steve, Mr. Puccini is on line two."

I sighed, "Thanks."

Dave and I had discussed the situation. We were slowly coming up with solutions to every challenge. We'd even figured out a way to use cc:Mail on the Macs and PCs and figured out how to connect the two together. What we hadn't come up with was a good way to network everything together to share files and printers. Charlie and Terry were making progress on the changes and new code. I stabbed the button on the phone and lifted the handset.

"Hello, Dante," I said.

"What the hell are you doing to me?" he snipped.

"What's the issue?" I asked calmly.

"The electronic mail solution! It's going to cost me twice what you estimated!"

"It's also going to connect both your Macs and your PCs, which we originally didn't think was possible. If we only do what's in the estimate, your Macs won't be able to send electronic mail to users who have PCs. It was noted in the exceptions."

"But why almost double?"

"The cc:Mail licenses, including two cc:Mail Post Offices, which is basically a server. Those can talk to each other, even if we can't get the Macs and PCs to talk directly to each other, or to a single Post Office Server."

"And files and printers? This will fix that, too?"

"No. We don't have a solution for that at this point. We're still looking for one, including talking to Apple, Microsoft, Novell, and Banyan. If there is a way to do it, we'll find it."

"And charge me up the ass for it, too!"

I knew that if I wiggled at all, he'd try to take full advantage and force the price down, even below my costs.

"That's what it's going to cost to connect your Macs and PCs to the same electronic mail system," I said flatly. "Do you want us to continue?"

"God damn it!" he groused. "This is going to cost a fortune!"

"How much you spend and how much work you want us to do is up to you," I said evenly. "But that is what it's going to cost."

"Fine!" he spat, and slammed down the phone.

I got up and went to talk to Dave and Julia and let them know about the conversation.

"We need to make sure we have a signed work order for each and every thing we do for DP," Julia said when I finished. "I'll talk to Zeke and make sure he has Dante sign off before he starts on the Mac cc:Mail work."

"He's turning out to be as big of a pain in the butt as you thought he might," Dave said.

"Yes, he is," I agreed. "But the experience we're gaining is invaluable, and it's profitable. Julia's right, though. We need to make sure we get everything in writing."

"Agreed," Dave said. "Do you have a minute for something else?"

"Sure. What's up?"

"Greg and Alonzo came up with a way to optimize both your index routines and your search algorithm. They just showed it to me. It's nearly twice as fast."

"I'm actually not surprised," I replied. "Remember, my goal was to get it working! And I didn't realize that they were working together."

"Greg needed Alonzo's help in understanding how all the pieces fit together. I think Greg was here all night last night working on his code."

"All night?" I asked. "I just thought he came in early when he was here before me today."

"He has on the same red t-shirt with the same small grease stain on it," Dave said. "I do wish he'd dress better."

I hadn't noticed, but now that I thought about it, Dave was correct.

"We don't have a dress code," I said. "And I'm loath to institute one."

"What if Zeke, Mario, or Cindi wanted to dress that way? Or one of the programmers who goes on site," Julia asked.

I sighed, "Yeah, that could be an issue. Anyone meeting with customers pretty much needs to wear a tie if they're a guy and whatever you want to call 'professional' for women. I'd say skirts or dresses, but I know lots of women prefer pantsuits."

"Steve Adams! When did you turn conservative?" Julia said with a laugh.

"Our customers are conservative! Doctors and lawyers all dress in suits and ties. Heck, even Gerald Brown wears a tie on customer job sites!"

"I'll talk to Cindi and we'll figure it out. No rules for the office?"

"I'd prefer not," I said. "So long as it doesn't get out of hand. I am concerned about Greg working all night, though."

"I'll talk to him," Dave said. "But he made some great progress. We need to have a team meeting on Monday to go over all the projects. We're juggling quite a few right now."

"True," I said. "And Cindi was pretty optimistic at the business development meeting this morning about new business. Elyse was happy, too. So I guess I'm happy! I need to get back to work now!"

I went back to my office and sat down next to Penny, and got my head back into the code I'd been working on.

August 15, 1987, Chicago, Illinois

"How did you sleep last night, Babe?" I asked when Jessica, Kara, and I got out of bed.

"Like a log! I didn't even notice when you and Kara came up to bed!"

She'd gone to bed right after dinner, and had slept through until 6:00am, getting nearly 11 hours of sleep.

"Are you up for a movie later?" I asked.

"Sure! Let me guess — The Living Daylights!"

"Of course! I've been wanting to see the new Bond flick since it came out a couple of weeks ago. Your schedule just didn't allow it."

"That's fine. I forget — is today breakfast or night out?"

"It's Guys' and Gals' Nights," I said. "I figured we'd take in the movie mid-afternoon."

"That sounds good! Is Elyse going with us?" Jessica asked.

"Yes. Fawn will sit with Jesse and Matthew while we're out. And don't give me any grief about her! Jennifer or Josie will walk her home!"