Chapter 56: Doctor Adams, I Presume?

July 24, 1988, Chicago, Illinois

"Hi, Boss!" Terry exclaimed as he and Penny arrived early for the company party.

"Hi, Terry! Thanks for coming early to help set up. And you too, Penny."

"Wow," Penny sighed. "Relegated to 'and you too, Penny'!"

I laughed and hugged her and she gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, then put her arm around Terry and went into the house. Terry was very tolerant of Penny's behavior around me, and I wondered if she'd given him terms, so to speak. Tasha was more circumspect, and only hugged me or kissed me on the cheek when nobody else was around, or at least, when nobody from work was around.

"Steve?" Jennifer called out, coming into the house.

"Hi, Jen, what's up?"

"I heard back from Veronica. She accepted and she'll start on August 15th, which is perfect, because that's the week before UofC and IIT start up again."

"Excellent," I said. "Jessica said you guys agreed on the 'live-in' option."

"It makes sense if you think about it. She'll have Saturdays or Sundays off, whichever she needs, plus Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, because Kara doesn't have class or teaching in the afternoon on those days. The only concern was access to a car, but Kara was OK with Veronica using hers. Jessica and Kara agreed that Kara will use Jessica's car or your new BMW if she needs a car when Veronica is using hers."

"I really like how my new BMW, which hasn't even been delivered yet, has suddenly become community property!"

"Poor baby!" Jennifer soothed. "Does Penny know yet?"

"No, I need to check with Alice and Bart first. I know Penny's nineteen, but I don't want to cause trouble with her parents."

"Did you hear from your friend?"

"Yes, Melody tracked down Cheryl. Cheryl wouldn't admit it, but Melody is pretty sure that it was Cheryl who pulled the fire alarm to break up the party. She encouraged Cheryl to talk to somebody, but she doesn't know if she will."

"How long did it take me?" Jennifer asked. "And I wasn't afraid of OTHER people finding out. I was afraid of admitting it to myself."

"That is true. You never cared what other people thought, but I suppose part of that was your friendship with Larry."

"He and Drew were talking about coming to visit, but Drew was a bit uncomfortable about it."

"Fucking hell," I sighed. "There isn't a single person here who has a problem with it. As long as they promise not to fuck in the middle of the great room, I promise I won't either!"

Jennifer laughed, "But watching YOU fuck was always very entertaining."

"Want a demonstration?" I asked, smirking.

"You know better than that," she laughed. "You keep that thing where it belongs!"

"Speaking of which, and I am NOT implying anything here, how is Josie dealing with that issue?"

Jennifer laughed, "Artificial substitutes have worked so far! I don't mind doing that to her, it's just, well, you know."

"I do. Sorry if I pried."

"I'm completely open with you now, just as I am with Josie. All that hiding really messed me up. No more."

"Good," I said. "What's Jesse doing today?"

"Why, going to the party, of course! You didn't think you could have a party without him finding out and wanting to be there, did you?"

I chuckled, "No. I sometimes wonder who runs this family!"

"Jesse for now. But we all think it'll be Birgit. Matthew is very much like you, submissive. It'll be a test of wills between Jesse and Birgit, and we know what happens there. Ask your little sister!"

I chuckled, "Until Kara decided to put an end to it."

"She turned out to be the strongest, most secure, most together person we know. I never expected that."

"Me neither," I said. "Kara's turned into my rock. She's the one who keeps me from really fucking things up with Jess."

"My turn to ask a question. Do they?"

"Gloriously!" I chuckled. "But not too often. Mostly it's the three of us, but from time to time, they make love and it's just amazing to watch."

"So Jessica likes girls?" Josie asked.

"No. Jessica loves Kara. Think about you and about Stephanie. My sister is as straight as I am, but there was this one special girl."

Jennifer smiled, "That was glorious, wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was. But that's all in a past life now!"

The doorbell rang, and Jennifer and I hugged and she went out the back while I went to open the door.

"Hi, Tasha! Hi, Zeke! Come on in!"

Right behind them were Greg, Cassie, Cassie's friend Donnie, Kimmy, and Kayla. About ten minutes later, Dave and Julia and Chris and Cindi arrived. Within twenty minutes after that, everyone had arrived, except Barbara, who was in California, including some special guests. I went out back to see Dave and Terry manning the grill and Penny and Tasha helping Elyse and Kara put out food.

"Dada!" Jesse called from where Kimmy was holding him.

"Hi, Jesse. Having fun?"

"I like Kimmy! She's nice!" he grinned. "She will dance with me!"

I laughed hard.

"Your son is a menace!" my sister said quietly from behind me.

"Just wait until he figures out what girls are actually for!" I chuckled.

"You pig!" Jackie laughed, having heard me from where she and Jamie were standing talking to Bruce Grady and his wife.

Jackie walked over closer.

"You should know," my sister teased. "You slept with him for a couple of years!"

"It wasn't the sleeping, Squirt!" I chuckled.

"No, and to hear your son talk, he knows EXACTLY what girls are for. But at his age, he just doesn't have equipment that works the right way for that!"

"Jackie, do you know if Jeremiah and Sharice are coming? They were invited."

"I think so, but church doesn't end until about noon, and then they have a meal. I figure they'll arrive around 3:00pm or so. They want to keep her dad happy. Are Alex and Sam coming?"

"No," I said. "Alex is only closed on Monday nights. Sunday is a big night for him, so he has to be at the bistro."

"Did you invite any customers?"

"Hell no!" I chuckled. "Cindi will have a reception at the user group meeting she scheduled for next month. The response rate has been very good, so we can't do it at Alex's place, either. She's making arrangements with a hotel to use one of their banquet rooms and smaller meeting rooms."

"Cool. Do you have a minute to talk privately?"

"You need written permission from Jamie for THAT!" I teased.

"You are a pig, you know that?" she laughed.

"Come on. Let's go to my study."

We walked into the house, grabbed some drinks, and then went into my study.

"A few years ago, you made an offhand comment about helping me go out on my own. Were you serious about that?"

"If I recall, it was for you and Jeremiah, but yes."

"Sorry, yes, it would include him, of course. Jamie and I are saving as much as we can, but I won't be able to do it on my own in less than ten years. My timeframe is four."

"I don't see a problem with that," I said. "By then, Kara will be teaching, Jessica will be making serious money, and NIKA is already nicely profitable. So yes, I'll put up some money. I'll need a stake in the business, similar to what my dad and Don Joseph received."

"Jamie said that you'd ask for that and that I should say 'yes'. I don't like the idea of someone else owning part of my firm, but I guess I have to."

"If you want to structure it as a loan, we can do that. Obviously, shares in the firm would be your collateral, but I don't need a permanent piece of the action. When the time comes, we'll get Bruce Grady and one of our lawyer friends to draw up the papers. I think you understand why Jamie can't be involved in that."

She nodded, "He has a conflict of interest because he's my main squeeze!"

"Main squeeze? Did walking through those doors transport us back to Al's Diner in Milwaukee in the 1950s?"

"I might have been watching too many reruns of Laverne and Shirley and Happy Days!"

"I suppose that's better than The Brady Bunch or The Partridge Family!" I chuckled.

"Hey, those are fun shows!"

"I guess," I replied. "We have a deal. Shall we shake on it?"

I extended my hand and grinned.

"Wipe that silly grin off your face!" Jackie ordered. "A hug is appropriate! But you keep your hands to yourself!"

We hugged and as we parted, she turned and gave me a quick peck on the lips. She winked, then turned and left my study. I followed her out into the back yard.

"That was quick!" Stephanie teased.

"Stow it, Squirt! And why is your Latin Lover chatting up Greg? Did he decide to go play for the other team? I mean, I could understand it, given who he's been dating."

I smoothly blocked the expected punch that was directed at my chest and laughed.

"Asshole!" she laughed. "They were talking about telephone switches and my eyes were glazing over. You know me and technology. I know how to use the word processor and spreadsheet, and beyond that, I just don't care."

"Says the CEO of a computer consulting company that is seriously into technology!"

"Hey, I have people for that!" she said haughtily. "I have to keep you, Julia, and Dave around for something!"

"Don't let it go to your head, Squirt!" I chuckled.

I scanned the backyard and noticed Jeri standing in a corner by the house, away from everyone, looking lonely. I walked over to talk to her.

"Hi!" I said.

"Hi," she said quietly, barely above a whisper.

"I saw you standing here by yourself and wanted to make sure everything is OK."

"I'm fine. I just like to be by myself."

Which fit with what Dave and Alonzo had told me. Jeri only lived about five blocks away, but if they were right, she'd rarely ventured out of the neighborhood. She came into the office, did her work, and barely said a word to anyone except Alonzo. He'd reported that she was a quick learner, but as we knew when we hired her, she was almost painfully shy.

"Everyone here is really nice," I said. "I wish you would participate and have fun."

"Really, I'm fine," she protested, seeming to shrink back against the fence.

"Are you enjoying working for NIKA?"

"Yes! Alonzo has me doing bug fixes, but I also suggested some ways to improve some programs, so he's letting me do that!"

It was almost a night and day difference. Suddenly, she was bubbly and excited. And that fit with what 'Zo' had said about his one-on-one talk with her.

"In the long run, what would you like to work on?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. I think Windows is going to really take off and I think we should move in that direction. It would be cool to try to port our programs. Greg said in our staff meeting that it didn't make sense."

"I think he meant right now," I said. "In the long run, I think we'll have to port our code to Windows, but right now, our customers aren't asking for it."

"But would they even really know about it? We don't deal with people who are really into technology."

"Is that something that would interest you? Working on something like that?"

"Yes! That would be totally cool! Could I do that?"

"It would be up to Dave. Did you talk to him about it?"

"No," she said, suddenly shy again.

"How about if I get him, and you can ask now? Just with the three of us there?"

"I suppose."

I walked over to the grill where Dave was standing with Terry and Zeke and asked him to come talk with Jeri for a moment.

"Jeri, tell Dave what you told me, please."

She looked down at the grass, then took a deep breath.

"I think we should start looking into porting our code to Windows now, just to get ahead of the curve. I know Greg said we should wait, and no customers have asked for it, but I think we'll get left behind if we don't."

"She has a point, Dave," I said.

"We have resource problems already," he said. "You know that."

I nodded, "I do. And you told me that consulting revenue is up and growing. Maybe she could work on this part time, as a side project?"

Dave gave me a hard look. I was interfering in his management, and I knew I'd hear about it later. But I also happened to think Jeri was right and that she should make her case to him.

"Let me talk to Julia and Zo about it," Dave said. "We're going to have to talk about staffing, anyway."

"Thanks, Dave," I said.

He nodded and went back to the grill.

"Thanks," Jeri said.

"Make sure you get some food!" I said.

"I will."

I smiled, nodded, and walked into the house. Alonzo had been right about Jeri, at least so far. Now, if she'd just open up a bit, she'd be an even more valuable member of the team. It was all about coaching her and helping her overcome whatever it was that had her scared of her own shadow as soon as more than one person was around.

"Steve," Dave called out.

He'd followed me into the house.

"Go ahead," I smiled. "Say your piece."

He walked to my study, and I followed him. He shut the door behind us and stood, arms crossed, staring me in the eyes.

"She's right, but you can't undermine me that way in front of one of the staff."

I hadn't even thought of it in that way! I'd only thought about it as interference in his prerogatives as a manager.

"Undermine you? Because I supported her idea?"

"Think about how it looks. If you and I argue in front of the staff, we both look bad. If I agree with you, it looks like all they have to do is come to you to override my decisions. She's probably right, but you put your thumb on the scale in an unacceptable way. You need to come to me privately!"

"Dave, that girl is so shy I can't see how she gets out of bed in the morning! She told me Greg said it wasn't time and you know how he is. I can guess that she actually screwed up her courage enough to say something in your staff meeting and he shut her down, hard. It's his personality."

"He did, and that's my issue to deal with. Right?"

"Yes. Of course. I'm sorry. And in the future, I'll come to you privately. But we still have to deal with the fact that she has a valid point."

"I know. I have a list of a hundred things we could do if we had unlimited resources. We don't. And you're the first one to put up a red flag when we want to spend money. Dropping out of the Friday meetings isn't enough. You're holding us back. You need to let Elyse and Julia make these decisions. All of them. Or, you have to run the company. Take your pick."

"It is my company, Dave."

"Yes, it is. So run it. Or let the people you put in place run it with more of a free hand. It's not like we're spending money like drunken sailors, or that we're burning through our reserves. And even if you do let go, you still have to sign off on hiring decisions and on any capital improvements. And you control the Board. I say this with all due respect, as a manager but also as your friend, operationally, you need to get the fuck out of the way!"

"OK," I said.

Dave did a double-take, "OK?"

"Yes. OK. You're right. I'll tell Julia and Elyse tomorrow. And I'll let the Board know at our meeting next month. My dad will be here next week, so I'll tell him then."

Dave laughed, "I guess she was right!"

"Who? Stephanie or Julia?"

"Kara!" he chuckled. "She said I should just bluntly tell you to get the fuck out of the way!"

"And how did Kara get involved in this?" I asked.

"I was talking to Cindi and your sister, and your sister said I should ask Kara for advice on how to talk to you about it. You and I have known each other a long time, and you've always been receptive to criticism, but I was a bit worried about this seeming like a coup."

"It is a coup!" I chuckled. "But a bloodless and necessary one. Anyway, do you think Jeri's working out OK?"