Chapter 64: Relationships

September 5, 1988, Chicago, Illinois

"I don't even know what to say," Melody said as we stood outside her dorm.

"'Thank you' is customary," I chuckled.

"Jerk!" she laughed. "Isn't it the guy who's supposed to say 'thank you'?"

"I guess it all depends. I'm not a sexist, so it could go either way!"

"So it was good for you?" she asked.

I chuckled, "Is it OK to be a bit crude?"

"After what we did? Are you kidding?"

"You have an awesomely tight pussy, and you're a fantastic fuck! I only regret I couldn't feel you without the rubber!"

"Seriously?" she asked.

"Melody Marvel, you were great!"

"And you, Steve Adams, have spoiled me! I know I can't ask you again, but ask me if you want. I'll fuck you anytime you want!"

I hugged her and kissed her softly.

"Thanks, Melody. It was awesome!"

"See you at karate tomorrow."

"Remember to keep this to yourself," I said.

"I promise!" she said, giving me a quick kiss before heading inside.

I walked back to the house and cleaned up the sauna, took a shower, and settled in with my book to wait for everyone to come home.

September 6, 1988, Chicago, Illinois

My phone rang at 3:30am. I quickly went from the kitchen to my study and answered it.

"Stephen Rayevich? This is Dmitry Sergeyevich. I know it is early, but Tatyana said you would be awake."

"I am. She had her baby?"

"Yes! Lara Dmitriyevna was born yesterday. She is healthy."

"And Tatyana Ivanovna?"

"She is happy. As am I."

"And me, too! Please tell Tatyana that I'm happy for her, and I hope to see you soon!"

"We would like this, Stepa! Ivan Konstantinovich sends his greeting as well."

"Please greet him for me! Thank you for calling!"

"You are welcome! Goodbye, Stepa!"

"«До свидания», Dima!"

I went back to the kitchen to tell Jessica and Kara the good news.

"A girl for one of your boys in the future?" Kara laughed.

"Could be! We'll worry about that in fifteen years or so!" I said.

We finished breakfast, and we walked to the ER. I ran with Jacquelyn and then went to the office.

"Steve, this is Tim Foster," Dave said just after 8:00am, showing a stocky, dark-haired guy into my office.

"Hi, Tim," I said. "Grab a seat."

He sat down in the chair next to my desk and Dave went back to his cubicle.

"You come highly recommended by Beth Pater," I said. "That's good, but I'm curious as to why you hate your job."

"It's not really a challenge," he said. "I manage the office, which doesn't take much time. It really involves ordering supplies, calling for maintenance when it's needed, and that kind of thing. I also do all the programming. They have an MAI Basic Four system to do all their accounting and inventory. I spend most of my time creating reports and occasionally making minor changes. As I said, it really isn't much of a challenge."

"You're OK with moving to Chicago?" I asked.

"I grew up in Naperville," he said.

"What has Beth told you about us?"

"Just that if there was one place in Chicago that I could go that would be a challenge, and was full of really smart people, this was it."

"What do you want to do? What would be a challenge?"

"I like the idea of being a consultant. Not having to work on the same thing day in and day out sounds really good to me after two years of working on a few programs for one company."

"And why should we hire you?"

"You've known Beth for a long time, right? Well, she says I'm good. I am. Do you trust her?"

I chuckled, "Usually. She was my business partner in High School and is on our Board of Directors."

"Well, if her recommendation isn't enough, I don't know what would be."

"Neither do I," I said. "Dave will let you know."

"That's it?" he asked.

"That's it," I said. "I know it's short, but Dave and the other programmers did the full interview and, as you say, you have Beth's recommendation."

We shook hands, and I took him back to Dave. Because Tim had come up from Springfield, and taken a day off work, Dave already had the offer letter typed up and signed, contingent on my final approval. A quick nod to him told him that it was OK to make the offer to Tim before he left to go home.

September 8, 1988, Chicago, Illinois

"Steve, this is Brenda Haskel," Cindi said. "She's a candidate for the support job."

I stood up and shook hands with a tall brunette.

"Hi, Brenda," I said. "Have a seat."

She sat down and Cindi left. For the first time in quite some time, I got an odd feeling about a candidate. There was something bothering me, but I wasn't sure what it was. She hadn't even said a word, but I was on guard.

"I see from your résumé that you've been working for a company that leases copiers. You do the field support?"

"Yes," she said. "I go out, set them up, show them how to use them, and can fix them if they break down."

"I didn't see any specific computer experience on your résumé."

"I took some classes at the junior college, and I've dabbled with programming at home on my dad's Apple IIc."

"Why are you looking to change jobs?"

"I'm not happy there. I don't like the way they treat me."

"In what way?" I asked.

"It's a family-owned company, and most of the managers are either family or close friends of the owner. They're all super-friendly and they get all the benefits, and the lower-level people don't get treated right."

"How so?"

"Well, you know, they're all chummy and stuff, and they get whatever they want while I bust my butt to make them money."

The pay rate that she had listed on her résumé wasn't out of line for what she was doing, and she'd even received a reasonable bonus the previous year if the résumé was to be believed. Her distaste for a close-knit management team concerned me, especially given my relationship with Elyse, and how close I was to Dave, Julia, and Cindi, and for that matter, Penny and Tasha.

"So you felt that you didn't fit in?" I asked,

"How could I? I wasn't part of the clique."

I was pretty sure I was going to veto Brenda at this point, but I wanted to make sure that I gave her a reasonable shot.

"What would be your ideal workplace?"

"All business. People shouldn't be overly friendly or dating. It creates too much drama and leads to favoritism."

That was the final straw. There was no way I was letting this young woman work for NIKA. Either she'd hate it and quit, or she'd cause serious trouble.

"Cindi warned you that this would be a short interview, right?"

"Yes. She said you were super-busy, but that you wanted to meet anyone who was going to be hired."

"Is there anything you want to ask? Or anything you want to tell me?"

"Other than I think this would be a good place to work, no."

"OK. Let's go find Cindi."

I walked Brenda out to Cindi and went back to my office. Ten minutes later Cindi was sitting in the chair next to my desk. She didn't like what I'd said and made that immediately clear.

"Seriously? You're vetoing her?" she said, sounding exasperated.

"Cindi, you missed something very important," I said gently. "She doesn't like the place she works at because it's a family-run company and the management is too close-knit! She doesn't think people at work should be friends or date. She's a walking time-bomb!"

"Oh, shit!" Cindi sighed. "She said she didn't like the management at the copier company, and when I asked about it, she complained about not being treated right and not receiving credit for work she did."

"She gave that same answer to me, but when I probed, the stuff I said came out. Do you have a second choice? Or do you have to go back to the drawing board?"

"I have a second choice. I'll get him in to see you as soon as I can."

"Sorry," I said.

"No, I'm sorry," she said. "I goofed. I can't believe we all missed that!"

"It's going to happen. Just be happy we caught it before we had a real mess on our hands."

Cindi nodded and went back to her desk.

September 9, 1988, Chicago, Illinois

"How is school going?" I asked Jacquelyn when I met her for our morning run.

"It's only been three days, but it's OK. There's a new girl who moved here from Connecticut. I decided to try to be her friend."

"That's a great idea," I said. "Making the new person feel welcome!"

"I heard there are two more girls that moved from out of state. I'm going to try to meet them as well."

"Did you have your checkup?" I asked.

"The doctor thinks I'm losing weight too fast. He did a whole bunch of tests to make sure there wasn't anything wrong. Can you believe he got permission from my mom for an HIV test? I've never even kissed a guy!"

"Have you ever had a blood transfusion?" I asked.

"Yeah, when I was six. Why?"

"That would have been around 1978, right? That was before they were testing the blood supply for HIV. It's a good precaution."

"Yes, almost exactly ten years ago, right before my seventh birthday. I crashed my bike and was in the hospital. I needed a Lapa ... something, because I had some internal bleeding."

"Laparotomy," I said.

"Oh, that's right, your wife is a doctor! Anyway, they fixed me up, but they gave me blood in the ER before surgery."

"That's not uncommon," I said. "But no lasting problems?"

"Just this," she said, pulling up her t-shirt and slightly pushing down her shorts to show a faint scar.

"You can barely see that," I said, noticing also that her stomach had flattened out quite a bit. Early on, her t-shirt had ridden up during exercises and revealed a roll of belly fat, but that was mostly gone. At this point, she was no longer obese, just plump, and her face had thinned out, making her look less overweight than the extra fifteen to twenty pounds she was carrying, depending on which target weight was used.

"Anyway, my doctor thought two pounds a week on average for nine weeks was too much. He talked to the nutritionist, and they said I should eat an extra 200 calories per day because of the exercise I'm getting. And take some iron pills because I'm slightly anemic. But I'm not sure what to do; I don't want to slow down my weight loss."

"Did he say why he thought it was too fast?"

"He was concerned because I missed two periods, but I guess that's normal. Mom called the gynecologist to ask."

"I've heard from Jessica that strenuous exercise can do that."

"At least he didn't do a pregnancy test! That would have been a complete waste! Who would have sex with me, anyway?"

"Someone who cares about you for YOU. I think that quite soon you're going to get attention from boys, Jacqui. Just be careful."

"Like I'd let the guys who treated me like dirt even hold my hand? No chance."

"You're making great progress. Just keep it up! Pretty soon you'll have lost twenty pounds AND you'll be testing for your orange belt."

"And in a couple of months, a date with you for losing the weight I wanted to."

"That's true. Morton's or Rosebud, like you want."

"You need to meet my parents before then," she said. "They're OK with it, but they want you to come for dinner one night beforehand. Mom says it's one thing to exercise with you, but a different thing to go to dinner with you."

I nodded, "Your parents are just being cautious. And that's a good thing. I'd be happy to."

"Would your wife come?" she asked.

"Which one?"

"Uhm, I didn't say anything to them about your marriage thing. I think that would totally freak them out and they might not let me run with you or even come to the dojo. Could you just bring Doctor Jessica?"

"I could, but I'm not sure that's a good idea for my personal relationships. Let me talk to my wives and see what they think. I'll let you know tomorrow."

"Thanks!" she said.

She took the steps up to her front door two at a time, then turned and waved and went inside. I jogged home as I'd started doing once my endurance had come back. I'd actually lost a couple of pounds, and my legs were a bit more toned. I chuckled when I recalled Doctor Barton's admonition about exercise and diet as I got older, and hoped that twenty-five wasn't what he'd meant!

When I arrived home, I went up to take a shower and chuckled when Kara brought Birgit with her to join me.

"We won't be able to do this when she gets older, but I like this," she said.

Kara was cuddling Birgit, and I had my arms wrapped around both of them as the warm water cascaded over us. Birgit cooed softly, and Kara sighed deeply.

"Motherhood really suits you," I said.

"All I ever wanted to be was a wife and a mother, with a man who was a loving husband and a good father. I have all of those things, and I have Jess as well."

"You two have grown really, really close," I said.

"We're almost like sisters, though with one little exception."

"Sex?" I grinned.

"Of course, silly. Though I guess that wasn't an exception for you."

"No, it wasn't. But that's so long ago that it seems like ancient history now. We've both moved on with our lives. What happened, happened. I have no regrets. But it's not me anymore."

"No, it's not. It almost kept me from you, too. But there was something that told me that no matter what, you were the man I'd waited my entire life to be with. With all your issues, with all the craziness, you were the one. And I was right. Jess and I are lucky to have you."

"I think I'm the lucky one," I said. "I have the two of you, and a beautiful daughter with you. And soon enough, Jess will get pregnant and have a baby as well. And I have two wonderful boys."

"And another one with Elyse around the same time as Jess' baby will be born, assuming you keep your track record!"

"I don't know," I chuckled. "I didn't get Elyse pregnant last month."

"Jess says that Elyse waited too long in her cycle. And Matthew had quit nursing less than a month before that. I bet she misses her NEXT period."

"Maybe. We'll see how things go. Do you think a year is right for nursing? Jesse quit a lot earlier on his own, so I don't know what's right."

"I think it's about right," Kara said. "We'll see how things go with your Pumpkin. I have to express for her to have her bottles during the day, which I gladly do, but she might decide that Mom's nipple is too difficult compared to how easy it is to drink from the bottle."

"I hadn't thought of it that way," I said.

Kara giggled, "We could arrange a test, if you wanted!"

"Uhm, no thanks?" I chuckled. "For some reason, I have no desire to nurse."

"I think I can understand that! My boobs are so heavy and they ache so much that I'm not sure I want you or Jess playing too much with them right now, anyway."

I turned off the spray, and we got out of the shower. I dried off, then took Birgit from Kara and wrapped her in a towel and dried her. Kara dried herself, and then she and I got dressed, and finally, she dressed Birgit.

"Jacquelyn said her parents would like me to come to dinner, and they want me to bring my wife."

Kara giggled, "That might be a bit awkward!"

"Tell me about it! Jacquelyn said she hasn't told them about our unique situation because she's concerned that her parents might make her stop running with me and might even pull her from the dojo. She asked if I could just bring Jess, but I'm concerned because that violates our agreement."

"I think this is one of those times when you have to defer to social norms," Kara said. "If you don't, it could really hurt Jacquelyn and ruin all the progress that you made. You'd be doing it for her. I'd hate to see that poor girl lose her best friend and mentor."

"You're sure about that? Really sure?"

"That poor girl was a wreck! Now she's happy, self-confident, and getting into shape. Letting her parents ruin that because they can't deal with our relationship would be a horrible thing! If letting you and Jess go and be the happily married, 'Leave it to Beaver' couple helps Jacquelyn, that's fine."