Chapter 2: Parallels

September 5, 1994, Chicago, Illinois

“Interesting,” I said aloud as I was reading the Chicago Tribune while cuddling Birgit.

“What, Daddy?”

“My friend Bill Elliott is going to start his own racing team with McDonald’s as the sponsor.”

“Sponsor?”

“They pay money to paint the car red and yellow, and have the McDonalds sign on the hood.”

“I like pink cars!”

I chuckled, “I know you do, Pumpkin. Are your school friends coming today?”

“Yes. Tiffany, Rachel, and Joey.”

“Good. Shall we make breakfast for your mommies and Aunt Elyse?”

“And my brothers and sisters!”

“Yes, of course!”

I put down the paper and Birgit and I went to the kitchen to make breakfast. We had just finished when my wives came in with the other kids and everyone sat down at the table or on stools by the island. Michelle didn’t eat because she planned to receive Eucharist at church, so she stopped in for a kiss before she went to get Jesse to take him to the Divine Liturgy. The rest of us ate, and after showers, started preparing for the Labor Day party.

“Are any of the moms staying?” I asked Kara as we formed hamburger patties while Jessica and Elyse sliced tomatoes and onions.

“I’m pretty sure Julie, Tiff’s mom is staying, but I don’t know if Joey’s parents are. And Carla just isn’t comfortable being here. I don’t know about Jesse’s friends.”

“Matthew and Michael have a friend from school coming, but no parents,” Elyse said. “And I did hear from everyone who we invited. There were a couple of declines because people were going to be out of town - Sofia and her family, Melanie and her family; and Karl and his family because there’s something going on at the base.”

“No Pete and no Karl?” I complained. “There go the grill masters!”

“Tom volunteered to help,” Elyse replied. “And Kurt will be here.”

“That’s better.”

“You didn’t disinvite anyone after what happened this week, did you?” Kara asked.

“Hell no,” I said. “Jamie has his opinion. I have mine. I’m not going to wreck any friendships because some little girl got her panties in a twist because I wouldn’t screw her.”

“What about the Rap Sessions?” Jessica asked.

“I’m not making any changes at the moment. I won’t invite anyone new, at least for now, but I’m not kicking anyone out. Once again, Jamie has an opinion and I disagree.”

“Just be smart, Tiger.”

“I will. I’m not taking any precipitous action. In fact, I think that’s going to annoy the hell out of Jamie. Any changes are going to be thoroughly considered.”

“Is there anything special we need to do before Saturday afternoon?”

“Besides spend time together? Not that I can think of. I’m hoping we can find a way to videoconference from one of the sites, but I’m not sure on the timing.”

“The kids will love it!” Kara said.

“It would have to be early in the morning, I think, given the time difference, plus school and work for you guys. And obviously, you would have to be in Sam’s office where she has the test gear setup.”

“We’ll figure it out, Snuggle Bear. But I won’t say anything to the kids until we know for sure.”

“Cool.”

Our guests began arriving around 1:00pm and I fired up the grill right away. When Jamie arrived he asked to speak to me, so we went to my study, taking Elyse with us.

“Now that I’ve had a chance to sleep on this, I think we wait and see what Mikela does before we take any action. What we do will depend on what she decides. At a minimum, we need to expand the policy about relationships to include anyone with supervisory authority. And, honestly, we have to remove the possibility of the board granting exemptions.”

“Jamie, think about what you’re saying,” I said. “Dave and Julia.”

“I know. Even if we grandfathered their relationship because of marriage, they can’t be in the same reporting structure without creating all kinds of potential issues.”

“Jamie,” Elyse said firmly. “There are NO problems there. None! And we can’t disrupt NIKA in that way! This isn’t about Steve now; this is about two people who have been doing their jobs for over nine years without a single problem!”

“The problem arises when someone else wants to have a similar relationship and you deny it.”

“So continue with the current rule requiring Board approval for any relationships that occur in a reporting structure.”

“I’m concerned that if they were to deny their consent someone would point to your relationship with Michelle and cause all kinds of trouble.”

“What are you saying, Jamie?” Elyse asked. “That Steve has to either break up with Michelle or fire her?”

“Those are pretty much the two options, though I would suggest she resign.”

Because Elyse was running with this, I let her continue.

“Come on, Jamie. Even I know the legal hot water we’d be in if it ever came out that she was forced to quit because of her relationship with Steve! It wouldn’t even have to be her that brought the action! As Ray said, it’s a crap sandwich, but once Steve decided to hire her, that left us with no real options.”

“I will remind you both that Kimmy decided to hire her,” I said. “I signed off on hiring her in the same exact way I do for every other employee.”

“I’m sure you did, and I believe you,” Jamie said. “But that’s not how it’s going to look to anyone else.”

“Fine. I’ll agree to putting in place new policies about supervisory employees, but I’m not firing Michelle, she’s not resigning, and I’m not breaking up with her. What else?”

Jamie sighed, “Well, if Mikela signs the release, not much. If she doesn’t, then it depends on what course of action she follows. The tricky part is if we begin an investigation, it makes us look guilty. If we don’t begin an investigation, that makes it look like we tolerate the behavior.”

“A nice trap,” I said. “Damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Let me guess, if the internal investigation turns up nothing then it’s a cover-up.”

“That is the argument that would be made. Look, Steve, as your friend AND lawyer I’m telling you it’s impossible to come out of this in good shape. The only way to have ANY chance is to never get into a situation like it in the first place.”

“But how do we prevent it?” I said. “Nobody in management knew about the affairs Terry and Mikela were having. And nobody officially knew about the ‘Gang of Four’. I purposefully didn’t talk with Penny about it.”

“Please don’t take this the wrong way, but as close as the two of you are, nobody will believe that. And you did have your own suspicions. Didn’t YOU give them that nickname?”

I nodded, “Yes. But even I know enough about the law to understand that we can’t prohibit people from dating or whatever, if there isn’t a supervisory relationship. The REAL trouble here isn’t Tasha, Terry, and Penny, but Terry and Mikela and Mikela and Cassie.”

“Actually, the law is unsettled, and varies from state to state. Federal law is equally muddled on what you are able to do. I actually expected the pushback I’m getting from the two of you, so I did some research this morning before coming here. I need to clear this with Thad Baker tomorrow, but I think our recommendation will be to enhance the policy to require disclosure of all romantic relationships between staff, in addition to revising the current policies about supervisors, management, and staff.”

“I think I can live with that,” I said. “But what kind of penalties do you put in place for violating that policy?”

“It has to be zero tolerance, or you’ll have people trying to skirt the rules.”

I sighed, “Harsh.”

“It’s the environment we find ourselves in, especially with what’s happened with you and about a dozen of your current or former female employees. When the policy is implemented, everyone will have to sign, acknowledging the penalties. We’ll have to give some kind of grace period to allow people to either report their relationships or break them off, but as I said, I need to talk to Thad Baker about this before I give you a formal opinion.”

“Jamie,” Elyse said. “Could we stop short of termination for the first offense? Maybe a suspension?”

He shook his head, “No. We’ll give some kind of grace period to report it, like two weeks, so a single date that goes no place doesn’t have to be reported, but if there is ANY sexual involvement, it would have to be reported immediately, as in the next business day.”

“But only to me?” Elyse said. “Supervisors don’t know?”

“That would be up to your discretion, with advice from me and your HR consultant. If it were someone on Cindi’s team dating someone on Dave’s team, there probably wouldn’t be a reason to tell Dave and Cindi. On the other hand, if it were two programmers, then Dave probably would need to know. An entry would need to be made in the confidential part of each employee’s file.”

“What do you think, Steve?”

“I’m going to have to think about it. I THINK that I think I can live with that. Jamie, what about the situation with Terry and Keri? Is there any risk there?”

Jamie chuckled softly, “You should know by now there’s ALWAYS a risk. But I don’t get the feeling from Terry that she’s likely to file harassment charges, and neither of them has supervisory authority. Technically, he’s the one who would have a complaint because she has access to his personnel records. He could also have a complaint against Tasha because she was his supervisor. With Mikela, she could file a harassment complaint against him. The claim against NIKA would be supporting a hostile work environment with the primary evidence being your twelve lovers.”

“Beautiful,” I sighed.

“You created the situation when you hired women you’ve slept with, Steve.”

“Day one, Jamie. Julia and Elyse.”

He nodded, “That is where it started. Kaitlin was your warning, and unless I’ve totally misunderstood the timing, you engaged in sex with both employees and prospective employees after that. As I said, my friend, you are a damned fool.”

“Which I’ve acknowledged. Talk to Thad Baker and let me know what he says. I’ll support the policy changes.”

“I will. Maybe now I can enjoy the party!”

“I sure hope so!” I said.

We left my study and went outside to mingle with the guests. I got a burger from Tom and went to sit with my wives who were sitting with Tiffany’s mom, Julie, and Carol. I hadn’t spoken much with Julie, but I knew she was married to an accountant named Jim, whom I had never seen.

“No husband?” I asked

“He’s golfing with his buddies,” Julie said. “Every Saturday and any day off. I’m used to being a ‘golf widow’!”

“Where’s Stan?” I asked Carol.

“Same place he always is when he’s here - playing pool! He was bummed that Pete’s not here.”

I nodded, “I bet. Those two could beat anybody except me and Jorge, and they beat us sometimes!”

“Who’s your partner now?”

“Usually Karl, but he’s up at Great Lakes today.”

“I see some new babies since the last time I was here,” Julie said.

“Bethany and Tom and Kathy and Kurt,” Kara said.

“And any day now, my sister which is why she and Ed aren’t here today,” I added. “And by the end of the year our former nanny, Abbie.”

“Remind me not to drink the water!” Julie laughed. “Tiffany and her older brother are MORE than enough.”

“Where’s Brady today?” Jessica asked.

“Hanging out with his best friend. Birgit invited him but he said he didn’t want to come.”

“Brady is twelve right?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“I’m not surprised he doesn’t want to hang out here,” I said. “Rachel and Frankie are the oldest kids here at nine.”

“Daddy?” Birgit said coming up to me.

“Yes, Pumpkin?”

“We want to listen to music!”

“Go ask Amanda to take you guys up to the attic. You can play your music there and dance if you want.”

“Thank you, Daddy!” she giggled, holding her face up for a kiss.

I kissed her forehead, “Make sure you invite all the kids, please.”

“Yes, Daddy!” she said and scampered away.

She went over to her brothers and Nicholas, and very quickly a throng of kids was heading into the house with Amanda.

“I think somebody should go with Amanda,” Jennifer laughed as she came up behind me.

“So go!” I chuckled.

She swatted my shoulder and then she and Josie headed into the house with the kids.

Later that evening, I turned on Monday Night Football because Napoleon McCallum was playing for the Raiders. He’d scored five touchdowns in the playoffs at the end of the previous season, and I wanted to see him play. I should never have turned on the game.

“He needs a trauma doctor RIGHT NOW!” Jessica nearly screamed at the TV as the replay was shown.

I nearly threw up from the fact that his knee seemed to bend nearly 90 degrees the wrong way. I steeled myself.

“Why?” I asked.

“He could easily have torn an artery or vein and could bleed out. Look, someone’s putting a tourniquet on him.”

“That’s likely the team doctor,” I said.

“He needs to be airlifted to the hospital if it isn’t basically next door.”

“They’re at Candlestick Point which is outside the city. I have no idea how far it is.”

“If it’s too far, and I’m right, he’ll lose that leg.”

“Damn,” I said.

“It’s not just NASCAR, Tiger.”

No, it wasn’t, I thought, as I watched in horror as they showed the replay again, then showed my old friend being carried off the field on a stretcher.

September 6, 1994, Chicago, Illinois

“That’s all I have,” I said.

“Nothing about Mikela?” Julia asked.

I shook my head, “Remember, she can’t sign the release before 5:00pm tomorrow. Anything else?”

“Don’t forget Charlie and Rob are flying to Pittsburgh on Thursday evening.”

“Is he going to move to Pittsburgh if we get this contract?” I asked.

“It’s eighteen months, so I don’t see how that can be avoided.”

“Are we going to backfill the position here?” I asked.

“We are. Charlie doesn’t want to put a new hire on something this important.”

“I wasn’t objecting; I was just curious. When will we know if we’re getting the deal?”

“Supposedly they’ll sign while Charlie is there,” Julia said. “And the start date would be October 3rd. Mario is already scouting for an apartment for Rob.”

“OK. Keep me posted. Remember, I’ll be in Europe as of Sunday morning. Kimmy will take care of most things, and contact me as necessary. Please go through her as I’ll be working full days every day to get everything done. I think we can all get to work now!”

The meeting ended and on my way back to my office, I detoured to the ‘Orr’ room and called and arranged for lunch to be delivered at 11:50am at the loft apartment. I made sure they knew I wouldn’t be there before 11:45am and that they had my cell phone number. Once everything was arranged, I dialed the number for Global Security and asked for Katya. She was out, so I left a message and went to my office to do some programming. Just after 11:00am, Jamie called and I asked Lucas to send the call to Elyse’s office.

“I spoke to Thad Baker,” he said after I put the call on speaker and greeted him. “He agrees that the policy change to require disclosure is the best approach.”

“Do both people have to disclose, or just one?” Elyse said.

“Both.”

“What happens in the case where only one person comes forward?” I asked.

“You don’t really have a choice except to prohibit the relationship unless both people disclose it.”

Overnight, I’d had some serious misgivings, and had discussed them with Elyse.

“The more I think about it,” I said carefully, “the more convinced I am this is wrong. This would force gay or lesbian employees to out themselves to management with no way to guarantee their privacy. We already had one involuntary outing in this fiasco. You know how close I am to Jen and Josie, and I have other gay and lesbian friends. And if you think about it, how do you tell the difference between, say, Oksana and Gail who are close friends and share an apartment, and a lesbian couple? Do you want to ask THAT question, Jamie?”