Chapter 34: An Extra-Long Lunch

November 6, 1996, Chicago, Illinois

“Did you vote for Professor Obama?” Kara asked as we finished setting up for the black belt dinner.

“No. I voted for the Harold Washington Party candidate. I knew the Republican had effectively negative chances, though things weren’t much better for the Washington Party candidate. But remember, the only reason Obama won yesterday is because the Combine and Machine wanted a cipher who will vote the way Mike Madigan and Emil Jones want, and who is too politically dependent on the Machine and the Combine to cause any trouble. And that’s what they’ll get, too.”

“You REALLY don’t like him!”

“I don’t like rigged elections, and that’s what the primary was - rigged. And honestly, the few times I’ve heard him speak without a prepared speech, I’d put Jesse or Birgit up against him and they’d talk circles around him! As much as people gave Reagan grief for being an actor, he could give a good off-the-cuff talk. Obama says ‘uhm’ more than any other ten words he says combined! Do you mind if I ask who you voted for?”

“The Republican. My token protest vote against the Chicago Machine.”

I chuckled, “You should talk to Al about that! I got an earful on Friday night! But you love the city, right?”

“Very much so. It’s the politicians and corruption I can’t stand!”

“Same here! I voted for Clinton, because I simply couldn’t bring myself to vote for Dole or Perot. And the Libertarian Party put up a writer named Harry Browne who just rubbed me the wrong way. Clinton is going to win, anyway. Perot will take enough votes to keep Dole from winning. We’ll see that in a few hours when the results begin to come in.”

“Dad?” Jesse called out as he walked into the dining room.

“Yes?”

“Aunt Chess says everything’s ready.”

“Thanks, Ducky! People should start arriving any minute now.”

As he was walking away, I heard the doorbell ring, so I went to answer it.

“Hi, Sensei!” Molly exclaimed.

“Hi, Molly! How was your drive?”

“Not bad at all. Brett and I came down early in the afternoon and did some shopping on Michigan Avenue.”

“Where is he now?”

“At a sports bar watching the Blackhawks play the Blues with a couple of friends who are Chicago cops.”

She walked into the house, and before I could close the door, Sensei Jim, Will, and Therese came up the steps. I greeted all of them, and we went into the house. I returned to the door a minute later to greet Jolene and Hannah. With everyone there, we assembled in the dining room and Jessica supervised as Jesse and Birgit began serving everyone. After Sensei Jim said ‘«Itadakimasu»’, we began eating.

“I want to let you all know,” Sensei Jim began, “that Steve has been awarded the title Kyōshi, or Senior Instructor.”

There were muted congratulations, then Sensei Jim continued.

“As you know, Therese will take over supervision and coaching of everyone who will compete, with Will as her assistant. Steve will be her mentor, as he is for Molly. He’s also going to serve in an expanded role in the ISKC, and will assist Sensei Ichirou with tournament planning and administration, and be responsible for selecting and managing all the judges.

“Next, Hannah is taking over responsibility for the white and yellow belts from Will. She’ll be taking a break sometime early next year for a honeymoon, but she and her soon-to-be husband plan to stay in the area, something for which I’m sure we’re all grateful. And speaking of the area, I heard from Jacqueline Vickers. She’ll be graduating from law school in May, and already has an offer from a Chicago firm.”

“Which firm?” I asked.

“Carr, Nelson, and Scott,” he replied. “Do you know them?”

“A very good litigation firm,” I replied. “Mostly dealing with financial regulations. November is a bit early for confirmed job offers for 3Ls!”

“She told me that one of her professors retired from the firm. He told them she was the best prospective lawyer at Fordham, where she went after graduating from Princeton, and that they needed to hire her. One of the partners flew out, met with her, and basically handed her a job offer on the spot.”

“Mitch McDeere!” I chuckled. “Good thing it wasn’t a firm in Memphis!”

“She said she plans to return to the dojo once she gets settled, so we’ll have another 1st Dan black belt joining us.”

Kara smirked, and understanding the message, I rolled my eyes.

“All of that out of the way, let’s discuss the brown belts.”

We spent fifteen minutes discussing each of the brown belts but concluded there were no promotions which were warranted. After that, we discussed Molly’s dojo, which I felt was progressing quite nicely, now that Mitchell was out of the picture. She had attracted several new students, and the skills of her former students had improved dramatically under the new training program we’d established.

When dinner was finished, we had about an hour of social time with coffee, tea, and after-dinner drinks, before Kara and I walked everyone to the front door. We bade them ‘good night’, then returned to help the kids clean up. That accomplished, Jesse went back to the coach house and Kara, Jessica, Elyse, and I got all the kids to bed, and then my wives and I retired for the evening.

“I saw that look at dinner, you troublemaker!” I said to Kara as we undressed for bed.

“Who? Me?” she asked with feigned innocence.

“Yes, you! Last I heard from Jacqui was that she was extremely serious with a guy she met during her Summer internship after her first year. Besides, if she’s going to rejoin the dojo, that puts her off limits. In fact, given my status as Senior Instructor, it puts everyone at both dojos off limits. That’s one rule I can’t break or even bend.”

“And Eve?” Jessica asked as we climbed into bed.

“I’m still debating that one. I think I’ve lost interest, really.”

“Because you relaxed your self-imposed limits?”

“Remember, I was thinking of ending it with her before that happened. The two aren’t really related.”

What I couldn’t say was that my disinterest had begun once things had settled with Anthony. I’d chosen to take up with Eve because of the tension inherent in that situation and now that it had dissipated, the desire just wasn’t there. I’d chosen to continue at her request, but now, it just didn’t seem to be what I needed.

“You’re going shooting on Saturday, right?” Jessica asked.

“Yes. That’s something I need to do, and there aren’t any shooting ranges in the city. Eve will understand if I end it.”

“She’s convinced you to keep it going in the past.”

“Yes, she has, but I’m honestly not interested at this point, and she’ll figure that out pretty easily. But it won’t piss her off so long as I tell her straight up. Are you trying to tell me there’s an issue?”

“No, not at all! How’s Cindi doing?”

“Steady as a rock,” I said. “She’s putting all that energy into taking down Dante once and for all.”

“Isn’t he loaded?” Kara asked.

“Not in the way Jeri or Samantha are, but yes. The thing is, he had to pay off Mark and Melissa, and he’s put quite a bit into buying Peach, as well as developing the new software. Cindi thinks he’ll plow more money into Peach in an attempt to fend off the combined NIKA-Lone Star attack. Lone Star is going to undercut him; heck, they’re going to undercut us!”

“I’m still amazed you did that deal, and that you don’t mind ceding market share to Lone Star,” Jessica said.

“Remember, I can buy Lone Star, personally, any time I want. And we beat them in the majority of deals where we go head-to-head at the higher end, where the real money is. But both of us are starting to lose deals to Chickasaw and Hastings Mill. The guys at Dallas Capital felt it was far better to have a friend than an enemy, because they’d be the one which was squeezed out. I felt getting rid of the ‘thorn in my flesh’, or if you don’t like the Christian metaphor, the ‘stone in my shoe’, was worth it. Not to mention the guys at DCP have a serious bone to pick with Dante.”

“And if you knock him out?”

“Then the rest of us battle it out for supremacy. In the end, if I see a strategic advantage to owning Lone Star, I’ll buy them. The most likely way that would happen would be if some other firm tried to buy them. Lone Star is contractually obligated to tell me about that kind of inquiry, and I have the sole right to negotiate a purchase. If I choose not to, then they’re free to sell to whomever they wish, though the price has to be more than my last written offer, or I can step in.”

“What do you think of Cindi’s idea?”

I chuckled, “The one she wasn’t ready to tell me about? I think it’s excellent. I assume you’ll buy one?”

“In a heartbeat! I looked at one that used the Newton, but I just couldn’t see spending that kind of money, especially after you showed me how bad the handwriting recognition was on the first model. But the Palm is way cheaper, and it would be easy to carry in the pocket of my lab coat.”

“If Cindi goes ahead with this, and I think she will, you’ll get to be a guinea pig!”

“I prefer to be a bunny rabbit...”

“Why is that, Babe?” I asked with a grin.

“Well, perhaps it’s that I’d like to fuck like a bunny rabbit!”

“Me, too!” Kara exclaimed happily.

So we did.

November 9, 1996, Chicago, Illinois

“It’s up to you,” I said, as Eve and I walked out of K&S Shooting Sports on Saturday afternoon.

“Are you saying you don’t care one way or the other?”

“All I’m saying is that we’re at a place where I feel we should end it. Now that I’ve said that, it would be pretty crass of me to assume we’d still go to McKenzie’s apartment. A guy asking a girl he’s breaking up with for a ‘goodbye fuck’ strikes me as a way to get a kick right to the balls!”

Eve nodded, “Under normal circumstances, sure. But was this anything more than physical? It was just fucking, wasn’t it?”

“WAS it?” I asked.

She was quiet for a moment, then shook her head, “No, I guess it wasn’t. But it wasn’t like we’re in love or anything foolish like that.”

“I think it depends on how you define that term. I think it might easily qualify for «eros» - erotic love. And you could make an argument for «phileo» - brotherly love. But it for sure wasn’t anything like the silly Western notion of ‘romantic’ love which is a fairly modern invention.”

“You sure know the way to a girl’s heart!” she laughed. “How do your wives respond to THAT kind of thing?”

“Just fine, actually. Our love, «agape» love, is a decision to give oneself up in favor of another. There is nothing deeper than that. Or, as the Bible says it, ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends‘. That kind of love isn’t just reserved for spouses or family members. But it also isn’t about the act of giving up one’s life - bodyguards do that in exchange for pay and benefits. It’s the motivation behind doing that.”

“So which am I?” she asked as we stopped behind our cars.

“You’re complicated. But the relationships at work are or were all complicated by the boss-employee thing. Notice I didn’t say bad, just complicated. Part of the issue is discerning true motives - is someone doing a thing because they want to and it’s in their best interest, or because NIKA is paying them? And those aren’t mutually exclusive, by the way.

“Let’s do a thought experiment. We hire a new programmer, cute, athletic, and brilliant. She starts flirting and I do the same in response. Can I be sure, if it gets to a certain point, that she’s not thinking a sexual relationship with me would be good for her career? Or worse, that refusing one would be detrimental? There literally is no way for me to be sure. And say there is a relationship like that; if it’s ever discovered, the first thought in everyone’s mind is she’s sleeping her way to the top; the second thought in everyone’s mind is the boss is abusing his power.”

“We’re the counter-example,” Eve said.

“Are we?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Shit. I was promoted AFTER that wild weekend in Ohio.”

“And you KNOW what some people would think, right? Heck, most people. You didn’t have any experience being office manager. And you replaced someone I was sleeping with when she was office manager. The math is simple and ugly.”

“But not between us! You don’t think I did the one to get the other, DO YOU?”

“Oh hell no! I know better than that. And that’s why I said you were complicated. I have to take into account the situation at work because, both starting and ending this kind of relationship could really fuck things up. With you, it won’t. But that’s YOU.”

“So why? And I’m not arguing with you.”

“Exactly as I said before - I think the physical side of our relationship has run its course. I suppose the best way to explain it is that the raison d’être has gone away. The intensity was caused by the tension with Anthony and Connie, and now that there is no tension, I just don’t feel the intensity. Not because you aren’t fun to be with; not because you aren’t exciting in bed; not because you don’t make me feel very good. In the end, it comes down to drive and desire, and despite you being a sexy, fun, enthusiastic lover, the drive and desire just aren’t there. As they say, it’s me, not you. And it really is.”

“All good things...” Eve said.

“Exactly. And I believe you were the one who repeatedly made the point that we keep going until we don’t, and then end it amicably as adults.”

“And your worldview is one that lets you have as much sex as you want, but only for the ‘right’ reasons. You’d view going to McKenzie’s with me now almost as an obligation. And that would really bother you. You’d fuck my brains out, but it would be mechanical, and by YOUR definition, no matter how good it was for both of us, it would be bad.”

“I’d say that’s a reasonably accurate assessment,” I said.

“Then I suppose it’s best if I just see you at work on Monday. No regrets.”

“No regrets.”

We hugged, got into our cars, and headed our separate ways. It took me nearly an hour to get to Hyde Park, which gave me time to go over what had happened. I was satisfied that I’d done the right thing, and I was sure there would be no issues with Eve.

“Did you hear about the mid-air collision in India?” Elyse asked when I walked into the house.

“Just a sketchy report on the radio. Roughly 300 people on a Kazakh Ilyushin and a Saudi 747. Do you know anything more than that?”

“No, I just saw the CNN report and the crash site video. There’s nothing new on yesterday’s crash of the Nigerian plane off Lagos, but they updated the passenger and crew total to 141.”

“Damn,” I said, shaking my head.

“Yeah.”

November 11, 1996, Chicago, Illinois

“I’m taking an extra-long lunch today,” I said to Kimmy at 11:30am. “I know it’s not on the calendar, but I don’t have anything on my schedule. I’ll be back sometime after 3:00pm, but I don’t know exactly when.”

“On your cell?”

“Yes, if something critical comes up.”

Which it would, I thought to myself, but not in the way Kimmy took my statement!

“See you later!” she replied.

“Later!”

I left the office and walked out to my car, grabbed a bag from the trunk, then walked west in the direction of the NIKA apartment. I let myself in, then went to the dinette table. I took my lunch from the bag, got a bottle of San Pellegrino from the fridge and began eating. I ate quickly and when I finished, I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth. I’d just finished when the buzzer rang. I pressed the button to unlock the exterior door and less than a minute later Becka Jordan appeared at the door of the apartment.

“Hey!” she said.

“Hey!” I replied.

We hugged, she gave me a quick, soft kiss, then winked.

“You’re still looking VERY good,” Becka said.

“Thanks. So are you. How have you been?”

“Pretty good, actually. Let’s just say being a former fundamentalist is WAY better than being a fundamentalist!”

“No doubt!”

“That was quite the little shock I had when Claire told me!”

“Oh, I’m sure,” I grinned. “I assume she told you this is very likely a one-time thing, right?”

“Yes. Can I ask one favor?”

“You can ask.”

“After Mattie is unconscious, I’d like an expert fucking, please.”

“I think I can see my way clear to grant that favor! I assume Claire told you my plans?”

Becka smirked and nodded, “Even better than what you and Abbie did to me!”

“And you understand the whole ‘safe word’ concept, right?”

“I never got into BDSM, and I know that’s not what this is about, but yes.”

“Right. I just want to make sure Mattie has a clear, simple way to stop things if she’s at all uncomfortable with anything.”

The buzzer rang, interrupting us.

“And there’s the virgin sacrifice,” Becka laughed.

I pressed the button to let Mattie into the building and less than a minute later she was at the door of the apartment.

“Hi!” she gushed.

“Hi!” I replied, standing back to allow her to enter.

“Hi, Mattie!” Becka said.

“Hi!” Mattie said enthusiastically.

I shut and locked the door, then took a couple of steps to where the girls were standing.

“Papers, please!” I demanded in a faux German accent.

The girls laughed and nodded. Becka and I showed our cards, and Mattie showed the results of a full-spectrum test.

“Ready?” I asked.

“God yes!” Mattie hissed.

“What do you want?”

I’d spoken with Claire and explained that I felt it very important that Mattie state clearly what she wanted.

Mattie smiled hungrily, “I want you two to give me an experience I’ll never, ever forget!”

“And what does that mean?”

“That the two of you are going to fuck me unconscious or die trying!”

“We can do that,” I grinned. “There’s one thing I need to say, and that is, if at any point, for any reason, you want us to stop, you say ‘crimson’ and we’ll stop immediately. OK?”

“Why would I need to do that?”

“For my peace of mind,” I replied. “You’ve asked for something pretty intense.”

Mattie smirked, “If Becka can handle it, I can!”

Becka and I looked at each other, smirked, and in unison declared, “Challenge: Accepted!”

Becka and I kissed each other softly, then I pulled Mattie to me and we exchanged a French kiss. I released her, turned her to Becka who French kissed her as well. While they were kissing, I reached between them and unbuttoned Mattie’s blouse. I slipped it from her shoulders and pulled it down her arms, then tossed it on to the floor.

I kissed each of her shoulders, then unhooked her bra and slid the straps from her shoulders, allowed it to fall free, and then slid my hands around to cup her small, firm breasts. After tweaking her nipples, I slid my hands down the soft skin of her abdomen to the button of her jeans. I undid the button, pulled the zipper down, then slid my hand inside, under her panties, over her soft pubic hair, until my fingers found her labia.