Chapter 15: Aftermath of Revealing Who I Am

Monday, I ride to school with Dahlia as usual, but before the first class is over, Gran has pulled me out of school, and we are in a meeting with the patent lawyer. As usual, the asshole treats me with nothing but disrespect.

After that, we see another lawyer about corporate law. The easiest and obvious solution is to buy Rachel out. It will give Rachel enough money to graduate High School and start university, but then she will be on her own. I still do not know if she will try to screw me or if she is willing to work with me. I don’t want to force her out, which disappoints Gran, but she understands.

The next day at lunch, we are sitting at our table with all our friends when Carol asks, “What’s up with Rachel? She didn’t show up for work yesterday, and she doesn’t answer her phone.”

That isn’t a good sign. I am worried about Rachel. I reply, “She didn’t handle Saturday very well and is freaking out. She basically said it didn’t matter if I was telling the truth. Either way, I was a nut job. I doubt She wants anything to do with me, which is why she didn’t show up.”

Dahlia inquires, “So then were you trying to find her yesterday or did your Granny take you out of school for some other reason?”

“Gran found out it was Sam that signed as the guardian to set up my business. It isn’t legally binding because he is not my guardian. She wants to tear down the company and start a new one without Rachel.”

Carol exclaims, “Ouch!!”

Kim queries, “What do you want?”

“I want what is best for Rachel. How I see it, that is for us to work out our differences, and we remain business partners.”

Moira asks, “What happened?”

Dahlia answers, “Brent was put in a situation where he was forced to keep a secret from Carol, Rachel and me. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t tell us because there was no way any of us would believe him. As soon as he had proof, he came clean.”

Kevin says, “It’s Trent, how bad could it have been?”

I state, “It wasn’t a bad secret. It was just too big for her to handle. Nobody should be mad at her. She needs time to work things out. Hopefully, she will come around.”

She phones the Paquets a few days later to apologize for disappearing without warning. She never returns to work. Gran has a private investigator track Rachel down and offers to buy out her portion of our company. Technically she doesn’t refuse to sell; she just refuses to sign anything or be involved with the company in any way. Gran ends up taking her to court because Rachel is the only legal adult in the company, so she is legally required to sign everything. Rachel is negligent in her legal responsibilities to our company. In the end, Gran buys her 30% for about 1/100th of what it was worth. The entire fiasco cost me in the negotiations with NeXT. They ended up signing a deal with me for several licenses on my patents with an option for the first chance to license or offer a buyout for all future patents related to computers or networking. It is still a win, just not as big of a success as it should have been as the dissension within my company reduced our bargaining power.

The deal with NeXT was big enough that our patent lawyer starts to take note of me. Even still, he doesn’t treat me with a fraction of the respect he would an adult who brought him half the business I do. Heck, if Gran is in the room, he only addresses her and ignores me.

The troubles Rachel caused shows me that I need to change things around in my company, and Gran agrees. We need somebody with signing authority as president, which is now Gran. We need somebody in case something happens to Gran. That places Sam as the vice president. Carol and Dahlia are kept on as secretaries, and I am the chief executive. As the majority owner, I still have complete control, but Gran or Sam had to sign off on everything I do.

Before I moved here, I didn’t know Sam and Gran well enough to trust them with such a position. Now that I know them, I am happy to have them onboard.

The next time I drop patents off at the lawyer’s, I ask to speak with him. This time he ducks out of a meeting with another client to see me. We greet each other as usual, and he leads me to a conference room, then asks, “So Mr. Browns, how can I help you?”

“I just stopped to drop off another stack of patents, but I wanted to talk with you a minute.”

“About?”

“I have been disappointed in the disrespect you have shown me since I hired you. Lately, you have been better, and that is the only reason I haven’t left. I understand your reluctance to believe me when I told you how valuable my patents were, especially since I am just a kid. You should have staff that vets that sort of thing out.”

“How have I slighted you?”

“Most of it is hard to be specific. You are a lawyer. You are trained to speak one way and mean something else. Until recently, in every conversation, you talked down to me. When I did the impossible and got three masters’ degrees in one day, you refused to come to the celebration even for a minute. Your most important clients get your home phone number. The last deal of mine earned you almost as much as you expected to earn this year, yet I still do not have anything but your office number. It’s MY company you are doing business with, but if I bring somebody from the company with me, you address them and ignore me. Keep going like this, and I will contact a firm in Vancouver. The only reason I haven’t is when it comes to negotiations and protecting patents, you are supposed to be the best in western Canada.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way.”

“There you go again. You aren’t apologizing for your actions. You are apologizing for the way I chose to feel. In other words, you are sorry for my choices. That may work on your typical moronic clients, but don’t you dare pull that shit on me again.”

“There is no need to blow up. All I did was apologize.”

“First off, I am a 15-year-old kid. As such, you should have expected me to blow up at you the first time you slighted me, not the hundred and first. Second, you are now claiming I blew up because you did what I asked, when in fact, you apologized for my actions ipso facto you claim you have never done anything wrong, and I am the one that needs to apologize. I just gave you a chance to mend our relationship. What did you do with it? You looked me in the eyes and said FUCK OFF ASSHOLE. I think that tells me what you think of my future business. You can give me those papers back, thanks.”

I take the papers and walk out of the conference room. On the way by I stop at the secretary’s desk.

“Hey Emma, I am in the market for a legal secretary to help me with my patents and liaise with my new patent lawyer. You have seen what I have recently done and know I could use you full time. From what I have seen, you are not treated fairly here. Given how you’re treated, I doubt you are being paid what you are worth. How about jumping ship?”

Emma is a bit surprised and replies, “Wow, that isn’t what I expected when you brought in a stack of patents.”

“You know you want to come with me. I’m changing the world, and you want to be a part of that. When your option is to sit here and be sexually harassed all day every day ... Drive me home, and we can discuss your wage.”

Emma confirms my thoughts about how much she dislikes the place when she doesn’t tell anybody she quit. She just gets up and accompanies me out to her car. Thankfully, it was big enough, we were able to stick my bike in the trunk.

On the way home, we stop at an insurance agency and get her bonded for 10 million dollars. I know, if she were dishonest, it would cost me a lot more than 10 million, but I didn’t feel like she needed to be bonded. It is just a formality to keep Gran happy. Once we got to my place, I let her know she was to start the next day and her first assignment was to do some research and find us the best patent lawyer that fits our needs.

The next day at school was interesting. As a joke, I walked up to Carol during our morning break, and I looked at her stern-faced and said, “Damn it, that is enough. You are fired.”

She is shocked and sad. You can see she is fighting back tears. I felt bad. This is the distasteful humour I learnt from my father.

She looks utterly submissive, with her shoulders slouched and head downcast.

“What did I do?”

I switch to a cheery voice and say, “Nothing, but you can’t be my partner if you are my employee. That would be silly.”

She gave me a few love punches that girls give when they are frustrated. You know what I mean, the kind punch that says, ‘I want to hurt you because you piss me off, but I don’t want to because I love you.’

“You ass, you really freaked me out for a minute. I thought I did something wrong and couldn’t figure out what.”

“Don’t be silly. Do you have any clue what you would have to do to piss me off that bad? I mean, with an ass that sexy, I could put up with a lot.”

This time she hits me with a love tap. The kind that doesn’t hurt, but says, ‘I’m hitting you as a way to hit on you.’

“So, what does this mean?”

“At first, you will work the same hours, and I will teach you how to build and design boats. By the time summer comes around, we will have an inventory to sell, and you can hire staff if needed. At first, I will own 51% of the company, but when I think you have everything under control, I will give you 2% for Christmas or your birthday.”

“Why give me your company?”

“You will be doing all the work. All I will do is give you some knowledge on occasion. I don’t want you to resent me for owning the majority of a company you build from the ground up.”

“That is silly.”

“Not after years of extremely hard work. Then again, by then, you and Dahlia will be my wives and ownership will not mean anything.”

She hits me again. To stop her, I pull her in for a hug, then kiss the tip of her nose. She struggles for a bit, and I let her go before we draw too much of a crowd. I kiss her on the cheek then run to my next class. She shouts down the hall, “Old pervert.”

At lunch, I walk into the cafeteria and see that Carol is so excited she is telling everybody how the company she and I were to start together will be starting up sooner than expected, and she will own more of it than she ever dreamed. I am surprised to see that Dahlia is taking it so well. I was expecting her to be jealous.

I sit next to Dahlia and explain, but first, I stick my foot in my mouth. I don’t know why I always do that. I don’t like the taste of feet.

“I had to fire her as a secretary because I hired a full-time secretary.”

Dahlia’s face drops. She is heart broke as she says, “You don’t need me anymore? I suppose if you chose her over me, then I should get out of the way.”

I didn’t see that coming. I reply by asking, “What the hell are you talking about?”

“If you have a full-time secretary, you will not need me either.”

“What kind of hogwash are you trying to sell me?”

“There isn’t enough secretarial work for one full-time secretary.”

Now she is making it too easy I have to tease her, “Ya, but then who will make my bed? With Carol working for my other company, you will be the only woman in between my sheets.”

Dahlia does one of those love tap/punch things and complains, “She gets to be your partner, and I get to be the old maid. Oh, joy.”

“You have to start asking questions and stop making assumptions. I hired a full-time legal secretary because I fired our patent lawyer and will be forced to hire one in Vancouver. We will need a liaison for the new lawyer. It means she will take some of the patent stuff away from you so you can start training as an executive secretary. I know my main company is small, but it will grow big and fast. About the time that you get lost in the job, I will send you to school to get trained. When you are done school, you can resume your job. Neither of you has a job that is better or more important than the other. Carol will own part of one of our subsidiaries, and you will be the second to top official in my main company. Both of you will help me change the world. You will also both need to keep me on track. I know my weaknesses, and if things start to go sideways, I can run a tangent, and that should be avoided.”

She feels better with that and gives me a hug before getting back to eating. When Carol is done bragging, Kevin gives up his seat so she can sit next to me. She also interrupts my eating with a hug and a, “Thank you.”

With the way everything is starting to go my way, you would think I would be happy. Unfortunately, that night I can’t sleep. I’m restless in bed, trying to figure out what to do about Dahlia and Carol. With each passing day, I seem to love both of them more and more. I am also depressed. They are so young, and I am 70. I always thought I would have difficulty putting up with the immaturity of somebody so young. In truth, due to my inexperience with women, when it comes to relationships, I am only as developed as they are. At the same time, I have a lot more experience in the same field by merely being privy to those around me. There are many things I know and understand that they do not yet. Emotionally we are on the same level.

All night long, both sides of my brain argue. No side is gaining the upper hand. Would dating them be taking advantage of them? Am I just an old pervert that should find some way to date older women? Will I be forced to forgo any relationships for another 15 years? As it stands now, I would be a 70-year-old in a 15-year-old body wanting to date a 15-year-old. If I waited 15 years and went for a slightly older woman, I could be an 85-year-old in a 30-year-old body dating a 35-year-old. 35-85 is a lot better than 15-70

Even if I could get over the age thing, which girl should I choose? If I went with one, the other would be hurt. I care about them both and do not want to hurt either. I know I am the one that let it get this far. That is part of my being inexperienced and not thinking it through. Neither one stands out more than the other. They are both attentive in their own way. They have different interests, but all three of us like enough of the same things that we have all become good friends. They have both been integrated into my life enough that losing either one would be devastating.

It is a little after four when I finally get some sleep. At that point, the only thing I have decided is that the girls should be included in this decision. It affects all our lives, and it would be wrong for me to make decisions about their lives without at least getting their input.

On the way into school the next day, I don’t have my usual amount of energy and Dahlia notices me lagging behind her. Typically, it is her that drafts behind me. She is quite good at it and gets close enough that, on occasion, to prevent an accident, she places her hand on my back. She does it so that I know exactly where she is. She learnt the hard way one time when I was braking then turned to avoid a pothole. I turned into her and got into a bigger mess than if I warped my wheel a little, hitting the obstacle. We both had to push our bikes the rest of the way to school and were late.

Today, she is leading, and I am not even close enough to draft. She slows down, so I get close enough for conversation then asks, “What’s wrong? Normally it is all I can do to keep up with you.”