Chapter 2

Jeff did return for some of his college homecomings and visited his old fraternity. He met with John Wilkinsing who was with a pretty co-ed he introduced as Emily. To Jeff it looked like they were in a serious relationship. John told Jeff he was studying computer science. He explained to Jeff of an idea he had of starting a company that relied heavily on the internet and had people inter-acting with each other. The problem he said is that he needed some money to start this business. He needed to purchase certain equipment now and he didn’t have the money necessary to make those purchases.

“How much do you need?’

“Hard to say as I might need to purchase more equipment after I get started.”

Jeff knew he had some money saved from his winnings and there still was some money left from his parent’s death settlements that his aunt had given control over to him which was invested in a brokerage account. He liked hearing what John said about his idea of starting an internet type business which had him nodding his head in agreement with John’s idea. There was a possibility this could turn into a good business and Jeff thought this was something he should invest in.

“Would twenty five thousand give you a start?”

“It would give me a big start. I will pay you back as soon as I can but it probably won’t be for a few years. I will add interest to it when I pay you back.”

“John, I like your idea and instead of paying me back how about giving me an interest in your company? Much like you giving me stock in your company if you had stock to give.”

“How much of an interest or stock would you want?”

“What do you think is fair?”

Jeff could see John thinking about this and after what was a long minute he questioningly said, “Three percent?”

Extending his hand Jeff said that was fair and they shook hands on the deal.

With the weather changing and getting colder it was time to head down south. In driving there Jeff thought about his betting on horses and wondered if he shouldn’t try and expand his gambling endeavors by playing poker. From what he had seen watching some card playing television shows, he had come to a few conclusions on winning at playing cards. It went without saying that he and most people thought that you needed to get good cards to be a constant winner. When you did get good cards you needed to increase your bets to maximize your winnings. Keeping an expressionless face and knowing how to bluff in certain situations was important. There were other factors which would improve your chances of winning but knowing how to play the cards you were dealt was the most important thing if you were going to be a winner. The times when you weren’t getting the cards, your options were to either quickly fold or bluff.

There were a number of books published on winning at cards and Jeff purchased a few of them. He studied what they were saying about Texas Hold’em and laughed to himself in acknowledging that he had never studied this hard when he was in college. A lot of what was written was about playing the percentages on the cards you were dealt and the different strategies in playing Texas Hold’em.

When Jeff wasn’t at the track he was at the casinos watching the card playing going on at the Texas Hold’em table. If he wasn’t at the casino or track he was watching the card playing television shows which he thought were a good teacher of the game since you saw all the player’s cards and how they reacted. He also played a little Black Jack at the casino and while that game gave him acceptable odds against the house, he usually only broke even in doing that.

Finally he felt somewhat comfortable and sat in a Texas Hold’em card game. He didn’t win in the first three games he played which he attributed to the cards he was getting. He started to get better cards and he started winning. This gave him a feeling of being more comfortable in playing cards. He was more in control of his results at the card table than when he was at the track and was dependent on the horses racing to their expected form. His winnings in playing cards were greater than his winnings at the track. He started to play in the card tournaments that were being conducted and was fairly successful. He won a few card tournaments and frequently made the final table which resulted in him receiving good payouts.

Because of his gambling activities Jeff had missed a number of the homecomings at his former University. The fraternity did put out an email newsletter which gave him some information on what some of his frat brothers were doing. He did make it a point to keep in contact with two of his frat brothers along with making at least a monthly phone call to his aunt.

During this time Jeff wasn’t celibate but his frequency of having sex wasn’t as often as he would have liked. The race track wasn’t conducive to meeting women for a number of reasons but the casino was. It was a target rich environment he had come to appreciate. From the women who worked there as card dealers or cocktail waitresses to the women who came there to gamble, he was able to have relations with a number of them.

Some of the women he struck up conversations with had come to the casino with a group of other women or came by tour bus which limited the time they were there. When they came back the next day or the day after by themselves and sought him out that told Jeff they were available and they were looking for something more than just playing the slot machines. All it took was a little more conversation and maybe buying them a drink before they accepted his invitation to go to a quieter place, his hotel room. That his room was either in the hotel above the casino or in the hotel next door made it a very convenient place for them to go to for some privacy. Once they accepted his invitation he knew what would happen and it did.

That these women were single or married, younger or older than him didn’t seem to matter. They were looking for nothing more than to hear some nice words about their looks and feel that they were appreciated before they jumped into bed with Jeff. It normally was a once or twice thing for them to be with Jeff before they went back to their normal everyday life. There were some women however who wanted there to be a longer more permanent arrangement with Jeff. He sensed that they were thinking that way which had him do or say things that quickly dispelled these women from having those thoughts.

While the sex was good and fulfilled a need he had at the time, none of these women interested Jeff in him wanting to have a long term relationship any of them. That however was not a bar to him enjoying having sex with them. A few women surprised him as to what position they preferred to be in when they were having intercourse. Some even brought their sexual aids and encourage Jeff to use these aids on them to enhance their pleasure.

Every now Jeff would see or read about some research educator making a statement that women now-a-days were generally the passive participant when it came to sex. To Jeff that just showed this person had no idea of what was currently happening in male female relations.

With the change in seasons Jeff would visit with his aunt when he came back north if he was in the mid-west and not on the east coast. When he asked her if there was anything new in her life she told him she was seeing a man that she had become serious about. It was later that she discovered that he was married with two children and was not the single man he told her he was.

Jeff told her she was too nice of a woman for that man to do that to her. He said because of her attractiveness and being the nice person she is, she will find the man she is looking for who will appreciate her. He suggested that maybe she should join some clubs or participate in church functions that would give her more exposure for people to see that she was available. On-line dating he mentioned was an option she could consider but he didn’t know much about it or how successful or safe that it was. He said his knowledge of doing that was limited to only what he saw in seeing the advertisements they did on television.

Since Jeff did a lot of travelling and was living in various locations he kept his aunt’s residence as his permanent address of record. His aunt would save the little mail that was sent to him that looked important and pitched what was obvious junk mail.

Jeff hadn’t seen his aunt in over a year and a half since he had been either down south or on the east coast. Now that he was back in the mid-west he was able to stop by and visit with her. In going through the mail she had saved for him he noticed a large brown envelope from a brokerage house that had a postmark indicating this was mailed to him almost a year ago. He thought this was junk mail but he opened the envelope and found it contained a stock prospectus with no cover letter. The front of this prospectus showed it to be a stock offering on an internet company that was going public. Why it was sent to him he didn’t know but in flipping quickly through the pages he stopped when he notice a listing of the stockholders. He saw his name listed along with a surprising large number of shares he supposedly owned. He noticed the name of the largest stockholder was John Wilkinsing.